The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-02


 The accompanying interior views of the Birmingham public library will be a mat ter of interest and surprise to many cit izens who do not know the extent of tie library work already accomplished in this city.
 This library now extends all across the front side of the city hall, the city having recently doubled tho floor space devoted to it. A number of new shelves have also been lately added, making the present shelf space aggregate 25S5 running feet. Four-fifths of this shelf room is already filled, and plans are on foot to place many new volumes on them.
 The book collection numbers 15,0o0 bound volumes. The books are now being cata- logued under author, title and subject en- tries, When this work is completed the material contained In any one volume will be accessible to the reader without loss of time in aimless searching.
 Twenty thousand valuable pamphlets have also been collected here. These are yet unorganized, but they will be properly filed in the near future, and will be cata- logued so that the wealth of information 
 able.
 Valuable magazine files are to be found in the new reference room shown in view No. B. Some of these files extend back to 1861, and form the best part of the very good reference collection. Articles in these magazines are quickly and easily found by the help of alphabetical indexes. This room also contains a number of dic- tionaries, encyclopedias and other refer ence books of value. Bookdealers are now bidding on an order for s55O worth of new lection.
 The gallery of the old council cham Der contains 642 feet of shelving filled with works issued by the United States government which form the highest court Of appeals on nearly all subjects of deep import to the American people.
 Cut No. shows two sides of this gall lery. Here are housed over 5o00 books and o,o0O pamphlets published by the United States government and sent regu- larly to the Birmingham library as government depository.
 These publications cover an infinite va riety of ects-mineral resources, com merce and labor, education, agricul-
  clude Smithsonian institution publications, naval and official war records, D. A. R. reports, congressional documents for period of 15 years, American archives, census reports, a full list of government maps bearing upon the geology of each individual state, consular documents showing our foreign relations, and a set of publications from the United States patent office, complete from 1897 to 1909.
 Many of these books are beautifully illustrated and they are now being cata- logued in order that their wealth of in- formation may be more easily accessible to the public. The library now receives the daily Congressional Record through the courtesy of Congressman Oscar w. Underwood
 The greatest need of the Birmingham library today is a large up-to-date col lection of the best technical reference books, as there are at present practically no works on technical subjects in the H. brary. Books of this class are very ex- pensive and have to be bought new. secondhand works are apt to be out of date.
 It is planned to devote one large ref erence room in the new library building of the near future to technical subjects, and movement is now on foot to begin the collection Of books and periodicals for this department with the expenditure of 5000 or 5000. Expert advice as to the best books to be bought on mining and metallurgy, civil engineer ing, structural engineering, chemistry commercial law business forms, archi- lecture, art and designing-in short, on all subjects which go to make up tho wonderful business life of this section, will be greatly appreciated. It is urged that the great industries of Birmingham give of their practically acquired wis., dom no less than of their means.
 There are at present on exhibition at the library three rare and valuable books. The oldest of these Is printed in Latin and Greek and bears the date of 1542 It is a cook book compiled from recipes in use by the early Popes of Rome. Sew eral translations in French, German and later Latin exist, but the original of the book itself is the <only one to be found in America though a copy Is owned by the British Museum The other two books are in Latin and Italian and bear the dates of 1927 and 1645. These books have been loaned to the library and will be shown to any person interested in book rarities.