726 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEP.UITMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



LIBRARY PUBLICATIONS. 



Tlie publication of the quarterly bulletin of accessions entitled 

 "Accessions to tlie Department Ijibrary" was continued tlirouj^h 

 the calendar year 19()<). The bulletins (Xos. 73 and 74) for the 

 two quarters from July to December, 1909, comprised 131 pages, 

 an average of 65 pages to a bulletin. As a quarterly bulletin is too 

 infrequent and a bulletin of 65 pages too large for satisfactory use 

 as a record of current accessions, it was decided to discontinue the 

 quarterly list of accessions and to ])ublish in its place a monthly 

 bulletin, beginning with January, 1910. The six numbers for the 

 period January to June, 1910, have been paged consecutively and 

 comprise 167 pages. The classified subject arrangement which has 

 been found useful in the quarterly bulletins has been continued in 

 the monthly bulletins. At the end of the year an author index 

 will be issued. As a list of accessions the Monthly Bulletin has the 

 advantage of more frequent issue and with the publication of an 

 author index at the end of each year its permanent usefulness as a 

 bibliography of agricultural and scientific literature will be greatly 

 increased. The title was changed from "Accessions to the Depart- 

 ment Library" to "Monthly Bulletin," in order to make it more 

 comprehensive, since it is planned to include other matter besides 

 the list of accessions. On tlie back cover have been printed lists of 

 some of our desiderata. B}' calling attention in this way to our 

 wants it is hoped that we will be able to acquire many publications 

 needed to complete the library fdes. 



In addition to the Monthly Bulletin the regular series of librar}^ 

 bulletins will be continued. It will include the miscellaneous 

 publications of the library, such as special lists and bibliographies 

 on various subjects. In December, 1909, was issued in this series 

 Bulletin No. 75, entitled "List of periodicals currently received in 

 the library of the United States Department of Agriculture." The 

 list was prepared by the Assistant Librarian, Miss Emma B. Hawks, 

 and comprises 72 pages. 



The Report of the Librarian for 1909, a pamphlet of 16 pages, was 

 issued in November, 1909. 



MAILING LISTS AND FOREIGN EXCHANGES. 



In the last report of the Library considerable space was given to a 

 statement on the various mailing lists in charge of the Librar}^. As 

 there have been no decided changes in the lists during the past year, 

 a detailed statement in regard to them is not given in the present 

 report. In addition to having charge of the "Libraries List" and the 

 various foreign mailing lists, it has also been the duty of the Library 

 for some years to attend to the miscellaneous reqi:ests from foreign 

 countries for publications of the Department. There has been a 

 certain propriety in having this work in charge of the Library, in 

 view of the close comiection between exchanges and the distribution 

 of publications. There is no doubt that by reason of its connection 

 with the distribution of Department publications the Library has been 

 able to increase greatly the number and value of its exchanges. But, 

 in view of the tendency toward centralization in the distribution of 

 government publications, it is a question whether it would not per' 



