REPORT OF THE SECRETARY HI 



BINDING 



More time than usual was spent by the staff in preparing periodi- 

 cals for binding, with the following results: the library of the Na- 

 tional Museum sent to the bindery 1,846 volumes ; the library of the 

 Bureau of American Ethnology, 1,330; the Smithsonian office li- 

 brary, 271; the library of the Astrophysical Observatory, 189; the 

 library of the National Collection of Fine Arts, 113 ; and the library 

 of the Freer Gallery of Art, 54. The binding of these 3,803 vol- 

 umes — or all but 106 of them, which were otherwise provided for — 

 was made possible by the deficiency appropriation of $12,000 ap- 

 proved toward the close of 1935. Mention should also be made 

 of the fact that an experienced binder, assigned to the National 

 Zoological Park under the W. P. A., bound 389 volumes for the li- 

 brary of the Park and several other libraries of the Smithsonian; 

 and of the further fact that this expert and two other W. P. A. 

 workers repaired about 500 books, thus extending their period of 

 usefulness. 



OTHER AOnVITIBS 



Special attention was given during the year to the libraries of the 

 National Collection of Fine Arts and the National Zoological Park. 

 As a consequence, much progress was made in sorting their accumu- 

 lations of miscellaneous material and rendering the publications 

 retained available for use. Many items needed in the files were 

 supplied by the Library of Congress, National Museum, and Smith- 

 sonian Institution. 



The work of the 15 W. P. A. employees assigned to the library 

 consisted largely of typing letters, copying cards, repairing books, 

 putting pamphlets into binders and labeling them appropriately, 

 preparing, mounting, and filing aeronautical clippings, checking and 

 sorting publications, shelving duplicates, recording periodicals, and 

 assisting with the cataloging. 



Smithsonian duplicates were sent, on special exchange, to the Bu- 

 reau of Mines, Ecuador, and the following colleges and universities : 

 Brown, Columbia, Franklin and Marshall, Harvard, Pennsylvania, 

 Princeton, Rollins, and Yale. 



Steps were taken late in the year to provide a third lot of steel 

 shelving for the technological library. When this is installed, it 

 will increase materially the shelf space for this important collection 

 and make possible, it is hoped, the early completion of the reorgani- 

 zation of the libraries in the Arts and Industries Building begun 

 some years ago. 



The reference and bibliographical work of the various libraries 

 of the Institution, which has steadily increased since 1924, reached 



