SWITZERLAND.
Switzerland has many libraries (5,798 in 1917) in comparison with its population and area. Only seven of these, however, contain more than 200,000 volumes. The majority of these are cantonal or communal collections. There are, however, 1,335 devoted to science or technology. This showing is all the more re markable as the state did not concern itself with library development until the first half of the 19th century. A few of the ancient monastic collections of Switzerland still exist, the most interesting being the library of the famous abbey of Saint Gall. This collection was established by Abbott Gozbert about 820. ((There remains enough of the old collection to attract and gratify the student of mediaeval literature? Edwards, (Memoirs of (Vol. I, p. 262).
The largest collection is the Oeffentliche Bibliothek at Basel (1460), which contains about 330,094 volumes, 175,000 pamphlets, 5,140 manuscripts. This was united with the uni
versity in 1905. The National Library (Biblio thek Nationale Suisse) is at Berne. It was founded in 1895 and already has collections numbering 225,500 volumes. The city library (Stadt Bibliothek) has about the same number of volumes. Freiburg i. U., Geneva, Lausanne and Zurich each has a public library of over 200,000 volumes, while Zurich has in addition a library of teclmolog.y in connection with the Technische Hochschule. Zurich also is the headquarters of the Consilium Bibliograph icum, the purpose of which is to develop a universal card bibliography of scientific liter ature. The Swiss libraries are also co-operating in the formation of a general catalogue of Swiss literature, the libraries at Berne and Lucerne forming the collections upon which it is based. A Swiss library association was organized in 1900.