REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 105 



Mr. Herbert A. Gill, administrator of the estate of Dr. Theodore 

 Nicholas Gill, has presented his brother's scientific library to the 

 Smithsonian Institution with the understanding that it is to be 

 credited to the estate and that such publications as relate to the work 

 of the Museum shall be placed in that library. 



The securing of exchanges in return for Smithsonian publications 

 and missing parts to complete the sets have been continued, notwith- 

 standing war conditions abroad, and the results have added new titles 

 and completed sets and series. In response to the requests for missing 

 parts in the Smithsonian deposit in the Library of Congress 50 sets 

 were completed and 1,038 parts supplied. These numbers include 

 the completing of 30 sets in the series of publications of learned in- 

 stitutions and scientific societies, and the supplying of 821 parts and 

 the completing of 20 volumes of periodicals, and the supplying of 212 

 separate numbers. 



SMITHSONIAN OFFICE LIBRARY. 



The office library includes a collection of books relating to art, the 

 employees library, and various works of reference, besides quite an 

 extensive aeronautical library. 



In the reference room the transactions of scientific societies, and in 

 the reading room the current foreign and domestic periodicals, have 

 been in constant use. In the latter there are now 189 titles on the 

 shelves. 



In addition to the use of the library by the scientific staff of the 

 Institution, almost all of the bureaus of the Government have availed 

 themseh'es of the privileges of consulting and using the publications 

 in the libraries. 



From the reference and reading rooms in the Institution 3,330 

 publications were circulated during the year. Of these 473 were 

 bound volumes and 2,857 were single periodicals. 



Additions have been made to the aeronautical collection by way 

 of exchange and by purchase of a few of the important works recently 

 published. An acquisition of special value was a number of refer- 

 ence w^orks formerly in the library of Maj. Baden-Powell. 



A scrap book of articles from the older magazines is of interest, 

 as describing early inventions in the arts, brought together and 

 arranged in chronological order. 



Dr. Alexander Graham Bell has continued to add to his collection 

 of works relating to aeronautics by contributing 33 books and 37 

 portfolios and periodicals. This working library, which Dr. Bell 

 used constantly while carrying on his experiments in aeronautics, 

 will be of great value to students in the future. In addition to Dr. 

 Bell's gift a total of 58 volumes were added during the year. 



