Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-20
Duplicating Printed Reports,

IF possible, even worse management Is
shown in printing as House documents PAM
phlets that are issued weekly, monthly or
quarterly. These are thoroughly distrib-
uted in pamphlet form, and then from six
months to two years thereafter they are
gathered up and issued in expensive sheep
bound sets. A number of annual reports
not administrative in character are also
published as congressional documents Such
annual reports and the pamphlet publica-
tions referred to make So of the volumes
or documents of the Fifty-eighth Congress-
or these So volumes 157 $50 copies were
printed, and about 81 600 of the same will
be bound in full sheep 1 estimate that
about 10000 of the total cost represents
the waste.
Cost of Distribution.
Another question to be considered In the
oyerproduction and duplication of docu~
ments Is the cost of distributing them
There are about 100000 pounds of dupli-
cate books sent out and returned annually.
This at cents n pound means a waste OF
s2o6OoO wear Il he e9st office In fact,
Wneh you coIipi %dg, storage and origi-
MAJ work " N 'ss of matter 1t touches
"a great p py tn.
Il doui vel oh whether any real re-
FORM III q ing and binding of docu-
Iheh's Ca &c until all document dis
trib" - e consolidated updar ona
heo II is quite safe TO say thai no husio
ness establishment In the land would main
tain thirty or forty offices each duplicating
work and distribution of the other to a
considerable extent The money uselessly
expended in maintaining so many establish
ments ought to be saved"
Popularity Of Public Documents
Regarding the value and popularity of
government publications, Supt Terrell said
There are designated as repositories of
public documents one library named by
1911
specially designated repositories, and all the
state and territorial libraries, making a
total of $40 have recently sent out a
letter to all repositories of documents ask
Ing them whether the documents sent were
ever taken from the post office how they
were shelved and catalogued and whether
there We're any documents that could be
pfontaDiy eliminated from the list Replies
nave been received from about $50 libraries
covering all sections of the country and
more are coming in daily. 1t is Impossible
10 go into them in detail but their general
most OF them catalogue the documents
They report that the documents are fire.
qnentiy used by the public. In only few
cases do the libraries ask the dscontin-
uance of any document. There is one
curious fact about the discontinuance re-
quests. Nearly all of them say the Patent
Office Gazette is not wanted. This is one of
the most expensive publications the gov
eminent gets out
1T is valuable to the people who want It,
but the Libraries very generally do not
Eaen representative is authorized to name
eight repositories for the Gazette in his
district. Seven of these undol btedly could
be cut out and then there wo I'D be more
copies than any one wanted. The sub
scription price of the Gazette is S. Now
on this alone you could make saving of
$l6.S0) annually. probably more.
but there are very few publications
turned out that have not at least LOCO
n rrvh anvfJA la. H.
of work or investigation the document APP
plies These readers want the books or
| want at least to know where they can be
| had when needed.
THE sheepskin cover Is a thing I have
| been trying for a long time to get rid of
| any way. The canvas cover costs 20 per
| cent less and lasts twice as long, espe-
| cialIy in libraries and elsewhere where soft
| coal is used. A letter is now being pre-
| pared to go to all the government de-
positories bearing on just that point