EEPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 13 



LIBRARY. 



The library continues to grow steadily, the accessions in volumes, 

 parts of volumes, pamphlets, and charts reaching 35,912 during the 

 past year. Special mention should be made of the gift of Mr. S. 

 Patcanof, of St. Petersburg, of over 300 volumes, consisting mostly 

 of oriental works and including some Arabic manuscripts and many 

 rare Armenian publications. 



As stated in my last report, the Secretary of State had named, in 

 accordance with my suggestion. Dr. John S. Billings, United States 

 Army, retired, director of the New York Public Library, and Prof. 

 Simon Newcomb, United States Navy, Superintendent of the Nautical 

 Almanac, as the delegates of the United States to a conference to be 

 held at the instance of the British Government at London in July, 1896, 

 to consider the preparation of an international catalogue of scientific 

 literature. This conference met July 14 to 17, 1896, twenty-two coun- 

 tries being represented. The conference drew up a plan which the 

 respective delegates submitted to the countries they represented. The 

 report of Professor Newcomb and Doctor Billings, submitted to the Sec- 

 retary of State October 15, 1896, recommended that the United States 

 Government should take part in this work, and that the Smithsonian 

 Institution be made the agent of the Government in this important 

 scientific enterprise. 



In accordance with this suggestion the Secretary of State invited my 

 opinion as to the propriety and feasibility of the United States taking 

 part in this work through the Smithsonian Institution, and requested an 

 estimate of the probable expense attendant thereto. To this I replied 

 that I fully concurred in the view of the delegates as to the great 

 importance of a successful execution of the conclusions of the confer- 

 ence and as to the propriety of this Government taking its share of the 

 proposed work by providing for the cataloguing of the scientific publi- 

 cations of the United States. This opinion is strengthened by the fact 

 that the recommendations made are due to results emanating from an 

 international conference, at which the United States was officially rep- 

 resented, and by the further considerations that the benefits to be 

 derived from this undertaking are not only great and far-reaching for 

 the scientific progress of America, but also of universal value, and that 

 all the great and many of the smaller nations will take part in the work. 

 I recognized also the propriety of the suggestion that the Government 

 should employ the Smithsonian Institution as an agent in this matter, 

 particularly since the Institution first suggested this subject in 1855, 

 and since it has been from its earliest organization interested in scien- 

 tific bibliography. 



I was, however, reluctant to commit the Institution to the appear- 

 ance of soliciting Congress in this matter in any case, or to the under- 

 taking of the enterprise, however worthy, unless provision could be 

 made for the necessary expenses of the work. After considering the 



