MBRARy. 



435 



insLitutions wliicli arc sent to various offices of tlio department and 

 turned over to the liluary. Consideral)]e time was spent in making? 

 a separate list of the hirfje nunihei- of duplicates of the International 

 Institute of Afjriculture. Rome, which had heen received in this way. 

 This list was sent to 2^^ institutions and ahout one-third of the dupli- 

 cates were selected. The lihrarv has gi'eat need of an assistant wh()se 

 full time can he devoted to tlie woi-k of listing; and disposinp; of the 

 (hiplicates in order to keep the work up to date, especially as there is 

 little space available for storage. 



MAILING LISTS AND mSTRIBl'TION OF DEPARTMENT PllBLICATIONS. 



There were l,7oS oi-(k'i"s issued on the Division of rub!i<'Htions 

 for the mailinjr of de]>artment ]nil)lications whidi were requested 

 l>y foreif:n institutions and officials and by societies and prixiUe 

 individuals from whi. li ])ubli<ations are re<-eived in exdiange. This 

 was an inc rease of 164 over the ])n^vious year, due to the fa't that 

 exchange arrangements whi'h were interrupted during the war arc 

 now gradually being renewed. Ciuisiderable time was s])cnt in the 

 rc'vision of the various mailing lists. ]>arti'ularly the foreign list to 

 which is sent the Monthly list of Publications. The work in con- 

 nection with the (Hstribution of dc^partment pul)lications to foreign 

 countries and to librjiries in the United States is appropriately 

 assigned to tlu^ librurv because of its close c-onnction with the A\'ork 

 of obtaining exchanges. 



BINDING DIVISION. 



Miss Ida B. Swart, (^hief. 



During the yc^ar 1,<S66 volumc^s were sent to the bindery, a de- 

 crease of 145 as compared with the previous year. In addition to 

 the number of books permanc^ntly bound, jqiproximately 1,000 vol- 

 umes were Lved into tem"|)orary binders iind 0S4 ])am])hlets were 

 sta])led into tem])orary binders. The binding work has suffered 

 greatly, owing in ])art to la-^'k of assistan'-c for the work jind in ])art 

 to the lack of funds for binding. The second assistant in the bind- 

 ing work resigned in -('anuary, and it has not yet been ])ossiblc^ to fill 

 the position. The following table .shows the nund)er of books which 

 have been bound during the last ten years and the number of ]>eri- 

 odicals currently reccuved. 



Comparison of the figures given above will show that whereas the 

 number of c-uirent periodicals received has increased from 1,!)7S to 

 2,7o7, the number 01 volumes sent to the })in(lerv has decreased. No 

 more convincing argumc'iit need be given for the urgent need for a 

 greatly incrca-ed alJotment for library binding if the current j>erio(l- 

 icals and otlici- unbound publications are to be adecpiately cared for 

 and made available for convenient use. In order to meet the library's 

 I)resent needs, the number of books and periodicals bound annually 

 sliould not be less than ."),00() volumes. 



