114 Report of the President 



Spix, J. B. de. Avium Species novae quas in itinere annis 

 1817-1820 per Brazilian. Monachii 1840. 2 vols. 



Wilson & Bonaparte. Illustrations of the American Or- 

 nithology. Edinburgh 1835. 



These books all filled gaps in the library collections and have 

 already seen considerable active service. 



In 1912 the institution received as a gift from its President, 

 Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn, The Osborn Library of 

 Vertebrate Palaeontology. This collection, which now numbers 

 upwards of 10,000 books and pamphlets, is installed in a room 

 adjoining the departmental offices, and is administered as a 

 separate unit. This library is remarkably complete and of great 

 intrinsic as well as scientific value. It is able to keep noticeably 

 abreast of the times, due to the continued interest and supervi- 

 sion of its donor. 



Intercalated with the collections of the general library are the 

 books belonging to the New York Academy of Sciences, the 

 American Ethnological Society, the Linnaean Society of New 

 York, and the New York Microscopical Society. The deposit of 

 these several libraries has been of especial value in supplying and 

 completing the literature on their respective subjects, and in 

 unifying the several exchange lists under one management of 

 vastly broadened scope. This arrangement has proved to be of 

 mutual benefit. The library has secured for its use new collec- 

 tions of exchange material; the societies have now the careful 

 and regular administrative supervision of the material due them 

 on exchange basis, and the advantageous pooling in one place 

 of the various specialized periodicals. 



While the Library of The American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory was created so specifically and directly for the support and 

 assistance it might give to the research and work of the Museum 

 itself, it has by no means been content to confine its sphere of 

 usefulness to the work immediately at hand. Besides the fact 

 that its reading rooms are open to the public for reference work, 

 it has been glad to cooperate with sister libraries and institutions 

 in the development of the loan of books inter se. By this 

 method, which marks indisputably the modern trend of library 

 economy, the resources of one institution are available to others. 

 It has been our privilege to extend the courtesy of inter-library 



