Appendix VI. 

 REPORT OF THE LIBRARIAN FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1898. 



Sir : I have the honor to present herewith the report upon the operations of the 

 library of the Smithsonian Institution during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1898. 



The work of the library consists of various activities. Greatest in bulk is the 

 reception, cataloguing, acknowledgment, and the conducting of necessary corre- 

 spondence for that portion of the collection of books which is known as the Smith- 

 sonian deposit of the Library of Congress. 



Next in quantity is the work connected with the books belonging to the National 

 Museum. Small collections of reference books are being made for the Zoological 

 Park, the Astrophysical Observatory, and the Exchange Service. A special section 

 of law reference for the use of the Institution is also being established, and a section 

 relating to serodromics is maintained. A small library has been purchased for the 

 use of the employees of the Institution. The Museum library has itself 21 sections. 

 In addition to the care of these branches of the library work, the library has been 

 frequently referred to for information, bibliographical and otherwise. 



SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT. 



The entry numbers of accessions to the Smithsonian deposit in the Library of Con- 

 gress extend from 364973 to 390914. 



The following table gives an analysis in volumes, parts of volumes, pamphlets, and 

 charts, of the accessions during the year : 



Publications received between July 1, 1897, and June 30, 1S98. 





Quarto or 

 larger. 



Octavo or 

 smaller. 



Total. 





962 



21,204 



746 



1,407 

 8,925 

 4,272 



2,369 





30, 129 





5,018 





418 











Total 







37, 934 











This exhibits an increase over 1897 of more than 4,500 entries for this branch alone. 

 One-fourth of this matter has been temporarily retained in the library of the United 

 States National Museum for use. 



In addition to this there have been added to the Secretary's library, office library, 

 employees library, and library of the Astrophysical Observatory, 701 volumes and 

 pamphlets and 2,080 parts of volumes, making a total of 2,781, and a grand total of 

 40,715 volumes, parts of volumes, pamphlets, and charts of accessions for the year. 



The Library of Congress was removed from the old quarters in the Capitol to the 

 new Library building, in the months of August and September and was reopened for 

 use in November, 1897. The east stack, the smaller of the three stacks in the Library, 

 was set apart for the Smithsonian deposit, and a commodious room directly adjoin- 

 ing this stack on the main floor was assigned as an office and work room. Into this 

 a large part of the accumulation of the last ten years was placed, and these have 

 been to a certain extent arranged and catalogued. It is the desire and intent of the 



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