[ REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON "INTERNATIONAL CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE."]
Your committee begs to report that the final conference of delegates of the various governments for the purpose of considering an International Catalogue of Scientific Literature was held in London on June 12 and 13, 1900, and, as intimated in the report of your committee last year, owing to the failure of Congress to make it possible for delegates with power to attend, no representatives of the United States were present. Mr. Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress, who was visiting England at the time was informally in conference with various members of the Royal Society and rendered effective service in enabling them to reach a conclusion.
The conference decided to undertake the issuing of the Catalogue provided 300 complete subscriptions were received by October 1st, the quota of the United States in this being 45. During the summer the Smithsonian Institution issued a circular to American libraries and universities and learned societies and scientific men, announcing the fact, with the very gratifying result of the subscription to the equivalent of over 70 complete sets for a period of five years.
A meeting of the International Council to finally arrange for the beginning of the work was held in London on December 12 and 13, 1900, at which the necessary financial arrangements were agreed to, the Royal Society advancing certain sums and agreeing to act as publisher, and being authorized to enter into contracts, etc. Doctor H. Foster Morley was elected director and offices were secured at 34 and 35 Southampton street, Strand, London, W. C. The initial work has begun. The preparation of a list of periodicals to be indexed and a more careful revision of the schedules was the first work to be done. Thus far the periodical lists for Germany, Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Holland, Japan, Portugal, Canada, India and Ceylon have been printed. That for the United States is expected to be ready for transmission to London about August 1st.
In the absence of any provision, the Smithsonian Institution is carrying on the work for the United States, [although with very inadequate force]. It would be very desirable if legislation could be had to enable the Smithsonian Institution to prosecute this work more vigorously and without drawing upon its own funds.
J. S. Billings, Chairman.
Cyrus Adler, Secretary.
Pres. Carr: Dr. Hosmer has, I think, a communication to make that is of concern to us all.
Dr. Hosmer: Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen:
We meet here in the midst of beautiful surroundings, but with considerable discomfort. Perhaps we hardly make it real to ourselves that this is in our country a time of calamity. Never in the course of a somewhat long experience, can I remember so many fatalities from the terrible heat of the summer. The newspapers have come to us from day to day with the list of victims from the great cities, and this morning comes in intelligence of a death which touches us librarians very closely—the death of John Fiske. He died yesterday at Gloucester, Mass., overcome by the heat; and I think it entirely right to say that in the death of John Fiske comes the extinction of the greatest force in American literature at the present moment. John Fiske, while not a member of our association, was at one time a librarian; he had a great interest in the Association; he was the personal friend of many of its members. It is perhaps quite right to say that no author at the present time is so frequently in the mouths and in the hands of the librarians. It has been thought fitting by the executive committee that we should make an exception in his case, and that there should be some formal mention of his passing. I regret very much that the time is so brief. What I have to say must be unconsidered.