Evening journal., 1904-04-20
YEARLY REPORT
OF LIBRARIAN
Presented at Annual Meet
ing of Managers of Free
Library
Mr., TAYLOR AGAIN PRESIDENT

Members Of the Board of Managers
Of the Wilmington Institute Free Lii
brary held their annual meeting in the
librarians Office last night.
The election resulted in the re-elec-
tion of VIM. p. Taylor as president and
Frederic II. Robinson as secretary and
treasurer.
The report Of George II. Bowerman,
the librarian, was presented, and, in
part, was as follows:
Annual Report of Librarian.
To the President and Board Of Mana
gers Of the Wilmington Institute:
The Librarian submits the report Of
the Wilmington Institute Free Library
for the year March / to February 20,
1904, embracing the tenth year of its ad-
ministration as a public library and
the third year Of the work of the pres
ent librarian. Before treating more
specifically of the work Of the past year,
it seems fitting to present q summary
OF the decennial period recently ended,
including a comparison with the two
years just preceding the opening of the
doors of the Free Library.
On February u. 1894. the Wilmington
Institute opened its library as a public
library for the city Of Wilmington, and
since that time has derived a part of
its support from public funds. On
January l. 1894, its book collection num-
bered 1869; the present report shows
51.115 volumes owned by the library
Before becoming free the membership
sometimes approached 1000, but at the
time it was made free the stockholders
numbered 621; on February 20 there
were 27,0i0 registered borrowers.
AS a proprietary library the circula-
tion never greatly exceeded $4,000 a
year; the year just ended shows a
home circulation of 1881. The an
nual income of the institute during the
second year before it became free was
SSSl9.27; the past year it was Sl7,22S,S6.
Summing up these figures it will be
seen that IN ten years the book collec-
tion has increased two and one-half
times there are 43 times as many bor-
rowers now as then; the circulation is
almost seven times as great, and the
income with which to carry on the
work efficiently has not quite doubled.
Need of Room and Funds.
The constantly increasing need for
greater room and more adequate funds
have restricted the growth Of the IL
brary's book collection, and have pre-
vented not only the undertaking of
many new lines of desirable activity,
but also have lessened its efficiency IN
those already undertaken. For exam
pie, the circulation shows a decrease
of about $4,000 from that OF
the last report 1t is confidently
believed that this decrease could
have turned to large in
crease parallelling those shown in the
last two reports, had there been fund:
with which to increase the school room
libraries and establish branches or de-
posit stations in several quarters of th'
city from which calls have come ol
where a great dearth of library facil.
tiles has been shown to exist. Under
these conditions the constant and in
creasing effort has, for the most par
been, that the library hold it's own
since with present resources its activi.
ties could not be extended. This does
not mean that there has been no prog
ress; but the work has been largely
intensive. rather than extensive.
Contents and Aeeessions.
The last report showed that the H.
\ brary possessed 1852 bound volumes
! The additions during the year, includ
ing public documents not entered il
the accession book. numbered 1868. De
u Quoting Withdrawals numbering 224
volumes. the net increase of 2423 vol
umes brings the total strength of tn
library up TO 5l,1l5 volumes.
J The largest single item of the acces
p sions was that Of juvenile works. los
volumes; the next largest was fiction
Z 1905 volumes. Each of these items
less than two-thirds the correspondent
! item In last years report.
4 1t has been possible TO get along wit
smaller fiction accessions with the hel
! rendered by the Booklovers' Librar
! scheme. The juvenile accessions hav
{ been too small to fully supply the de
mand. The additions to the class G
= literature Of 400 volumes. have ais
F. been relatively large. This class ha
been greatly strengthened by the pun
chase Of handsome sets of the writing
I Of classic authors In English, includin
1 those of Emerson. Hawthorne, Whit
! tier. Holmes. Longfellow. Poe. Irvnl
b Lamb. Carlyle, Fielding, Tolstoi, Swii
e and Dumas
There have been large Withdrawal
from nearly every class. particular
{ from the departments of literature, his
tory, travel and bound sets of period
calls Dingy and unattractive edition
> have either been Withdrawn absolutel
= IL not OF special value. or have bee
replaced by more suitable editions. n
periodicals withdrawn were either thol
not Included i'm Poole's Index or wei
so imperfect because Of mutilation,
to be Of too little use for further pr
servation or a basis for completio
Most OF these were sold to dealers
sent to the Library Of Congress on G,
change account.
: Increase in Cost.
The operation Of the net price plan
d the American Publishers ASSOCIATE,
: continues TO work a hardship to tn
g. and other libraries by increasing Il
'r cost Of books. AS before it has be-
F. necessary to delay the purchase OF ce
L. tain books until they could be pick
. up at secondhand or could be impor
st ed. The supplying Of many of the nel
ln er books covered by the net price Dl.
=. by the Booklovers' scheme has made
possible to furnish them to library lea
ers and thus delay the purchase
g them until more favorable opportuniti
=, Offer
rs Book Unaceounted For.
70 During the year a careful invento
nj OF all books was made, in this ca
s. including fiction and juvenile wor
y not covered in the inventory report
he on last year. A number of the boo
..N