18 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1941 



the year to 894,655 items. As usual, many gifts were received, among 

 the largest of which were a collection of 942 scientific books and 

 journals belonging to the late Frederick E. Fowle of the Smith- 

 sonian staff and presented by his widow; 622 publications from the 

 Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington; 

 and 612 publications from the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science. Again during the past year the library's 

 exchange work was carried on with great difficulty because of war 

 conditions abroad. Most of the publications that failed to come 

 were European and Asiatic. Some of these are being held by the 

 issuing agencies for transmission after the wars are over, others have 

 delayed publication, but a few have been discontinued. The library 

 staff cataloged 6,693 volumes, pamphlets, and charts; prepared and 

 filed 40,238 catalog and shelf -list cards; made 22,311 periodical 

 entries; loaned 10,990 publication to members of the Smithsonian 

 staff; and conducted an interlibrary loan service with 45 libraries 

 outside the Smithsonian system. Other activities included work on 

 the union catalog; a large amount of bibliographic assistance to 

 members of the Smithsonian staff and others; and checking of the 

 serial holdings in connection with the forthcoming second edition 

 of the Union List of Serials. The funds allotted to the library per- 

 mitted it to bind 958 volumes — only one-half of those completed for 

 binding during the year. The most urgent need, therefore, is for 

 more adequate funds for binding in order to prevent loss of parts 

 of volumes that may be very difficult, if not impossible, to replace. 

 Respectfully submitted. 



C. G. Abbot, Secretary. 



