Librarian's Report. 
633 
REPORT OF LIBRARIAN, 1897. 
The librarian would beg leave to call the attention of the academy in 
his report to two things, namely, the present inaccessibility of the li¬ 
brary, and the plan of work which he desires to follow during his term 
of office. The present librarian entered upon his duties but a short time 
before the meeting of the Legislature; and as soon a3 that body began 
its session, the room of the academy was partitioned, one part being 
used as a committee room, and the other serving as a cloak room for 
the members of the Legislature. This partition still remains; the for¬ 
mer cloak room being at present the headquarters of one of the capitol 
janitors, while the second and larger part of the room was, soon after 
the adjournment of the Legislature, given to the Free Library commis¬ 
sion, and fs at present used by them. The steady growth of the library 
has nearly filled all available case room; and the librarian, but a short 
time ago, found it necessary to have all the back numbers of the Trans¬ 
actions of the academy, which were stored underneath the book cases, 
removed to Science Hall, to give him some place to put the rapidly ac¬ 
cumulating material. Owing to these circumstances the usefulness of 
the library is at present very much curtailed, and the time is not far 
off when it will be necessary—all available shelf-room having been com¬ 
pletely filled—to store the more recent acquisitions to the library in 
some place Other than the academy room. 
The librarian has deemed it advisable to pay particular attention to 
the increase of the exchange list. While but four new exchanges have 
been added to the list during the past year, the librarian is preparing a 
list of societies whose publications it would be advisable to have and 
hopes to effect a number of exchanges. Now, while the library has of 
necessity lost much of its usefulness, it seems advisable to pay partic¬ 
ular attention to this point, and give the time to the increase of the li¬ 
brary v/hich later must go towards arranging it when the academy will 
be so fortunate as to occupy other quarters.. 
Madison, Wis., December 27, 1897. 
