94 AN"NUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, ^1912. 



GENERAL WORK ON THE LIBRARY. 



As an aid in determining the actual deficiencies in various sets in 

 the Smithsonian deposit in the Library of Congress, a special search 

 was made through the Library of the National Museum for volumes 

 and parts of volumes belonging to the deposit, and it is expected that 

 before the Museum Library is moved into the new building prac- 

 tically all that have lodged there will have been found and sent to the 

 Library of Congress to be entered in the proper records. In addi- 

 tion, requests have been made upon institutions and societies to 

 secure lacking parts, with the result that many sets have been com- 

 pleted. Revised want lists of French and English publications, 

 prepared at the Library of Congress, were examined, and in many 

 cases the publications were supplied by the institutions and societies. 



The author catalogue for the general series of publications received 

 was continued, and the results were all that could be desired. Cata- 

 logue cards made for the author-donor catalogue numbered 10,012. 

 Publications catalogued comprised 11,194 volumes, 171 new peri- 

 odicals, and 383 charts. Of the volumes, 1,712 were recatalogued. 



During the year 3,731 parts of scientific periodicals and popular 

 magazines and 250 bound volumes were lent to readers, making a 

 total of 3,981. 



CATAI>OGUE OF SMITHSONIAN PUBLICATIONS. 



An analytical card catalogue of the publications of the Institution 

 to include both author and subject entries has been begun. Some time 

 will yet be required to complete the task, as the cards under present 

 conditions can be prepared only during intervals in the regular work 

 at the cataloguing and accession desks. Much thought was given to 

 plans for the preparation of a catalogue of Smithsonian publications 

 to be printed in book form, which is greatly needed at the present 

 time, but on account of the limited funds available for printing it was 

 deemed by the secretary inadvisable to undertake the work this year. 



READING AND REFERENCE ROOMS. 



A rearrangement of the reading rooms, to make more space for 

 readers, is in progress. The accession books are to be placed in a case 

 erected on the west side of the room, the table in the middle of the 

 room is to be reduced in size, one cataloguer's desk is to be transferred 

 to another room, and a table with bins for periodicals is to be placed 

 under the north windows. 



The publications in the reference room and those in the reading 

 room are now in charge of one person. 



ART ROOM. 



The contents of this room were rearranged during the year and pub- 

 lications not directly relating to the fine art* placed in the sectional 



