REPORT OF THE ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN. 9 



V. REPORT OF THE ASSISTANT LIBRARIAN. 



The increase in the rate of growth of the Library since 1920 is 

 encouraging considering the increasing cost of books during this 

 time and the very slight increase of our 1923 budget over that 

 of 1920. In these four years the number of accessions of volumes 

 has been, in sequence, 408, 403, 473 and 562; of reprints, 387, 

 427, 434, and about 800 for 1923, but only 194 of these will show 

 in our records of the year because the work of recording and 

 cataloguing the remainder will be delayed until 1924. More- 

 over, the numbers of volumes accessioned in the years 1920 

 and 1921 were greatly increased by the binding of back sets of 

 German serial publications that were purchased from a special 

 fund for this purpose and not from the years' appropriations. 

 The reprints which are a most useful part of the Library involve 

 a great deal of work in their cataloguing and care, and their 

 increase, which we hope will continue, has made a great jump 

 this past year. Also there should be mentioned an accumulation 

 of about 1000 or more of these, dating far back, that were sorted 

 out alphabetically last year from the mass of miscellaneous 

 printed matter that was accumulated before 1919. These 

 will have to be accessioned as soon as adequate assistance in 

 the Library staff make it possible. 



Of the volumes acquired by the Library in 1923, 328 were 

 recorded from binding, 126 of these being exchanges and the 

 remainder our paid subscriptions, except 8 that were from binding 

 the American Museum of Natural History loans; 151 of the 

 accessioned volumes were direct from purchase, 65 by gift, and 

 20 from our exchanges. 



There are now in the Library about 11,698 volumes and 9,587 

 reprints. 



The Library has received during the past year current serial 

 publications to the number of 281. We have paid our subscrip- 

 tions to 93 of these ; sixty four (64) subscriptions of the Biological 

 Bulletin have been used by the Library in exchange for 87 of 

 these currently received serials; we have received 80 as gifts; 

 and 21 through the American Museum of Natural History 

 loan. 



The new subscriptions undertaken in 1923, on our paid list, 



