Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-11-22
THE SILAS BRONSON LIBRARY.

s and moral culture do hereby bequeath the of $2OO0OO, the to be employed and expended in the establishment of library for the common use of all the inla bitants of said city
 That the educational purpose of the founder has lain upon the conscience of the executors, may be from the tenor of the annual reports. There have been concessions always to the demand for recreative reading but along with this adaptaby Of temper the policy of building up noble collection of for culture been steadily pursued, that the Bronson library only nota ble the third largest library in Connecticut, but is honoraby dis tinguished for the variety and value of it's special collections.
 The first selections of 5000 volumes made by Dr W. F. Poole widely known as one of the most practical and scholarly librarians ir the country. Tn succeeding years. under the direction of H. F. Bassett large number of works relating to natural history and science acquired. In local history and geneaogy, in works of art. in books richly bound, finely illustrated the library is exceiled by no other of it's class The latest report of the librarian estimates the number of volumes at 6o, PTS excluding duplicates. and about 10000 pamph- lets. many which of great value
 Besides the books. the building contains fine col lection geological specimens and minerals, ob- tafned through the public spirit of Cornelius Tracy whose request F. o. Hovey, Ph D. visited Chicago near the close the Worlds fair to select and pur- chase specimens. A collection of coins numbering nearly thousand also placed in the library by Nathan Dkeman, while he was president of the board of agents. .+
 In 1895 MT Bassett presented his valuable herbar- ium in which about 1000 species of plants are rep resented, collected ill northern Ohio Massachusetts Kansas and Connecticut.
 Collections of war relics have been added some from southern battlefeds presented by Philip Sei- ter former resident of Waterbury, and others from the Philippines, the gifts of Edward G. Shea and +. w. Stocking
 Gifts from individuals interested in the museum are received time time and the collection is constantly growing. -.
 A large and important collection of stone imple- ments North American Indians is deposited in the library. The Rev Joseph Anderson, s. T. D.. careful student of Indian ethnoogy, spent many years collecting these, and has for some time been engaged in classifying and labelling them. As soon the work is finished the exhibit will be opened the public
 In reviewing the reports of the library it is inter- esng to see how the policy of the management has been adapted to the larger demands of succeeding years. From time to time, important changes have been made the most notable of these being the com plete encouragement and decimal classification and numbering of the books, and the making Of dc- tonary card catalogue. This work and the printing of the fndnglist, occupied period of four years, and cost thousands of dollars; an expense Justified by the resulting increase in the efficiency of the li- brary. Another change was the separation of the juvenile books from the main collection, and the opening in 1897 of the rooms the south side of the building special department for the children, under the guidance of experienced assistant, in terested in children and their reading. During the year 1902, 2000 books of reference made accessible to the public in the lower read ing room, and the current numbers of periodicals were also placed there for the convenience of head In August of the year, the lower stack room, containing 3OOO0 volumes opened the people, that readers have the privilege of examining the books instead of making their lections from the card catalogue.
 In response to the demands of the public, various restrictions the issue of books have been remov ed, and except in the fiction department there is practically no limit to the number of books which may be taken at time. rl.c library is thorough " committed to liberal policy. and makes use new devices continually for the display of its Since it's organization in 1868. it has cir .ulated than two million books, carefully se- iected from all classes of literature, numberless volumes have been used for reference and study within it's walls It has accomplished much in the past: its usefulness in the future, the influence to outlying parts of the city through dey- stations its effective cooperation with the schools by a system of deposit libraries the upbud- ing of technical department for the intelligent sans of the city-all this must depend not simply on the liberal policy of its managers but the pub lie spirit of the citizens in furnishing financial sup port for system of administration adapted to the rapid growth of prosperous city.
 Waterbury the wise nevolenoe and forethought of the the Silas Bronson to the coming generation
 HELEN SHERRY, Librarian