132 



ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 193 



side of the Smithsonian employees, came about 225 such inquiries, 

 while to the natural history library came many more. 



The sectional libraries, which number 36, are the immediate work- 

 ing tools of the curators and their assistants. Many of them are 

 rich in highly specialized material, nuich of which has not been 

 catalogued. These libraries present other problems, too, that are 

 pressing for solution, and one of their most urgent needs is of two 

 assistants who can be detailed from the main library to spend their 

 full time looking after the interests of these smaller but very impor- 

 tant library units. During the past year it was possible for the 

 library staff to find time for only a few pieces of work in these 

 libraries, such as preparing 2,G80 cards for the pamphlet collection 

 in the division of mammals, aiding the department of geology in 

 increasing quite materially its set of the publications of the various 

 State geological surveys, and cooperating with the scientific staff of 

 the division of plants in reorganizing the library of that division, 

 especially by arranging 10,000 cards for its reference file and get- 

 ting the John Donnell Smith botanical collection ready for transfer 

 to its shelves. This included the making of a catalogue of the 

 collection. 



These libraries are as follows : 



Atliuiiiistratiou. 



Adiuiiilslrative a.s.sis(ant's office. 



Aiucricaii archeology. 



AiitliroiK)logy. 



Biology. 



15ir(ls. 



IJolany. 



Ecliinodei'ins. 



Editor's office. 



Ethnology. 



Fishes. 



Foods 



Geology. 



Graphic arts. 



History. 



Insects. 



Invertehra to paleontology. 



Mammals. 



Marine invertchrates. 



Mi'chanical technology. 



Medicine. 



Minerals. 



Mineral technology. 



Mollusks. 



Old World aicheology. 



Organic chemistry. 



Paleobotany. 



Photcjgraphy. 



Physical anthropology. 



Property clerk's office. 



Reptiles and batrachians. 



Superintendent's office. 



Taxidermy. 



Textiles. 



Vertebrate paleontology. 



Wood technology. 



OFFICE LIBRARY 



The office library' .serves Smithsonian emploj^ecs in two ways. It 

 keeps constantly on hand in the administrative offices, reading rooms, 

 and other convenient places many works of general reference, includ- 

 ing dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, and sets of Smithsonian and 

 other learned publications; it also provides material, to a limited 



