*_'L ; REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



The Secretary has lately arranged with the Librarian of 

 Congress that the Smithsonian set of any periodical of art or 

 science, or set of transactions of learned societies in that 

 Library, shall he considered and kept as a primary set. or. if 

 incomplete, shall, under this title, be supplemented by vol- 

 umes <»f any broken sets already in that Library's possession. 

 If there still be duplicates in the Library of Congress, it is 

 understood that these and not the Smithsonian copies shall be 

 disposed of. 



On the other hand, he has also agreed that in the division 

 of Government documents in the Library of Congress the 

 Smithsonian sets, excepting those which include special scien- 

 tific publications, shall be transferred to the main collection 

 of the Library of Congress. 



No action has been taken with regard to the large number 

 of sets or single volumes on general subjects which do not 

 fall under the above heads, and these are left under the exist- 

 ing arrangements. 



With regard to those which already form a portion of the 

 Smithsonian deposit, the Librarian of Congress has said, and 

 the Secretary has agreed to the justice of his representation, 

 that while it is abstractly desirable that the entire Smith- 

 sonian library should be kept together, there may be cases 

 where the general interests of the public will be served best 

 by taking a portion of these and classifying them with others. 

 It is understood in every case that all volumes belonging to 

 the Smithsonian deposit are distinctly so marked, carrying 

 with them, therefore, the evidence of their ownership. 



This general agreement, which requires much detailed work, 

 will finally result in giving a more coherent character both to 

 the Smithsonian deposit and to the Library of Congress itself, 

 and is in the mutual interests of both establishments. 



The Institution is indebted to the courtesy of the Librarian 

 of Congress also for establishing an arrangement whereby 

 twice a day books are brought to the Institution by the Library 

 of Congress and returned thereto. This has rendered possi- 

 ble the sending up of a much larger number of publications 

 than heretofore, no less than 200 boxes, each containing the 

 equivalent of 40 large octavo volumes, being sent up during 

 the past year. The possibilities in the direction of increasing 

 the Smithsonian deposit in the Library of Congress and of 



