as equivalents. Pages may be anywhere from twelve to seventeen years of age-they are usually about fifteenand must have a good common-school education, with some knowledge of books other than text-books. Examinations for both grades are held regularly once a year and at such other times as may be necessary. The same salary is paid to apprentices and pages the first six months, after which the apprentices advance more rapidly, though their salary for the first two years is merely nominal, their compensation being largely the opportunity for learning library work, and an assured position as junior clerks at the end of their apprenticeship. The pages, of course, are boys: the apprentices are chiefly young women, graduates of our high school or of seminaries of the same grade. Of highschool graduates only a minority succeed; and at least two college graduates have failed to make an acceptable percentage. They were probably like the young man in Charles Dudley Warner's last novel, who remarked to his better-read but less "fitted" college classmate, that he, too, "might have known something if he had not been kept at school all his life.”

Having been guilty of one digression, I am emboldened to venture another. On two occasions I gave to five pages, averaging the first time about sixteen and the second seventeen years of age, the same examination given to candidates for apprenticeship who averaged, probably, twenty-two years of age, with the result that the boys came out ahead by 15 per cent. This means that the reading and study done by the boys during the two years in the library had given them a better knowledge of history and literature and more general information than was possessed by the candidates for apprenticeship with the advantages of seniority in years and four more years of

1

Apprentices receive 2 a month for the first six months, £4 the next six months, £5 the third, and £6 a month the fourth half year. Messengers go from £2 to £5 a month in the course of about three years.

schooling. A creditable percentage in this second examination passes a page to the grade of junior clerk.

While on the subject of staff organization it may not be amiss to mention that we have a functionary that I do not recall having seen in any other public library, whose duties may be summed up in the title "official hostess." Her desk, bearing a large sign, "Information Desk," is in the middle of the delivery room. Most of the time, however, she is about the room greeting diffident newcomers, anticipating inquiries, explaining the card catalogue or pointing out the finding lists, and, in general, trying to do for the public what a gracious hostess does for her guests. The present occupant of this position is a woman of exceptional tact and savoir faire, who speaks French and German fluently, accomplishments which she often has occasion to use. The desk of the Assistant Librarian is close by the receiving window, but in front of the main counter; and he also is nearly always available for answering questions or giving assistance. To that end he has on one side of his desk a revolving bookcase filled with the handiest and most generally useful reference books, and on the other side, accessible to the public, a set of Poole's Index, Sonnenschein's Best Books, and other similar volumes. The general reference room is on the floor above, and is, of course, supplied with another set of Poole, together with all the leading cyclopædias and the best reference books that our fund enables us to purchase. Public documents occupy a separate room, as do reference books on the fine arts; and in another room are those relating to science and its applications. The juvenile department occupies a separate room with open shelves.

The possibilities of a library depend primarily on its financial resources, and secondarily on its management. A well-managed library may do as much work and add as much yearly to the value of its collection with an annual revenue of £10,000 as an ill-managed library with an income of £15,000. But, in general, the basis and measure

of a library's usefulness is the amount of money it can annually expend.

The chief support of the St. Louis Public Library is a tax of one-fifth of a mill on each dollar's worth of taxable property in the city. This is naturally an increasing sum. For the first complete year it amounted to $59,340 (nearly £12,000). For the year ending with April, 1899, it was $71,340 (£14,268). In addition to this the receipts from fines and from the issue of extra volumes from the collection of duplicates, etc., amount now to nearly £800 a year, thus giving an annual revenue of £15,000. We have every year set aside a portion of this to make payments on a building site. The expenditure for maintenance the first year was £9,671, and last year it was £11,162. The smallest expenditure in any one year was £9,344, and the largest, £11,600. The amount spent for books, periodicals, and binding has varied from £2,400 to £3,400, with an average of £2,900. For the first five years the library was under an annual expense of £2,000 for its rented quarters, including light, heat, and elevator service. A new lease secures the same accommodations for £1,500 per annum. The location of the library on the sixth and seventh floors of a commercial building is a heavy handicap to its progress. In a suitable building, and with its maintenance fund freed from the burden of payments on building site, the library could soon add 50 per cent. to its circulation.

In January of each year a budget is made up, apportioning to each fund the amount deemed necessary. This is carefully, though not slavishly, adhered to. A reserve fund of several thousand dollars provides for emergencies, and towards the end of the year this, with the surplus that is generally left in several of the minor funds, is usually turned over to the book-fund. Thus the latter, starting with £2,400, may be increased to £3,000.

A contingency fund of £10 to £15 per month is placed in the hands of the librarian for petty expenses. All bills above

£2, and usually those above 1, are paid by vouchers on the City Treasurer. These must be signed by the Librarian, by the Chairman of the committee by whose authority the expense was incurred, by the Chairman of the Auditing Committee, and finally by the President of the Board. A cash book is kept, showing the daily desk receipts for fines, "C.D." issues, books sold or lost and paid for, catalogues, lost cards, etc., etc. Every morning the money taken the previous day is turned over to the Librarian, who receipts for it in the book. A triple record of every cent taken in is made by means of the "autographic cash register." The original entry is handed to the payer as a receipt; the first duplicate the receiving clerk puts into his cash drawer; the third entry is locked in the machine; and when the roll of paper is taken out next morning it exhibits a complete record of the day's cash receipts. This furnishes a check on mistakes, and makes dishonesty at least difficult. Other customary account books are kept, as enumerated and described in my report for 1895-6.

FREDERICK M. CRUNDEN.

ACCESSIONS: THE CHECKING OF THE PROCESSES.

ESPITE the fairly large amount of literature on library methods that now exists, and which is growing each year, there are many portions of our work upon which little or nothing of any practical value seems to have been written. If I am asked to give an example, I will instance the organization of the cataloguing department in a large library. It is as a contribution to this subject that this paper on the checking of the various processes through which books must pass

between their receipt by the library and their appearance on the shelves ready for the borrower is submitted.

In a small library, with two or three assistants, where the librarian is in the-in many respects-happy position of being able personally to supervise what he does not himself perform, an elaborate system of check is needless, and is in fact a hindrance, not a help. But in a larger library-especially a busy public library-the conditions are quite different, and checks are indispensable, both for economy of time and the avoidance of errors.

Before describing my own system, I will state the procedure of the Mitchell Library, Glasgow, from information very kindly sent to me by Mr. Barrett, at my request, and which I have his permission to use.

Mr. Barrett employs a book and a stamp. The book, which is a foolscap folio, is ruled as in the diagram. "Its

The Mitchell Library. Rough Accessions Book.

No.

of Amount Remarks

Invoice Cata- Invoice

Date Name First Word

Examd. logd. Filed Vols.

purpose is to provide a first record of accessions, not book by book, but invoice by invoice, and to secure that all are subsequently entered, book by book, in the permanent stock book." The "date" is the date of the receipt of the book, the next column receives the "name" of the bookseller, and the next the "first word" of the bill. "Donations are considered to be added to the library as at the date of the committee meeting at which they are accepted; in this case the word 'Donations' is entered in the name' column, and in the first word' column a reference 'See Donation Book,' where the titles of gifts, the donors' names, and other information are fully entered.