Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-08-01
THE LIBRARY.
Regular Weekly Meeting OF tn
BOARD of Directors.

neR Nethty Mccbhhk Oh thC
Hoard of Directors.
The Board of Directors of the Public
Library held its weekly meeting yester-
day in the new City Hall, President
Dobinson, Messrs. Howard, Davies and
Jones, Directors, and Miss Kelso, the
Librarian, being present.
Applications from Miss Clara S. Brown,
of Los Angeles, and Miss Mary G. Har-
baugh, of Alameda, for the position oi
Assistant Librarian, were read and placed
on file.
Bills for the month of July were ap.
proved and ordered paid.
| The following report on the number Of
books and their classification was sub
mitted by the Librarian:
"The circulation department of the Ii.
brary has been closed during the past
month, and during that time the whole
working force of the library has been en-
gagged in making shelf catalogues, classi.
| flying and numbering the books according
to the Dewey decimal classification. As
result of that classification l find we
have the following meagre array of books
under their several heads: Geographical
periodicals, 214; philosophy, 81 religion,
260; sociology, 210; philology, 80 natural
science, 1873; useful arts, so; fine arts,
5S; literature, 500; history, including
geography, travels and biography, S60
To this may be added of fiction and ju.
venile, 900, making an aggregate of ,00C
volumes.
ITO form an idea, however, of the use
fulness of the library as it now exists,
it is but necessary to investigate the de.
tails of any one class. In sociology the
210 books are to be divided into nine
principal heads, of which one is educa-
tion-under this head it has been found
necessary, in order to meet the require.
ments of growing city library, to pro-
vide no less than 165 sub-heads-to
cover this ground we have under the
head Education % books, six of which
bear a date of publication later than
1870.
1t is in the class of natural science
that We find the best representation OF
the library's lack of utility. In this class
| We find that the astronomers number ie
| $40 and that it has 450 printed sub.
heads, with capacity for as many more
if necessary. Having such a telescope
as the one at the Lick Observatory and
the interest and energy devoted to the
| idea of placing one on Wilson Peak, one
would imagine our reading public would
have created quite department on as.
tronomy. A visit to the shelves of that
class reveals eight books, but two oi
hich, small hand books, are of recent
| date.
Under this same class we find ply
sizes, which includes gases, hydraulics,
pneumatics, acoustics, light, optic, heat
electricity, magnetism, sound, etc., each
with their subsections, and we find four
teen obsolete books to cover the ground.
Under mineralogy We find one book
on botany, six; on agriculture in general
twenty-five; but two of which answer for
the peculiar needs of this country,
In biography of the twenty-three Pres
idents of the United States we have in
all twenty y-nine books; of these eight are
lives of Lincoln, six of Washington and
five of Grant, leaving ten to be divided
among the remaining Presidents. 1t is
needless to multiply instances since the
above illustrates the condition in all the
classes.
To provide space for future accessions
has been one of the serious considera-
tions; to leave room on the shelves in
the proper proportion and space in the
numbering system.
The work has but fairly begun; to get
the library into smooth working order
will be the work of months, but once &C.
complished i. will permit of indefinite
expansion without retracing.
JESSIE L. KELso. Librarian.