98 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 
Through the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian library is co- 
operating with the American Library Association in its program of 
collecting material for aid to libraries in war areas, and has already 
contributed 20,806 parts of periodicals from its stock of duplicates. 
The ultimate destination of some of the longer runs of journals is 
known. 
The library has continued to be the collection center for books for 
service men and women, and by the kindness of members and friends 
of the Institution, has been able to send about 300 well-selected con- 
temporary books, mostly novels, to the United Nations Service 
Center, and to the Public Library for distribution. 
Whether in war or peace, the continuing purpose of the Smithson- 
ian library with its branches is primarily to serve as a tool in the 
scientific work of the Institution. The guiding principle of its 
growth is not to make it a museum of fine books, but an active working 
reference collection. Its main function is to put into the hands of 
the scientific investigator the publication containing the information 
he needs, as nearly as possible at the moment he needs it. All the 
detailed and sometimes complicated processes of book selection, ac- 
quisition by purchase and exchange, classification, cataloging and ar- 
rangement, as well as the functioning of its reference and loan services 
are planned and carried on with this ultimate objective in mind. 
Many of these processes are measurable statistically, and the num- 
ber of books purchased, received by exchange and gift, cataloged, 
circulated, and so on, can be given, like the production figures of auto- 
mobile parts. Such figures are useful indicators of material added 
and work done, but beyond this, the comparison with industrial out- 
put breaks down, for these library production figures cannot be finally 
reduced to a countable entity like a finished automobile. On the con- 
trary, the most important end-products of the library’s functioning are 
diffused and intangible. They become an integral part of the scien- 
tific accomplishment of the Institution itself, for they go into all its 
investigations in the laboratory and the field, into the identification, 
description, and exhibition of artifacts and specimens, into the books 
and papers published to advance the boundaries of scientific knowl- 
edge. The final test of successful library accomplishment is use. 
The mere numbers of books acquired and cataloged mean little unless 
the books have been discriminatingly selected for the purposes they 
must serve, and well and fully cataloged so that the information they 
contain can be easily found. 
ACCESSIONS 
Since the first abrupt drop in the receipt of publications from abroad 
after war was declared, there has been a continuous small gradual 
