4 THE LIBRARY AND PUBLICATIONS 



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Recent periodicals, kept available in the main (Bay) reading room 

 until there are enough to be bound, a process that takes only two 

 weeks. They are then put in the stacks. MBL Archives. 



more secure financial basis than it had been on. These endowments are 

 appreciated, for as demand has increased, so have costs. When the Woods 

 Hole Oceanographic Institution was founded in 1930, the two institutions 

 agreed tliat having two separate, overlapping libraries would be foolish. The 

 MBL would run the MBL-WHOI Library, as it has been called since that 

 time, because the MBL already had one, and WHOI would buy books and 

 journals and contribute to operating costs. In those beginning years, there 

 was not much of a science of oceanography, so the addition did not require 

 a host of new journals and books. But time has changed that, so that during 

 the last decade expansion has also dictated a more formal arrangement 

 between the two institutions. 



In addition, the MBL is now the official library for the National Marine 

 Fisheries Service, originally the Fish Commission. In the early years, the 

 Commission men wandered over to look through the MBL's book corner. 

 They then set up their own facility. Only recently did the U.S. government 

 put the library out for bid, at which point the MBL was officially given the 

 contract. In addition, tlie library belongs to the Soutlieastern Massachusetts 



