126 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 2 8 



SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT 



The Smithsonian deposit, which, as has been said, is the main 

 library of the Institution, dates from 1866, when by an act of Con- 

 gress the Institution was authorized to deposit its library of 40,000 

 volumes in the Library of Congress. It is, of course, distributed 

 according to classification, but because of its prevailingly scientific 

 nature it is chie% in the Smithsonian division, which was established 

 in 1900 to take care of the scientific publications in the deposit, 

 together with the works of like character belonging to the Library of 

 Congress. 



The deposit has grown steadily by additions from the Institution, 

 and is now recognized as one of the outstanding collections of its 

 kind. It is especiall}^ rich in serial publications and in the reports, 

 proceedings, and transactions of the learned societies and institutions 

 of the world. 



During the fiscal year just ended the Institution sent to the deposit 

 13,558 publications, of which 2,292 were volumes, 9,773 parts of vol- 

 umes, 988 pamj^hlets, and 505 charts. Documents of foreign govern- 

 ments, largely statistical in character, to the number of 7,376, were 

 also sent, without being stamped or entered, to the document division 

 of the Library of Congress. In addition to these, 13,187 disserta- 

 tions, most of which had been received in previous years from forty 

 or more universities and technical schools in different parts of the 

 world, but which the Institution, for lack of lielp, had not been able 

 to catalogue, were forwarded to the deposit, that they might be made 

 available to scholars at the earliest possible moment. Short title 

 cards for these dissertations will be sent to the Institution as soon as 

 they are prepared for filing in the union catalogue. 



In response to special requests from the Library of Congress for 

 publications wanted for the deposit, the Smithsonian library was able 

 to obtain, as usual, many volumes and parts of volumes by exchange. 

 It is expected that this service will be greatly enlarged in the course 

 of a few months, as the result of the reorganization of the accessions 

 department of the library. 



OFFICE LIBRARY 



The office library consists of some of the more important society 

 publications that the Institution needs to have continually at hand,, 

 a set of its own publications and of those of its branches, the art- 

 room collection, the employees' library, and various reference books, 

 some assigned for special use to other divisions of the library or to 

 the administrative offices of the Institution. To this library were 

 added during the year 108 volumes and 34 pamphlets. 



