Morning journal and courier., 1883-10-04

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 The free library question received an ami mated and interested discussion. Below is given the presidents report. The election for directors resulted as follows: Messrs
 Henry E. Pardee, c. c. Blatchley, J. Parker ir, T. A. Barnes, F. B. Farnsworth, A. Heaton Robertson.
 PRESIDENT BARNEs' REPORT.
 Members of the Institute-I have the honor to submit herewith my annual reporb for the year ending September 30, 1883, be- ing the 57th year of the institute and the fifth since the occupation of our present quarters.
 1sDuring the year just closed there have been 317 annual and 261 semi-annual and quarter Iy members, slight gain in the number of annual memberships and falling of in the otEers. The receipts from memberships and other sources have been as follows:
 From membership, annual, semt-annuaI From rentals and fines. es.................. 198 10 From life memberships. 100 % From advertising in book list and other sourcss --..--.-..---.-...-.. 2o5 40 Total income of the S, ,1s7 7S Which with the exception of last year when special effort was made to raise funds to pay our debt is the largest since the occupation of this building.
 
 ing the year 509 volumes, Of which 462 were purchased at an expense of $695. .27, and AT were added by gift from F donors, ,and while the total additions have been less than the previous year the number of volumes dona- ted has been doubled; the largest number of volumes from any one person being from Hon. O. H. Platt, Meriden.
 In the reading room our tables have been supplied with 21 dailies, 19 weeklies and 30 monthlies and reviews, of which dailies, 4 weeklies and monthlies have been furnished free of charge to the Institute, 8 portion rest by other friends. In addition dupH- cate copies of a few magazines have been taken and bound in temporary covers have circulated as bound books.
 Last year had the pleasure of acknowl- edging the gift of one hundred dollars from friend of the Institute to be used,in aiding to membership in the Institute persons una- ble to pay the full cost of the same. Thisyear it gives me great pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of the same sum from the same person for the same purpose. The money was used as last year in aiding scholars in our public schools, and cannot but think that the help thus extended will be of great benefit to the scholars aided. and I wish that others of our citizens might be moved to emulate this generous example. In January last your directors requested the trustees to retain all income from the
 building exceeding $1O0 per month for the purpose of accommodating fund that can be used for enlarging our rooms when the same becomes necessary. Under this vote the trus- tees have already accumulated over 8 ,O0O, which amount is being increased at the rate of about $1, ,000 per annum, so that when it shall be deemed advisable, additional room can be provided without mourning any debt for the purpose and without stopping the in come for the purchase of books and papers
 AL ~G I>,-SV
 ing it has been increasingly evident to your directors that there was necessity for some sort of catalogue of the books in the i- brary, by consulting which members could ascertain for themselves what books the Institute possesses on any given but up to this year the directors have seen no time when the funds in the treasury would warrant the undertaking of such 8 work the cost of which would be consider able. Fortunately, in the absence of such g catalogue, our members have been able to avail themselves of our librarians knowledge of the books, which is so complete and thorough that think but very few sought have gone away without the information if it was to be found in the library, and thus have not felt the need of 8 catalogue as much as must otherwise have been the case. In February last, sufficient funds having &C., cumulated to warrant a beginning, the com. h the hopeaof being able to print at least part if not the whole of t.At the same time it was decided to reelassify the library, 8 great ad- vance in the science of classification having been made since the classification now in use was adopted. The system recommended by the committee having the matter in charge, and adopted by your directors, is what is system devised by MelviI Dui (now chief librarian at Columbia col lege, N. Y..) when librarian at Amherst college in 1873, and one that has been put in practice in quite number of libraries both large and small throughout the country and found to give excellent satisfaction wherever tried. The system in brief is as follows: The library is first divided into nine special or sub libraries numbered from one to nine and called classes; thus class nine is the library of history, class three the library of sociology. class eight the libra ry of literature. These classes are then considered independently and divided again into nine divisions of the main subject and numbered from one to nine, as were the classes. Thus, ninety four is the fourth division (Europe) of the ninth class, history; eighty-two is the sec- end division (English) of the eighth class, literature. final division is then made by separating each of these divisions into nine sections, numbered as were the others from one to nine. Thus, five hundred and thir- teen is the third section (geometry) of the first division, (mathematics) of the fifth class (naturel science), This number giving class, division and section, called the classif- cation or class number,i is applied to all books in the library. All geometries are thus numbered five hundred and thirteen, all books of English poetry eight hundred and twenty one, and so on through the whole library.
 Then the books in each class are numbered 1, ?, 3, etc.; thus the 1st geometry would be numbered 513.1, the 2nd 513.2 and so on, the last number showing how many books the library has on that subject.
 In English romance or fiction class 823, the class with which the work commenced and the only class that has as yet been catalogu- ed, modification of the system was made by the adoption of the latter system of au- thor numbers, @ very ingenious arrangement devised by MT. c. A. Cutler, librarian of the Boston Atheneum, whereby it is possible to bring all the works of one author together on the shelves, no matter at how many different dates they may have come into the library or how many volumes may have come between them. This is made possible by combining letters and figures on decimal system, and by means of table giving each author dis tinctive number, which always begins with the initial letter of his name. Dickens novels for instance are numbered, D. 55, that being the Dickens author number, the D indicating their place in the alphabet and the 55 their
 
 given a volume number l, 5, 2, or whatever it may be, showing it's location amongst Dickens works. Should at any time books come into the library written by some other Dickens, another figure would be added to the 55, and they would be num- bered D 551, and as these numbers are con- sidered and treated as decimals, these books would be located between those numbered D. 55 and D. 56, thus falling naturally into their proper location, not only in the alphabet, but also in the particular section allotted to the D's.
 So far as my information extends our patrons have been pleased with the working of the system as far as it has been intro. duced, and trust that during the coming year our receipts will be sufficient to com pIete the work.
 During the past two or three months spe- ciaI committee of the Court of Common Council have been considering the advisabil- ity of establishing free public library, and your directors believing that should such 8 library be organized the Institute should be joined with it, provided it could be done in a way not to interfere or violate the trusts under which the funds are held, and at the same time be fair to the city. A committee was appointed to consider the