The report of Professor Coolidge, director of the University Library and chairman of the Council of the College Library, shows that the Library has reached a total of nearly two million volumes and pamphlets. As Professor Coolidge's report reads: "It now ranks both in size and in quality among the greatest collections of books in the world, though its constituent parts are of uneven strength and all present unlimited possibilities of improvement." The principle need seems to be satisfactory endowment, which will not make the departments dependent on the varying gifts of each year. For the most part the housing of the collections is unsuitable. The price of books, binding, labor and everything else is rising so rapidly that the inelastic budget is unable to keep pace.

During the year $12,189.26 was received for the purchase of books, besides numerous valuable gifts of collections and sets. The accessions for the year and the present extent of each department are shown in the following table:     Volumes  Present  extent in LIBRARIES  Added  Volumes  Pamph. College Library: Main collection,  29,568  706,459  457,800 38 special libraries,  5,507  83,563     --  --  -- Total,  35,075  790,022  457,800 Law School,  5,619  166,476  22,250 Theological,  1,302  108,082  53,955 Comp. Zoo.,  1,123  53,459  50,393 Peabody,  622  6,950  6,803 Astron. Obs.,  231  14,817  34,621 Gray Herbar.,  294  16,243  11,027 Medical School,  1,698  28,698  49,411 Dental School,  139  2,367  9,000 Arnold. Arbor.,  598  30,918  7,531 Bussey Inst.,  10  3,214  16,901 Blue Hill Obs.,  7  7,916  15,181     --     46,718 Deduct transfers between libraries,  289     --  --  -- Totals,  46,429  1,229,162  733,875     --  --  -- Total number of volumes and pamphlets,  1,963,037