Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1884-05-30
UNCLE SANS MANY BOOKS.


The movement to have a separate
building put up in Washington for the
exclusive use of the Congressional Ii
brary-which is then to be called the
National Library lis gaining strength
each year among the congressman, and
the authorization of the construction
of the building is only question of
time. A correspondent of the Louis
ollie CouTier-Jour110L gives some inter
esting facts about the condition of its
present collection:
The present library, including the
law library, has shelf-room for only
100000 volumes. But it is not only
because it is insufficient to accommo-
date the books, but because the space
now given to them is imperatively
needed by both houses of congress for
committee-rooms, that many congress
men formerly opposed to letting the
collection go outside the capitol, now
favor the plan for separate struc-
ture Seventy thousand books could
be left in the center of the present Ii
brary where there is shelf-room for
that number, and the two wings, each
of which is four stories in height,
could be converted into between fif-
teen and twenty committee-rooms of
ample size for the purpose.
There were in 1880 twelve libraries
in Europe outnumbering the library of
congress in the books upon its shelves.
yet the growth of our national library
has been so rapid as to have twice
doubled the numerical extent of the
collection in fifteen years. The Boston
public library alone among American
collections approximates it in size, and
even little exceeds it, if we count the
books contained in its branches in the
suburbs of Boston, which, however, are
duplicates of the parent collection. 1t
may be said of the library of congress
that in the main its stores have been
selected with view to the highest
utility, and with some general unity
of plan.
In addition to the books it is deem
ed necessary to purchase annually, and
those which, come to the library through
the exchange system Of the Smithso-
MAN Institution, the average number
of copyright is not far from $4,000 per
annnm, yielding revenue in copy
right fees of $4,000 As two copies
of each publication are required to be
deposited in the library as condition
of perfecting copyright, the annual re-
ceipts under this head amount to Al
600 articles. OF this large number, of
course one-half are duplicates, while
very large share are not books, but
musical compositions, engravings,
chromos, photographs, prints, maps,
dramatic compositions and periodicals
BY the constant deposit of copyright
engravings, photographs, wood-cuts,
chromos and other objects of art, the
library must in time accumulate a
large and attractive gallery of the fine
arts, richly worthy of attention as
representing the condition and prog
ress of the arts of design at different
periods in the United States.
Readers and publishers of newspa-
pers will be interested to know that
the National Library possesses over
5000 volumes of bound newspapers,
among which are some of the rarest
and mostimportant files, both of the
old and the new world. 1t has among
others a complete set of the London
Gazette (semi-weekly), from the first
issue of that official journal in 1865 to
the present year-the only set in the
United States. The London Daslg
Times is complete from 1896 to date.
The MoniteuT Unipersel. so long the Of
fetal journal of France, is without
break from its official number in 1898
to the time of the French Republic.
1901, when it was succeeded by the
Journal 06fciel. The Journal des
Debats is also complete from the FIRST in
1889 to date, and still continued. In