USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1874 > Part 18
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1873. 66,855
1874.
No comparison of issues of new cards can be made between this year and last ; but it is interesting to notice the fact that new accounts have been opened with 2,919 persons.
Not the least of the important services rendered by the Libra- rian is giving information not only of the location of books and items demanded by borrowers, but also of safe and profitable reading to the multitudes who visit the library without any definite end. Such timely advice does much to avert the main danger that attends the use of public libraries, which is that habits of superficial and immethodical reading will diminish the sense and the love of absolute accuracy in thought and expression so essential to public virtue and sound learning. The successful endeavor of the Librarian in this direction, has contributed to the increase of the usefulness of the library.
But an increasing library, which provides every year for an augmented body of patrons, will soon reach a limit of house-room which was set in less prosperous times. The Directors are unani- mous in urging upon the City Council, immediate provision for larger shelf-room, and easier access to what already exists. The report of the Building Committee suggests a feasible expedient, which is in accord with principles of prudence and economy. The case is also stated in the report of the Library Committee.
247
FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
The report of the Committee on the Reading Room-one of the .most attractive features of the Library-shows that it is use- ful to large numbers of people, whose changing wants are care- fully anticipated and provided for. The report of the Treasurer of the Reading Room Fund exhibits the receipts and expendi- tures in this department.
The report of the Finance Committee gives in detail a state- ment of the manner in which the City Appropriations have been expended, and the condition of the Green Fund. This fund now amounts to $35,062.96. The financial reports are all properly audited and give in small compass the results of much care and labor.
A pleasing incident of the year is the correspondence between the Directors of the Library and the officials of the City of Wor- cester, England, resulting in reciprocal pledges of esteem, and the consequent establishment of intimate intercourse, which can- not fail to be productive of good. The correspondence is ap- pended to the Librarian's report.
The Directors are sensible of the liberality of the City Council in providing for the Library, and in enabling them to carry out a policy which aims at meeting all the reasonable wants of our people. A library well administered, is an indispensable aux- iliary to the growth of any really prosperous modern city ; for it not only furnishes tools for the workman, but food to the hungry and refreshment to the weary, and it completes in the best manner, the work of education begun in the schools.
6 We therefore commend the Library to the most thoughtful care and favor of the City Council, to which it is already so largely indebted.
For the Directors,
C. O. THOMPSON.
REPORT OF THE LIBRARIAN
OF THE
FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
To Thomas L. Nelson, Esquire, President of the Board of Directors of the Free Public Library.
HEREWITH I transmit my fourth annual report as librarian: It will contain, however, little more than a record of our routine work during the year that has just closed. The reason of this is that the use of the institution, in all its departments, began to increase so rapidly at the commencement of the year, and has continued to grow in such an unexampled degree that it has been necessary to use nearly all the time and energy of the officers in attending to the regular work of the library, and to postpone the introduction of improvements.
There is, therefore, little unusual work to report upon as ac- complished during the year.
It seems inopportune, also, to recommend the adoption of im- provements in the immediate future, since a spirit of economy pervades the community, and we must join the other departments of the government in trying to keep down expenditures.
I proceed, then, to give an account of the routine work done here during the past year, anl to make the few suggestions for the future which the imperative needs of the library demand should be made at once.
249
FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
ADDITIONS
have been made to the library, as follows, during the past year,- that is, from December 1, 1873, to November 30, 1874 :-
BOOKS.
PAMPHLETS AND PAPERS.
Gifts to the Green Library,
6
Purchases for this department out of the Green Li-
brary fund,
576
Additions to the Green Library from other sources,
4
586
Gifts placed in the Intermediate and Circulating departments,
282
928
Volumes bound and placed in one or the other of these departments :-
Magazines, 98
Newspapers, 66 164
Purchases for the Intermediate and Circulating de-
partments, 3,180
3,626
928
This statement shows that more books have been added to the library during the year that has just closed than in the previous year.
Thus in the year 1872-3, 403 volumes were placed in the Green Library, and 3,035 in the Circulating and Intermediate Departments. During the year 1873-4, 586 and 3,626 books, respectively, were placed in these two divisions of the library.
Appended to this report will be found a list of givers .* But few of the gifts call for especial mention.
