. For instance, if the library is located in a
rural section, there will be a big demand for publications relating to
agriculture, and a larger proportion of such documents will be secured
than for other subjects. If the students of the high school are
interested in debating present day questions, the publications of the
government relating to the existing political and economic conditions
will be in demand. In the final analysis, the librarian must feel the
pulse of the community, as it were, and secure the classes of
government material which correspond most nearly to the demand. At the
same time, by making use of bibliographies, of department lists of
publications and of the reference section in the Documents Office, the
demand for this class of literature can be materially increased and
documents secured which are not already in the library.

The purpose of this discussion is to suggest a list of government
publications which will be of use in a small library. Before doing so,
the various methods of securing documents must be mentioned, as the way
will be indicated with each document serial in the following list.
First of all, there is the system of depository distribution which is
based on the act of January 12, 1895. The idea is to place in all
sections of the country complete collections of all public documents
which are printed and made for distribution. This privilege is granted
by law or through the request of senators and representatives. The
second way in which large numbers of documents are distributed is
through the congressional quota. This practice is a very old one, being
used for the first time in 1791. Each member of Congress is given a
quota of all documents published by that body, the number varying with
each document. These are distributed by the order of the congressmen
and are sent out under their franks. As a rule, the libraries will
receive very prompt and courteous attention from their representative
in Congress to any request made for publications. Thirdly, the
departments and bureaus have mailing lists including public officials,
institutions of various kinds and interested people. Usually a request
by a library to be placed upon such a list is granted; if not, a letter
to the congressman will bring the desired result. Finally, the
Superintendent of Documents is authorized to sell the government
publications at a price sufficient to cover the actual expense of
paper, press work and binding.