LIBRARY. 325 



A decided increase in the use of the periodicals by Government 

 offices outside of the Department, especially new offices, occurred dur- 

 ing the year. New lines of work in the Department, due to the war, 

 made necessary the purchase of a number of periodicals on subjects 

 apparently far afield from agriculture — for example, mining and 

 aviation journals. A marked increase is noticed also in the use of 

 commercial papers. Additional information with regard to the cur- 

 rent periodicals is contained in Appendices 7 to 9. In Appendix 7 is 

 given the number of different periodicals currently received, arranged 

 by classes. Appendix 8 shows the number emanating from the vari- 

 ous foreign countries. Appendix 9 shows the languages other than 

 English in which the periodicals are printed. 



In addition to the 2,433 current periodicals, appearing not less than 

 four times a year, the Library received 3,904 serials of less frequent 

 issue, such as annual reports, proceedings, and transactions published 

 by institutions and societies, a decrease of 701 compared with the pre- 

 vious year. This decrease was due to the difficulty of obtaining pub- 

 lications from foreign countries. 



DUPLICATES. 



While the Library received as large a number of duplicates during 

 the year as in previous years, it was not possible, on account of lack of 

 assistance, to devote as much time to the work of disposing of them. 

 Only one list of duplicates was prepared during the year. The items 

 selected from this and earlier lists filled 20 mail sacks. The majority 

 of the duplicates are selected by the libraries of the State agricultural 

 colleges and experiment stations. 



BINDING. 



Miss Fanny L. Paekeb, in OTiarge. 



The number of books and periodicals sent to the Government 

 Printing Office for binding during the year was only 1,674, a decrease 

 of 2,390 compared with the previous year. In addition to the books 

 and periodicals permanently bound, 1,674 were laced in temporary 

 binders (being 326 less than in 1917), and 1,443 pamphlets were 

 stapled in pamphlet binders (being 285 less than in 1917). The 

 amount of binding done in the last year is the smallest in years. In 

 July, 1917, the junior assistant who did the work in connection with 

 the temporary binding entered the military service. In January, 

 1918, the clerk who had helped for 10 years with the preparation of 

 the books for permanent binding resigned, and it has thus far been 

 impossible to fill his place. At the same time, it was necessary to ask 

 the assistant in charge of the binding to undertake other duties in 

 addition to the bindery work, on account of the loss of assistants in 

 other divisions of the Library. As a result of these and other handi- 

 caps due to war conditions, the bindery work has suffered greatly in 

 the past year. 



AFFILIATED ACTIVITIES. 



The various activities of the main Library and the bureau and di- 

 vision libraries described under the above heading in last year's report 



