in Mr. Memminger's work. 



A set of European plants, chiefly mosses, has been given by 

 Miss Henrietta A. Kelly. 



LIBRARY 



An adequate library is as essential to successful museum work 

 as to all other scientific endeavor. It is often necessary to refer 

 to many technical books and journals in order to identify speci- 

 mens and prepare accurate descriptive labels, and it is also high- 

 ly desirable that library facilities of less technical nature be ac- 

 cessible to the visitor who becomes interested in learning more 

 than the labels tell of the exhibits. The public reading room 

 was the first department of the Museum to be opened in the new 

 building and its attractiveness is a constant satisfaction to the 

 staff. The library itself seems to have been created almost out 

 of nothing, for nearly four thousand volumes have been acquired 

 with very small appropriations for purchase. So fast have the 

 books come in that the great problem has been to care for them 

 adequately and make them accessible when needed. There has 

 been hardly a member of the staff but has taken a turn in caring 

 for the library. In this way a classed catalog was made of the 

 books accessible up to the end of 1908. When a permanent 

 librarian was employed in 1909 it was decided that a dictionary 

 catalog would best serve the requirements of the library. In 

 making this change the old cards of the classed catalog have been 

 redistributed as author cards. Since that time the number of 

 books on the shelves has practically doubled, and many difficult 

 technical problems of classification have been worked out. The 

 library, although not large in number of volumes, is comparable 

 to the science section of a large library and presents many dif- 

 ficulties not encountered in general libraries of moderate size. 



The appointment of an assistant in the library makes it possi- 

 ble for the routine work to be done under the supervision of Miss 

 Bragg, while leaving much of her time free for installation of ex- 

 hibits and educational work. Like other departments of the Muse- 

 um, the library shows now the results of the long and difficult 

 process of reorganization. The demands upon the library by the 

 staff have increased with the prosecution of the biological survey 

 and its use by students is much larger. 



Library exchanges have grown since the publication of the Con- 

 tributions was begun. Exchanges with the following institu- 

 tions have been inaugurated during the year: Academy of Natural 



11 



