Jan., 1909. 



Annual Report op the Director. 



225 



has added greatly to the convenience of the staff, also the purchase 

 of substantial, practically dust-proof pamphlet boxes that preserve 

 material that is valuable for reference but not sufficiently so to war- 

 rant individual binding. By miscellaneous gifts and exchange a 

 number of duplicates have accumulated. An attempt is being made 

 to systematize their disposal by sale or exchange. The progress of 

 the work is necessarily slow as the regular work of .the office consumes 

 the time of the staff almost entirely. During the year two duplicate 

 sets of World's Fair, 1-893, literature were presented, one to St. Louis 

 Public Library and one to the John Crerar Library. Monthly in- 

 stallments of the John Crerar Library card catalogue have been re- 

 ceived, alphabetically arranged, and filed. 11,600 cards have been 

 written and distributed in the various catalogues. 



Departmental Cataloguing, Inventorying, and Labelling. — Owing to the 

 absence of certain members of the staff of the Department of Anthro- 

 pology less cataloguing has been done during the year than usually. 

 Several important collections, however, have been catalogued, notably 

 the collections acquired last year from certain islands of the South 

 Pacific Ocean. About 1,200 catalogue cards were written during the 

 year and entered in the inventory books, which now number 31. In 

 addition there has been prepared certain classified tribal lists and a 

 card catalogue has been prepared for the same. Individual labels 

 have been written for specimens collected among the tribes of North- 

 ern Luzon on the first Robert F. Cummings' Philippine Expedition. 

 A large number of specimens of the Higinbotham Corean Collection 

 have also been labeled. Labels, copy of which was prepared by Dr. 

 Newcombe during his connection with the Museum, have been printed, 

 and added to the collections from the North Pacific coast, as rapidly 

 as they were received from the printer. Over 50 cases have been 

 provided with case labels and numbers. 



The cataloguing of incoming material in the Department of 

 Botany has been kept up to date, all specimens entering into the organ- 

 ized collections having been properly and completely recorded. The 

 total number of entries for the year in the 49 volumes of the Depart- 

 ment is 17,980, making the total number of entries in the Department 

 237,780. A card catalogue of the lay names of plants and their 

 economics has been commenced; this catalogue now contains about 

 10,500 references. In addition to this a card catalogue of the Depart- 

 ment Library has been completed to date; this catalogue now con- 

 tains some 4,100 cards. 



