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CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES [Proc. 4th Ser. 



preparation of reports of scientific investigations, purchase and 

 care of collections, laboratory equipment, and all other ex- 

 penses necessary to maintain an efficient and productive de- 

 partment. It is needless to say that any sum for endowment, 

 however small, will be welcomed and accepted with gratitude. 

 An endowment yielding an annual income of any amount up 

 to $5,000 to $10,000 would be excellent. 



Library — Among the greatest and most serious needs of 

 the Academy are those of the Library. The amount of money 

 which we can set aside in the budget for library purposes is 

 far from meeting the pressing needs of that department. We 

 need more money for the purchase of books, serial scientific 

 publications and periodicals; particularly reports of the early 

 exploring expeditions, volumes to complete sets of journals, 

 bulletins, proceedings and transactions of learned societies ; spe- 

 cial monographs and treatises of a technical character, books of 

 reference, and general natural history publications. One class 

 of publications that we are endeavoring to complete in so 

 far as is possible is the reports of exploring expeditions in 

 western America and in the Pacific. These are indispensable 

 in our work. Their cost will increase from year to year. 



And then we need money for binding. The Library con- 

 tains hundreds of unbound volumes of important publications 

 and thousands of pamphlets that should be bound not only to 

 facilitate their use, but to protect them against injury and 

 that gradual deterioration inevitable with unbound papers. 



It is also quite necessary that there should be a regular 

 permanent staff to do the accessioning, card cataloguing, and 

 other duties necessary to keep the Library in proper condition. 



One of the best things that can be done by anyone interested 

 in the Academy would be to provide an endowment for library 

 purposes, the larger the better, but any amount would help. 



Publication — The income of the Academy is too small to 

 permit the amount for publication that is needed. Because of 

 lack of funds, the Academy is unable to use the grade of paper 

 for text or illustrations that the high character of our publica- 

 tions demands. The paper we are using will probably not last 

 longer than 75 to 100 years. 



We are also unable to accept for publication many excellent 

 papers that would be valuable contributions to knowledge and 



