Relation of the Federal Government to Research 



241 



their kind in the world. They are estimated to number 

 23,000 vohimes and pamphlets. 



The Smithsonian Division 



The Smithsonian Division acts ofEcially as the rep- 

 resentative of the Smithsonian Institution in the Li- 

 brary of Congress. The collection is increased each 

 j'ear by publications from most of the learned societies 

 and institutions of the world, sent in exchange for 

 those of the Smithsonian Institution. This supple- 

 ments the regular scientific collection of the Library 

 of Congress which is increased annually by purchase, 

 gift, and copyright. Both groups together number 

 approximately 200.000 volumes and constitute one of 

 the largest and most important collections of source 

 material of this character in existence, and number 

 among their sets of memoirs and transactions those 

 of many of the older scientific academies and societies. 

 In addition to institution and society publications, the 

 collection is unique for its valuable sets of publications 

 of international congresses, exploring expeditions, etc. 



The research scholar in the theory and history of 

 pure and applied sciences has available for his work 

 access to material from the Smithsonian deposit, as 

 well as one of the largest collections of foreign and 

 domestic scientific monographs, and collected works 

 of all of the great scientists of the past. 



This Division cooperates actively with all of the 

 United States Government scientific bureaus, the Na- 

 tional Research Council, the Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington, thus being able to secure the latest in- 

 formation in nearly every field of science. 



The Periodical Division 



The Periodical Division is the accessioning agency 

 for serial publications. These include materials of 

 two sorts. The magazines and journals, as they are 

 bound, are classified in the general or special collec- 

 tions. The newspapers, however, remain as the perma- 

 nent collection of the Division. They now number 

 95,000 volumes, and form the largest single such col- 

 lection in the United States. 



Besides important files of the newspapers of everj- 

 State, there is a large group of foreign newspapers 

 (23.400 volumes) and of eighteenth century American 

 newspapers (1,572 volumes, kept in the Rare Book 

 Room). Current accessions number 910 different 

 American and foreign newspapers; 7,500 journals and 

 magazines. 



Other collections of newspapers separately received 

 are: 



State and War Department Collections. — American and for- 

 eign newspapers. 



State D('|iartiiient, lUircjui of Statistios and Si'nalo <'ollcc- 

 tions. — Newspapers. 



Gen. John Meredith Read Collection. — 47 volumes. Parisian 

 newspapers, 1870 -1871. 



The Division of Documents 



The collection of governmental publications — Fed- 

 eral, State, and foreign — in the Library of Congress is 

 not only tlie most extensive in existence but is being 

 actively augmented. In United States official publica- 

 tions it is equalled only by the Office of the Superin- 

 tendent of Documents. Among United States items 

 of particular importance is a considerable, though not 

 complete, series of the separate prints of the documents 

 of the first 14 Congresses of the United States, 1789- 

 1817. Tlie legislative journals and documents of the 

 several States, Territories and insular possessions con- 

 stitute a most important group of sources for research 

 in American history and administrative institutions. 

 Since January 1910, the current accessions of state 

 publications have been listed regularly in the Library's 

 publication, the Monthly Check-List of State Puhlica- 

 tions. For foreign governments, the parliamentary de- 

 bates, journals and documents, together with the official 

 gazettes, constitute the backbone of the collection. Such 

 jurisdictions as Great Britain, France, Spain, Ger- 

 many, Russia, etc., are all well represented. Colonial 

 jurisdictions of the more important powers are also 

 well represented, as well as sovereign jurisdictions sucli 

 as Finland, Turkey, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Iraq, 

 etc. In addition to the parliamentary records and the 

 gazettes, the Library has the various departmental 

 publications of the different jurisdictions. 



Owing to the intricacies of governments and their 

 publication activities, the representation of such mate- 

 rial in the public catalog is in general by no means 

 adequate. Considerable reliance for the use of these 

 materials has thus to be placed on such printed cata- 

 logs and indexes as exist as well as increasingly upon 

 the assistants in the Division. 



Indeed, legislative and parliamentary debates, jour- 

 nals and docimients, which are meagerly represented in 

 the public catalog, constitute sources of the first im- 

 portance for a great variety of problems relative to the 

 development of public administration, finance, and 

 I^olicy. In order to facilitate the approach to the con- 

 tent of Government publications, "An account of Gov- 

 ernment document bibliography in the United States 

 and elsewhere" was issued by the Library in a revised 

 edition in 1930. As a guide to the informational con- 

 tent of a little-known but important group of Govern- 

 ment publications, "The Memorias of the Republics of 

 Central America and of the Antilles," was issued by 

 the Library of Congress in 1932. 



