REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 119 
the rediscovery in the library may be a more difficult and uncertain 
process than the first discovery in the laboratory.” 
The importance of making this “rediscovery in the library” easy for 
serious students was never so urgently impressed upon librarians as 
during the late war, when libraries were overrun by research workers 
from the war agencies. Then as never before did both the excellencies 
and the deficiencies of library cataloging and of reference and biblio- 
graphical services come to light. Just how large a part books played in 
winning the war it is impossible to say, but many a tale could be told 
of the finding of a fact which, like the proverbial horseshoe nail in 
reverse, helped make victory possible. The Smithsonian library is 
gratified that it was so extensively used by the war agencies. It, in 
turn, received no small benefit from the experience gained in serving 
them, which is of especial value in making constructive plans for the 
improvement of its catalog and for the betterment of its service in 
general. 
VJ-day, coming as it did early in the fiscal year, made the year’s 
history one of conversion to the postwar activities of rehabilitation. 
Before the war was over, publications had already begun to come in 
from the liberated countries in Europe, and as the year advanced and 
shipping conditions improved, more and larger shipments of material 
that had accumulated abroad arrived. Through the International 
Exchange Service, 4,937 pieces were delivered to the library, in com- 
parison with 540 received the previous year. 
The accessions division recorded the receipt of 37,148 pieces alto- 
gether, an increase of more than 11,000 over the year before. In ac- 
cordance with routine procedure, all documents, dissertations, and 
other publications not immediately pertinent to the work of the In- 
stitution were sent directly to the Library of Congress and there were 
9,162 of these, while the total number of volumes and parts cataloged 
or entered for the Smithsonian Deposit was 5,016. 
Among the 1,303 purchased books there were a number of out-of- 
print works which are noteworthy not so much for their rarity as be- 
cause they filled some special gap in the collections. A few of them 
were: The Game-birds and Water-fowl of South Africa, by Boyd R. 
Horsbrugh, 1912; Etching, an Outline of its Technical Processes and 
its History . . ., by Sylvester R. Koehler, 1885; Miniatures des Cing 
Siécles, 1920; A History of British Birds, by Francis O. Morris, 8 
volumes, 1863-67; Icones Filicum Japoniae, by Masasuke Ogata, 7 
volumes, 1928-36; A Voyage in the South Seas, in the Years 1812, 1813, 
and 1814, by Capt. David Porter, of the American Frigate, the H'ssea, 
1823; Anders Zorn, Aquafortiste, by Axel L. Romdahl, 1923; Hand- 
buch der Entomologie, by Christoph W. M. Schréder, 3 volumes, 1925- 
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