is small compared with real needs. In considering the annual appropriations three things must be provided for:

1 Keeping the library open and doing absolutely necessary work. For this the present appropriation is more than enough.

2 Carrying on the work to which the library is committed by its past history, its policy approved by the regents and the library committee, and the reasonable demands made on it by the public institutions of the University, libraries, state departments and officers. This demand grows with each year and includes not only increase of material on hand with attendant cataloguing and indexing, without which it is largely useless, but includes also assistance, which careful students of the subject are agreed brings a greater return for expenditure than money spent directly on books.

3 Increase in salary promised or deserved according to work done, the growth in experience and value of various members. of the staff and some regard to what is paid for corresponding services in other departments, though the library has uniformly kept its salaries lower than any other department and as a result has every year lost numerous assistants who are offered much higher salaries in other state departments or in other libraries.

Fee accounts. Table S, p. 112, gives the annual summary for other than appropriation accounts and the total receipts from such accounts 1895-1900.

On June 25, 1900 the following action was taken by the regents:

The secretary stated that the law which took effect May 12, 1899, by which all fees received after that date must be turned over to the state treasurer, made it difficult to meet obligations promptly and at the same time to keep a balance on hand at the bank.

Voted, That as an aid in insuring the necessary bank balance, no expenditure be incurred from the balance of $10.705.47 on hand in old fee accounts as receipts to May 12, 1899, without authority in advance from the chairman of the finance committee.

Voted, That the balances of $2639.11 and $63.16 in duplicate department fees, and miscellaneous fees respectively, received from May 12, 1899, to March 1, 1900, be transferred to the new library fee account to be expended as needed for the benefit of the state library.

Voted, That the balance of $378.04 in library fees received from May 12, 1899, to March 1, 1900, be transferred to the new home education fee account to be expended as needed for the benefit of the home education department.

PUBLICATIONS AND PRINTING

The annual list of publications of the state library and home education department in table L, p. 76 followed by the printing summary for 4 years 1897-1900 shows 69 books, bulletins and handbooks, 98 blank forms (not including stationery) and 40 circulars, a total of 207 different issues and 279,927 copies printed in 1900, an increase of 22 issues and 26,323 copies over 1899.

Legislation bulletin. Legislation bulletin 12 Trend of legislation in the United States by Dr Robert H. Whitten is the first of the series of comparative legislation and administration monographs, whose scope is explained on p. 41 of this report. The Law times (London) in reviewing the monograph says this "valuable paper is well worth reading by every English lawyer."

ness.

Our annual summary of legislation grows increasingly valuable and is more widely appreciated as people learn its usefulWe now propose to include notes of the more important laws of foreign countries under the same heads, so that any one looking up the legislation of the year on any topic will have attention called to specially important legislation outside the United States. On subjects in which we are particularly interested these notes will be most frequent: libraries, education, taxation, election, legislative methods and similar topics. So many students of public affairs, legislators, state and government officers use our annual bulletin as a handbook for refer ence that the demand for its enlargement clearly ought to be met as it can be with very trifling expense. Our legislative librarian in the regular discharge of his duties is compelled to look up many of these questions and can preserve the results and make them available to thousands of other people by includ ing them with our systematic digest of American legislation.

In 1895 a table of constitutional amendments, proposed, adopted or rejected and information as to constitutional conventions and new constitutions, were included, and in 1898 digests of court decisions declaring statutes unconstitutional, exact references to statutes amended or repealed and a concise résumé of the most important and distinctive laws of the year. A new feature of the bulletin for 1900 is appended, the tabulation of legislation statistics.

The practical value of the annual summary is shown by the following comments of prominent reviewers.

Of inestimable value to legislators, students of law and the editorial fraternity. Publishers' weekly

Students of comparative legislation can not afford to dispense with it. Nation

It is difficult to exaggerate the value of this clue to the yearly labyrinth of state legislation. Philadelphia press

As an aid to legislation this annual publication is bound to become more and more valuable. New York mail and express A very valuable publication. Albany law journal

An invaluable publication for everyone who wishes to keep well informed on the legislation of the day. Review of reviews

For the student of the social sciences, the most valuable report issued by any of our state governments. Journal of political economy

To the lawyer it must be invaluable. Cape law journal No more valuable annual is issued. Minneapolis journat The difficulty of keeping track of the yearly movement of legislation affecting social questions makes unusually welcome to social students the annual bulletin of the University of the State of New York, giving an exhaustive summary and review of legislation enacted in the United States during the year Frequently it is desirable to learn accurately and promptly what has been the drift of recent legislation regarding a given topic. With a file of this bulletin at hand, this is made possible. Charities review

