14 Kansas Academy of Science. 



bulletins from Sweden and Norway are very numerous. We 

 get regular reports of the geology and mineral resources of 

 Australia and Tasmania, and from Chili and Argentina come 

 reports of the minerals and natural history of those coun- 

 tries. Valuable reports come to us from Canada and Mexico, 

 and especial attention is called to these rather than to those 

 from other countries, because it is of course expected that 

 from the various centers of Europe we should get our main 

 supply, and such is the fact. 



Our accessions during the past year have been not less than 

 600 unbound volumes and pamphlets and 60 bound volumes. 

 We have also secured by purchase Le Dictionaire De Almeida, 

 four volumes of Poggendorff Biograph. Literar. Handworter- 

 buch, ten parts of North American Flora, the Topeka City 

 Directory, and American Men of Science. 



There must come a time when the book collections of the 

 statehouse will be consolidated under one general manage- 

 ment, and then with wise and uniform cataloguing our libra- 

 ries will have a usefulness hardly dreamed of as yet. There 

 has been duplication and triplication of many of the publica- 

 tions from Washington, and if these are all bound separately 

 for each department the state must spend money needlessly. 

 When we consider what this money could do if used in enlarg- 

 ing and perfecting the library this waste of resources seems 

 inexcusable. 



We shall be in a condition a year or two hence to take a new 

 departure, when transferred to the new building, and should 

 have plans which look to the future. We should claim for the 

 Academy the right of having charge of the scientific portion 

 of the state library, of which our collection is a part. Under 

 a law enacted for benefit of the State Historical Society, that 

 body is entitled to demand for itself sixty bound copies of all 

 our Transactions, as well as other books printed by the state, 

 with exception of the statutes. These books the Historical 

 Society exchanges often for the publications of foreign scien- 

 tific societies which are on our list, and it creates another 

 source of duplicate books. The Historical Society has cords 

 of such publications, stored in closets and dark rooms, doing 

 good to no one. 



The greatest good to the state requires that each organiza- 

 tion which is the custodian of books in the statehouse should 



