Best practice for web interface for multiple choice?

Question

I considered various ways that allow the user to select one or more options from a list of approximately 29-30 options. I came up with the following four types and wonder what is the preferred / most usable. See http://workingstorage.com/multiple%20selection.png

Answer 1

Here, how I would evaluate each option that you have, along with my reasoning:

Best: # 2, if set to break across the boundaries of the year (i.e. there is always a full year in one column, so either one year for one column, or two, or something else, but make sure the user never you need to move past the bottom of one column to find the next value for this year). This option will allow users to quickly find the years of interest to them.

Second: # 4. I am tempted to put # 3 here because it seems more functional, but the illustration makes me wonder: 1) if all the options are still available and 2) if all users understand what the four buttons do. Due to the confusion factor, I throw # 3 in last place. Which does Best at # 4 because it is cleaner than # 1 (unless # 1 is suitable for the rest of the design).

Third: # 1 - by default.

Fourth: # 3, save with the warnings above.