Important gifts were received during September as follows: From S. P. Avery, 9 volumes of prints and 4 pamphlets, worthy of special mention, being "Les deux cents incunables xylographiques du Départment des Estampes de la Bibliothèque Nationale," par Henri Bouchot (Paris, 1903), text, and atlas, a valuable record of the oldest monuments of wood engraving; "Cent Chefs-d'œuvre des collections parisiennes," par Albert Wolff (Paris, 1883), one of the twenty

five copies with vellum proofs of the etchings; "Album du Départment du Loiret," par C. F. Vergnaud-Romagnesi (Orleans, 1827), illustrated with lithographs by Senefelder et Cie. (Paris, 1825), and of unusual interest in the history of the art; "Sketches After English Landscape Painters, by L. Marvy (London, about 1850); "Études d'enfants," by Gavarni (Paris. 1834); "Sketches at Home and Abroad," by Samuel Prout; "Suite D'Animaux: Sujets tirés des Fables de Lafontaine, Dessiné et Lithographié par Newton Fielding" (Paris, 1829).

From Stuyvesant Fish was received the souvenir volume of the fiftieth anniversary of the Illinois Central Railroad Company; from the Holyoke Water Power Co., 20 volumes, being its case as petitioner vs. the city of Holyoke before the commissioners appointed by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Apr. 5, 1899-Nov. 18, 1902; from the Under Secretary of State for India, some 800 pieces of the series entitled "Selections from the Records of the Indian Government, the earliest number of this series being issued in 1853-a collection extremely varied in character, including philological monographs, historical and statistical reports on early surveys, irrigation works, Indian castes, the first census reports and administration reports of various departments; from the Burgomaster of Mons, 39 volumes, statistical and other documents of the City; from the United States Superintendent of Documents, among other publications, a copy of Heitman's "Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army from its organization, 1787-1903"; and from Benjamin W. Wells, 96 volumes and I pamphlet, a collection of the works of modern French writers.

The exhibition of the Arundel Society color prints at the Lenox Branch and of the Japanese prints has been continued during the summer months, as was the exhibition of plates from "Der Moderne Stil," in the stands at the Astor.

At the Circulation branches the picture bulletins were as follows: EAST BROADWAY, Famous men and women born in September. New York history, Scenes from. Bronx Park, Eugene Field, Phoebe Cary, Illustrations from children's books; AVENUE C, Famous men and women born in September, Eugene Field, Phoebe Cary, September, New books; OTTENDORFER, Grapes, Cotton, Autumn fruits, Current events, Parsifal; JACKSON SQUARE, School and college life, New books; GEORGE BRUCE, Japan; FIFTY-NINTH STREET, Statues and monuments in New York City, Turkey and Greece; ST. AGNES, 3 Lists of authors; BLOOMINGDALE, Political novels; AGUILAR, Famous men and women born in September, Theodore Roosevelt, London, Views in the Bronx, Eugene Field, Phoebe Cary, James F. Cooper, September, Historical fiction for boys, Illustrations from children's books, Brave Little Holland, Books for boys and girls; HARLEM, Autumn.

I have the honor to submit the following report of the work of this Library for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1903:

The death of William Allen Butler, a trustee of the Lenox Library, and of The New York Public Library since 1892, caused a second vacancy in the Board of Trustees on September 9th, 1902. On November 12th the Board elected Hon. Samuel Greenbaum and Hon. Morgan J. O'Brien as members of the Board of Trustees.

On December 12th, 1903, the Library lost an old employé in Frederick Saunders, librarian at the Astor Library from September, 1859, to December 30th, 1896, when he was retired at the age of 88.

The Board of Trustees adopted a new seal for the corporation on February 11th, 1903.

Mark Ash, Esq., and Dr. Henry M. Leipziger, formerly trustees of the Aguilar Free Library, were added to the Committee on Circulation by election of the Board on March 11th, 1903.

The year is marked by the consolidation of The Aguilar Free Library and the New York Free Circulating Library for the Blind into The New York Public Library, by progress in constructing buildings for branch circulating libraries from the gift of Andrew Carnegie, Esq., and by the laying of the corner stone of the central library building at Bryant Park.

REFERENCE LIBRARIES.

NEW BUILDING.

The corner stone of the new building in Bryant Park was laid on Monday, November 10th, 1902, under the direction of Hon. William R. Willcox, President of the Department of Parks, in the presence of one thousand invited guests, and others. The exercises consisted of an invocation by Rev. Dr. W. R. Huntington of Grace Church, an address by Hon. John Bigelow, President of The New York Public Library, which was followed by the laying of the corner stone with an address by Hon. Seth Low, Mayor of the City of New York, and finally a benediction by Most

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Reverend John M. Farley, Archbishop of the Diocese of New York. The corner stone bore the following inscription:

"MDMCII."

