SECRETARY'S REPORT 149 



tained only by purchase. In the face of limited funds, rising prices, 

 and the unceasing and increasing output of scientific and technical 

 literature, careful screening is imperative. Of the many books re- 

 quested during the year only 734 could be bought. About half the 

 allotment of funds had to be earmarked for subscriptions to periodi- 

 cals; and as usual allowance had to be made for the purchase of the 

 annual volumes of reference books on special subjects. 



The library has no interest in acquiring rare books as such, but occa- 

 sionally it is possible through one of the Institution's special funds to 

 acquire a much-needed rare work. Notable among such during the 

 year was the purchase out of the Frances Lee Chamberlain fund of the 

 extremely rare Gastropoda parts, by W. Wenz, of the "Handbuch der 

 Palaozoologie," for the division of mollusks. At present, this is the 

 only complete and original copy of this very important work, pub- 

 lished in seven parts in Berlin in 1938-44, known to be in this country. 

 The stock of some of the parts was almost completely destroyed during 

 the war. 



Additions to the Smithsonian Deposit at the Library of Congress, 

 mostly parts of serial publications, numbered 5,840, of which 261 went 

 to the Langley Aeronautical Library. Other publications sent to the 

 Library of Congress, counted but not individually cataloged or entered 

 here in the serial records, were 2,250 doctoral dissertations, chiefly from 

 European universities, 5,507 documents, mostly from foreign govern- 

 ments, and 14,231 miscellaneous pieces of literature, from all over the 

 world, on subjects of little or no immediate interest to the Institution. 



Many publications on subjects in the special fields of other Govern- 

 ment agencies were transferred to those agencies, the largest number 

 being 4,104 pieces sent to the Armed Forces Medical Library, 881 of 

 which were medical dissertations. 



Every effort was made to keep additions to the library's collection of 

 duplicates to a minimum ; 14,326 pieces sent to the United States Book 

 Exchange for exchange credit reduced the collection somewhat but 

 still made no appreciable visible impression on the whole. 



Statistics of the catalog section show that 3,185 books were cataloged, 

 22,625 periodicals entered, and 31,761 new cards added to the catalog 

 and shelf lists and that more than 110,000 cards were handled in the 

 task of merging the two formerly separately maintained main catalogs. 

 This merging of records points continually to the large amount of 

 greatly needed cataloging or recataloging to be done, notably of special 

 collections, which have previously been sketchily recorded, or not cata- 

 loged at all. 



Funds for binding permitted only 700 volumes to be sent to the 

 Government Printing Office bindery, and so the large backlog of bind- 

 ing continued to increase. In the library, 1,527 books were expertly 

 repaired. 



