SECRETARY'S REPORT 147 



A considerable number of publications on special subjects were 

 sent to other scientific libraries of the Government. Included among 

 them were 776 medical dissertations and 2,058 other publications on 

 medical subjects sent to the Army Medical Library, and 416 agri- 

 cultural publications sent to the Department of Agriculture. 



Records of binding show that funds were sufficient to permit 1,511 

 volumes, chiefly periodicals, to be sent to the Government Printing 

 Office. Repairs to 1,023 volumes were made in the Museum library. 

 The deterioration of completed volumes of periodicals that must 

 wait for sufficient funds before they can be bound is one of the serious 

 problems of the library, as is the care and repair of the many old 

 books, some of them irreplaceable, that the Institution is so fortunate 

 as to own. The library is in no sense a museum of fine books. It is 

 an active working collection, but the very character of the Institu- 

 tion's responsibilities, especially in connection with the work of the 

 National Museum, makes it inevitable that many old as well as new 

 books should be in constant use as tools. That some of them happen 

 to be also collectors' items is incidental but makes their care and pro- 

 tection doubly important. 



It was not possible to undertake further work on the organization 

 of the large collection of duplicates and unstudied material housed 

 in the west stacks, but more than 36,000 pieces, mostly parts of 

 periodicals previously checked and arranged, were sent to the United 

 States Book Exchange to be used as opportunity offers in exchange for 

 material drawn from the stockpile of that center. 



No reliable figure showing over-all use of the library can be given. 

 The large decentralization of its collections, especially in the Museum, 

 where 30 of its sectional libraries are in the custodial charge of the 

 curators, makes it impractical to attempt to keep statistical records 

 of the intramural use of books and periodicals. Loan-desk records 

 show that 12,522 publications were borrowed for use outside the 

 library, 2,181 of which were interlibrary loans made to 104 different 

 Government, university, and other institutional libraries throughout 

 the country. 



Loans are not made to individuals other than staff members and 

 affiliates of the Institution, but the resources of the hbrary are open 

 to any individual who wishes to make reference use of them, either by 

 coming in person or by telephoning or writing to the library. The 

 library receives hundreds of requests for information in the course 

 of the year, and whether the inquirer is a scholarly research worker or 

 a casual sightseer, a foreign correspondent or a rural schoolboy, the 

 staff makes every effort to see that his question is answered, either by 

 finding and giving him the requested information or by referring him 



