Report on the Educational Exhibit. 457 



inations in college and university studies, and also of its methods of 

 BKaminations for law and medical students, whicli has resulted in rais- 

 ing the standard of admission to these schools and in protecting the 

 public from incompetence and fraud. Over 20,000 answer papers in 

 200 bound volumes illustrated the scope and variety of the work. 

 Graphic and printed charts marked the development and progress of 

 tlie department. The excellent system of credentials, with its series of 

 fifty-one diplomas, certificates and pass cards artistically engraved and 

 lettered, attracted wide attention. 



The State Library in alcove " J " made an extensive exhibit of blanks 

 and forms illustrating tlie most efficient and economic methods of 

 library administration ; charts, tables, summaries and indexes of the 

 decimal classification used in the library and already adopted by many 

 libraries at home and abroad, and its inexpensive methods of distribut- 

 ing desirable publications to the libraries of New York through the 

 duplicate department, which acts as a clearing house for the libraries 

 of the State. Its bulletins, designed to serve as a guide to smaller 

 libraries in selecting, classifying and cataloguing, were shown, and its 

 annual summaries of comparative legislation, which places before pub- 

 lic officers a clear but very compact statement of every law on every 

 subject enacted in any Staite of the Union during the last session of its 

 Legislature. Specimen traveling libraries on several topics were exhib- 

 ited and the system explained whereby any community may borrow 

 from the State for six months a carefully selected library on any topic. 

 A splendid series of fifty bromide enlargements of photographs of the 

 library and its equipment gave an admirable conception of its size and 

 work. 



The New York State Library School exhibited its methods of 

 instruction and administration, a series of bound volumes illustrating 

 the quantity and quality of the printed work of the alumni and non- 

 graduates of the school since its opening in 1887_, and an extensive 

 exhibit of manuscript work of its students, including bibliographies, 

 theses in library economy, annotated and illustrated reading lists, note 

 books, charts, tables, summaries, indexes, etc. One volume of com- 

 parative cataloguing rules was specially worthy of note. 



The State Museum exhibited a file of its valuable scientific publica- 

 tions, including annual reports since 1847, a series of interesting bul- 

 letins on building stones, mineral resources, salt industries and similar 

 scientific treatises of practical economic value, and twenty-nine volumes 

 on the zoology, botany and paleontology of the State. 



For convenience of comparative study, the extension department of 

 the university was placed in alcove "A" with the other extension 

 systems in a collective exhibit. Charts, forms, syllabuses and bnlletins 

 sufficient to fully illustrate its workings were displayed. Six traveling 

 libraries, arranged in their specially designed shipping eases, attracted 

 much attention and favorable comment. 



Columbia College, as befitted her age and rank, had by far the 

 largest space accorded the universities and colleges, occupying 1,000 

 square feet in alcoves " K-N." It was attractively fitted out, and the 

 chief exhibit features were a series of thirty very large photographs 



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