by the City Council. The funds are expended by a Board of Trustees chosen by the City Council, of which the president of the Council is a member ex officio.

Under this act the library was first located on the second floor in the Black Opera House building, and opened to the public on June 8, 1872.

The accumulations of books which had passed from one to the other of the various short-lived Library Associations in the city-and of new books, mainly of the then famous Tauchnitz and Bohn collections, aggregating about 3,300 volumes-formed the then Springfield Public Library. At the close of the first year donations and purchases had increased this number to 3,840 volumes. The public interest in the library then quickened. It was soon found that more commodious quarters were necessary to accommodate the increasing patronage. The second floor of the north side of the Union building on Fountain avenue was found not too large, and in August, 1877, it was removed to that place, where it remained for nearly thirteen years, enjoying a generous expansion of increasing volumes and a corresponding patronage.

The present elegant building, now the permanent home of the Library, was the gift of a gentleman, Benjamin H. Warder, who had passed the better part of his life in the city of Springfield. Having accumulated a fortune, he removed to Washington, D. C.; but with that true instinct of gentle blood, ever mindful of and grateful to the city of his earlier life, and desiring to perpetuate the memory of his respected parents, who had also been residents of Springfield, he erected the present structure of architectural beauty and tasteful finish, and dedicated it to their memory. At the portal was placed by Mr. Warder, this:

MEMORIAL TABLET.

THIS LIBRARY HAS BEEN ERECTED IN MEMORY OF

JEREMIAH AND ANN H. WARDER,

BY THEIR SON,

BENJAMIN HEAD WARDER.

IT IS GIVEN TO THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY OF SPRINGfleld, O.,

FOR THEIR FREE ENJOYMENT,

AND LEFT IN THEIR CHARGE FOREVER.

This suitable and generous act has enshrined the memory of the donor in the hearts of the people of Springfield. It will remain, until the last stone crumbles, as a monument to his beneficence.

The Library was removed to this new building in May, 1890, where, under the fostering influence of an appreciative public, it has already grown to such proportions that additional room to meet the constantly increasing demands for the best literature is the ever-present problem with the Board of Trustees.

SPRINGFIELD.

ZIMMERMAN LIBRARY, WITTENBERG COLLEGE.

The library of Wittenberg College begins its history with the year the institution was founded-eighteen hundred and forty-four. Before the college was really organized and permanently located, Dr. Ezra Keller, who soon afterwards became the first president, was sent out by the board of directors to collect funds for the college and books for a library, from friends of the new enterprise living in the eastern part of the state. As it was the object of the founders to establish an institution where young men would be educated for the ministry, it was somewhat of a coincidence that the first books given to the library were D'Aubigne's "History of the Reformation." These five volumes now showing the marks of many years of usefulness, became the nucleus around which the library has slowly grown for the last fifty-five years.

In 1876 Prof. B. F. Prince, realizing the great need of gathering all the books together and placing them in some room adapted to the purpose, asked permission of the faculty to make the change. His request was at once granted and a room given him, which he himself fitted up with cases. Prof. Prince was then appointed librarian and from that time a new era began. The library was opened on several days of each week for a few hours and records were kept of all books loaned out. In this place the library remained for ten years and under the new conditions began to grow and become of practical value.

But in the meantime the students were not without the advantages of a library, limited though those advantages were.

Soon after the organization of the college, two literary societies. were formed and each began immediately to collect and purchase books for a library. The intense rivalry existing between these two societies. led each to try to surpass the other by every means possible, and as a result much of their interest centered in their respective libraries. Before many years had passed by, each society had secured a small but permanent library fund from which to purchase books.

In 1886, when the new recitation hall was erected, a large and convenient room was constructed for library purposes. In this new home the college and both society libraries were kept separate. The new system of making all books accessible to the students materially increased the usefulness of the library.

In 1891 the family of Mr. John Zimmerman gave to the college a beautiful little building known as Zimmerman Library, which they had erected in memory of a son and brother. Mr. John L. Zimmerman, of the class of '79, took the most active interest in the gift, and the fact that the college now possesses a building exclusively for library purposes is due to his timely assistance, and thoughtfulness in regard to all things connected with the institution.

The building is beautifully located and commands a view not only of the campus, but of the western portion of the city as well. It is built of a gray limestone found in Clark county, and the trimmings are of red sandstone. The interior is finished throughout with quartered oak. The building is small, and while at present it answers all needs, yet with the steady though slow growth of the library it will not be many years before some plan will have to be devised whereby a greater number of volumes may have shelving room, for already the cases are becoming crowded.

The plan of the building is exceedingly simple. It is rectangular in form and only one story high. The entrance, delivery desk and librarian's room occupy the central portion of the building, while the stackroom is in one end and the reading room in the other. Unfortunately the cases are of wood, but the stack-room is so high, that at some future time, if provision can be made for sufficient light, a change can be made by which two if not three stories of iron stacks can take the place of the present arrangement. The reading room, on the right of the entrance, is bright and well lighted with windows to the north, east and south.

When the college opened in the fall of ninety-two the building was ready for occupancy and from that time the library has been a much larger and more important factor in the work of the students. With removal to the new building, the old system of keeping the three libraries in separate cases was dispensed with, and books of the same class were all arranged together. The only present indication that a book belongs to one library or another is the label on the inside and the records that are kept of all books. This method is found much more satisfactory than the old one.

Previous to the building of the Zimmerman Library there was no reading room in connection with the library, though at times a small one was maintained in the gentlemen's dormitory. As a result, it was some time before the students became accustomed to using the new reading room regularly, or even the library itself for extensive reference work.

The library is small, containing only between eleven and twelve thousand volumes, but it is well selected and comparatively little of the material is useless..

Certain portions of the library are much better equipped for working than are others. The theological department has by far the greatest number of volumes, though it is not the most useful or complete. The departments of history and literature are the best selected and most useful of all, the Americana being especially good for so small a library. Sociology is now being given more attention and many of the new books purchased are in that line. The sciences and arts have never been properly kept up, and in these branches the library is seriously lacking. Although not a government depository, yet a large number of government books are received every year. Recently a number of new volumes have