LIBRARY. 399 



Bureau of Agricultural Economics would be enacted by Congress, 

 plans were made for combining the three libraries and for the reor- 

 ganization of their work. 



The first step toward the consolidation was the combining of the 

 current periodical files and the circulation records of the three 

 libraries. This work was carried out previous to July 1, but o"v\dng to 

 the dela}^ in obtaining the new rooms on the third floor of the Bieoer 

 Building for the use of the library of the combined bureaus, it was 

 possible to carry out the physical consolidation of the book collec- 

 tions only in part before July 1, 1922. The small collections of the 

 office of Farm Management were merged with those of the Bureau 

 of Markets during the early spring and the librarian of the office 

 moved to the library of the Bureau of Markets and Crop Estimates 

 on May 15, as she had been appointed assistant librarian of the com- 

 bined bureaus. The library ox the former Bureau of Crop Estimates, 

 which was located on the second floor of the main building, could not, 

 however, be moved until after July 1 . As the library of the former 

 Bureau of Crop Estimates was one of the largest of the branch 

 libraries, the moving of the collection to the bunding in which the 

 main library is located is a big step toward carrying out the policy 

 of consolidating the collections in so far as possible. While the col- 

 lections of these combined bureaus will not be actually incorporated 

 wath those of the main library, they will be in close proximity to the 

 main library. 



In the death on November 5 of Miss Eunice R. Oberly, librarian 

 of the Bureau of Plant Industry, the library work of the bureau and 

 of the whole department suffered an irreparable loss. She had organ- 

 ized the library of the bureau and had shaped its policjT^, directed 

 its activities, and year by year made wider opportunities for its 

 service. For six months after her death the anairs of the library 

 were administered by Miss Jessie M. Allen, assistant librarian of the 

 bureau, and on May 16 the position of librarian was filled by the 

 appointment of Miss Marjorie F. Warner, who had been for 19 years 

 at the head of the bibliographical investigations project of the office 

 of Economic and Systematic Botany, a project which for many 

 years past has been in such close cooperation with the bureau library 

 as to form practically a part of it. 



The necessity for moving from two of its rooms during the year 

 hampered ver}^ considerably the routine work of the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry library. In November it was necessary to vacate the small 

 room used for periodical work and to take in place of it a room on the 

 floor above. Although the change involved little loss in actual space, 

 it required many readjustments of work. In May the library was 

 obliged to give up one of its large rooms to the seed laboratory, which 

 had been moved from the Bieber Building to the west wing. The 

 restricted space left to the library made it impossible for it to carry 

 on all of its former activities. In spite of almost equall}^ crowded 

 conditions in the main library the time seemed favorable for trans- 

 ferring to it some of the routine work as a trial move toward further 

 consolidation and coordination of such work in the interests of 

 3Conomy and efficiency of the whole departmental library service. 

 Accordingly all the records of book charges were transferred to the 

 main library and incorporated with the records of the loan desk. An 

 assistant from the Bureau of Plant Industry library was detailed to 



