LIBRARY. 347 



The annual conference of the American Library Association at 

 Asbiiry Park in June was attended by the Librarian and 12 other 

 members of the staff. Miss Marjorie F. Warner, bibliographical as- 

 sistant of the Bureau of Plant Industry, presented a paper entitled 

 " Bibliographical Opportunities in Horticulture " at the meeting of 

 the agricultural libraries section. 



The librarian of the department has served since September, 1918. 

 as associate editor of " Special Libraries," representing agricultural 

 and Government libraries. Tlie March, 1019, number was devoted 

 to agricultural libraries and contained four articles by members of 

 the fibrary staff. 



BUREAU, DIVISION, AND OFFICE LIBRARIES. 



It is regretted that from lack of space it is impossible to publish 

 the full reports of the bureau, division, and office libraries. The table 

 giving certain statistics with regard to the various libraries and the 

 names of the librarians in charge is given in Appendix 7. Addi- 

 tional statistics with regard to the use of the books in these libraries 

 are given in Appendix 2. An account of their bibliographical Avork 

 and other activities is given in the preceding pages. There have 

 been no important changes during the year in the lines of work 

 carried on by the various libraries and no changes in location. 



In their reports the librarians of the Bureau of Crop Estimates 

 and the Bureau of Markets call attention to the large use made of 

 their libraries by workers from several of the new war offices, such 

 as the Food Administration, the War Industries Board, the War 

 Trade Board, and the Council of National Defense. They and the 

 librarian of the Bureau of Chemistry also point out that because of 

 the nature of the work of their respective bureaus much of their 

 library work is of an informational character, comparable to that of 

 a business organization. Other libraries, notably those of the Bureau 

 of Entomology, Bureau of Plant Industry, States Relations Service, 

 and Office of Farm Management, have a larger amount of work of a 

 bibliographical character. . 



In the case of the Bureau of Biological Survey and the Bureau 

 of Public Roads the major part of the time of those in charge of the 

 libraries is spent in editorial work. The library duties, being some- 

 what incidental, consume only a comparatively small amount of time. 

 In the Bureau of Markets library, the librarian, as in the case of the 

 Bureau of Biological Survey, is also tlie official editor of the bureau, 

 but the work of the staff of six is about equally divided between 

 library work and editorial w^ork. 



In the Dairy Division the librarian has charge of the corre- 

 spondence file room and the photographic and slide files, in addition to 

 her library duties. For two months during the year while the posi- 

 tion of dairy editor was vacant she took charge of the records of the 

 editorial office and carried on the routine work of the office. 



In the States Relations Service library the greater part of the 

 time of two assistants is devoted to the circulation and reference 

 work connected with the Experiment Station Record. All accessions 

 of the main Library are examined daily and articles of interest are 

 called to the attention of the various editors of the Record for ab- 

 stracting and review. The work of the Library in connection with 



