96 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1917. 



over 1,500 volumes, to accompany his herbarium, to which it is closely 

 related. The proposed gift was the most valuable of its kind that 

 had been offered to the Institution, and it will be of great assist- 

 ance in the development of botanical research in the Museum. The 

 conditions were that Doctor Smith should retain possession of the 

 books as long as he desired, and that when his library should come to 

 the Institution it should be kept separately and each book should 

 have a bookplate indicating that he was the donor. A plate was im- 

 mediately designed and engraved, and the ex-libris labels were 

 printed and sent to Doctor Smith, wdio had them placed in each one 

 of the books. In January of the present year the first consignment 

 of these books for the library was received, and they were at once 

 placed in a separate stack in the Smithsonian building and kept to- 

 gether. The number sent amounted to 461 bound volumes, 100 

 unbound volumes, some incomplete, and 293 pamphlets. 



EXCHANGES. 



Special efforts have ])een made to meet the conditions coexistent 

 with the third year of war in the matter of preserving and pro- 

 moting foreign exchange relations, and the generous response met 

 with has been very gratifying. On the other hand, a number of 

 important publications have been suspended owing to the death or 

 absence of collaborators; and still others will be withheld pending 

 termination of the war, while the uncertainties of transportation 

 have resulted in the loss of a number of valuable publications from 

 abroad. The policy of broadening exchange relations with South 

 and Central America has been inaugurated. 



ACCESSIONS. 



Additions to the library, consisting mainly of gifts and exchanges, 

 were received in 24,292 packages. Of these, 23,307 were received by 

 mail and 985 through the International Exchange Service. Corre- 

 spondence in connection therewith amounted to about 1,245 letters 

 and 2,126 acknowledgments on the regular printed forms. 



The cataloguing, not including publications for the Bureau of 

 American Ethnology and the National Museum, reported elsewhere, 

 covered 3,546 volumes and 47 charts. Of these, 698 were new titles 

 added to the author catalogue and 59 new periodicals. In addition 

 to 1,500 printed cards received from the Library of Congress, 1,855 

 new typewritten cards were prepared. There were 976 volumes 

 recatalogued. 



SMITHSONIAN MAIN LIBRARY. 



Publications for the Smithsonian main library have been for- 

 warded to the Smithsonian deposit in the Library of Congress as 



