ACCOUNTS, ESTIMATES, &C, OF BRITISH MUSEUM. 



VIII. — PROGRESS made in the Cataloguing and Abrangement of the Collections 

 and Account of Objects added, in the Year ending 26th December 1854. 



Department of Printed Books. 



1. Works added to the Collection during the year have been placed on the shelves of the 

 Library as soon as catalogued. The press-marks, indicating their respective locahties, have 

 been affixed to each volume, title, and entry in the Catalogue. The total number of these 

 items amounts to 136,153. 



II. Cataloguing -.—(a..) New General Catalogue.— The number of titles written for 

 this Catalogue amounts to 41,052 ; of these 6,224 have been transcribed fourfold, 1,157 

 titles have been inserted in one copy of the Catalogue of King's Pamphlets, and in each 

 of two copies of the same Catalogue, 12,297. 



(b.) Supplementary Catalogue. — 1. The number of titles written for this Catalogue amounts 

 to 26,041, besides 91 Chinese ; in all, 26,132. 



2. The number of titles transcribed fourfold for the Supplementary Catalogue is 23,595 ; 

 besides 882 index slips. The number of title slips inserted is 79,340 ; viz., 75,012 in 

 three copies of the Supplementary Catalogue and 4,328 index slips in four copies of 

 indexes to various long headings. This insertion has rendered it necessary, in order to 

 preserve the alphabetical order of the names and headings, to take up and re-insert 19,339 

 titles in each of the three copies of the Supplementary Catalogue, and 1,154 slips in each 

 of four copies of the indexes; and to add to each copy of the Supplementary Catalogue 

 39 leaves. All the indexes to the long headings in the Catalogue have been kept up. 



s 3. The number of entries made in the Hand Catalogue of the periodical publications is 

 275. 



(c.) Maps. — 1. The new titles and cross-references for maps amount to 6,381. 



2. The number of titles for the Map Catalogue transcribed fourfold is 5,896. 



The number of titles inserted in each of two copies of the Map Catalogue is 6,158. This 

 insertion has rendered it necessary (for the purpose of maintaining the strict alphabetical 

 arrangement) to take up and re-insert in each of the two copies of the Catalogue 3,494. 



(d.) Music. — 1. The titles and cross-references written for this collection are 4,238. 



2. 3,888 titles have been transcribed fourfold. The number of titles inserted in each of 

 three copies of this Catalogue is 3,725. This insertion has rendered it necessary to take 

 up and re-insert 2,119 titles in each copy, and to add 173 leaves to each copy. 



III. Interleaved General Catalogue, — 1. All the damaged leaves of the Library copy of 

 this Catalogue, and those of 46 volumes of the Reading Room copy, have been repaired. 

 This reparation has rendered it necessary to re-transcnbe in the Library copy 4,416 titles, 

 and in the Reading Room copy 14,103. 



2. A complete copy of the Catalogue of titles of the Pamphlets, originally unbound and 

 uncatalogued, forming part of the Royal Collection, has been placed in the Reading Room, 

 and those Pamphlets have been thus made available to the public, like the rest of the 

 Collection. 



IV. Binding. — The number of volumes bound is 27,467 in 24,727, including 11,114 

 Pamphlets. The number of volumes repaired is 1,473. 638 Maps have been mounted. 



V. Reading Room Service. — 1. The number of books returned to the shelves of the 

 General Library from the Readinsr Rooms is 98,981 ; to those of the Royal Library, 10,434 ; 

 to tliose of the Grenville Library, 419 ; to the Closets in which books are kept from day to 

 day for the use of the Readers, 121,526; making a total of 231,360, or 800 per diem. 

 Adding the number of volumes returned to the shelves of the Reading Rooms, about 

 163,000, the whole amounts to 394,360, or 1,364 per diem. 



2. The number of Readers has been 56,132 ; on an average, 194 per diem, the Reading- 

 Rooms having been kept open 289 days ; each Reader has therefore consulted, on an 

 average, seven volumes per diem. 



VI. Additions. — 1. The number of volumes added to the Library, comprising 110 re- 

 ceived under the International Copyright Act, amounts to 13,065 (including Music, Maps, 

 and Newspapers), of which 976 were presented, 6,182 purchased, and 5,897 acquired by 

 copyright. 



184. B 2- The 



