REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT, I905. 3 1 



Committee to select those projects which give the highest expecta- 

 tions of adequate returns. Projects of this kind are generally sus- 

 ceptible of definite specifications as to ways, means, and objects. At 

 present, however, judging from the great inequalities in definiteness 

 of the projects submitted to the Institution, it must be much easier 

 to formulate plans for good work in some sciences than in others. 

 Hence, quite irrespective of personal prepossessions, it seems best, 

 in this case, to follow lines of least resistance, promoting chiefly those 

 departments of research which promise sure returns, while seeking 

 at all times to raise the less highly developed to the level of the more 

 highly developed sciences. 



A difficulty which is likely to beset the Institution in the near 



„ .. future is that of a just and equitable distribu- 



buggestions on . 



Distribution of tion of its publications. Society has only lately 



Publications. emerged- from a period when libraries were main- 



tained chiefly for librarians and bookbinders and when every scholar 

 was either his own librarian or a bibliophile. Along with this laissez 

 faire system there grew up also a system of exchanges, especially 

 between learned academies and men of learning ; but the number of 

 such academies and individuals was until lately quite small and well 

 within the limits of a possible free distribution or exchange of pub- 

 lications. In recent decades, however, the number of institutions 

 maintaining libraries and the number of individuals desiring access 

 to publications have greatly increased. The needs of individuals, it 

 must be said, have been admirably met in a general way by the facil- 

 ities afforded in all of the great libraries of the world, so that the 

 worker with books can no longer afford to be his own librarian any 

 more than he can afford to be his own banker. Nevertheless, the 

 demand for a free distribution of books has increased to an extent 

 far surpassing the increase in effective libraries and effective workers 

 with books. This demand has grown to large proportions in the 

 United States especially, partly by reason of the broadcast distribu- 

 tion of public documents. 



Questioning the wisdom of an indiscriminate distribution of the 

 publications of the Institution, the provisional rules given on page 27 

 were drawn along conservative lines. The experience of the year, 

 however, shows that great pressure will soon be brought to bear on 

 the Institution by individuals and by smaller libraries desiring to be 

 placed on the free omnia list. Since drawing up such a list, which 

 embraces about three hundred of the leading libraries of the world, 

 an attempt has been made to prepare various special lists of institu- 



