long service. During this period Mr. J. V. Butt, assistant in the division, supervised the work until October 16, 1924, when Miss H. W. Pierson, cataloguer for the division, was appointed acting assistant in charge. Miss Pierson supervised the work until the present assistant in charge was appointed, December 16, 1924.

The opportunity for the division is a most attractive one. Nowhere is there in the United States a collection of transactions and proceedings of foreign and domestic scientific and learned societies of such magnitude, completeness, and importance. Many of the oldest and many nonexisting societies are represented in this vast collection. In conjunction with the scientific and technical books in the Library proper, this division is admirably equipped to serve as a reference and interlibrary loan source unique among libraries; for the deposit functions with all the Government scientific bureaus of research, including the Smithsonian Institution with its many departments of research and museums, the National Research Council, Carnegie Institution, and universities and colleges throughout the United States.

One of the first of the large tasks recently undertaken was the arranging, listing, and checking of the large duplicate collection of publications of learned and scientific societies, which represents the accumulations of both the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution for the past 25 years. Until now it had been impossible for the Smithsonian division to attempt dealing with this material, as neither of the two assistants could be spared from their other duties; but with the aid of a third assistant, Mr. Kelly, and in cooperation with Mr. M. A. Roberts, chief of the accessions division, it has been possible to push this work, and at present the Library's own collection has been completely listed, though not fully checked. The total number of duplicate society publications listed are 790 foreign and 56 domestic sets.

In addition to this a large mass of duplicate university and college catalogues was recorded, then returned to the various institutions desiring to avail themselves of the offer of the Librarian of Congress to return this material under Government frank. Some 10,500 pieces

were returned to 65 institutions, and approximately 2,500 pieces were destroyed as not being wanted by others. Along with this 4,000 pieces of old public-library reports were disposed of for old paper. During this process a great deal of miscellaneous duplicate matter was assorted and sent to several Government departments, namely, Agricultural library, Surgeon General's library, Smithsonian Institution, and War College library. The remaining collection was carefully searched by the assistant in charge of the Smithsonian division and was found to contain many old and valuable volumes, including some rare and out of print Americana. It is interesting to note how valuable this whole process has been. The most interesting bibliographical find was a collection of 85 original drawings and artists' proofs of the famous United States exploring expedition during the years 1838-1842 by Charles Wilkes, United States Navy. The work of searching this material in the public catalogue is now being systematically undertaken by the accessions division, with a view to retaining much for second copies or placing in the reserve collection. Mr. Roberts has also sent material from the sorting deck to this division for appraisement.

One of the most interesting and probably most important phases in scientific training from an educational viewpoint in recent years has been the development of the cultural aspect of the sciences, namely through the history of science. This movement has assumed a very long-needed place in our university and college curricula. There are now one large and several smaller organizations or societies fostering the study and research in the history of the sciences in the United States. It is with this cultural phase of the sciences that the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian deposit must meet a growing demand, particularly for early scientific works, such as original sources and contemporary commentaries. However, while the Library is already rich in sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth century sources in pure sciences, greater effort should be focused upon more of this sort of material. For instance, of the first edition of the great Copernicus "de Revolutionibus Orbium

Coelestius Libri VI," 1543, there are but two or three copies in the United States; there is no copy in the Library of Congress. Of other later Renaissance masters in science there are but few standard editions in the Library.

In connection with this "new humanistic" movement it is extremely important to note that the Smithsonian deposit is preeminently well prepared to offer to students of the history of science a rich and resourceful collection of proceedings and transactions of scientific societies, for extensive research work. These publications are not to be considered as secondary sources, but as fundamental, in that many a noted scholar has produced his first and often best studies through the medium of society transactions; in fact, it is frequently only in these that such contributions can be found.

It is to be seen, therefore, that the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian deposit will become more and more the center for research in this new development in scientific training.

The problem of limiting the loan of books from this division is one that requires much thought. In order that greater efficiency in the use of books and circulation of the same can be had, a time limit should be enforced. As a rule, books or sets of books are kept by readers too long, thus depriving others of their use.

The cordial working relations with the librarian of the Smithsonian Institution, Professor Corbin, have been furthered by the frequent conferences we have found necessary. These conferences have also had very beneficial results in matters of direct bearing upon the efficiency of the work of the deposit, as well as upon the receipts of material.

Professor Corbin reports on the exchange of publications and accessions as follows:

As is generally known, the increase of the Smithsonian deposit is due chiefly to the exchange of publications between the Smithsonian Institution and other learned institutions and societies of the world. Many of these publications come to the Institution direct, others through the International Exchange Service, which is administered by the Institution. During the year the library of

the Institution received 30,496 packages by mail and 2,408 through the exchange. As usual, after these had been opened the items were stamped, entered, and sent to the appropriate branches of the library, but chiefly to the Smithsonian Deposit and the library of the United States National Museum. The large number of items received was due partly to the special effort made by the periodical and correspondence divisions of the library, in cooperation with the Smithsonian deposit and the periodical and order divisions of the Library of Congress, in noting wants and writing follow-up letters. Especially large sendings came from societies in Barcelona, Budapest, and Warsaw. Of the 2,338 missing volumes and parts requested for the Library of Congress, 1,933 were obtained—a gain of nearly 30 per cent over the year before. Exchange relations were also opened with a number of new societies.

Among the items received were dissertations from various universities at home and abroad, such as Basel, Berlin, Bern, Breslau, Copenhagen, Cornell, Dresden, Erlangen, Frankfurt a./M., Freiburg, Ghent, Giessen, Griefswald, Halle, Heidelberg, Helsingfors, Leipzig, Leyden, Lund, Marburg, Paris, Pennsylvania, Strasbourg, Tübingen, Uppsala, Utrecht, and Zürich; and from technical schools at Berlin, Delft, Karlsruhe, and Zürich.

The publications sent to the Smithsonian deposit numbered 7,287, of which there were 5,184 complete volumes, 1,421 parts of volumes, 390 pamphlets, and 292 charts. Documents of foreign governments, more or less statistical in character, to the number of 7,408, were also sent, without being stamped or entered, to the document division of the Library of Congress.

A very close estimate of the total number of volumes and pamphlets of the Smithsonian Institution was made by Professor Corbin, and is of interest to the deposit as well as to the Library of Congress. This estimate includes all material received from the beginning of the Institution in 1846 to June 30, 1924, which is as follows:

The total comprises 500,000 volumes and 135,000 pamphlets. For the fiscal year 1924-25 the figures added give a total of 505,184 volumes and 135,390 pamphlets.