Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-09-11
Report Of Prog,iissssI in Removal By
the Chi6f Assistant.
mr.. sPorroRD'S INTERESTING DATA
System byWhdh Boo's'Have'Been
and viii BgpTansferned.
RESULTS OF WORK TO DATE

:,
Chief Assistant Librarian Spofford has
removal, from, August . to, September 2,
giving all the, details and. facts. of the
transferring of thef books between those
dates. s..e
All OF the periodicals comprised in the
| department of which Mr.. Slanson is SUI
perintendent and all Of the musical works
In, the department oyer which Mr.. Whit
tlesey has, control hava been moved. ,an6
It Is considered that. great credit is due
those gentlemen for the efforts they put
forth to further the. work. Mr., Spofford
commends mis- assistant. Mr.. Hutcheson,
in the highest terms In his report;
He states, that the library rooms were
! closed to the public August 3, Large num-
ters of books and other publications stored
in the crypts- of the. Capitol chiefly for
eign documents. had been removed teforc
that time and stored in the south base
ment room of the new library building.
These numbered about 100000 volumes.
About 10000 volumes comprised. in the
Toner library had also been removed.
These were placed temporarily in the north
room. library fioor. adjoining the northeast
pavilion, where they are to be shelved.
The System Adopted
Immediately the labor Of preparing all
departments of the library for removal
was UcBuu III h HlOSl systematic manner.
The first steps taken by Mr. Spofford were
to organize methods which would identify
and classify at. sight all the volumes in the
collection belonging to the various divisions
1t was found necessary to prepare labels
for the backs Of the books, che says, show
ing by figures netr only the subject or
division to which they belonged. but desig-
mating also the particular floor or deck
These decks are in the stack rooms in
which they are to be classified. 1t was
also found necessary to distinguish the
contents of each shelf in the old library
by large colofed card, Indicating. its new
destination to a shelf In definite stack.
This was done so each shelf full of books
could go over In a separate box and could
be ticketed SO as to reach it's proper place
The UnsheISed Books.
In addition to this. removal preparations
included selecting and RELOCATING to their
proper divisions of unshelved books in the
old library. These had accumulated for
more than fifteen years, on the floor, on
account Of there being no shelf room
Mr., Hutchinson. and his two assistants
John G. Morrison and Hugh A, Morrison,
had charge of this swork. Their long serv-
ice in the library Nra Spofforh says, en-
abled. them to perform accurately and
rapidly what probably nceuld have been
/ done by no one else. The services of two
|, laborers. who lifted and carried. the hooks,
were supplied by Superintendent Green of
thednew library buiadnso 3 SIR tdrf,o~t
Mr.. Sp0nord personaligrerganizedsa and di.
rectsd the work sof preparing the book
| labels and the placing nf them upon the
hacks of the volumes in every. division and
every subdivision He vas constantly em-
ployed with all the InatSeps connected, with
the removal, besides attending to- other
matters connected will fhe library There
We're employed in, writing the labels Mrs.
c. NJ. Hillyard. Miss Anita Stevens, Mrs.
Aaron IS HaediDg' 5aads1ajiss. Anna Israel.
Those, employed in fhxinsrthe labels for the
/ IC<>t- A n
LeRoya letters Aiiss9n tanase1Ei September; II,
G.. A. Townsend in, Edw win A. Lee, Law
renee Washington and Robert Carson, The
last two were employed only since, Sep
to the periodical division September l. The
average number of labels per day written
by each was about 5000. The average
number OF TyOlnmes labeled by each person
engaged in that work wasa from 800 to
2.O0O day. i-s-a-... ss.s
et,t-.r,c The Results Achieved. .srs'' ar
/ TEbe following figures are giyen,aska res
s4'soef the swork hitherto pepfd<med auethe
ramAya lts tASse1e1gaged Having, been en-
pioyed from fifteen to twenty-six days Sun
| days 'ae1clHdedf Number ofrf1,eE5k AFH4y
| written, 2AlOO0II number of volumes labeled,
600; number of volumes removed in the
divisions or chapters labeled, 13000Ui" Tn
addition, there were removed and stored in
the library building more than 100000 vol
umes of duplicates. foreign documents and
uifoouno pupHcatlons. None OF these classes
required labelling. The classes then re-
moved, called chapters In the libra ~
were chapters to AZ inclusive These in
Guided all the books on natural history
mathematics. astronomy, chemistry, phys
les. medical science, technical arts poetry
fine arts, architecture theology and ecclesi-
astical histories, correspondence and mis-
eeianeous. embracing twenty-five out of
the forty-four grand divisions distributed
in the library.
TIC be removed there remain chapters i
to n, inclusive. Chapters Is to 3d. inclu-
sive. constituting the law library. will not
De removed. The others, embracing biog-
raphy. genealogy, history. heraldry, inter-
national law, political science mental and
moral science. philology. photography, so
ciology. geography, fiction, pelygraphy and
others. are being prepared for removal Mr.
Spofford gave as hfs-opiHion at the time
the report was written that the labelling
with some exceptions can be completed in
about three. weeks, with the present force
employed. The arrangement classification
and labelling. or ticketing' he stated also
at the time he made his report for the re-
moval of the remaining division under Mr.
Hutchesons charge. would probably re-
quire about the same time. He estimated
that the entire collection would be Installed
in the new building by. September 80
Date of Opening.
Mr.. Spofford states In the report that it
will not be- safe to attempt to open the
reading room to the public for the present
He suggests that considerable additional
labor be devoted to a thorough arrange
ment of each division and subdivision OF
the library in its new quarters New
shelves, he says, require new shelf num-
bering. While a part of the library re-
mains shelved In ainhabetieal order. he
thinks that shelf system of numbering
and marking the labels already on the
books Is greatly needed in the new build
ing This will be the work of the experts
now in n, the library. Yith that Of those yet
to be selected. SO thai books can be prompt
ly supplied to readers from all DEPART
ments and returnsd' 4 properly to their
places each day. TT 20 Es.sss
He cannot fstimaterYet how long this
preparation VIII take, until the expert force
has been engaged a sufficient number of
days so that a deaaiteo estimate for each
day can be made. IhhhHfe arrangement of
the Boston Public Library this took a full
year. though part efatAA place was open
to the public within1about seven weeks of
the closing time He states that until the
formal opening takes nlRce all of the ex-
perts will be devoted Aonclassitication and
shelf marking. Onne, however. they are
at the service Of tho public. there will be
no possibility of carrying on the arrange
ment of the books nm ,sheir many subdi-
visions simultaneously, with n greatly re-
fOrrQ IL pvf Hhof y 90 ~