There remain unsearched and uncatalogued in the Astor Building about 500 single volumes, 500 pamphlet volumes, and 34,000 pamphlets.

At the Lenox Building the cataloguing of the following topics was taken up and finished: French, Italian, Spanish, German, and Classical Literatures; Church History; Folk-lore. There remain to be catalogued here the De Bry collection, the Bible collection, and Religion.

The number of periodicals indexed is 1,314 (1,291 at Astor, 23 at Lenox); in addition 37 periodicals are indexed for the American Library Association co-operative work. The total number of cards written for the New York Public Library indexing was 19, 208; the total number of titles written for co-operative indexing 748, two printed cards being received for each title; and the total number of index cards added to the catalogue was 14,927.

Revision of subject headings has continued, the following subjects, with their related headings, having been finished: Africa; Steam Engines, Locomotives, etc.; Land and Agriculture; Canals, Transportation, Rivers, Shipping, Roads, etc.; Freemasonry and Secret Societies.

PERIODICAL DEPARTMENT.

The total number of readers of current periodicals in the periodical department during the fiscal year was 25,466, being a daily average of 82. In addition to the journals contained on the open reference shelves, 225,043 numbers of current periodicals were called for, being a daily average of 725. The total number of periodicals received at this date is 4,917, of which 3,687 are by purchase, 1,048 are gifts, and 182 exchanges for the BULLETIN. 685 of this total are annual publications received by purchase. In addition to these the Library receives annual publications by gift, 6,063, and by BULLETIN exchange 280. The average of separate numbers of periodicals (excluding annuals) received daily is 298, the total number for the year being 92,976. This includes 64 daily papers, 638 weeklies, 173 semi-monthlies, 1,346 monthlies, 180 bi-monthlies, 561 quarterlies, 73 semi-annuals, and 1,030 of irregular period of publication. In addition, 1,060 document serials (500 foreign and 560 domestic) are included in the report of pieces received in the document department. In exchange for the BULLETIN the Library receives a total of 462 periodicals, an increase of 67 for the year; of these 185 are American annual publications and 95 foreign annuals, and 182 American and foreign periodicals of greater frequence of publication than annually. A table (II) is appended giving the statistics of periodicals received by countries. 2,048 volumes of old periodicals were added to the Library during the year, completing important files.

During the year there were received of public documents, 10,721 volumes, 7, 301 pamphlets, and 26,106 pieces of serials; there were catalogued 10,887 volumes and 6,920 pamphlets, for which were written 14,960 cards and 4,993 slips for the copying machine.

During the year the Department has prepared the following lists: American Federal, State and Municipal Financial Documents in the Library; "Materials for a Bibliography of New York Colonial Documents, 16931775," and a check-list showing the condition of the files of Legislative Proceedings in the Library.

Work on the index relating to United States Foreign Affairs is nearing completion. The work of rearranging by subject a duplicate set of separate United States Congressional Documents has been continued. During the year such documents relating to Public Lands have been collected and bound into about 30 volumes. Each volume has been fitted with a manuscript title-page and table of contents, and the whole has been indexed.

Among important receipts by the Department may be noted a file of Proceedings of Italian Provincial Councils covering the period of 18601902, numbering 963 volumes; Canadian Ordinances of 1767-1787, and the Journals of Proceedings of the following American State Constitutional Conventions: Indiana, 1816; Michigan, 1850; Mississippi, 1817 (reprint), and 1832; Pennsylvania, 1837-8; Tennessee, 1834.

about 100.

ORIENTAL DEPARTMENT.

Accessions during the year bring the total number of pieces in the Semitic Section to about 14,000, the great majority being the gift of Mr. Jacob H. Schiff. The number of readers daily is about 25, the volumes used The Department prepared for the July Bulletin a “List of Jewish Periodicals," for the January issue a “List of Anti-Semitic and of Jewish-Christian (conversionist) Periodicals," and contributed to the list of almanacks and works relating to the calendar. Important additions were made to the periodicals in the shape of a file of "Il corriere Israelitico," covering the years 1862-1902, of " Mosè " for 1878-1885, of "Allgemeine Zeitung des Judenthums" for 1837-1892.

Other accessions bring the total in the Arabic, Persian, etc., section to 7,600 volumes. The most important additions were twenty-seven volumes of Turkish annals, the work of the contemporary official historiographer of each sultan, and about thirty volumes of modern Arabic printed and lithographed works of general character, history, poetry, etc.

The accessions amounted to 1,472 volumes, bringing the total in the department to 6,193 volumes. The number of volumes and pamphlets catalogued was 1,067, for which 1,824 cards were written, the catalogue of the department now containing 8,320 cards. The number of readers averaged 281 per month.

PRINT DEPARTMENT.

The number of prints accessioned during the year was 6,787. The print room was visited by 915 persons for the purpose of consulting prints; the visitors to the picture galleries numbered 27, 164, of whom 7,608 examined the prints in the exhibition cases. 21 volumes were sent to the general reading room for the use of readers, 34 cards and 138 slips were written, and 20 cards schapirographed.

EXHIBITIONS.

Exhibitions at the Lenox Building were as follows: July to September, "Victor Hugo and Rossetti"; October to January 19, "American Wood Engravings"; January 20 to April 19, "Millet, Rousseau, Daubigny "; April 20 to June 30, "Arundel Society Color Prints of Italian and German Art in the 14th-16th Centuries." The exhibition from the Charles Stewart Smith Collection of Japanese Prints has been changed occasionally.