In the corner stone were deposited a number of documents, a list of which appeared in the BULLETIN of December, 1902.

Messrs. Carrère and Hastings, the architects for the building, provided a silver and ivory trowel, suitably engraved, which was presented to the Mayor.

The work on the new building has progressed somewhat, although it has been very greatly delayed because of the labor troubles which have continued incessantly throughout the year. The foundation work is practically complete. Brick work is finished to the first floor and marble is being laid in several tiers.

READERS' DEPARTMENT.

During the year the number of readers and visitors that visited the two reference library buildings was 169,673, the Astor having received 115,114 and the Lenox 54,559. This is an increase of about 4,662 readers over the previous year, the increase being 3,915 at the Astor branch and 747 at the Lenox. The daily average of readers was 548, or 372 at the Astor and 176 at the Lenox. The largest in any one month was in March and the smallest in July, as has been the case in previous years.

The total number of volumes and periodicals issued to readers in both buildings during the twelve months, not including the use made of the open reference shelves, was 439,465, an increase of 27,582, or 6 per cent. over that of the preceding year. Of the 368,971 volumes called for at the Astor, the largest number, 58,666, or about 16 per cent., belonged to English and American Literature; 50,496, or 13.6 per cent., belonged to Law, Economics, Sociology and Education; 46,371, or 12.8 per cent. belonged to Applied Science; 39,891, or 10.8 per cent., belonged to Religion and Philosophy, etc. The total number of volumes given out at the Lenox Building was 70,494, of which 39,521 (or 56 per cent.) related to Genealogy and Local History, and 5,081 (or 7.2 per cent.) to Music. Table I. appended shows in detail by months the statistics of readers and the character of the books called for at the Astor and Lenox Buildings.

SHELF DEPARTMENT.

During the fiscal year the number of volumes received, entered on the accession catalogue and placed on the shelves, was 31, 325, of which 16,682 were purchases or duplicate exchanges and 14,643 gifts. The number.

of pamphlets accessioned during the same period was 17,935, of which 4,178 were purchases or duplicate exchanges, and 13,757 gifts.

The number of volumes and of pamphlets actually received during the year was: 28,976 volumes, of which 12,219 were purchases, 15, 278 were gifts, 85 bulletin exchanges, and 1,394 duplicate exchanges; and 72,761 pamphlets, of which 5,032 were purchases, 46,803 were gifts, 239 bulletin exchanges and 20,687 duplicate exchanges. During the year 6,849 volumes and 27,077 pamphlets, duplicates, were sent out in exchange.

The total number of volumes on the shelves and available for use at the end of June, 1903, was 602,406, and of pamphlets, 224, 622. These, with the 321,945 volumes in the Circulation Department, give a total of 1,148,973 available for readers.

20,864 volumes and 5,161 pamphlets were reclassified, the following being the main groups treated: General Religion, Theology, Ecclesiastical History, Bibliography, Architecture, European Geography, German Literature, Canadian History, Sport, Animal Magnetism, Phrenology, and Physiognomy.

There were bound for the Library 5,828 volumes, including 618 volumes repaired outside for the Library, and not including about 1,000 volumes bound abroad before importation; the Library bindery repaired 1,509 volumes, mounted 98 maps and photographs. 7,019 volumes were tied in manila paper, and 7,979 volumes were lettered and labelled; 1,568 pamphlets were stapled or sewed to hold stiff covers. New shelving was added to the amount of 1,651 feet.

CATALOGUE DEPARTMENT.

During the year there were catalogued 52,338 volumes and 35,893 pamphlets, for which purpose were written 126,370 cards; in addition 33,440 slips were written for, and 178,056 cards received from the copying machine. At the end of June, 1903, the index catalogue contained about 778,105 cards. The separate catalogues contain cards as follows: General (official), 269,240; Documents, 138, 720; Serials, 43,040; Reports, 19,900; Railroads, 7,570; Hebrew, 30,800; Oriental, 8,670; Russian, 7,780.

The card catalogues in the two reading rooms at the Lenox Building contained 230, 800 cards (138,960 in the general reading room, 52,000 in the Music catalogue, and 39,840 in the catalogue of Genealogies and Local Histories); in addition to the above, the catalogue of Manuscripts contains 36,200 cards, of Maps, 26, 240 cards, of Americana, 12,640, of Incunabula, 14,320, of Prints, 15,600; various other groups at Lenox bring the total up to 350,631.