16 SIXTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE

only a token defense. On the reverse of the new slips we put such
rules and regulations as we thought indispensable; a separate slip
must be filled out for each record received, this slip must be called
for before the searcher quits the room in order to check the return
of the book, the use of ink is prohibited, and the preservation of
quiet is requested. We feel that the multiplication of rules brings
about no commensurate benefits and gives the searcher a sense of
being unwelcome, an impression which we wish at all costs to avoid.

The number of visitors at the Hall of Records for the fiscal
year 1939-1940 was 1,241. That was the first year in which an
effort was made to list only bona fide researchers and to exclude
tourists who are, of course, still welcome but whose fluctuating
numbers do not reflect changes in the amount of research done. In
the past year more exact adherence to this procedure has brought
about a reduction in the total figure of visitors to 994. The total
circulation in the Research Room was 4,770 separate items, a con-
siderable increase over the figure for last year which was 4,189
so that it is probable that there was an increase rather than a
decrease in the number of researchers. The real increase was
greater, for the deposit of finding media in the research room elimi-
nates any record of their use. For the first time a record was kept
of researchers who are accommodated on the second floor and who
use those materials which are not indexed in the Research Room.
Materials are brought to them after consultation with the Assistant
Archivist or the Archivist. Their number was 75 and they used 367
records. This figure, however, is an absolute minimum for often
researchers upstairs are interested in a period and use every record
in a container. By the accounting system of the Research Room
each of these records would be called for separately and properly
listed as separate items. Moreover, materials belonging to a gov-
ernmental department and used by that department have not here-
tofore been counted in circulation; such a record will be kept in
the future.

The lack of an elevator in the stacks plus the growing collec-
tion of both records and indexes made it necessary for us to abandon
an earlier scheme of arranging our materials according to types of
records. We could not, for example, place on the fourth or fifth or
sixth decks, records which were used in the research room without
adding unnecessarily to the time and effort required to produce