138 ANNUAL EEPOllT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 30 



Tho Wistar Institute cards were filed to date, and more than 

 10,000 Concilium Bibliographicum cards of the author set were filed 

 in the main library, while the assignment, begun the year before, of 

 appropriate parts of the systematic set to the sectional libraries was 

 continued. It is hoped that the rest of this set can soon be deposited 

 m the sections interested, and that in the future the new increments 

 as they are received can immediately be sorted and sent to the cu- 

 rators for their files. In preparation for the forthcoming Supplement 

 to the Union List of Serials, the staff checked the periodical records 

 of all the Smithsonian libraries, except the deposit in the Library of 

 Congress, for new entries and for sets completed since 1925 — a task 

 which required a great deal of time. The work of organizing, the 

 scientific duplicates in the west stacks of the main building, which 

 had been in progress for several years, was completed to the point 

 where most of the material became available for use. The result was 

 that before the end of the year hundreds of publications — many of 

 which could not otherwise have been obtained except by purchase, 

 and then often at fanc}^ prices — were taken from the collection and 

 assigned to the sets in which they were lacking. The rest will soon 

 be used in the same way, or will be sent in exchange to other 

 libraries. 



In this connection it may be reported that 93 volumes and parts 

 of the Bulletin of the Philosophical Society of Washington were 

 sent to the society for use in completing its three sets. About 9,600 

 other duplicates not needed by the libraries of the Institution were 

 distributed to Harvard University, Yale University, Chicago Uni- 

 versity, and the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, for 

 similar use, under an arrangemxcnt by which the Smithsonian is to 

 receive an equivalent exchange, not merely of old material, but in 

 the case of at least two of the universities, of new material issued by 

 their presses. This happy arrangement will result in placing pub- 

 lications not required by the Institution in strategic positions else- 

 where for the furthering of research and in conserving Smithsonian 

 funds for the purchase of publications that can not be obtained by 

 exchange. 



The popular and semipopular material that had previously been 

 brought together in a special building behind the Astrophysical 

 Observatory and roughly grouped was more carefully arranged, 

 pending final disposal. The set of star charts that the Smithsonian 

 has been receiving for some years from various important observa- 

 tories was transferred as a semipermanent loan to the United States 

 Naval Observatory, and the Institution's set of Russian meteorologi- 

 cal bulletins was likewise transferred to the United States Weather 

 Bureau, the purpose in each case being to place the material where 

 it would be of most aid to investigators. 



