188 EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT OF 



tion, and to digest into the form of a general programme the several 

 resolutions of the Board. In the programme which was thus produced 

 and afterwards adopted, it is attempted to harmonize the different pro- 

 positions of the Board, and to render them all, library, collections, &c., 

 as far as possible, subservient to a living, active organization. Though 

 a valuable library will in time be accumulated, by donation and the 

 exchange of the pubHcntiuns of the Institution, the design at first is to 

 purchase only such books as are immediately necessary in the other 

 operations of the Institution, or which cannot be procured in this coun- 

 try ; and the Librarian is required to perform other duties than those 

 which pertain to the office of an ordinary collector and curator of books. 

 He is directed to report on plans of libraries, and the best method of 

 managing them; to collect the statistics of the libraries of the United 

 States; to make a general catalogue as far as possible of all the books 

 in this country, and to procure all the information necessary for render- 

 ing the Institution a centre of bibliographical knowledge. Instead of 

 attempting to form a miscellaneous collection of objects of nature and 

 art, it is proposed to collect only those which will yield a harvest of 

 new results, and to preserve principally such as are not found in other 

 collections, or will serve to illustrate and verify the Smithsonian pubh- 

 cations. 



The tendency of an Institution in which collections form a prominent 

 object, is constantly towards a stationary condition ; with a given in- 

 come, the time must inevitably come when the expenditures necessary 

 to accommodate the articles with house room and attendance will just 

 equal the receipts. There is indeed no plan by which the funds of an 

 institution may be more inefficiently expended, than that of filling a 

 costly building with an indiscriminate collection of objects of curiosity, 

 and giving these in charge to a set of inactive curators. Happily, the 

 programme of organization and the system of expenditure which the 

 Regents have adopted, if rigidly adhered to, will prevent this state of 

 things, and happily the spirit of the present directors and officers who 

 are to give the initial form to the character of the Institution, is in 

 accordance with as active operations as the state of the funds and 

 requisitions of Congress will allow. 



It is to be regretted that Congress did not leave the entire choice of 

 the plan of organization to those who were to be entrusted with the 

 management of the bequest, and that, instead of the plan of a costly 

 building, there had not been adopted the nucleus of a more simple 

 edifice, which could have been modified to meet the wants which 

 experience might indicate. 



The original estimate for the building, furniture, and improvement of 

 the grounds was $250,000 ; and could the actual cost have been con- 

 fined to this sum, all the results anticipated from the scheme of finance 

 which had been adopted would have been reahzed at the end of five 

 years. During the past year, however, it has been found necessary, 

 for the better protection of the collections, to order the fire-proofing of 

 the interior of the edifice, at an increased expense of $44,000. This 

 additional draft on the funds can only be met by extendmg the time for 

 the completion of the building; and even this will require the appropri- 

 ation of a portion of the income which ought to be devoted to other 