As depositary for United States documents the library has received from the Interior Department during the year 115 volumes. Senator Washburn has sent us eight books, and the State of Massachusetts the volumes which we receive from it annually.
William T. Harris, Esq., the Superintendent of Public Schools in St. Louis, has given us a set of the valuable school reports of that city, 14 volumes in all.
* See Appendix No. 1.
33
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250
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 29.
We are indebted to the Astor Library for a copy of the supple- ment of its catalogue with an alphabetical index of subjects, and to the Boston Athenaeum for the first volume of the admirable catalogue in process of preparation by Charles A. Cutter, Esq., the librarian.
Drew, Allis & Co., have given us four copies of directories and a map of the city of Worcester. H. D. Warner, 27 photo- graphs of views and objects of interest in Worcester; and the trustees of the city hospital a framed photograph of the building occupied by that institution until recently on Front Street.
We have received from the estate of the late John Milton Earle, 51 volumes and 324 pamphlets ; and from Edward W. Lincoln, Esq., 8 books and 2 pamphlets. The last named gift includes the three volumes which contain the "Official Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the State Convention assembled May 4th, 1853, to revise and amend the Constitution of the Com- monwealth of Massachusetts," and the volume in which the journal of the same convention is printed.
We have had gifts also of the following books and pamphlets written by gentlemen resident in Worcester :-
A Memorial of Governor John Endecott, by Hon. Stephen Salisbury ; a paper of Henry Clarke, M. D., on the Surgical Treatment of Empyema ; The Church Porch, by Rev. William R. Huntington, D. D .; and Orthodoxy and Heresy in the Christian Church, by Rev. Edward H. Hall.
The American Antiquarian Society has also sent us reports of its proceedings at the meetings of October 21, 1873, and April 29, 1874, which contain, besides the Memorial of Endecott by Mr. Salisbury, mentioned above, other papers, by Samuel F .. Haven, Esquire ; Joseph Sargent, M. D .; and John D. Wash- burn, Esq.
The gift of valuable books from the Mayor, Aldermen, and Citizens of Worcester, England, will be referred to in another part of the report.
More books, probably, have been added to the library by purchase during the past year than in any previous year. Con- siderably less money has been spent, however, in buying these than was expended for the same purpose in the year 1872-3.
251
FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
So many books are now placed in the library in the course of a year, that it has become impracticable to do more in the annual report than to mention the titles of some of the more important works added. It seems desirable to do as much as this, however, for citizens are thus enabled to see what kinds of books are put into the library, and to judge of the value of the additions.
Care has been taken during the year covered by this report, as in previous years, to add to our collection valuable works of reference which may be consulted with interest and profit by students of the natural sciences, and by persons engaged in in- dustrial occupations. In pursuance of this policy, we have com- pleted our set of Silliman's Journal of Science and Arts, by buy- ing the 49 volumes of the first series of the work.
We have also secured the seventy-two volumes needed, with the few volumes already in the library, to make a perfect set of the Journal of the Franklin Institute. The Institute kindly co- operated with us in doing this piece of work, and the success achieved is largely due to the generous efforts in our behalf of Professor Pliny Chase, of Philadelphia.
The largest purchase made during the year in this department is that of Dingler's Polytechnisches Journal, in 197 volumes. This periodical is recognized as one of the best in the world of the serials devoted to industrial subjects. Although the set has been in the library but a few months, it has already been con- siderably consulted. Among other acquisitions are a set of Van Nostrand's Eclectic Engineering Magazine ; and a good assortment of such popular works as Simms's Practical Tunnelling ; Haskoll's Practice of Engineering Field Work; Leffel's Construction of Mill-dams; and Jacquemart's History of the Ceramic Art.
In the department of Fine Arts, we have bought several books on Spanish painting and architecture. Chief among these is Sir William (Sterling) Maxwell's Annals of the Artists of Spain, in three volumes, a work which has now become very scarce and expensive. Others are a copy of the first edition of Ford's Hand- book for Travelers in Spain ; Sir William Maxwell's Velasquez, and his Works ; Mrs. Tollemache's Spanish Towns and Spanish Pictures ; and Street's Gothic Architecture in Spain. A set of the Portfolio has been purchased. Also an elaborate work, in
252
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 29.
two volumes folio, on the Works of Early Masters in Stained Glass ; a copy of the English Edition of Mrs. Jameson's Memoirs of Early Italian Painters ; Mrs. Heaton's Leonardo de Vinci and his Works; Thornbury's Life of Turner ; Willshire's Introduction to the Study and Collection of Ancient Prints ; the Schiller Gal- lery ; and Kaulbach's Female Characters of Goethe.
