RECORDS 461 



had up to this time been stored in the basement of Schermer- 

 horn Hall, pending the provision of the class rooms, and fur- 

 nishings of Columbia University. His first duty, therefore, was 

 to attend to the time-consuming work of unpacking the Library, 

 arranging it on the shelves, revising the catalogue, and adjust- 

 ing the entire matter of serial publications. The last-named 

 task proved in many ways the most difficult, since owing to the 

 moving of the University, the serial publications had accumu- 

 lated since 1896 or 1897. Recalling that the Academy has 

 upwards of 800 Societies on its exchange list, it is easily seen 

 that the mass of exchanges was represented by a small moun- 

 tain of periodicals in all languages, in almost hopeless confusion. 

 The receipt of the exchanges had also to be acknowledged. At 

 the present time the following items are noted as having been 

 accomplished : 



The volumes have been arranged on the shelves, the latter 

 have been numbered, and all serial publications — the greatest 

 part of the Library — can be readily found by reference to the 

 shelf numbers now placed in the card catalogue. The card 

 catalogue has been carefully revised, it having been found that 

 the subject and locality titles had been unsatisfactorily arranged. 

 The room of the Library has been suitably lighted. One hun- 

 dred volumes have been bound and added to the shelves. For 

 the convenient grouping of the incoming periodicals, a large 

 case has been prepared and the present stock of pamphlets 

 (periodicals) has been classified and are in large part placed in 

 order in this case. A geographical arrangement has been found 

 most convenient. Suitable labels will be put in place, different 

 colors representing different countries, so that the visitor can 

 find the recent numbers with the least possible loss of time. 



There are many things left undone which I intended to do. 

 I had in mind the publication of a catalogue of the collection, 

 to be sent to the members of the Academy. This I bad 

 hoped to bring up to date ; but unexpected difficulties found in 

 the classification of the periodicals have prevented me from 

 carrying out the plan. I was also in hopes of having all sepa- 

 rate pamphlets and odd volumes recorded by shelf numbers in 



