502 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



ways in which its efficiency may be increased. Already there are indi- 

 cations of an increasing realization by the stations as a whole of the 

 importance of their library as a factor in their work, but in too many 

 cases it may even yet be questioned if the library has received its full 

 measure of sympathetic attention. 



Upon the usefulness of a library well equipped and properly cared 

 for to the work of an institution which has for its fundamental pur- 

 pose research, there would seemingly be as little need to dwell as on 

 the necessity of supplying to the investigator his apparatus or the 

 other equipment for his work. In many of the stations this is now 

 realized and great liberality is shown in the purchase of the scientific 

 and technical books and journals required, and in providing for their 

 care by suitably trained assistants. Others, however, have hesitated 

 at expenditures which seem to yield chiefly an indirect return, or 

 have perhaps overestimated the difficulties in the development of the 

 library. 



The gradual building up of such a library as the station ordinarily 

 requires need not involve heavy cash outlay, especially for the class 

 of literature with which the station worker has especially to deal. 

 There is now a great accumulation of public documents to be obtained 

 by libraries without charge, such as the publications of this Depart- 

 ment and of the state experiment stations, these two sources alone 

 now numbering fully twelve thousand publications. Current files of 

 the leading agricultural papers of the United States and publications 

 of agricultural, horticultural, dairy, and kindred societies may often 

 be acquired by exchange or by gift, as may also many publications of 

 departments of agriculture and of agricultural schools and societies 

 in foreign countries. 



Once the necessary reference books have been obtained the cash 

 outlay may be therefore largely applied for scientific periodicals, 

 review journals, and special works made necessary for specific investi- 

 gations. Even these may often be curtailed. One very effective way 

 is by interlibrary lending, a practice which is growing more and more 

 common in this country and which gives opportunity of consulting 

 works which are needed for only a short time or are too expensive to 

 justify outright purchase. Among others, the Library of Congress 

 has a liberal system of loans to responsible libraries at a distance, and 

 the Library of this Department is frequently able to loan certain 

 classes of publications under reasonable restrictions. There are also 

 possibilities in the cooperative purchase of books and in the exchange 

 of duplicate collections. 



The mere accumulation of publications, however, by no means con- 

 stitutes a library. Without systematic arrangement and careful 

 classification and cataloguing the collection can be little but a cum- 

 berer of the ground, and without constant oversight and attention 



