Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 8.djvu/127

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HARVARD LAW REVIEW.
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Harvard Law Review. Published monthly, during the Academic Year, by Harvard Law Students. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, $2.50 PER ANNUM 35 CENTS PER NUMBER. Editorial Board. Jeremiah Smith, Jr., Editor-in-Chief. Charles Walcott, Treasurer. Edward B. Adams, Alex D. Salinger, John A. Blanchard, Charles B. Sears, Justin D. Bovversock, John S. Sheppard, Jr., Richard W. Hale, Arthur W. Spruance, Billings L. Hand, Frank B. Williams, James L. Putnam, John S. Woodruff. Herbert A. Rice, The Law School — The Library; — In 1869-70, just before Mr. Langdell became Dane Professor and Dean, the library, as he has pointed out in his annual report for 1889-90, "was so nearly a wreck that it required to be reconstructed from the foundation." In the next twenty years nearly fifty thousand dollars were spent for books, and over ten thousand upon binding and repairing. "Prior to 1870-71 the only persons employed to care for the library were a student librarian and the janitor of Dane Hall. From the opening of the Hbrary in the morning until the closing of it at night it was subject to no supervision or control whatever. All persons who chose resorted to it and used it as they pleased, and behaved in it as they pleased ; and thus disorderly conduct, spoliation, and theft were constantly occurring. Now, a permanent libra- rian, a permanent assistant-librarian (both of whom have held their present positions for the last eighteen years), and three assistants are constantly employed in the care and administration of the library." And the report goes on to describe the means by which this " wreck " was made into the present efficient library, — a description which, as Presi- dent Eliot said in his report that year, " will interest any one who habitually uses a professional library." In 1882, through the efforts of Professor James B. Thayer and L. D. Brandeis, Esq., of Boston, a fund of $47,000 was secured, the income of which can be used for the purchase of books for the library, and this is its only invested fund. It is now sixty-two years since the library was deposited in Dane Hall. It then consisted of less than 1,000 volumes, and now has upward of 33,000. With the rapidly increasing number of States, and the multi- phcation of both Stale and special series of reports, it is startling to consider what figures will be required fifty years hence to state the re- sources of the library, and what appliances will be required to render such a vast mass of reports available for the use of the Faculty and students of the School.