REPORT OF THE SECRETARY AND LIBRARIAN. 225 



number of the most prominent and well-known seedsmen and 

 nurserymen, especially of those who have made specialties in 

 various lines, are kept together. Early American catalogues from 

 1823 to 1850 are fortunately well represented, as are also those of 

 several foreign countries. Altogether the collection is one of great 

 value and importance. 



In the former arrangement of the library the books were kept 

 on numbered shelves with the number of the shelf placed on the 

 inside cover of the book and also upon the several cards of the 

 catalogue referring to it. This method is now practically obsolete. 

 The constant accumulation of books and the necessity of frequent 

 changes of location as the shelves became filled, and the great 

 amount of extra labor thereby involved in changing the numbers 

 on the books and card references rendered some other method 

 desirable. 



The plan now adopted and approved by the Library Committee, 

 and which is becoming very generally used in special libraries of a 

 similar character, is based upon the collection of the books in classes 

 and giving to each class an arbitrary symbol, either a number or 

 a letter. We have selected letters, as a matter of convenience, 

 and have used the initial letter of the class in which the book be- 

 longs, as far as possible. For example: — A = Agriculture; B = 

 Botany; P = Pomology. These main classes are further sub- 

 divided, as occasion requires, by the use of other letters, for example : 

 — A J = Agricultural Journals; B C = Cryptogamic Botany; 

 P V = Pomology — Viticulture. These are capable of still 

 further subdivision, as B C F = Cryptogamic Botany — Ferns. 



The great advantage of this system is that the location of these 

 classes can easily be changed, as must be often done, as spaces 

 become filled, without incurring the necessity of any erasure on 

 catalogue cards or on the books themselves. The symbol adopted 

 for the class to which the books belong will always remain as the 

 indicator of the location of the individual book despite all changes 

 of its position in the library. The volumes are arranged alpha- 

 betically by authors in every class and subclass. It has not been 

 found necessary to make any radical changes in the general arrange- 

 ment of the library by the adoption of this method owing to the 

 excellent classification of former years. 



