ical Survey, and the United States Bureau of Education; and substantial progress has been made in printing cards for the back files of the publications of these offices as well as for books in their libraries. The majority of the series of publications issued by the Department of Agriculture are now covered by cards in stock, and for the remainder it is planned to have cards in stock by the end of 1909. The entire publications of the present United States Geological Survey (except maps), of the earlier United States surveys, of the state surveys, and of the national surveys of Canada, Norway, and Sweden are represented by cards in stock. The state surveys of Australia are for the most part represented. All of the publications of the United States Bureau of Education, except the annual reports of the Commissioner previous to 1907, are now covered by cards in stock.

Substantial assistance in the matter of supplying cards for current children's books and current noncopyrighted books of a popular character has been obtained from the cards printed from copy supplied by the Washington Public Library. The cards for current military publications printed for the Library of the Military Information Division of the War Department also enable us to meet a demand for cards which could not otherwise be supplied.

Titles of books within the field of the cooperating libraries for which cards are ordered and found not to be in stock are regularly referred to the library interested with a query as to the prospect of the book being obtained and catalogued by that library. In many cases the book is reported already received or ordered. The recording, filing, and checking processes necessitated by this cooperative work are proving to be less difficult than appeared at first.

It seems not too much to say that this cooperative work with other United States libraries in Washington has been

an unqualified success.

This success is due in a large meas

ure to the fact that the librarians of these libraries have

cooperated actively and generously.

Owing to the fact that no depository sets were supplied during the year and that less work than usual was needed on the stock and traveling catalogues, considerable spare time was available for work not closely connected with the regular work of the Card Section. The Third Official Catalogue has been kept up to date throughout the year by assistants in the Card Section and about one-third of the work of preparing and arranging the accumulation of cards for the "Union Catalogue" has been completed.

This Union Catalogue when completed will contain entries from the libraries named below:

BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY:

Nearly a complete set of all the cards thus far printed by the Boston Public Library, also a few entries in manuscript and a few in the form of mounted entries clipped from lists of acces

sions.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY LIBRARY:

Nearly a complete set of the cards printed since 1894; entries clipped and mounted on cards for the "more important" accessions to the library as listed in the Harvard University Bulletins between 1875 and 1894.

JOHN CRERAR LIBRARY:

Complete set of the cards thus far printed by the John Crerar Library; also a copy of each Library of Congress card used by the John Crerar Library with the shelf marks of the latter library added.

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY:

Practically complete set of all the cards printed or “Schapircgraphed" by this library since 1901.

LIBRARY OF THE UNITED STATES BUREAU OF EDUCATION: Cards printed by Library of Congress from copy prepared by the Library of the Bureau of Education, comprising (1) cards for accessions to the Library of the Bureau of Education since January, 1908, excluding books also in Library of Congress; (2) analytical cards for many of the publications of the Bureau of Education.

LIBRARY OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE: All cards printed by Library of Congress from copy prepared by the Library of the Department of Agriculture, covering (1) accessions to the Library of the Department of Agriculture since 1902, excluding such books as are also in the Library of Congress; (2) analytical cards for most of the publications of the Department of Agriculture.

LIBRARY OF THE UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY:

All cards printed by Library of Congress from copy prepared by the Library of the Survey, representing (1) accessions to the Library of the Survey since 1904, excluding books also in Library of Congress; (2) publications of the present and previous United States surveys, the state surveys, the national surveys of Canada, Norway, and Sweden, and most of the publications of the state surveys of Australia.

LIBRARY OF THE MILITARY INFORMATION DIVISION (U. S. War DePARTMENT):

Cards printed by Library of Congress from copy prepared by the Library of the Military Information Division for accessions since 1907, excluding books also in Library of Congress.

WASHINGTON PUBLIC LIBRARY:

Cards for accessions since 1906, excluding books also in Library of
Congress.

To prepare the cards for this Union Catalogue, it was necessary to mount the 32° size Harvard cards on 33° size cards, trim the Boston Public cards to 33° size (first copying back and above letters which would be unavoidably clipped off), mount entries clipped from the Harvard Bulletin, and stamp all cards with the name of the library from which the entry was received. The mounting of the cards and slips was done so satisfactorily by the Library bindery that curling was almost entirely avoided.

All the entries received from the libraries named above are being filed for the present regardless of duplication, as variations in form of entry are of interest to the Catalogue Division. The percentage of duplication is found to be surprisingly small. Less than 7 per cent of the titles are in two of the libraries, while only a fraction of 1 per cent are in three or more libraries. This small percentage of duplication is probably accounted for by the following: (1) These nine

libraries are to a large extent specializing along different lines; (2) the accumulation represents the accessions of these libraries for periods which correspond in part only; (3) some of them during the period covered have been building up collections, while others have been merely keeping up and strengthening their collections. About 20 per cent of the titles in the Union Catalogue are duplicated by printed cards in the catalogues of the Library of Congress.

The catalogue when completed will contain about 600,000 entries. Taken with the present accumulation of between 600,000 and 700,000 entries in the public catalogues of the Library of Congress, it will constitute the closest approximation now available to a complete record of books in American libraries.

The report of the Card Section is, as usual, given in full because the work which it describes is one of direct economic concern to other institutions, whose efficiency as a whole depends upon the efficiency of its details. It is also a work whose character can readily be explained and whose volume can be expressed in statistics.

In this it differs from that large service of the Library which is intensive rather than extensive. The possibility of setting forth this latter within the compass of such a report as this seems to diminish as it increases in volume, in variety, and in importance.

The knowledge of it is, however, spreading rapidly among our own students and investigators, who evidence it by their increasing use of the facilities offered, and notably abroad in those countries given to the study of library administration, and active in the establishment or improvement of libraries. The building is, as a matter of course, visited and inspected by commissions charged with the construction of reference

library buildings abroad, upon important recent examples of which its plans and equipment have had obvious influence. And no comprehensive treatise upon the larger aspects of the service of a research library with a duty to the general public now omits a reference to the operations of this one. In a recent such treatise by M. Eugène Morel, "Bibliothèques," Paris, 1909, it is characterized as a "Department" (Ministère) with four main functions:

"Nous signalons seulement ces points sur lesquels nous aurons tant à revenir. Ils suffisent à nous faire concevoir leur Bibliothèque nationale non comme un musée, ou une bibliothèque de quartier, ou une bibliothèque spéciale historique, conceptions diverses que les journalistes et historiens se font de la nôtre, mais comme un ministère, où sous une direction unique sont groupés tous les services concernant la propriété artistique et littéraire, les bibliothèques, les livres, l'établissement enfin et la diffusion d'une bibliographie générale."