REPORT OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, Washington, D. C., December 3, 1923. SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith my report as Librarian of Congress for the year ending June 30, 1923. The operations heretofore reported by the Superintendent of the Library Building and Grounds (and disbursing officer) are now set forth in the subsidiary report of the administrative assistant (and disbursing officer), beginning at page 129. The report of the Register of copyrights is attached as Appendix II As usual, the bulk of the main report consists of statements or extracts from statements submitted by the chiefs of divisions. They vary much in length and detail; and the variance by no means always corresponds to either the bulk or the importance of the operations involved. The bulk of our acquisitions, for instance, is of the "ordinary run" of material, current and noncurrent; there is no attempt to describe it in detail. The bulk of our "service" is that of the main reading room and its auxiliaries; there is no attempt to describe or enumerate it in detail. The major operations of classification and cataloguing, which are fundamental, and in their effects farreaching, and which, with the reading room service, occupy three-fourths of our staff and absorb three-fourths of our funds for service, are dismissed with brief statistical summaries; while those of certain small divisions-notably the manuscript and the music-are set forth at considerable length. I Spanish archives of New Mexico. The explanation is that which would be given by any considerable library of research; that the ordinary material acquired and the ordinary service rendered are alike incapable of description within reasonable limits; the work of classification and cataloguing is too technical to be interesting in its details outside of the profession; and the intensive service of certain divisions aiding the serious investigator, could be made intelligible only by an elaborate analysis and explanation, which in some cases would involve a breach of confidence. On the other hand, accounts of certain of the material added to our collectionsespecially manuscripts, maps, music, and prints, and rarities among the printed books can be made interesting and significant even to the unprofessional reader, pro-. vided space be afforded for detailed description; and there is the added consideration that an important fraction of such accessions consists of gifts, and another important fraction of purchases made with a view to inducing gifts. A particularization of them is therefore in the interest of expediency. It appears this year under the general heading "Increase of the Library" but also under "Manuscripts," "Music," and "Orientalia," the last (an account by Doctor Swingle of the accessions in Chinese literature) being so lengthy as to require an appendix (III) to itself. On May 14, 1903, by order of the Secretary of the Interior, there were transferred to the custody of the Library of Congress the Spanish archives in the possession of the United States Land Office at Santa Fe, excepting that portion of them which, lacking general historical interest, needed to be retained for the local determination of land titles. The purpose of the transfer was primarily to ensure their safety,1 but with the expectation that in the custody 1 A similar order applying to the archives at San Francisco was suspended upon representations from the local historical societies that it was unnecessary, the documents being entirely safe where they were, and would be unjust. Within three years the entire collection was consumed in the fire of 1906. |