The Smithsonian Institution, Eighth Annual Report
"Every city has its library, so has almost every village, and so have a large number of our common schools. Familiar as this fact is to many of us, it presents a new phase of society, and one indicative of mighty influences. The library is the necessary complement of the school. To teach children to read, and then to give them nothing to supply the desire awakened, is mockery."
The Eighth Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution gives an account of the operations, expenditures, and the condition of the Institute up to the time of this publication in 1854, as well as the previous annual reports going back to the founding of the Institution and the will of its benefactor, James Smithson.
The report of the Assistant Secretary in charge of the Library, Charles C. Jewett, reports the additions to and total numbers of the collections of the Smithsonian Institution Library in 1854. Jewett emphasizes the value of the exchange and donation of material, as opposed to purchasing items. He also reports to the Board the nation-wide need for libraries, and proposes one central, "voluntary yet harmonious" library system.
Smithsonian Institution. Board of Regents., Smithsonian Institution., United States National Museum. (1965). Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. Washington: Smithsonian Institution. Full text available on HathiTrust