REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 153 



De Bry, with Contemporary Narratives * * * edited and an- 

 notated by Stefan Lorant, 1946; Thomas Nast, his Period and his 

 Pictures, by Albert Bigelow Paine, 1904 ; Denmarks Fugle, by E. Lehn 

 Schi0ler, 3 volumes, 1925-31 ; De Vogels van Nederlandsch Indie, by H. 

 Schlegel, 3 parts in portfolio, 1863-66 ; The Voyage of Gregory Shelek- 

 hof , a Russian Merchant, from Okhotzk, on the Eastern Ocean, to the 

 Coast of America, in the Years 1783, 1784, 1785, 1786, 1787, and his 

 Return to Russia, from his own Journal, 1795 ; Fregatten Eugenies 

 Resa, 1851-1853, under Befal af C. A. Virgin, by C. J. A. Skogman, 

 2 volumes in 1, 1854-55. 



Gifts of the year came from 230 different donors and included 

 some of the most useful additions to the library. Reprints and 

 separates on special subjects from scientific and technical serials are 

 indispensable working tools of the different divisions of the Institu- 

 tion, and the gifts of Dr. Ray S. Bassler and of A. B. Gahan of their 

 personal collections of some 1,500 pamphlets each, on geology and 

 on Hymenoptera, respectively, were most appreciated additions to the 

 sectional libraries of geology and of insects. Paul Garber's gift of 

 147 books and pamphlets on aeronautics greatly strengthened the li- 

 brary's working collection of material in that field. As usual, the pub- 

 lications generously turned over by the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science and by the American Association of Museums 

 supplied considerable material not received from other sources, and 

 furnished numbers of useful duplicates as well. The library is deeply 

 indebted to all its friends at home and abroad who have so kindly 

 made contributions to its collections. 



The total number of publications recorded by the accessions di- 

 vision for the year was 62,137. Of these, 14,607 came through the 

 International Exchange Service, almost three times as many as in the 

 year before. With the gradual return to more nearly normal condi- 

 tions it is gratifying to find in how many cases the continuity of sets 

 of foreign serials published abroad during the war will not be broken 

 in the library because of the care with which they were reserved, 

 stored, and later shipped by the institutions with which we were in 

 regular exchange before the war. This encouraging aspect of the post- 

 war situation, however, does not mean that there are not, unavoidably, 

 a distressing number of series that ceased publication altogether dur- 

 ing the war, some of them probably never to be resumed. 



The filling of gaps in serial sets, foreign and domestic, current and 

 old, requires eternal vigilance, and most of the 6,812 pieces received 

 in response to our 589 requests were numbers of periodicals needed to 

 fill such gaps, and were obtained chiefly in exchange. New exchanges 

 arransred were 290. 



