Appendix VII, 



1IEP0RT ON THE INTERNATIONAL CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC 



LITERATURE. 



Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report on the operations of the 

 United States Bureau of the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature 

 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1909. 



The United States Regional Bureau is one of the 32 regional bureaus now 

 cooperating, through a central bureau in London, in the production of the 

 International Catalogue of Scientific Literature. The aim of the enterprise 

 is to index and classify all current published scientific papers and by means 

 of 17 annual volumes publish and distribute the data thus prepared to the 

 various subscribers to the catalogue throughout the world. The methods em- 

 ployed in indexing and classifying each paper result in what is practically 

 an analytical digest of the subject of each paper, this being accomplished by 

 means of references to classification schedules which are arranged to include 

 in systematic order each minute subdivision or subject of all the recognized 

 natural and physical sciences. The regional bureaus are supported by the 

 countries in which they are established, thus allowing all funds derived from 

 subscriptions to be used to defray the actual cost of printing and publishing. 

 The bureau in this country is supported by a direct congressional appropriation. 



The allotment for the present fiscal year was $5,000, the same as for previous 

 years; the number of the staff has remained the same, namely, five persons. 

 During the year there were 34,409 classified index cards prepared by this bu- 

 reau and forwarded to London as follows : 



Literature of 1901 133 



Literature of 1902 235 



Literature of 1903 373 



Literature of 1904 309 



Literature of 1905 1, 656 



Literature of 1906 4,410 



Literature of 1907 8,509 



Literature of 1908 18,784 



Total 34, 409 



The corresponding total for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1908, was 28,528, 

 thus showing an increase of 5,881, or over 20 per cent. There has been an in- 

 crease also in the number of citations furnished by other bureaus, for since the 

 beginning of the enterprise in 1901 the number of pages in the combined 17 an- 

 nual volumes has increased nearly one-third, as shown by the following table: 



Pages. 



First issue 7, 763 



Second issue 8, 826 



Third issue 8, 493 



Fourth issue 8, 681 



Fifth issue 10, 785 



Sixth issue— 10, 049 



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