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REPORT OF THE LIBRARIAN.

THE present report covers six months of unusual activity though not of remarkable occurrences in the history of the library. The daily routine has not been unlike that of other periods, but in connection with it special work has been done with more or less success in several new directions. The plan for the distribution of our duplicate newspapers, outlined in your Librarian's last report, has been carried out, and as a result we are no longer concerned about an over-weighted newspaper attic. At least one-half of this duplicate material has been sent away on exchange account, where it will be the most useful. In this way the Library of Congress, for instance, has received from us nearly fifty cases of American newspapers, while various State, city, town, college and historical society libraries have filled not a few of their local newspaper gaps from the same source. That both our desire to dispose of the balance of this material and at least a partial knowledge of what we have to offer may appear together, a rough alphabetical list of the larger lots remaining is given.

Boston: Advertiser, Centinel, Christian Register, Chronicle, Courier, Gazette, Journal, Mercury, Messenger, New England Farmer, Palladium, Patriot, and Repertory.

New York: Chronicle, Harper's Weekly, Herald, Independent, Iron Age, Nation, Post, Round Table, Scientific American, Spectator, Times, Tribune, and World.

London: Illustrated News.

Providence: Journal.

Springfield: Republican.

Washington: Intelligencer.

Worcester: Gazette, Home Journal, National Ægis, Palladium, Press, and Spy.

Correspondence in relation to this duplicate material is solicited, and the suggestion ventured that such an opportunity is not often likely to occur.

And here it seems an important question to consider whether newspapers shall be preserved, in the interest of American history, and if so what is the duty of this Society and that of kindred institutions in relation thereto. To the first query we may hear answers varying from an absolute no on the one hand to an unqualified yes on the other; and they may come from persons of equal intelligence. Without undertaking to state the views of either party, is there not a middle ground which we may safely take, and from which we-as an American society founded by an American editor and printer-may urge the preservation of at least carefully selected representative newspapers? That ground is, I submit, their importance not only on account of the multitude of facts they contain but because of the varied treatment which the same subject receives as viewed from different sides. May not a judicial mind of a later and calmer period thus have at hand party statements which he may wisely examine, carefully weigh and fairly use? If, then, the importance of this great work is admitted, the question arises, how shall it best be accomplished? It will generally be conceded that the collection in the National Library at Washington should be the largest and broadest of all; and doubtless in the new library building Mr. Spofford will see that its rapid growth is abundantly provided for. Our own contribution to that end has already been mentioned, and the example may well be followed. Two very important factors in an attempt to solve the newspaper problem, namely, money and space, are there most likely to be found.

We are justly proud of our well-filled newspaper room,

though comparatively little has been added to the invaluable eighteenth and early nineteenth century collection as left by Dr. Thomas. It should be remembered that the large unbound portion of this collection has been bound at the charge of the Bookbinding Fund. Is it too much to hope that a newspaper fund, bearing some honored name, will some day be established, and that by its judicious use gaps even in the revolutionary and pre-revolutionary period, as well as during the war of the rebellion, will be filled? Our newspaper files begin with the first number of the first continued newspaper in America—that of the Boston News-Letter of Monday, April 24, 1704—and end with this morning's issues. Is it not possible that our special mission in this direction is the perfecting of our early files, or perhaps as well the carrying forward our collection not indefinitely but through the second century of American newspaper life, say to the opening of the twentieth century? And yet we are constantly met by the querist who wonders, as we have so fair a start, why we cannot go on forever," and asks "who will undertake the great work if you do not?" Perhaps the newspaper collections of the future are to be arranged and preserved by States, each State placing its own leading newspapers in charge of its State librarian or in the absence of such an official, in the care of the State historical society. In any event each city or town provided with a public library should preserve in binding its own newspapers, and it would be well also to send files to the State library or the State historical society and the National Library. In the absence of a library in the city or town of publication and the existence of one at the capital city they should most certainly there be preserved. The advantage of having these authorities at home is suggested by the fact that we have just finished transcribing from an Eastern city's newspapers of 1780-1800, in our possession, all the local musical and dramatic material therein contained

for use in preparing a chapter of the history of that city. Senator Sumner's last visit to the library was on a fruitless search — while preparing his works for the press for one of his stirring addresses reported in but one of his city papers, and that not preserved where printed. And so once more your Librarian earnestly pleads for the preservation of representative American newspapers, either by the nation, by States, by municipalities or by private corporations. Since writing the foregoing I have read in Mr. S. N. D. North's Census Report on the Newspaper and Periodical Press of the United States-to which it will be remembered we contributed as Appendix D, a list of the bound files of our American newspapersthe following pertinent paragraph from the pen of Mr. Ainsworth R. Spofford, Librarian of Congress, and thus by virtue of his office custodian of by far the largest collection of newspapers in America. He says:

"While no one library, however large and comprehensive, has either the space or means to accumulate a tithe of the periodicals that swarm from a productive press, there are valid reasons why more attention should be paid by librarians to the careful preservation of a wise selection from all this current literature. The modern newspaper and other periodical publications afford the truest, the fullest and, on the whole, the most impartial images of the age we live in that can be derived from any single source. Taken together, they afford the richest material for the historian or the student of politics, of society, of literature and of civilization in its various aspects. What precious memorials of the day even the advertisements and brief paragraphs of the newspapers a century ago afford us! While in a field so vast it is impossible for any one library to be more than a gleaner, no such institution can afford to neglect the collection and preservation of at least some of the more important newspapers from year to year. public library is not for one generation only but it is for all time. Opportunities once neglected of securing the current periodicals of any age in continuation and complete form seldom or never occur. The principle of selection

will, of course, vary in different libraries and localities.

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This collection should embrace not only newspapers, magazines, etc., but a complete collection of all casual pamphlets, reports of municipal governments, with their subdivisions, reports of charitable or benevolent societies, schools, etc., and even the prospectuses, bulletins, etc., of real-estate agents and tradesmen. Every library should have its scrap-books (or series of them) for preserving the political broadsides and fugitive pieces of the day which in any way reflect or illustrate the spirit of the times or the condition of the people. These unconsidered trifles, commonly swept out and thrown away as worthless, if carefully preserved and handed down to the future, will be found to form precious memorials of a bygone age.

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And that library which shall the most sedulously gather and preserve such fugitive memorials of the life of the people among which it is situated, will be found to have best subserved its purpose to the succeeding generation of men."

These are weighty words from high authority, and no apology is offered for quoting them at length.

Our book of accessions shows the following additions to the library and cabinet since our last report: By gift four hundred and sixty-six books, thirty-eight hundred and seventy-nine pamphlets, one bound and one hundred and twenty-six unbound volumes of newspapers, seven framed and two unframed engravings, seven manuscript volumes, six photographs, four maps, four arrow-heads, two drawings, two coins, a Mexican bridle, an historic cane, a lottery ticket, confederate currency and postage stamps. By exchange three hundred and twenty-two books and four hundred and eleven pamphlets. From the binder fortyseven volumes of periodicals; making a total of seven hundred and ninety-eight books, forty-two hundred and ninety pamphlets, one hundred and twenty volumes of newspapers, et cetera. The sources of increase are two hundred and ten in number, as follows: From forty-three members, ninety-one persons not members and seventy-six societies.

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