In the lower hall at the Lenox Building the plates from Migeon's Paris Exhibition of 1900 were succeeded on February 21 by a selection of World Maps covering the period previous to A.D. 1600; this in turn was succeeded on May 23 by an exhibition of books, manuscripts, engravings and maps relating to New York city under Dutch rule, opened in connection with the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the municipality as a city.

At the Astor Building, the exhibitions were: July to September, "Das Interieur" and Molinier's "Royal Interiors; " October to November, "Victor Hugo;" December to January, "Dresden Gallery Reproductions;" February to March, plates from Julius Hoffmann's "Der Moderne Stil" and "Der Kunstschatz;" and April to June, "Rudolf Kann Collection." There were also on exhibition, from July to October, Chinese prints of the Boxer uprising.

BULLETIN.

Volume VI of the Bulletin, for 1902, contained 524 pages, an increase of 34 pages over 1901. Of the check lists printed between July, 1902, and June, 1903, worthy of special note are: "Jewish Periodicals;" "Works

in the Library relating to the American Colonization Society;" "Literary Annuals, etc." (July); "American Federal, State, Municipal Financial Documents" (August); "Electricity" (November-January); "Publications of the General Assembly of New York between 1693 and 1775 (February-April); "Works on Sport and Shooting" (May-June). The issue of September contained important letters and other papers relating to India in 1750-1767; three essays on the "Reading of School Teachers," written by librarians in the Circulation Department, were printed in the February issue; the March number included an interesting letter from Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe on his imprisonment in Berlin in 1832, that for April contained Henry Clay's "Alabama Letter" of 1844, and that for June a letter from Peter Dobell on the "Massacre at Manila in 1820." Other numbers contained letters by James Monroe, Arthur Campbell, and others.

EXCHANGES.

During the year there were received by the Library on exchange account 1,394 volumes and 20,687 pamphlets, and there were sent out duplicates in exchange to the number of 6,849 volumes and 27,707 pamphlets. In exchange for the Bulletin there were received 142 American and 40 foreign periodicals (total 182), and in addition 185 American and 95 foreign (total 280) annual publications and 44 separate volumes. The most important accession by exchange was a volume of the Pennsylvania Gazette covering the period 1736-1739, which enabled the Library practically to complete its file.

IMPORTANT GIFTS.

The Executors of the late Samuel J. Tilden presented the Library with a large number of manuscripts and documents belonging to Mr. Tilden. Mr. Avery has continued his gifts of prints and of books of a general nature; Mr. Cadwalader has made extensive additions to the collection of Sports. Mr. Maitland has added to his gifts of Americana.

Mr. Schiff has added $10,000 to the "Jacob H. Schiff fund for the purchase of Semitic Literature."

Mrs. Draper has given important collections of Almanacks and has continued her gifts in other lines.

Mr. Archer M. Huntington has continued his gifts of facsimile reprints of early Spanish Literature.

Miss Georgina Schuyler has given a collection of several thousand letters relating to Pierre Toussaint.

Gifts have also been made by the Rev. D. Stuart Dodge, Mrs. Simon Sterne and Mr. H. W. Clinton.

Extensive gifts have been received from the American Agriculturist, the American Bible Society, the Century Association, the Long Island Historical Society, the Methodist Library through the Rev. Dr. J. C. Thomas, the New York Board of Trade and Transportation, Messrs. H. V. and H. W. Poor, the Publisher's Weekly, and the Railroad Gazette. Cooper Union has continued its gift of broken files of daily Newspapers. Valuable reports have been received from the Railroad Gazette, from the Mayor of the City of Riga, from the Commission de la Belgica and from Hon. W. P. Letchworth.

Mr. George H. Boughton gave a bronze medallion portrait of Robert Browning and a series of photographs and engravings from his own works.

The Dresden Koenigliche Oeffentliche Bibliothek gave two more volumes of "Die Dresdener Bilderhandschrift des Sachsenspiegels, Facsimile Ausgabe in Lichtdruck and Farbendruck herausgegeben von Karl von Amira."

Mr. Frederick Keppel added to the collection illustrating the history of American Etching, and Mr. Howard Mansfield also presented etchings.

CIRCULATING LIBRARIES.

The year just passed has been marked by the consolidation with the New York Public Library of two formerly independent library organizations "The Aguilar Free Library," on February 24, 1903, with four branches, and "The New York Free Circulating Library for the Blind," on February 21, 1903. The former brought a collection of 87,790 books and a three-story building on East 110th street; the latter added 1,649 volumes and 492 pieces of music for the blind in several varieties of type, chiefly the Moon and the New York point. The absorption of both has taken place with few changes, the working staffs being taken over bodily. Such few alterations in methods as are necessary for uniformity are being made slowly, and at some branches will not be entirely finished until their removal to Carnegie buildings.

Of the eighteen branch libraries now included in the Department, eight occupy their own buildings, nine are in rented quarters, and one, the Library for the Blind, has quarters rent free in the parish house of St. Agnes Chapel. The new buildings and new branches are badly needed.

CARNEGIE LIBRARY BUILDINGS.

At the end of a second year since the execution of the contract with the City relative to the gift of Mr. Andrew Carnegie for library buildings, the