SECRETARY’S REPORT se 
A grand total of 17,771 publications were sent to the Library of 
Congress. Of these, 1,978 volumes and 4,582 periodical parts were 
recorded as permanent additions to the great Smithsonian Deposit 
there. The others were foreign and domestic dissertations, docu- 
ments, and miscellaneous publications of little immediate importance 
to the work of the Institution. 
The Army Medical Library selected for transfer 859 publications 
no longer needed here in the sectional library of the division of 
medicine. Also sent to the Army Medical Library were 1,068 
currently received medical dissertations and 1,927 other publications 
on medical subjects. <A total of 1,532 publications were distributed, 
according to subject, among other libraries of the Government. 
The cataloging of currently received publications was kept up 
without serious time lags and with no additions to the large ‘‘back- 
log” of many years standing. Records of 6,884 volumes were added 
to catalogs and shelflists, and 31,184 cards were filed. Work on the 
correlation of the central periodical entry records with those of the 
central catalog was begun, and 389 entries were checked, corrected, 
and unified. This is important work which will have far-reaching 
results in shortening the time of record keeping and in giving prompter 
service to readers. 
Funds allotted for binding permitted 1,060 volumes to be prepared 
and sent to the Government Printing Office, but again were not 
sufficient to keep up with the number of volumes of serial publications 
completed during the year, so the “backlog” of binding continued to 
grow. A total of 1,026 books and pamphlets were repaired in the 
Museum library, but there is always much more of such work to be 
done than one assistant can handle, and here too there is regrettable 
arrearage. 
Increasingly heavy demands upon reading and reference services 
of the library, especially from outside the Institution, were noticed 
throughout all the branches. Every year many visiting scientists 
and other scholars not only from our own but from other countries of 
the world make more or less extensive use of the library’s resources, 
while letters and telephone requests for information pour in daily. 
Interlibrary loans of 2,619 publications to 89 different libraries were 
made, an increase of 732 over last year. The principal borrowers 
were other scientific libraries of the Government in Washington, and 
research institutions, museums, and universities elsewhere. 
Three positions were vacant during the entire year, and the 
Museum library had no messenger after the end of January. The 
