But in the case of a state a service has been described which is to be rendered to local libraries by the library which the state itself owns and maintains. Now the federal government also owns and maintains libraries. What may be demanded of these? Certain precedents have already been established. The library of the Surgeon General's office--the most comprehensive in the world within its special field--sends its books to members of the medical profession throughout the United States, relieving just so much the burden upon local libraries; and it has issued a catalog which is not merely in form and method efficient, but is so nearly an exhibit of the entire literature of the medical sciences that it renders unnecessary duplication of cataloging and analytical work within the field which it covers. This catalog has conferred a general benefit not equalled by any bibliographic work within any other department of literature. It is perhaps the most eminent bibliographic work yet accomplished by any government. The cost of its mere publication--which is the cost chargeable to the general benefit--has already exceeded $250,000. But this library is but one of several collections maintained by the Federal Government; the aggregate of which is already nearly two million volumes. In each federal department and bureau there is a library. And there is a central collection which in itself is already the largest on the western hemisphere. It was created as a legislative library--for the use of both Houses of Congress. It is still called the Library of Congress. But it is now being referred to as something more. The government has erected for it a building which is the largest, most elaborate, and most costly yet erected for library purposes. The seven million dollars which it cost has been paid not by the District of Columbia, but by the country at large. No such sum would have been requisite for a building to serve Congress alone. It seems to intend a library that shall serve the country at large, if there is any such thing possible. In fact the library is already being referred to as the National Library of the United States. What does this mean? or rather, what _may_ this mean? One naturally looks abroad--to the foremost of national libraries. The British Museum is a huge repository of material. In scope it is universal. Its purpose is accumulation, preservation, and the aid of research by accredited persons, upon its own premises. Its service is purely responsive. It has printed catalogs of its own collections, but does not undertake bibliographic work general in nature, nor engage in co-operative bibliographic undertakings. It lends no books.