402 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



lists maintained by the library which have been described in previous 

 rerports. 



Attention was called in the report for last year to the fact that 

 no complete list of the current accessions to the library is published, 

 but that the need for information on the resources is partially filled 

 by special subject lists of new accessions to the library which appear 

 in mimeographed publications issued by several of the bureaus. 

 In addition to those mentioned last year, there is now being issued 

 twice a week by the library of the Bureau of Public Roads a mimeo- 

 graphed list of the contents of current periodicals received by the 

 bureau. The monthly list of current forestry literature which for 

 some years past has been issued separately in mimeographed form is 

 now printed in the Journal of Forestry. The first issue to contain 

 the list was the one for March, 1922. The list is prepared by the 

 librarian of the Forest Service. Another means of making known the 

 accessions to the library was presented during the year in connection 

 with the new weekly publication called the Official Record, issued 

 by the department. This publication, which is in the nature of 

 a "house organ," gave an opportunity for the library to include 

 each week a selected list of its more important accessions. It meets 

 the library's needs in some respects perhaps better than a montlily 

 bulletin oif accessions, as the Official Record is given a much more 

 extensive distribution than it would probably be possible to give 

 to a library bulletin. 



The Daily Digest, which was started last year by the library in 

 cooperation with the press service and the bureaus of the department, 

 was transferred on January 23, 1922, to the jurisdiction of the press 

 service. Because of the close relation between the work of the 

 press service, the Official Record, the Daily Digest, and the clipping 

 service, it seemed desirable to the Secretary's office that those who 

 are engaged in these various activities should have the advantage 

 of closer contact. 



BINDING. 



In the report last year mention was made of the resignation of the 

 assistant in charge of the binding and the necessity for her successor, 

 who had had no experience in binding and no previous experience in 

 this library, to take up the work after only a week's instruction under 

 the former chief. This was a severe handicap to the binding work 

 last year. A similar misfortune befell the work this year, as the 

 assistant appointed last year resigned the 1st of November, 1921, to 

 accept a more remunerative position in another library. The work 

 was carried on for six months by one of the assistants in the Periodical 

 Division. On May 15 one of the cataloguers was appointed to take 

 charge of the work. Unfortunately, she was obliged to resign on 

 July 1 because of illness in her family. The outlook for next year, 

 therefore, is also not bright. The interruption to the work during 

 the past' year, due to the inexperience of those in charge, came at a 

 particularly unfortunate time on account of the fact that for the 

 first time in several years there were sufficient funds available for 

 binding. In order to make up to some extent for the decrease in the 

 number of books prepared in the early part of the year, due to change 

 in the assistants in charge, three and sometimes four of the cata- 



