KEPORT OF THE SECRETARY 139 



It might be aildoj that the librarian <;iive 14 lectures tluring tlic 

 year, chiefly before local groups, including the Shakespeare Society. 

 Several of these were on the Smithsonian Institution and its library 

 system. He also contributed a chapter on the libraries of the Insti- 

 tution to the history of Washington, entitled " Washington — Past 

 and Present," which has recently appeared. 



PHYSICAL CONDmON AND EQUIPMENT 



About 400 feet of new steel shelving were installed in the main 

 stack room of the Museum library. This additional space will relieve 

 for the time being the congested condition of the library and will 

 provide room for the rearranging of the collections that is soon to 

 be undertaken. The improvement in physical equipment and ap- 

 pearance of several of the sectional libraries, notably those of botany 

 and geology, should also be mentioned. 



(X)NCLUSION 



On the whole, the system of libraries under the Smithsonian made 

 considerable progress during the year toward becoming a complete 

 and available reference instrument worthy of the Institution. This 

 progress was retarded only by the lack of sufficient funds for bind- 

 ing, for the purchase of many of the books and periodicals requested 

 by the curators — publications which could not be obtained by ex- 

 change — and for the employment of enough trained workers to 

 enable the libraries not merely to meet the daily demands upon 

 them, but to carry forward the work of reorganization that was 

 begun a few years ago. It is gratifying to report, however, that this 

 condition was somewhat relieved by the generous action of the Freer 

 Gallery of Ai-t, already mentioned, in allotting funds for use in con- 

 nection with the cataloguing of its library; and that it will soon be 

 further relieved, for on July 1, 1930, thanks to an increase in the 

 Government appropriation to the Smithsonian for library purposes, 

 $1,000 more than last year will be available for books and periodicals, 

 and two new positions will be provided — namely, for a clerk in the 

 exchange office of the library and a senior stenographer in the 

 librarian's office. 



But to make it possible for the system fully to meet the needs 

 of the Institution, the annual sum for binding and for the ])urchase 

 of publications should be further increased, and the stalf should be 

 further augmented by at least two cataloguers to revise the cata- 

 logue of the museum library and those of other units in the Smith- 

 sonian system, to expedite the making of the union catalogue, and 

 to render available at the earliest possible moment the thousanils 

 of important publications still uncatalogued on the shelves; two 