The library has also secured a copy of the great work of Hachette et Cie, of Paris, in two folio volumes, containing Les Saints Evangiles, with designs by M. Bida.
Considerable additions have been made to our collection of musical compositions. Among these are the scores of many standard operas and of a few new works, such as Balfe's Il Talis- mano, Arthur Sullivan's Light of the World, and Henry Smart's Jacob. While I am writing, we are unpacking an invoice of books just received from Paris, among which are Verdi's Messe de Requiem, Aïda, and Don Carlos, Wagner's Reinzi, and De Vaisseau fantôme, Gounod's Romeo and Juliette, Thomas's Mignon and Hamlet, and Marchetti's Ruy Blas. Among the purchases of the year are, also, Otto's Treatise on the Structure and Preservation of the Violin, Sandys's and Forster's History of the Violin, Hopkins's and Rimbault's The Organ, its History and Construction, Rimbault's Gallery of Great Composers, the Vocal music of Shakespeare's Plays, Sir John Hawkins's History of the Science and Practice of Music, in 5 volumes, and the first volume (the only one yet issued) of Chappell's History of Music.
Among the books in the French language procured during the year are, Michelet's Histoire de France in 17 volumes, Sainte- Beuve's Causeries du Lundi, 15 volumes, his Nouveaux Lundi, 13 volumes, and a fine edition of Balzac's Oeuvres Complètes in 23 octavo volumes.
Among works in the German language bought last year are, A. W. Schlegel's Sämmtliche Werke, Nachträge to Goethe's Werke von Eduard Boas, Almanach de Gotha, Jacob Grimm's Deutsche Grammatik, volume 1, and Jacob and Willhelm Grimm's Deutsches Wörterbuch, or rather so much of this work as has been published.
Many stories in the French and German languages have been placed in the circulating department.
253
FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
In classical literature, a few additions have been made. I find on the lists of accessions, Opera Omnia of Apuleus, Anacreontis Carminum reliquiae, Blackie's edition of Homer and the Iliad and translations of the works of Pindar, Anacreon and Aristo- phanes.
Several bibliographical works have been procured. Among them, Hain's Repertorium Bibliographicum.
Several volumes on the subject of Prison Reform, kindly selected for us by Dr. Wines, have been bought.
In the departments of Theology and Biblical criticism and interpretation, numerous additions have been made. Among them are Chalmers's Works in 25 volumes, his Posthumous Works in 9 volumes, Jonathan Edwards's Works, Thomas Rees's Edition of the Racovian Catechism, many modern lectures, essays and treatises, illustrative of the views of the various religious denomi- nations, Lange's Commentary, the volumes published of the trans- lation of Meyer's Commentary, Buttmann's Grammar of the New Testament Greek, and Winer's Grammar of the idiom of the New Testament.
A large part of the work of such a library as ours, consists in collecting other than current publications and in securing standard works, many of which are out of print or, atleast, hard to procure. Of such a character are many of the books already enumerated, and following are the titles of a few more which will answer for specimens of the large number of similar works added since the last report was written : Pickering edition of Milton's works in 8 volumes, Hunter's Annals of Rural Bengal and his Orissa, Francis Palgrave's History of Normandy and England, Works of Hartley Coleridge, John Quincy Adams's Report upon Weights and Meas- ures, Chambers's Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen, Ingram's Memorials of Oxford, LeKeux's Memorials of Cam- bridge, Curtis's Treatise on the Law of Patents, Jesse's George Selwyn and His Contemporaries, his Life and Reign of George the Third, and his Memoirs of King Richard the Third, Jeremy Bel- knap's American Biography, Gladstone's State in its relations with the Church, Napoleon's History of Julius Caesar, Bolingbroke's Works, Report on the Geology of Vermont. The Correspondence
254
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 29.
of Charles, first Marquis of Cornwallis, Watt's Bibliotheca Britan- nica, Chalmers's General Biographical Dictionary and a copy of the original edition of the Book of Mormon.
