Appendix 6. 

 EEPORT ON THE LIBRARY. 



Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report upon the 

 operations of the library of the Smithsonian Institution and its 

 branches for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1915 : 



In common with other libraries of the world, the Smithsonian 

 library has had to confront a serious situation during the last year. 

 This was the difficulty experienced in the securing of current parts 

 and the completing of sets of the publications of learned institutions 

 and scientific societies that have been received from European sources 

 for many years. Some of these series have ceased publication, others 

 have been published with fewer pages and in smaller editions, while 

 still others have been issued but not forwarded, all due largely to 

 the military service required of the contributors and publishers at 

 this time at the front and the risk involved in transportation. Not- 

 withstanding these conditions, the efforts to keep the library ex- 

 changes alive have been continued with marked success. 



ACCESSIONS. 



During the fiscal year a total of 26,928 packages of publications 

 were received, of which 25,097 came through the mails and 1,831 

 through the International Exchange Service. The correspondence 

 necessary in connection with these receipts numbered about 1,400 

 letters, requesting publications and acknowledging them, and 5,148 

 acknowledgments on the regular form. 



The publications for the Smithsonian library were entered, acces- 

 sioned, and forwarded to the Smithsonian deposit in the Library of 

 Congress each day as received, numbering in all 24,713 publications, 

 as foUovv^s: 3,043 volumes, 1,179 parts of volumes, 1,763 pamphlets, 

 17,410 periodicals, 594 charts, and 724 parts of serials to complete 

 sets. The numbers in the accession record run from 517,777 to 521,616. 

 There were catalogued during the year 3,451 publications, of which 

 1,000 were charts. Four thousand one hundred and twenty-two 

 volumes were recatalogued from the old records and entered in the 

 new catalogue. The cards typewritten and filed in the catalogue 

 numbered 4,038. 



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