816 The Smithsonian Institution 



publication of reports, memoirs, and other forms of contri- 

 butions to knowledge of the general government, by the 

 several States, and by the various societies in this country, 

 through the powerful stimulation which it has given, both 

 by example and by precept, to work of this kind as special 

 features of the second of its great objects: "the diffusion of 

 knowledge." 



The fifth section of the Act which organized the Institution 

 required that it should form a library ; and the eighth section 

 provided that it should make an appropriation not exceeding 

 $25,000 annually for the gradual formation of a library com- 

 posed of valuable works pertaining to all departments of 

 human knowledge. To this end, also, the tenth section of 

 the Act directed that one copy of all copyrighted books, en- 

 gravings, maps, etc., published in the United States, should 

 be sent to this library. 



In the original program of organization Professor Bache 

 proposed to render the Institution a center of bibliographical 

 knowledge to which students from all parts of the country 

 could apply, by letter or otherwise, for information as to 

 what books existed on particular subjects and in what library 

 they could be found. In accordance with this idea, the first 

 librarian, Mr. C. C. Jewett, began by collecting a large num- 

 ber of works on bibliography, and endeavored to procure 

 copies of catalogues of all libraries in this country. It was 

 at first proposed to secure three copies of each of such cata- 

 logues: one to be preserved in its original form, the others 

 be cut up so that each title could be pasted on a separate 

 card, these cards to be arranged in drawers so as to form a 

 general catalogue. After something had been done in this 

 direction, this work was set aside in favor of a system pro- 

 posed by Mr. Jewett for producing printed catalogues by 

 means of stereotyped plates of individual titles ; by which 



