CAPíTULO 3 Registro de transacciones

The reading Rooms were open for 353 days during the year, as against 351 of the previous year. This number includes 49 Sundays and 38 other gazetted holidays, when the Reading Rooms were open from 2–5 in the afternoon. They were entirely closed for 12 days as against 15 of last year.

The total number of persons who visited he Reading Room was 50,576 against 54,215; or 3,639 less. The daily average comes to 143 as compared with 154 of

last year. Besides the publications available in the Reading Room for reference and study, 40,879 volumes were supplied to readers from the Stack Room, which number exceeds that of last year by 11,816. The daily average works out to be 116 as against 83 of the pervious year. Whereas there is an all-around increase in the various figures pertaining to the Reading Rooms, there is a fall in case of readers visiting the place. The reason is not quite apparent, unless it be that counting of readers was effective. Appendix II will give detailed figures for the last three years, whereas Appendix III will give detailed figures for readers, and books consulted, during 1936–37.

The taste of the readers seems to have become somewhat fixed as will be apparent from a perusal of Appendix IV, Analytical Statement by Subjects. Literature, History and law continue to occupy the first three positions, whereas Science (general) has displaced Biography for the fourth place, and deservedly so, far the number of books consulted in this subject is approximately 3 times that of last year. Religion has perhaps come to sat at the 8th place; whereas Education, Geography and Travels have attained fairly high positions viz. 6th and 7th respectively. There is a general rise in the number of books consulted, expect in the case of Economics where the number has called by 65, which is some what surprising, as this subject at one time occupied 3rd or 4th position in the scale. The rise in numbers is especially marked in the case of Archaeology, Astronony, Education, Law, Literature, Philosophy, Religion, and Scuence. Zoology is contented with the position (last) that it has occupied for the last few years; but Numismatics has again come down to be the neighbor of Zoology, whereas Sports and Games have gone up by one step, being 3rd from the bottom.

During the year under report, 2,825 three-year admission tickets were issued, which were 13 less than those issued in 1935–36. The number of day-tickets rose by a little over a thousand, for the figures for the two years are 6,533 and 5,450. The daily average of both kinds of tickets is 8 and 18 respectively.

The number of Research workers who benefited by the facilities offered in the Private Reading Room was 23. Besides Bengal, they come from Bombay, Bihar, Orissa. United Provinces, Punjab, and United State of America. The universities represented by some of them were the Lucknow, Dacca, Calcutta and Long

Island.

103 volumes were added to the Reading Rooms collection, as compared with 79 of last year; whereas 217 were withdrawn for one reason or other. It is gratifying to note that on books were lost from the Reading Room during the year under report.

The seating arrangement in the Reading Rooms was changed during this year, with the result that not only the number of seats was increased by about a dozen (96 in all), but it also afforded better supervision of readers, and provided ample space along book-racks for readers to walk about.

Another improvement is the new arrangement for exhibiting periodicals. Theses are no longer laid on tables; but instead have been arranged in two racks specially made for the purpose. Each rack has three small shelves in each row, with capacity to hold 75 periodicals. Theses shelves are numbers serially and the periodicals are given corresponding numbers. As alphabetic list of periodicals contained in the racks helps the reader to locate the required journal. This arrangement has applauded to the readers, who appreciate it very much.

VII. Accessions

The total number of all kinds of publications added to the Library during the year 1936–37 comes to 8,267, as compared with 7,814 of the pervious year, or 453 in excess. A linguistic analysis of the accessions will be found in Appendix V. 754 volumes were presented to the Library during the year, of which 639 were in European languages, 90 in Indian languages and 25 in Arabic, Persian and Urdu. This number is exclusive of books received from the Bengal Library, of which the number comes to 496. The number of books presented to the Library is in excess by 193, as compared with that of the pervious year. The names of donors of more than one volume are given in Appendix 6. and the thanks of the Imerial Library Council are due to all those persons and institutions who so very kindly presented these books.

Of the total additions to the Library, 5,948 were official publications of the Central and Provincial Governments of India and the Government of certain other countries. Delated figures will be found in Appendix. 9.

The ‘List of Additions’ was supplied to the English and Vernacular Press, as before; and the Library Authorities are grateful to the Associated Press of India and to such of the papers as are giving Publicity to the list, for the countesy shown in this direction.