40 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



an independent study, "with authentic materials, of this highly inter- 

 esting- relic of antiquity. 



We have frequently stated that the principal object of the library 

 is to furnish the colaborators of the Institution with the means of 

 ascertaining what has been accomplished in the particular line of 

 their research. For this purpose, under certain restrictions, we have 

 forwarded books to different parts of the country, and this we are 

 enabled to do, without much risk of loss, by means of the system of 

 express agency which now forms a net-work of intercommunication 

 over all parts of the United States. A volume may, it is true, be occa- 

 sionally lost ; but it is better to hazard an occurrence of this kind than 

 that the books should not be used. The library is also consulted by the 

 officers of the army, the navy, of the Coast Survey, and the men of 

 science who have been connected with the several exploring expedi- 

 tions ; and in this way, it has been made to subserve the general object 

 of the Institution in the promotion of knowledge. The expense of 

 this part, however, of the operations of the library is small, in com- 

 parison with that which is in reality of little importance. I allude 

 to the cost of keeping up a reading-room, in which the light publica- 

 tions of the day, obtained through the copyright law, are perused 

 principally by young persons. Although the law requiring a copy 

 of each book for which a copyright is granted, to be deposited in the 

 library was intended to benefit the Institution, and would do so were 

 it designed to establish a general miscellaneous collection, yet as this 

 is not the case, and as some of the principal publishers do not regard 

 the law, the enactment has proved an injury rather than a benefit! 

 The articles received are principally elementary school manuals and 

 the ephemeral productions of the teeming press, including labels for 

 patent medicines, perfumery, and sheets of popular music. The cost 

 of postage, clerk-hire, certificates, shelf-room, &c, of these far exceeds 

 the value of the good works received. Indeed, all the books pub- 

 lished in the United States, which might be required for the library, 

 could have been purchased for one-tenth of what has been expended 

 on those obtained by the copyright law. Similar complaints are 

 made by the Library of Congress and the Department of State ; and 

 it is therefore evident that this subject requires the attention of gov- 

 ernment. Three copies of every work are now required to be sent to 

 Washington, but in no one of these cases is the intention of the copy- 

 right law fully carried out. If the books are to be preserved as. 

 evidence of title it would seem most fit that they should be deposited 



