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, 1952. 



Probably not since 1866, when the Smithsonian Deposit in the 

 Library of Congress was established by Act of Congress, has there 

 been an event in the history of the Smithsonian Library more epoch- 

 marking than the transfer, after more than a hundred years, of the 

 librarian's office from the Smithsonian Building to the Natural His- 

 tory Building and the dismantling of the old office library reference 

 room, in order to effect a consolidation of all major library functions 

 of the Institution. The National Museum Library, as a separate 

 branch, was merged with the Smithsonian Library, and its staff, func- 

 tions, and equipment were consolidated with the units of the Smith- 

 sonian Library. The consolidated library will hereafter be known 

 as the Smithsonian Library. The position of assistant librarian in 

 charge of the National Museum Library was changed to that of chief 

 of the reference and circulation section of the Smithsonian Library. 

 The change became effective on November 2, 1951. 



The Museum Library had long been the largest of the Institution's 

 branch libraries, with the most comprehensive subject coverage in its 

 basic reference collections. Its reference services had never been 

 limited to the curatorial staff of the Museum but were given to the 

 whole Institution, and interlibrary loans were handled by its loan 

 desk. Its physical separation from the administrative offices of the 

 library in the Smithsonian Building resulted in a considerable and 

 increasing amount of duplication of cataloging and other record keep- 

 ing and of the acquisition of reference books. It is hoped that the 

 present centralization of staff, functions, records, and materials will 

 result in better and more economical library service to the whole 

 Institution. 



The change in quarters affected the work of the acquisitions section 

 somewhat less than that of the other sections. It had an exceptionally 

 busy year. Its records show the receipt of 60,512 publications, most 

 of which came either by mail or through the International Exchange 

 Service from 92 different foreign countries, dominions, colonies, and 

 protectorates, as well as from all the States of the Union. The library 

 continues to owe the largest part of this wide coverage of the special 



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