on March 9, 1900 with 1,000 volumes donated by the Red Cross Society of California and other American organizations. By 1901, the ACL's collection grew to 10,000 volumes, consisting mostly of American works of fiction, periodicals and newspapers. The rapid expansion of the library proved to be such a strain on the resources of the American Circulating Library Association of Manila, the organization running the ACL, that it was decided that the library's entire collection should be donated to the government. The Philippine Commission formalized the acceptance of the ACL's collections on March 5, 1901 through Act No. 96, today observed as the birthdate of both the National Library and the Philippine public library system. With the ACL now a Philippine government institution, a board of trustees and three personnel, led by librarian Nelly Y. Egbert, were appointed by the colonial government. At the same time, the library moved to Rosario Street (now Quintin Paredes Street) in Binondo before its expansion warranted its move up the street to the Hotel de Oriente on Plaza Calderón de la Barca in 1904. It was noted in the 1905 annual report of the Department of Public Instruction (the current Department of Education) that the new location "was not exactly spacious but at least it was comfortable and accessible by tramway from almost every part of the city". At the same time, the ACL, acting on its mandate to make its collections available to American servicemen stationed in the Philippines, established five traveling libraries, serving various, if not unusual, clientele across the islands. In November 1905, Act No. 1407 placed the library under the Bureau of Education and subsequently moved to its headquarters at the corner of Cabildo (now Muralla) and Recoletos Streets in Intramuros, on which today the offices of the Manila Bulletin stand. On June 2, 1908, Act No. 1849 was passed, mandating the consolidation of all government libraries in the Philippines into the ACL. Subsequently, Act No. 1935 was passed in 1909, renaming the ACL the Philippine Library and turning it into an autonomous body governed by a five-member Library Board. At the same time, the Act mandated the division of the library into four divisions: the law, scientific, circulating and Filipiniana divisions. The newly renamed library was headed by James Alexander Robertson, an American scholar who, in collaboration with Emma Helen Blair, wrote The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898, and recognized today