DIVISION OF PUBLICATIONS. 623 



PRESS LISTS. 



This Division maintains a list of agricultural and other news- 

 papers and periodicals to which are sent copies of all publications 

 issued by the Department in editions permitting such distribution, 

 and a smaller list of Washington correspondents, to which copies 

 of practically every document are mailed promptly upon issue. 



Notices of important work done by the Department which may be 

 of public interest are prepared in "this Division and, with the ap- 

 proval of the Secretary, are distributed to the press. The number of 

 press notices sent out during the last fiscal j'ear Avas 12G, and the total 

 number of m.imeograph copies aggregated 124,850. Thus the infor- 

 mation acquired by the Department is given a wider dissemination 

 than is possible by the distribution of its publications, which can not 

 always be issued in editions large enough to supply the demand. 



AVOIDANCE or DUPLICATION IN DISTRIBUTION OF DOCUMENTS. 



During the year it was ascertained that 184 libraries on various 

 lists maintained in the Department were also receiving through the 

 Superintendent of Documents, who, by provision of law, has 565 

 copies of every document printed for distribution to Government de- 

 positories, copies of all publications issued by the Department, and 

 the addresses of these libraries were removed from the Department's 

 mailing list, resulting in an aggregate saving of more than 220,000 

 copies of various publications, which number therefore became avail- 

 able for general distribution. The effort of the Division as a part of 

 its economical management of the printing fund is to prevent any 

 duplication in the distribution of the Department's documents, and 

 therefore from time to time, when discovered, such addresses are 

 removed from all but one of the lists on which they may occur. 



Additional measures for the prevention of duplication in the dis- 

 tribution of publications have been inaugurated, involving changes 

 in the policy with regard to reprints and individual lists in accordance 

 with the instructions of the Secretarv, under which this Division was 

 authorized May 30, 1910— 



1. To discontinue the furnishing of publications to Bureaus, Di- 

 visions, and Offices for redistribution by them, it being the policy to 

 restrict all distribution and mailing of publications to the Division 

 of Publications in accordance with the provisions of section 92 of 

 the act of January 12, 1895. All letters received by a Bureau, Divi- 

 sion, or Office wliicli are simply requests for pul)lications are to be 

 referred to this office for attention and reply; all letters of a general 

 character which would require an expert opinion to satisfactorily 

 answer are, by direction of the Secretary, to be referred to the Bu- 

 reau, Division, or Office to whose work it relates, where the letter may 

 be answered, and. if necessary to forward publications, an order for the 

 same should be made on tliis Office for tlie mailincf of the documents. 

 Each Bureau, Division, and Office will, as heretofore, receive not ex- 

 ceeding 200 copies of each of its publications, including 100 for the 

 author, which are for office use and not for miscellaneous distribution. 



2. All recommendations for reprints of publications shall be made 

 by the Division of Publications and not by the various Bureaus, 

 Divisions, and Offices from which the publications emanated, as the 



