Report of the President 85 



THE LIBRARY 



DEPARTMENT OF BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS 



Ralph W. Tower, Curator 



The activities in the library have not differed greatly from 

 those of other years. It is a pleasure to report that the year 

 has shown a steady growth both in public use and in the 

 addition of valuable publications. The library now numbers 

 68,636 bound volumes and pamphlets, all of which are readily 

 accessible to students and investigators. 



Undoubtedly no department of the Museum feels the 

 growth of the institution and the expansion of its activities 

 more than the library. Each new expedition, each new 

 specimen, each new department, each new officer makes new 

 demands upon the resources of the library, resulting in the 

 establishment of exchange with new organizations, the 

 systematic revision of the collections to meet the new condi- 

 tions and in obtaining new and appropriate material. To 

 avoid the accession of duplicates, infinite patience and care 

 are required in ''checking up" before each contemplated 

 purchase. This is particularly the case with many of the older 

 works which were issued as a part of a series, or as a continu- 

 ation in a periodical but afterward independently published in 

 a separate volume containing in many cases no clue to the 

 original source. This constantly recurring difficulty could be 

 met to a large extent by the employment of a bibliographer 

 whose first duty should be to compile the bibliographies of the 

 many authors whose works have appeared in double form or 

 are hidden in the publications of the foreign societies. Miss 

 Hepburn has just completed such a bibliography on the 

 Buffon series which, strangely enough, seems never heretofore 

 to have been accomplished. In the construction of these 

 bibliographies there is opportunity for genuine scientific 

 research within the library. 



The new arrangement of the anthropological section has 

 proved itself of pragmatic value and highly adapted to the 

 demands of the scientists conversant with the subject. A 