Contains a good review of the most important changes in state constitutions and legislation during the year, also a useful reference index of the new laws . . . Affords the best and most convenient table of contents for students of comparative state legislation. American academy of political and social science, Annals

Ces publications annuelles ont leur place marquée dans la bibliothèque de notre société. Elles sont, en effet, susceptibles de rendre des services appréciables à tous ceux qui s'intéressent aux questions de législation comparée, en leur permettant d'embrasser d'un coup d'oeil l'ensemble des lois multiples votées chaque année dans les différents états de l'union américaine. Bulletin mensuel de la Société de législation comparéc

Library school bulletin. Three of the most useful bulletins in this series are appended; i. e. 4 Selected reference books, 5 Selected subject bibliographies and 7 Selected national bibliographies. These lists were printed in accordance with the plan to include in the

series some of the most valuable material used in instruction in the school.

Public libraries in commenting on no. 4 says:

The New York state library has just sent out a very valuable and helpful bulletin, which should be in the hands of every librarian, particularly those in small libraries. . The entries are full enough to give an adequate idea of the scope and purpose of each book, and as a list from which to select reference books it will prove both useful and timely.

Appendix 4 also contains Library school bulletin 8, 14th annual report of library school.

Bibliography bulletin. Since October 1899 the library has is sued bibliography bulletins 19-21, which form appendix 5; i. e. College libraries in the United States, Reading list on house decoration and furnishing and Selection from the best books of 1899. With the general title page and table of contents, numbers 19-20 complete the first volume of the bibliography series, of which numbers 1, Guide to the study of James Abbott McNeill Whistler, and 5, Selection of reference books for use of cataloguers in finding full names, are out of print.

For a complete record of bibliographies issued during the year or in contemplation by the library see table P, p. 91.

History bulletin. The printing of history bulletin 4, Slavery in New York, a historical sketch by ex-Judge A. Judd Northrup, was approved by the regents at their meeting, Dec. 21, 1899.

The state has often recognized its duty of making available to its citizens valuable material existing only in manuscript. When a competent writer spends months or sometimes years in the investigation of some subject of public interest and arrives at valuable results which ought to be in our own and other libraries, it is obviously very desirable that such results should be put in print. The larger libraries are more and more recognizing this as one of their natural and proper functions, and it is evident that with the new century there will be farther development. Certainly the state library is the most natural place to have such work done because of its unequaled facilities for determining what is worth printing on account of intrinsic value and probable demand.

Handbooks. The new series of reference lists issued by the sociology division is noted on p. 42. Among new home education

handbooks, etc. were: Study clubs (Handbook 10) a syllabus on the Tempest and two on Home economics. Of the latter no. 82 was prepared by the Lake Placid conference committee on Home economics syllabus. All syllabuses issued by the extension teaching division contain lists of authorities.

Among new traveling library finding lists were the annotated list of the 10th traveling library for young people, the finding list of the library for blind, also lists on American literature, Social science and Child study. .

HOME EDUCATION

The functions of the University include promotion not only of the higher education given in regular teaching institutions, but also of that equally important home education for those out of schools and colleges who must give their working hours to other duties and have only evenings and bits of leisure to devote to self education. Aid of home study has been from the first essentially a part of the state library work, and though reported on fully in a separate volume it must be mentioned in our summary. The best thinkers have come to realize that it is a very imperfect and unsatisfactory system which provides instruction and guidance only for the limited school period of youth and does nothing for the equally important education that should extend through the rest of life. The chief agencies in this work are libraries, museums, study clubs and extension teaching. So often the pioneer, New York was the first state or country to recognize this fully by statute and authorize the maintenance of a supervisory department, which has proved that the public and traveling library and study club can be made an effective, practical and indeed essential part of our educational system. We have already, scattered throughout the state, over 400 registered study clubs doing systematic continuous educational work for 10 or more weeks under supervision of the home education department. We have also nearly 1000 traveling libraries of the choicest books published and 24,500 wall and hand photographs and lantern slides selected from the best pictures, which are lent for a limited time to any community requesting it, and which, by common consent, are doing more for their cost than has ever before been even approximated by any other system. There is no compliment or evidence of appreciation so conclusive as imitation. Official reports show that with three exceptions every other state