REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 87 



the reference use of the library, especially in the branch library in the 

 National Museum, including both personal visits and requests by 

 telephone for information. This has also increased the loan to out- 

 side libraries, which were 218 more than last year. 



In addition to providing access to published material and recorded 

 information, the library has been able to extend its war reference 

 service by putting inquirers directly in touch with members of the 

 staff of the Institution having special professional or personal knowl- 

 edge of various subjects. By knowing where, how, and from whom 

 information not available in the Institution itself may be obtained, 

 the library has also been enabled to arrange valuable introductions 

 to outside sources. This kind of service, through which the library 

 functions not only as a bibliographical center, but also as a general 

 clearinghouse for information, is expanding and offers promising 

 possibilities for more extensive future assistance in the war effort. 



Upon recommendation of the Smithsonian War Committee and 

 as a part of the Institution's program for directing its activities more 

 definitely to the war effort, the library was instructed by the Secre- 

 tary in April to prepare an index of the foreign geographical illustra- 

 tions that have appeared in Smithsonian publications. Work was 

 begun immediately, and before the end of the fiscal year the index- 

 ing of the Smithsonian Explorations and Field-Work series had 

 been completed and work begun on other publications. Kecords of 

 some 2,000 illustrations have been made and filed both alphabetically 

 and by regions. 



In spite of the time given to special war activities, routine duties 

 of the library were well kept up. The acquisition of new material 

 by purchase and exchange, the cataloging of books, the entering 

 of periodicals, the preparation of volumes for binding, the keeping 

 of loan-desk records, all are exact and time-consuming processes, 

 upon which the smooth functioning of the library depends. Statistics 

 of them, so far as they can be measured statistically, will be found 

 at the end of this report. 



Routine reference work for the staff of the Institution, and the 

 use of books within the various libraries, of which no numerical 

 count is attempted, continued to be heavy. 



Although considerably handicapped by a temporarily curtailed 

 staff, the decrease in the number of accessions from Europe and Asia 

 has made it possible for the catalogers to devote some small part of 

 their time to the recataloging of older material that has long needed 

 attention. Full use of many of our most valuable series of publica- 

 tions has always been dilBcult because analysis of them has never 

 been made for the catalog. Accurate identification of references and 

 prompt delivery of material wanted are basic to good library service, 

 especially from the loan desk, and they are largely dependent upon 



