APPENDIX 11 

 REPORT ON THE LIBRARY 



Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report on the activities 

 of the Smithsonian Library for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1950: 



The primary obligation of the library in "the increase and diffusion 

 of knowledge" is to make constantly available to the scientilic and 

 curatorial staff of the Smithsonian Institution the published records 

 of work done or in progress throughout the world in the subject fields 

 of the Institution's special activities and responsibilities. All the 

 detailed procedures necessary to meeting this obligation are directed 

 toward this end. None of them are ends in themselves, and records 

 of them are at best only quantitative indications of growth and accom- 

 plishment. Mere numbers of publications acquired and handled mean 

 little unless those publications have been selected with discrimination 

 and, in terms of contemporary library parlance, "processed" for effec- 

 tive use, with the special requirements of the Smithsonian Institution 

 always in mind. The final test of the quality of the library's work is 

 the thoroughness with which an investigator has been able to canvass 

 all the literature necessary to the successful completion or continuation 

 of work on his particular piece of scientific research or curatorial 

 assignment. No new scientific project, however unique, can be 

 launched without dependence upon scientific literature. 



The daily record of publications delivered to the library shows a 

 total of 53,035 for the year, 5,102 of which were shipped from abroad 

 through the International Exchange Service. As usual, these books, 

 pam.phlets, and serial publications came from all over the world and 

 were written in many different languages. They covered all the 

 subjects with which the work of the Institution is directly concerned, 

 and many related ones as well. 



The outstanding gift of the year was the fine library of some 4,000 

 books and pamphlets on Foraminifera collected by the late Dr. Joseph 

 A. Cushman, which, with its own catalog, accompanied and is to be 

 kept with the Cushman foraminiferal collection bequeathed by Dr. 

 Cushman to the Smithsonian Institution. This library is probably 

 unexcelled for current completeness, and additions are to be made to 

 it in future. 



.,: 145 



