130 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1930 



SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT 



The Smithsonian deposit in the Library of Congress is the main 

 unit in the library system of the Institution. It dates from 1866, 

 when for various reasons Congress granted authority to the Smith- 

 sonian to deposit its library of 40,000 volumes in the Library of 

 Congress. Since that time the collection has been steadily increased 

 by scndings from the Institution until it now numbers more than 

 a half million volumes, pamphlets, and charts, together with thou- 

 sands of volumes still uncompleted. The deposit comprises works 

 relating to many branches of knowledge, but chiefly to the natural 

 and physical sciences, and includes a collection of scientific serials 

 and of the publications of learned institutions and societies that is 

 unique for completeness among groups of its kind. Most of the 

 items have come to the Institution during its 80 years and more of 

 existence in exchange for its publications and those of the Govern- 

 ment bureaus under its direction. In 1900 the Library of Con- 

 gress established a special division, known as the Smithsonian divi- 

 sion, to take charge of the scientific publications in the deposit, as 

 well as of similar works belonging to the library itself. The rest 

 of the publications are shelved in the other divisions of the library 

 according to subject. It follows that the Smithsonian deposit is 

 not, as many have supposed, synonymous and coextensive with the 

 Smithsonian division. 



In the course of the year just closed the library of the Institution 

 forwarded to the deposit 19,144 publications, consisting of 2,720 

 volumes, 11,802 parts of volumes, 4,352 pamphlets, and 270 charts. 

 Among these were 2,205 publications that the Smithsonian library 

 had obtained in exchange for the deposit, in response to want cards 

 sent from the order division, periodical division, and Smithsonian 

 division, or more than two and one-half times the number obtained 

 in the fiscal year 1929 and nearly five times the number in 1928. 

 Among them, too, were 4,484 dissertations. The library also for- 

 warded 13,729 documents of foreign governments, without stamping 

 or entering them, to the division of documents. The total number 

 of publications, therefore, added to the Library of Congress during 

 the year by the Smithsonian library was 32,873 — an increase of 

 nearly 10,000 over the year before. This noteworthy increase, which 

 was due primarily to the reorganization of the accessions department 

 already referred to, was due also, in no small measure, to the hearty 

 cooperation the library staff received from those in immediate 

 charge of the various divisions of the Library of Congress chiefly 

 concerned, notably the Smithsonian division. 