An indefinitely long list of the titles of current publications added within a twelvemonth to the library, might be given. Your patience will be taxed by reading only the few following : Thomson's Illustrations of China and its People, a large collection of photographs, with explanatory text, Humbert's Japan and the Japanese, Lacy's Male and Female Costumes, The Geological Survey of Canada, Phillimore's Commentaries on International Law, Marriott's Vestiarium Christianum, Ammidown's Historical Collections, numbers of Smith's Historical Atlas of Ancient Geography, and volumes of the American Cyclopædia, Barclay's Ship of Fools (a reprint), Princess Lechtenstein's Holland House, Shakespeare's Home, and Rural Life, Picturesque America, Lacroix's Military and Religious Life in the Middle Ages, and a fac-simile reproduction of William Tyndale's Testament.
The Library has purchased, within the year, a set of the London Illustrated News in 63 handsomely bound volumes, and has come into possession of a unique collection of Plays and Poems, made by the late General Charles Richard Fox of England. It has also bought a set of the London Athenaeum, and L'Art de verifier les dates in 43 volumes.
Successful efforts have been made to complete our set of the Congressional Globe, and a copy of Benton's Abridgment of the Debates of Congress from 1789 to 1856 has been secured.
I will mention only one more of our purchases. This must not be omitted for it is the largest of them. I refer to a complete set, well bound, of Cobbett's Parliamentary History (1066-Au- gust 12, 1803), and of the three series of Hansard's Parliamentary Debates (November 22, 1803 to the present time) in 319 volumes.
This work is of great value to students of history and politics, and is one of the fountain heads to be consulted in settle- ment of questions of parliamentary law. It is fortunate that we have bought this work, for it is becoming scarce and hard to procure. It is unnecessary to say that this purchase was made from the Green Library fund.
255
FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
USE OF THE LIBRARY.
There has been a large increase in the use of all the departments of the library during the past year. Thus, the reading-rooms have been used much more than ever before. It will also appear from statistics to be given presently, that the use of the reference library has grown rapidly, and that, there has been an unprece- dented augmentation of the number of books given out in the circulating department.
This increase is largely owing, no doubt, to the fact, that in the present season of depression in business, persons find more time than they can usually command for reading, but in a great degree also to the considerations, that the generous expenditures made · for books during the last two years, and the added facilities af- forded users of the library have enhanced the interest felt by citizens in the institution, and made them desirous of availing themselves of its privileges.
In the circulating department 102,575 books have been given out during the year ; 66,855 is the number of books delivered to holders of cards during the previous year.
From this statement it appears that 35,720 more books were given out in the year 1873-4, than in the year 1872-3. In other words, the increase in the use of the circulating department has been nearly 53} per cent. in a single year.
The books given out the past year were distributed among the several months as follows :
December, 1873,
9,145
June,
7,183
January,
1874,
10,964
July,
6,989
February,
9,967
August,
7,065
March,
9,776
September,
7,522
April,
8,939
October,
8,560
May,
7,502
November,
8,963
In all, numbering
102,575 books.
The Circulating Library has been kept open 307 days during the year. That is, it has only been closed on five legal holidays, memorial day and the fifty-two Sundays of the year.
The average daily issue of books is 334, against 218 of the previous year.
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CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 29.
During the months of June, July and August, this daily issue was 272 against 169 the year before.
During the months of January, February and March, the num- ber of books given out daily was, in the average, 404 against 240, the record in the last report.
The largest number of books issued in any one day is 731, the number given out January 24. The largest number of the year before, was 588. This number was given out March 22.
The smallest number of books given out in one day is 162, which number is the record of delivery for May 21. Only on a very few days during the year has a smaller number than 200 books been given out.
The number of persons with whom we have opened new ac- counts during the past year is 2,919. We have no figures with which to compare this number in the previous year, as in that year we called upon all users of the library, to take out new cards.
In the year 1871-2, the number of new accounts opened was 2,412.
