Dec 1 *)!()] Goverumcut Docunioits 63 



Tile ^'nlumc contains chapters on the Pittsbur<; coal in Bebnont, 

 Jefferson and Guernsey counties, by C. N. Brown; the Pomeroy 

 and Federal Creek coal field, by Ellis Lovejoy; the manufacture 

 of salt and l)romine, by W. J. Root; natural and Portland cement, 

 by N. W. Lord; gypsum and land plaster in Ohio, by Edward 

 Orton; the production of lime in Ohio, by Edward Orton; the drift 

 deposits of Ohio, by Edward Orton. Price $2.00. 



U. S. Geological Survey, Washington. 



GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS AND THE PUBLIC 



LIBRARIAN.* 



Julia L. V. McCoRD.f 



A unique library exists in the Government Printing Office 

 at Washington — a library composed exclusively of United 

 States public documents and now comprising over 200,000 

 books. It is the most nearly complete collection extant of 

 the documents published by authority of our Government. 

 A complete collection of the early documents does not exist, 

 nor is it known now with certainty what documents and 

 reports were printed by the first fourteen congresses. To 

 lack of foresight, perhaps, and the economies of inexperienced 

 legislators, the vicissitudes of the young nation, and to 

 destruction by fire of the earlier libraries gathered for the use 

 of Congress — to all these causes the scarcity or complete 

 disappearance of early documents may be attributed. As 

 many as possible have been recovered and the collection is 

 now sufficiently full to warrant the belief that nothing very 

 important has been lost. Desultory efforts had been made 

 from time to time to collect the public documents, but not 

 until the office of Superintendent of Documents was created 

 in 1895 did these efforts completely materialize. The nucleus 

 of the public Documents Library was a miscellaneous mass of 

 documents which had been accumulated in the Government 

 Printing Office. This material was put in order, as were other 

 lots obtained from time to time, provision was made for the 

 addition of a copy of every future publication under Govern- 

 ment authority, and the whole thoroughly and systematically 

 catalogued. In this library are brought together the accounts 

 of the labors of all the army of people who have been employed 



* With the permission of the Director of the U. vS. Geological Survey. 

 t Librarian, U. S. Geological Survey. 



