The general reading-room housing the main card-catalogue and 

 the Kardex Serials Record is the center for information. Full use 

 of its reference resources is made by Museum members, teachers, 

 students, research workers, and those who seek information by- 

 means of the telephone. Considerable time is devoted by the 

 Library staff to the important service of meeting specific requests. 

 Because the Museum Library is not centralized but is divided into 

 departmental and divisional libraries its use in terms of volumes 

 borrowed is difficult to show (the recorded number of volumes lent 

 is 2,191). The books used by readers and by those who borrow on 

 interlibrary loan represent only a fraction of the continuous use of 

 the Library's resources. The courtesies extended to us by libraries 

 participating in the interlibrary-loan service are gratefully acknowl- 

 edged. Throughout the year requests for photostats and photo- 

 graphic reproduction as well as microfilms have increased. 



The project of completely cleaning, rearranging, and reshelving 

 the books in the geology library was completed. The ease with 

 which books are now found and the improved appearance of this 

 departmental library justify the effort. 



It is with deep gratitude and pleasure that we acknowledge the 

 outstanding co-operation accorded to the Museum Library by the 

 John Crerar Library, and we again express our thanks for the many 

 courtesies to our Library and to members of the Museum staff. We 

 are especially appreciative of the continued interest of Herman H. 

 Henkle, Librarian, who made possible the transfer from the Crerar 

 Library of additionally selected periodicals on the natural sciences, 

 together with 149 volumes on malacology and 552 volumes on 

 entomology. As in previous years the Library has benefited from 

 the generosity of donors who contributed books and periodicals on 

 a variety of subjects in the natural sciences. Our gratitude is here 

 expressed to these friends of the Museum (see page 107). 



The Library acknowledges the competent assistance given to it 

 by the four students from Antioch College assigned to work on 

 a part-time basis during the year. The bibliographies compiled by 

 Miss Lucretia Kight and Miss Barbara Meredith enabled the 

 Library to dispose of a number of volumes not relevant to the 

 collection, including some duplicate material (disposal of these 

 volumes was made through exchange and sale, and material sold 

 netted the sum of $1,116.50, all of which is reserved for Library 

 purchases). Phillip Mershon assisted ably in the reading-room 

 where he performed varied duties, and William Peyton Fawcett, 

 whose knowledge of library procedure was of inestimable value, 

 was especially helpful in the cataloguing division (see page 68). 



70 