Full use of the reference department, or Green Library, has been allowed every day in the year, excepting the five legal holi- days and Memorial Day. On these days, also, books from this department have been procurable for use in the lower reading- room, upon application to the assistant in attendance there.
In the Green Library it appears that 20,550 persons have had books given them, or have helped themselves to books to be used in answering their inquiries, or to give them enjoyment. That is to say, 66 persons, on an average, have been assisted to informa- tion, or put in the way of enjoyment, or have helped themselves to information, or derived enjoyment from the use of books within the Library building, every day of the 307 secular days during which the library has been accessible during the year. 15,672 persons were reported as having received benefit or pleasure from this department during the previous library year.
Thus there has been in this, as in the three preceding years, a steady and large increase in the use of this department of the Library.
257
FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
USE ON SUNDAYS.
The number of persons who have used the reading-rooms on Sundays during the past year, is 7,179 against 5,706 in fifty-two Sundays of the previous year. Of this number, 3,810 have visit- ed and used the upper room, and 3,369 the lower. The num- bers of visitors to the two rooms respectively, in the year 1872-3, · were 2,979 and 2,727. Thus, during the last year 138 persons, upon an average, have read in one or the other of the rooms every Sunday ; the average attendance for the upper room for the whole year being 73, and for the lower room 65. The averages in the previous year were respectively, 110, 574, and 522.
The whole number of readers for the six months included be- tween the dates of December 7, 1873 and March 29, 1874, and between the dates October 4 and November 29, was 4,333, against 3,556 in the year 1872-3. That is, 167 persons used the rooms, on the average, every Sunday during the colder months, against 137 in the previous .year.
They were divided between the two rooms as follows : 86 visit- ed the upper, and 80 the lower room, on the average, every Sunday during these months.
During the remaining six months, namely : those including the Sundays from April 5 to September 27, the whole attendance was 2,846, against 2,150 in the year before. 1,568 of the visitors read in the upper room, and 1,278 in the lower. The average at- tendance during these warm months, was 60 in the upper, and 49 in the lower, or 109 in all. The Sunday showing the small- est attendance, is May 24, when only 62 used the rooms. One Sunday in 1872-3, only 46 persons visited the rooms. 245 per- sons came to the rooms November 29. This is the largest num- ber that came in one day. The largest number came March 30, in the previous year, namely : 214.
It thus appears that there has been a large increase in the use of the reading-rooms on Sundays during the year that has just closed, over the preceding year. The numbers who came on Sundays the first year were large, those that have come in the second have been larger still ; and if we may judge from the few Sundays which have already passed in the third, there will be a
34
258
CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 29.
large increase in the use made of the rooms the present year. We have thus far, however, been able to provide for all who have come. Still, it has become necessary within a few weeks, to em- ploy a second assistant to attend to the wants of visitors and look after the rooms. It is believed this will prove a require- ment in the winter months only.
The great mass of readers last year, as the year before, have sought reading of the lighter kinds, but considerable solid work has been engaged in every Sunday. Recognizing the fact that this is the people's Library, we have welcomed heartily all citi- zens, and aimed to satisfy the humblest tastes, when wholesome.
The whole number of persons supplied with books for reading or study, upon application to the officers of the Library during the year, is 1,678, against 1,143 in the previous year. This is an average of 32 persons a Sunday. The average number of per- sons supplied the year before is 22 a Sunday.
Of course it is understood that the reading furnished upon ap- plication by the officers of the Library is additional to that which readers help themselves to, from encyclopædias, dictionaries, pa- pers, reviews and magazines.
The rooms have been open Sundays, during the last, as in the previous year, from 2 o'clock in the afternoon to 9 in the evening.
ACCOUNT.
SAMUEL S. GREEN, Librarian, in account with the Directors of the FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY for the year beginning December 1, 1873, and ending November 30, 1874 :-
DR.
To balance, December 1, 1873,
$175 91
" Fines collected during the year,
390 22
" Amount received from sale of catalogues during the year,
142 05
" Rent of School-room,
60 00
$768 18
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FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY.
CR.
By library service,
$606 40
" Sundry expenditures,
34 35
" Balance to new account,
127 43
$768 18
Dec. 8, 1874. The above account of the Librarian has been examined by me and found correct.
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