18 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1921. 



examine and make recommendations concerning all manuscripts 

 offered for publication by the Institution or its branches. During 

 the year eight meetings were held and 94 manuscripts were acted 

 upon. The membership of the committee is as follows : Dr. Leonhard 

 Stejneger, head curator of biology, National Museum, chairman; Dr. 

 George P. Merrill, head curator of geology, National Museum; Dr. 

 J. Walter Fewkes, chief, Bureau of American Ethnology ; Mr. N. 

 Hollister, superintendent, National Zoological Park ; and Mr. W. P. 

 True, editor of the Smithsonian Institution, secretary. 



LIBRARY. 



Accessions to the library of the Institution during the year num- 

 bered 11,948 volumes and pamphlets, of which 6,250 went to the 

 Smithsonian deposit in the Library of Congress; 938 to the Smith- 

 sonian office, Astrophysical Observatory, Freer Gallery of Art, and 

 National Zoological Park libraries; and 4,760 to the National Mu- 

 seum library. Many of the packages of books and pamphlets received 

 by the library through the International Exchange service consisted 

 of publications issued by several foreign countries during the years 

 1914 to 1920 which had been held awaiting normal transportation 

 facilities. This unusual number of receipts necessitated more than 

 twice the amount of cataloguing accomplished by the library staff 

 during the previous year. 



Among the many valuable accessions to the scientific library of the 

 National Museum may be mentioned the entire geological library 

 of the late Dr. Joseph P. Iddings, which forms the most important 

 acquisition to the geological section of the library since the founda- 

 tion of the department in 1880. 



Two new branch libraries were created during the year, namely, 

 the National Gallery of Art library and the Freer Gallery of Art 

 library. The former is administered by the National Museum 

 library, but the latter is a distinct unit consisting of publications 

 needed for reference use in connection with the Freer art collections. 



' NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



The past year was an unusually busy one for the National Museum. 

 The National Gallery of Art was separated from the Museum and 

 created a separate administrative unit under the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution ; the Aircraft Building was opened to the public ; and consid- 

 erable additional work was entailed by the schemes for reclassifica- 

 tion and reorganization of the Government departments, the putting 

 into effect of the retirement system for civil employees, and the im- 

 pending inauguration of the budget system for Government accounts. 



