The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-10-04
REPORT OF THE LIBRARIAN
Membership Shows a Decrease, While Circulation Shows
 an Increase.


 number of members has exceeded 800 l several times in the past and has al- ways come back again to that figure believe we can satisfy 500 members but I also believe that whenever we try to take >2re of more we fail to give entire satisfaction, and the dis satisfied ones gradually drop out until by this natural process, the number is again reduced to the measure of the full capacity.
 The circulation records show pe- culiar condition in spite of the tact { that our membership has been falling eff. Our circulation of books has increased. The whole years output being S7,92S, against S7S21; only a gain of 107, to be sure, but then, in the natural course of events we should have lost over 5000 a closer view of the circulation shows that the books taken out were as follows: Scientific, S79. Religious 132. Amusements, l1S. Art, 240.
 Literature, S59
 History, 1,451. N Magazines, 1,545. Making total of the adult non-fic- \ tion, 5.219.
 Observe that this is few more a solid books than our larger member ship took out last year, It was then 5.145. This would indicate that the S readers of solid literature are not so likely to be stampeded where they I fail to get new book within few H hours after it's publication.
 Tho circulation of fiction amongst
 the adult class, shows a considerable
 falling off During the year just k Closed it was 26,751. During the pre- vious year 2sS67, a loss of 3ll6. M This last figure is about the natural # loss, that one decreased membership N would occasion. Another indication that the thirty members that we have lost, were simply fiction readers who A are looking somewhere else for the IE last novel published. The above re-
 fers only to adult readers. As to juv- ,5 eniles, we started q juvenile depart 8 ment last October, in the rooms over- # head, putting Miss Farren in charge. M In May the department was moved # down to the parlor, and in June Miss N Farren resigned to take charge of the M South Norwalk public library M The entire circulation of juvenile v books. for the year before had been 2,SO9 volumes of fiction and 2S vol
 fumes of non-fiction; 2,S37 in all. n To October the circulation was 542, \ November, Gig. V December 665.
 January, 775
 k February, 696 March, s03
 April SS0.
 l. May, 3s7.
 June, 19S.
 July, TO.
 August, H.
 September, 155.
 Total for the year, 5,95S. ul Year before, 2,SS7. w Gain, 3,121,
 ,. A further analysis shows that from IT. October 1 to May 1, the circulation IT, was 4424, against 1902 during the lis same months of the previous year. . During May 1t was BAT, as against
 215. During the remaining months 1t rt was 637, as against 792 the year be- an fore To make no comments 1 sim
 ply state the facts one further fact is f this: During the year past closed the circulation of non-Actions from the 'h juvenile department was 1,217 vol en umes; during the year before 1t was al 2S volumes Since June 1 of this Q year it has been 16 volumes. In the
 special loan department we have ne bought during the year to the value J. of $315.4O; we have taken in from es Iloans and sales $61S.61 The cash rs profit of the department has there , fore been $30S2t. ne Besides this we have transferred to
 the regular library 9S books and 40S III left on the shelves with which to be- a4 gin another year. In spite of the ' rather sharp compensation we have ue made more money than ever before It On the first of october, 1908, we had K E21,710 books on our shelves; we
 bought during the year, SPA volumes
 and have sold or otherwise disposed of 256. The number now in our pos
 session is 22,27S I wish to call at
 tention to the reclassifcatlon of fctior
 now III pIOSIeSS. Oullil6 tiiS SV 5Se'i'
 that have been connected for more O , less, closely with the institute, have
 noticed that about a third of oul ol stock of novels were called for by lou the Author" and, with few eX IT. captions this third was usually books IT. by standard authors; all the rest oi at the fiction was either asked for by ti' -ue tie or by the type of, story wanted, ol m else the patron wandered about the m shelves and selected anything tha es- looked good" inasmuch as many pa IS irons come to the desk enquiring to
 a Detective Story" "A Good Olt
 Fashioned Love Story" "An Advent
 ure Story" "A Short Story" or ever at a good novel" It seemed to me tha ost If the remaining two-thirds wer ice grouped together by subject or typ per these works, those books would b ,ck much more read and the stream O the readers would be partly diverted iron at- the new books to those that had stoo is the test of time. Inv The standard novels and the fev er- others spoken of were therefore sep is- arated from the others and arrange ni lnd upon the shelves, alphabetically b M or. author; the other novels are now be es- ing arranged by groups. About LOO lon of them have been done and the re
 mainder will be finished during tn - winter When the whole classification