120 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 193 9 



Among the noteworthy sendings were those from the Royal Cornwall 

 Polytechnic Society, Falmouth; Societe Forestiere Mediterraneenne 

 et Coloniale, Paris; R. Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome; 

 Anstalt fiir Sudetendeutsch Heimatforschung der Deutschen Wissen- 

 schaftlichen Gesellschaft, Reichenberg; Deutsches Museum von 

 Meisterwerken der Naturwissenschaft und Technik, Miinchen; 

 Kongelige Frederiks Universitet, Oslo; and School of American 

 Research, Santa Fe. 



There were also important sendings of dissertations from the uni- 

 versities of Berlin, Bern, Bonn, Breslau, Cornell, Dresden, Erlangen, 

 Freiburg, Gand, Giessen, Greifswald, Halle, Heidelberg, Helsingfors, 

 Jena, Johns Hopkins, Kiel, Kbnigsberg, Leipzig, Liege, Louvain, 

 Lund, Marburg, Miinchen, Neuchatel, Pennsylvania, Rostock, 

 Tubingen, Utrecht, Warsaw, Wiirzburg, and Ziirich, and the techni- 

 cal schools of Berlin, Delft, Dresden, Karlsruhe, and Ziirich. These 

 numbered, in all, 5,190, of which 2,389 were added to the Smithsonian 

 deposit, and the rest, being medical in character and so not desired 

 by the Library of Congress, were given to the Surgeon General's 

 library. 



As usual, the letters written by the staff related, for the most part, 

 to the exchange work of the library. They totaled 2,290. Many of 

 these were prepared in response to 725 want cards indicating the 

 special needs of the libraries of the Institution. They were instru- 

 mental in arranging for 263 new exchanges and in bringing to the 

 collections 5,757 publications that were lacking. The number thus 

 obtained was 442 more than in 1938. It should be said, however, 

 that some of the items in question were found, as in previous years, 

 in the west stacks, where a mass of duplicate and other material has 

 recently been sorted and put in order. 



The library continued to solicit the return from colleges, museums, 

 and public libraries throughout the country of duplicate copies of 

 Smithsonian publications not wanted in their files. It is gratifying to 

 report that the generous response to this effort — begun several years 

 ago in cooperation with the offices of publications — ^lias made it possible 

 for the library to secure many volumes and parts long missing in its 

 own sets, as well as in sets of other institutions, and to enlarge its 

 exchange activities on behalf of its collections, particularly those in 

 the Smithsonian deposit, the National Museum, the Astrophysical 

 Observatory, and the National Collection of Fine Arts. 



GIFTS 



The past year brought a good many gifts to the library. Out- 

 standing among them was that of 1,636 publications, mostly in Chinese, 

 on the history, art, science, and literature of China. This collection 



