380 Field Museum of Natural History — Reports, Vol. V. 



to the office of the Library and the stack room is on the second floor. 

 The four departmental Hbraries are located on the third floor in rooms 

 adjoining each of the departments. The task of installing the exhibi- 

 tion halls has employed all assistance available and the work of shelv- 

 ing the libraries is in abeyance until the stack rooms can be com- 

 pleted when considerable time and labor will be necessary to reestablish 

 the sequence of the original classification. The decision to have all 

 literature pertaining to the work of the departments placed in their 

 respective libraries necessitates a number of transfers and until these 

 transfers are effected and inventories taken it is not possible to ac- 

 curately state the number of books and pamphlets in each library. 

 The books of the anthropological and botanical departments have been 

 placed on the shelves. In the Department of Anthropology discarded 

 exhibition cases were converted into book cases and used to good 

 advantage. The Hbrary's generous patron, Mr. Edward E. Ayer, pre- 

 sented the rare eight volimie edition of Audubon's Birds of North 

 America. During the year Mr. Ayer caused to be ordered one hundred 

 and foiu-teen volumes of ornithological works. Of these eighty-one 

 volumes have been received, a mmiber of which are rare copies dating 

 back to 1776, and all are beautifully illustrated. A catalogue of all 

 the ornithological works in the library is in preparation, at the request 

 of Mr. Ayer, who has expressed a desire to supplement his already 

 splendid collection until it provides workers and students with as 

 complete an ornithological reference library as is obtainable. Gifts, 

 gratefully received from other sources, are acknowledged as such in the 

 list of accessions appended to the report. Exchanges were received 

 from four hundred and ninety-six institutions and individuals. The 

 first consignment of the publications of the Museum, since pre-war days, 

 was forwarded dtiring the year to all countries where international 

 exchange service has been resimied. The continued upward trend of the 

 cost of all publications very seriously affects scientific literature. Various 

 societies that have existed mainly for tne publication of the results of 

 scientific research have had to either suspend publishing for the time 

 being or discontinue exchange relations and ask for subscriptions to 

 enable them to continue their work. Five new exchanges were effected 

 with the following: Federated Malay States Museimis, Kuala Lumpur; 

 Museo de Etnologia y Antropologia de Chile, Santiago de Chile; 

 Ornithological Society of Japan, Tokyo; Manchester Geographical 

 Society of England; R. Academia de Ciencias y Artes, Barcelona. 

 Comparatively few purchases of books have been made as the time of 

 the staff has been wholly occupied with installation work. Subscrip- 

 tions were entered for seventy-eight periodicals. 



