138 THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. 



exchange ; while the Athenaeum which is less public in its 

 character than the others, not confining itself to any special 

 line, except perhaps its foreign scientific publications, would 

 gain by not being obliged to duplicate the costly books to 

 be found in the other libraries. It was also agreed by the 

 conference, that the librarian of the Public Library should 

 be authorized to issue a card addressed to the librarian of 

 either of the other libraries which would entitle the holder 

 to consult any work of reference on the shelves of those 

 institutions. The benefit to be derived from such an ar- 

 rangement will grow more and more apparent as the years 

 go by. It is already becoming a serious problem how to 

 properly dispose of the growing accumulation of books 

 especially in our larger cities where space means money 

 and sometimes a good deal of money. No library, not 

 even the largest, can expect to be complete enough to meet 

 the wants of all classes. But if the different libraries will 

 work in unison each striving to make as complete as possi- 

 ble its own specialties much greater and better results will 

 be attained. In this connection it would be well if the 

 donors of books to the various libraries would understand, 

 that unless there were some request to the contrary, their 

 donations, to whichever library sent, would be distributed 

 among the other libraries in accordance with this plan of 

 specialization. 



It is hoped that the coming year may see some further 

 progress made towards preparing for a catalogue of the 

 library. During the past year considerable work has been 

 done in arranging and classifying the books in the differ- 

 ent rooms and when this is completed, a card catalogue of 

 each room should be prepared, as a beginning for a com- 

 plete catalogue of the whole library. 



The attendance at the rooms of the library has increased 

 during the past year and the librarian hopes that the time 



