320 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



responsibility of supplying their wants in so far as they are able and 

 has of necessity greatly increased the volume of their work. In- 

 quiries have been received in person and by telephone and letter. 

 There has been a marked increase in the number of inquiries received 

 by telephone from offices outside of the Department. When the 

 Library has not been able to supply the required printed data, it 

 has frequently been able to refer the inquirer to the office of the de- 

 partment which could supply the information. 



As records are not kept of the reference use of the Library, it is not 

 possible to give a complete list of all the Government offices outside 

 of the Department which have used the Library for reference only, 

 but, b}^ means of the records kept at the loan desk, it is possible to 

 mention a number of those which have borrowed books and periodi- 

 cals from our collections. 



The Food Administration has made frequent use of the facilities 

 of the main Library and also of the branch libraries. Without the 

 resources of our Library to draw upon it would have been consider- 

 ably hampered in some of its research work, as it has had no ap- 

 propriation for the purchase of books. 



Among the new Government offices which have used the main 

 Library and the branches may be mentioned the American University 

 Experiment Station of the War Department, the Edgewood Arsenal 

 and other branches of the Chemical War Service, the Committee on 

 Public Information, the Federal Board for Vocational Education, 

 the Division of Export Licenses, and other offices of the War Trade 

 Board, various divisions and offices of the Council of National De- 

 fense, including the Women's Committee, the Shipping Board, and 

 the War Industries Board. 



Among the older offices which have used the Library may be noted 

 the Army Medical School, Combustion and Repair Division of the 

 Navy Department, the Federal Trade Commission, the Military In- 

 telligence Office, the Food Division of the Surgeon General's Office, 

 the Signal Corps, Ordnance Department and Engineers' Office of the 

 War Department, the Department of Labor, the Department of Com- 

 merce, the Naval Hospital, Bureau of Mines, Geological Survey, 

 Bureau of Standards, Hygienic Laboratory, Division of Textiles 

 and other offices of the National Museum and Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, and the Geophysical Laboratory. 



In addition to the reference work done in answer to inquiries, a 

 beginning has been made on an information file to supplement, the 

 catalogue of the Library. In this will be filed, by subject, printed 

 and typewritten material of interest but of ephemeral value. While 

 too new as yet to have proved its value, it is believed that the file will 

 grow into a most useful reference tool, and that it will simplify the 

 problem of making accessible material of current interest but not 

 suitable for permanent cataloguing. 



The reference work of the year and the demands for " up-to-the- 

 minute information" which the war has emphasized have demon- 

 strated forcibly a need for information which can not be met by the 

 catalogue, the information file of ephemeral material, or the various 

 printed indexes. Many of the very special subjects on which inquir- 

 ies were received were subjects on which little or no printed in- 

 formation was available and which would not, therefore, be included 



