THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION CLARK. 147 



Smithsonian Institution, under certain rules, publications addressed 

 to institutions in the United States and territory subject to its juris- 

 diction. This service handles annually from 300,000 to 350,000 pack- 

 ages, weighing upward of half a million pounds. Through its 

 operation the national collection of books in the Library of Con- 

 gress has been greatly increased. 



SMITHSONIAN LIBRARY. 



The accumulation of a, scientific library has been an important 

 phase of the Institution's work in the " diffusion of knoAvledge," and 

 the collection has increased in size from year to year, until at present 

 it numbers well over half a million titles. 



The main Smithsonian library is assembled in the Library of 

 Congress, and is known as the Smithsonian deposit. This collection 

 consists chiefly of transactions and memoirs of learned institutions 

 and scientific societies and periodicals relating to science in general 

 brought together from all parts of the world on a sj^stematic plan 

 since the middle of the last century. The National Museum and the 

 library of the Bureau of American Ethnology also maintain large 

 special libraries, and there are libraries connected with the Astro- 

 physical Observatory and the National Zoological Park, besides some 

 35 specialized sectional collections located in various offices for the 

 use of the scientific staff of the Institution and its branches. The 

 Smithsonian office library contains a collection of books relating to 

 art, the employees' library, and an extensive aeronautical library. 



INTERNATIONAL CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



The Smithsonian Institution directs the work of the L^nited States 

 Bureau of the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature, 

 which is one of 33 regional bureaus in various countries engaged in 

 the collecting, indexing, and classifying of scientific publications of 

 the year. The classified references are forwarded to the central 

 bureau in London, where they are collated and published in a series 

 of 17 annual volumes covering each branch of science and aggregat- 

 ing about 8,000 printed pages. These volumes are sold at an annual 

 subscription price of $85, chiefly to large reference libraries and im- 

 portant scientific institutions, the proceeds covering in part the cost 

 of publication. From 1901 to 1916 the bureau at the Smithsonian 

 Institution forwarded to London about 350,000 reference cards to 

 publications issued in the United States during that period. 



A plan for a work of this character was proposed as early as 1855, 

 when Secretary Henry, of the Smithsonian Institution, called the 

 attention of the British Association for the Advancement of Science 

 to the great need of an international catalogue of scientific works. 



