Inter-Library Loans 115 



loans to institutions of learning from London and Hamburg to 

 Tokio, and as occasion has arisen we have been permitted to 

 borrow from other libraries as well. 



Besides the work for its clientele of scientists, the library may 

 be said to have made several contributions to library science. 

 The staff have taken the attitude that the library, if vital, must 

 be growing, and if growing, must be subject to change and re- 

 vision. Consequently it has at times been almost a laboratory 

 of experiment as well as a storehouse of treasure. Although the 

 decimal system of classification was adopted in 1902, it has been 

 found advisable at various times to modify and supplement the 

 standardized system in many of its details. Preeminent among 

 such innovations is the classification of anthropological litera- 

 ture elaborated in cooperation with the anthropologists of the in- 

 stitution and adopted in 1914. In this scheme, culture area divi- 

 sions have been substituted for the usual divisions of political 

 geography. 



The review of fifty years' activities shows a growth from a 

 single volume shelved in the office of a curator, to a library of 

 over 100,000 volumes housed in modern stack-rooms and ad- 

 ministered by a corps of trained librarians. Such a resume, 

 while stimulating, would prove of the utmost danger if it per- 

 mitted any undue satisfaction with the present state of library 

 conditions. To adequately fulfil its mission the library must 

 have opportunity to expand directly in proportion to the growth 

 of the institution as a whole. The creation of every new de- 

 partment, the undertaking of every new piece of research work, 

 the departure of every new expedition, the installing of every 

 new exhibit, entails new demands upon the library. Through 

 the generosity of the institution, these demands have been gradu- 

 ally met in the past. The immediate future calls for further in- 

 crease in stack room, and the employment of additional assistants. 



The publications of The American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory for the year have been the Bulletins, the Memoirs, the An- 

 Publications thropological Papers, the Novitates, Natural His- 

 tory — the Journal of The American Museum of 

 Natural History, the Handbook and the Guide Leaflet. 



The Bulletin is devoted to the publication of the results of 

 field and laboratory work. During 1921, Volume XLIV of the 

 Bulletin was issued, containing twenty articles: one on Ichthy- 



