Library Report

The addition of 15,643 volumes during the past academic year has brought the total number of volumes in Baker Library to 402,279, it was announced by Prof. Frank M. Anderson, chairman of the Faculty Committee on the Library, at the October faculty meeting. Of the volumes acquired, 13,638 were purchased and 2,005 received as gifts.

Figures on circulation disclosed a marked increase over the previous year, 314,860 volumes having been signed out in comparison to 284,983 for 1933-34. The general increase was brought about by a jump from 198,995 to 231,351 at the reserve desk, while figures at the main desk showed a decline from 73,787 to 70,144. Of the decrease of 3,643 at the main circulation desk, only 262 was charged against the faculty.

The volumes acquired through purchase included 2,316 in periodicals, 2,601 in languages and literature, 3,223 in social sciences, 843 in sciences, 677 in the fine arts, 384 in biography, and 3,394 in all other branches. Aside from the periodicals, 7,165 of these volumes are in English, 1,397 French, 983 in German, 644 in Spanish, 100 in Italian, and 302 in other languages. Of these volumes, 5,705 were published later than January 1, 1931 and 4,884 before that date.

RARE AMERICANA ACQUIRED

Important acquisitions during the past year, Professor Anderson reported, included some rare items of Americana, among them a set of Purchas His Pilgrims in the 1625-26 London edition, Captain John Smith's General History of Virginia in the London edition of 1624 and his True Travels, Adventures and Observations in the London edition of 1630, John Burk's History ofVirginia in the much sought Williamsburg edition of 1604-1616, and Nathaniel Morton's New England Memorial in the Newport edition of 1772. Other valuable additions include two old Bibles, dated 1489 and 1497; 15th and 16th century books from the presses of Aldus, Koberger, and Plantin; later works from the Elzevir, Pickering, Baskerville and Chiswick presses; and a broadside listing the graduates of Dartmouth College up to 1779. Many volumes were added to the large sets, and valuable additions to the newspaper files were the Civil War volumes of The NewYork Herald and The New York Times for 1854-58 and iB6O.

Professor Anderson's report also disclosed that nearly four-fifths of the volumes acquired during the past seven years have been purchased through the Sanborn Library Fund, which was established by Edwin Webster Sanborn '78 in memory of his father, Edwin David Sanborn, 1832, who was Professor of Belles-Lettres and Librarian of Dartmouth College. Under the Sanborn Fund, the total volumes of the Dartmouth library during the past seven years have increased from 240,000 to 402'" 279, the total as of July 1, 1935.