72 ANNUAL, KEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 3 5 



proximate number of publications in the library system of the Insti- 

 tution to the following: 



Volumes 605,117 



Pamphlets 215, 042 



Charts 28, 358 



Total 848, 517 



This total does not, of course, include the many thousands of 

 volumes that are not yet completed, bound, or cataloged. 



SPECIAL ACTIVITIES 



Besides meeting the current demands, the staff continued several 

 important undertakings left over from the C. W. A. days, and en- 

 gaged in two or three new ones, related to the general work of re- 

 organizing the Smithsonian library system that was begun some 

 years ago. In carrying out these special projects, it was assisted 

 by a number of F. E. K. A. workers, who were assigned to the Insti- 

 tution for different periods during the year. 



Among the projects, two were outstanding. The work of sorting 

 and arranging the foreign scientific and technical duplicates in the 

 west stacks of the Smithsonian Buildinor and labeling the shelves of 

 the entire collection, both American and foreign, was carried toward 

 completion. One result of this undertaking was that, of the 6,728 

 publications especially requested during the year by the libraries 

 of the Institution, about 40 percent were found in this collection. 

 It is expected that as the checking of the standard sets in the libraries 

 goes on, thousands more of the items lacking will be available here. 

 Another result was that it was possible for the Smithsonian library 

 to cooperate, to the extent of more than 1,100 numbers, with the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science in its en- 

 deavor to form a set of the publication Science for its office use — a 

 slight return for the many generous gifts that the Association has 

 made to the library in recent years; it was also possible for the 

 library to present 283 numbers of the Journal of the Washington 

 Academy of Sciences, as suggested by the Library of Congress, to 

 the Akademiia Nauk, Leningrad, to help that institution fill out 

 its set. Still another result was that substantial runs of various 

 important serials were assembled, to be filed later in the reserve 

 section of the library for use either to reinforce the main sets or to 

 replace them when they are worn out. 



The second outstanding project was the sorting and reassignment 

 of the contents of the sectional libraries of administration and en- 

 gineering. The material no longer needed by the officials concerned 

 was disposed of in various ways. The work of taking inventory and 

 arranging the items to be retained in the sections was also undertaken. 



