THE LIBRARY. 807 



It is gratifying ta be able to report that the amount of uncatalogued 

 material on hand on July 1, 1912, was much less than in the two pre- 

 vious years. The number of uncatalogued books and pamphlets on 

 hand on July 1, 1910 wtis 1,739; on July 1, 1911, 1,984; on July 1, 

 1912, 722. 



The separate collection of pamphlets kept in pamphlet boxes, 

 arranged by subject and represented in the catalogue only by tem- 

 porary author cards with abbreviated imprint, was considerably 

 mcreased during the year, 597 pamphlets having been catalogued 

 and added to the collection, which now numbers 2,086. This method 

 of cataloguing the less important pamphlets has proved fairly satis- 

 factory and has resulted in a considerable saving of time. 



In previous reports attention has been called to the need for a 

 revision of the catalogue. Before beginning the revision it was 

 deemed advisable to consider in general not only the catalogues 

 and cataloguing of the main Library^ but also of the Bureau libraries. 

 The librarian accordingly appointed a catalo^iing committee, com- 

 posed of the assistant in charge of the cataloguing in the main Library 

 and representatives from the libraries of the Bureau of Chemistry, 

 Bureau of Entomology, Forest Service, and Bureau of Plant In- 

 dustry, to consider the general subject of cataloguing and indexing 

 in the department. The committee held several meetings during 

 April, May, and June. A report of their work was presented at the 

 June staff meeting. In addition to making certain definite recom- 

 mendations for the improvement of the main Library catalogue, 

 which recommendations can probably be carried out witliout a great 

 expenditure of time, the committee also made other recommenda- 

 tions in the line of cooperation which will, it is believed, be a step 

 toward coordinating the work of cataloguing and indexing in the 

 Department and toward rendering the work now being done in the 

 various libraries more generally available. It is hoped that it will 

 be possible durin» the coming year to devot-e considerable time to 

 the revision of the catalogue. In the meantime it is a decided 

 advantage to have settled for the time being certain vexed questions 

 in regard to the catalogue and to have decided on a general poUcy in 

 connection with the work. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL WORK. 



The only bibliographical work done by the main Library during the 

 year was the completion of the Catalogue of publications relating to 

 forestry contained in the Department Library (Library Bulletin No. 

 76), which was prepared in cooperation with the Forest Service. 

 Considerable bibliograpliical work has, however, been done by the 

 Bureau libraries. The bibliography on the White Mountain and 

 Appalachian llegions, begun in tne spring of 1911 by the Librarian 

 oi^ the Forest Service, was completed and printed in the Proceedings 

 of the Socit^ty of American Foresters in the fall of 1911. It con- 

 tained about 2,000 references. In addition, the librarian of the 

 Forest Service com])iled during the past year a bibliography of about 

 1,000 references on forest influences, to accomjiany Ap])endLx 5 of the 

 Final Report of the National Waterways Commission. The monthly 

 liat of current forestry literature prepared for some time by tlic 



