The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-25
so,ooo BOOKS A YEAR.
CongressionaI Library Shelves Filling
 at Remarkable Rate.


 at Remarkable Rate.
 Washington Post.
 The tendency of human interest and thought at the present time, as ex- pressed in the books that are published, is revealed in the never-ceasing How of acquisitions through copyright py gift, and by purchase, to the Congres- sionai Library, the great world library of the future More than s0.000 books in every civilized tongue. are added to it's shelves, every year and about 6,ooV of them are of American authorship
 A notable fact brought out in the ac- quisitions of the past two or three years Is that the American people are making an interpretive study or themselves. Most of the books of a serious sort published In the United States deal with It's history from the time of the origin of the nation to the present development Every period has evidence to be found in original re- search is being brought to light. Not alone in the field of history does this apply; in economies and in all the spe- ciai lines of development within the nation there is an attempt to get at the truth of things as never before.
 During the year ended July 1, 1900. there were 6,550 permanent publications copyrighted at the Congressional h. brary. Last year the number was 13,- sss a gain of more than 100 per cent. In Ave years. Circulars and leaflets fell off nearly 100 per cent and the number of magazine articles. contributions to transient topics of the time. remained about the same. That the people of the country are more interested in the drama Is evidenced by the fact that the number of dramatic compositions in- creased from 561 in 1900 to 1,224 last year.
 Large Majority from Europe.
 Because Americans do not write so much for permanent use as Europeans do, the number of acquisitions to the library from the United States is com paratively small There are more news papers here. More than 3o.oo0 books are purchased. exchanged. or received by gift under the direction of Mir. Aims worth R. Spofford. who has been libra rian or assistant librarian for more than forty years. Fine discrimination Is exercised Wy the man who probably knows more about books than any oth- CT person in the United States. and the collections in the shelves are constantly extended so as to meet the demands upon the great national library.
 The library will sooner or later be compelled to face the problem of space. The library of the British Museum. the largest collection in the English speak ing world. contains 100000 volumes. The library contains 1.300,000 volumes. but figuring at the present rate of in crease. it will be but thirty years or so before the library will have as many as the great French collection. Tn the copyright department 1t is stated that hundreds of books are added every year and that no one will read and are dead timber. Mfr. Spofford declares that all of them are useful because they give completeness to reasearch in all lines. When the library is filled we still have an inner court 160 feet deep, which can be filled with stacks without fnterfer- ence with the light of the present build ing he said. .: -
 Fiction stIII Leads.
 Fiction, of course. is the largest field for the publisher. for the story has been the most popular from the begin ming of the modern era of printing, but science, music and art, have been con siderably extended during the past two or three years. Religion alone is the only department which remains about and authors evidently writing along old lines that have prevailed for decades.
 Two hundred years ago." said MT. Spofford, "nine-tenths of the books pub lished were on the subject of religion. That was at the time of the Puritans. Today less than one-tepth of the books are on that subject. That is, the field that is least progressive. In all others there is less tendency to accept what has been written or said, and there Is a very gratifying number of books pro duced nowadays that are not merely copied from other works and that seek well authenticated fact as a basis. The books that have not this quality are tolerated less than they formerly were. Considerable has been written for and against the higher criticism; and now and then an iconoclast adds his con tribution. but most of them are express sions of the orthodox kind"
 According to MT. David Hutcheson, the Library of Congress has the great est collection of Americana in the world. and. strange to say. the only other library that at all rivals 1t is the British Museum library, which some time ago sent an expert here to make the collection complete. The Congress sional collection is complete, not only in regard to the States and the nation, but the entire continent All of our different classified collections are reg resentative and rank we'll but all are not superior to my other collection on the same subject" he said. Complete ness Is attempted by classification in order to see what Is needed. The aim is usefulness. Many more students use the library in the winter, and men and women come from all sections to use the vast resources to be found there More and more it Is coming to be a place where books are written because of its reference facilities. In the read ing room history is read more than any other subject; fiction. science, gen ealogy, and belles letters following"