APPENDIX 11 
REPORT ON THE LIBRARY 
Str: I have the honor to submit the following report on the activities 
of the Smithsonian library for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1949: 
All the continents and most of the countries of the world were 
represented among the 57,671 publications received by the library 
during the year. These books, pamphlets, and serials were pre- 
dominantly scientific and technical in character and touched all the 
special and related fields of interests of the Smithsonian Institution 
and its branches. The International Exchange Service transmitted 
5,082 of them, and the rest came by mail or by other means of delivery. 
Acquisitions by purchase included 1,792 volumes, three collections 
of pamphlets on special subjects, and subscriptions for 279 periodicals. 
Gifts of 7,287 publications came from many different donors. 
The library owes a lasting debt of gratitude to these friends of the 
Institution, at home and abroad, for their generous contributions 
of books and papers, many of which the library would not otherwise 
have been able to acquire. Not yet statistically recorded in the 
library is the important gift of the large Ferdinand Perret Research 
Library of the Arts and their Affiliated Sciences, presented by Mr. 
Perret to the National Collection of Fine Arts. 
The library’s principal strength and the backbone of its usefulness 
lies in the large collections of publications, chiefly serials, issued by 
the research institutions, scientific societies, universities, academies, 
museums, and observatories all over the world, which the Smith- 
sonian Institution receives in exchange for its own publications. 
These are the primary sources of the records of progress in science 
and technology, in the arts and industries. Ready access to them is 
indispensable to the work of the Institution. The larger number 
of the 17,713 periodical entries recorded during the year were these 
exchange publications, and many monographic works received in 
exchange were separately cataloged. There were 338 new exchanges 
arranged, and 7,008 volumes and parts needed to fill gaps in serial 
sets, or for special purposes, were obtained in response to 726 special 
requests made to the issuing agencies. 
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