74 ANNUAL KEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



from the international exchange service of the Institution. The replies to 

 these requests are now coming in, but it is too early to state definitely the 

 measure of success attained as a result of these efforts. In addition the Insti- 

 tution has, through the medium of the international exchange service, sent 

 out requests for government documents and serial publications needed to com- 

 plete the sets in the Library of Congress, and with this end in view letters have 

 been written to Bavaria, the Province of Buenos Aires, Costa Rica, Greece, 

 Guatemala, Honduras, Newfoundland, Nicaragua, Japan, Russia, and Salvador. 



In the reading room there were issued 20 bound volumes of periodicals and 

 3,285 parts of scientific periodicals and popular magazines, making a total of 

 3,305. The various bureaus of the Government have continued to use these 

 publications and those in the sectional libraries of the Institution. In the main 

 however, the consultations haAe been by members of the staff. 



The mail receipts numbered 33,106 packages. The publications contained 

 therein were stamped and distributed for entry from the mail desk. About 

 4,372 acknowledgments were made on the regular form, which is in addition 

 to those for publications received in response to the requests of the Institution 

 for exchange. 



The following changes were made in the routine of the library, commencing 

 with the first of the calendar year, in accordance with the secretary's instruc- 

 tions : 



The filing of letters was changed from the alphabetical arrangement to the 

 filing by number with a card-catalogue index. The recording of the purchase 

 of books on sheets was discontinued and the card record only was retained. 

 The record of exchange publications with booksellers heretofore kept in the 

 office of the correspondence and documents of the museum was transferred to 

 the Smithsonian library, and a book containing the debit and credit account 

 has been commenced. 



The employees' lihrary. — The books added to the library were 398, and of 

 these 13 were purchased and 385 were presented by Miss Lucy H. Baird, of 

 Philadelphia, Pa. In this collection were a large number of the older standard 

 novels, together with bound volumes of periodicals, such as the Centurj^ 

 Harper's, Atlantic Monthly, etc., some of the sets being quite complete. The 

 number of books borrowed was 1,813, and the sending of a selected number of 

 books from this library to the National Zoological Park and the Bureau of 

 American Ethnology each month has been continued. This library has been 

 fortunate for a number of years in having the volunteer services of Miss 

 Margaret C. Dyer, which were rendered in an intelligent and faithful manner, 

 but upon her resignation, which took effect on June 1, the care of the books 

 was transferred to Miss Elsie V. H. Baldwin, who volunteered her services. 



TTie art room. — The work of cataloguing the collections of engravings in 

 the art room has been continued, but the greater part of the time was devoted 

 to separating the various collections and checking them on available memo- 

 randum lists. 



In addition to the regular work in the library the assistant librarian, Mr. 

 Paul Brockett, has reconstructed the memorandum list of the collection of 

 engravings and works of art which were purchased by the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution in 1849 from Mr. George Perkins Marsh. Whatever catalogue may 

 have been made of this collection at the time of the purchase was destroyed 

 in the fire of 1866. The list as reconstructed gives the full title of almost 

 all the books and indicates the number of engravings that should be in the 

 collection. In addition to the reconstruction of this list, Mr. Brockett has 

 been engaged in preparing a bibliography of aeronautical literature which is 



