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COPYRIGHT

Present or- ganization

Efficiency of methods

present administration of the Librarian of Congress, Herbert Putnam, appointed by President McKinley in 1898, and the Register of Copyrights, Thorvald Solberg, the first and only occupant of that post, ap- pointed by the Librarian of Congress in 1897, presents a standard of efficiency, celerity and economy which is a model for governmental departments, or indeed for any administrative business. The enormous amount of detail is systematized and controlled by a remark- able method of record, and blank forms provide in the utmost variety of detail for every feature of the work of correspondence, especially in calling the attention of applicants to defects in their applications, which are many and various.

As the result of this organization, the complex law of March 4, 1909, was put in operation July i, 1909, without a hitch; and inquiries made to the Copyright Office are answered, usually on the same day, with remarkable dispatch and accuracy. For instance, the many letters directed mistakenly to the Register of Copyrights, instead of to the Commissioner of Pat- ents, the frequent applications for the protection of prints designed for articles of manufacture, and the multitudinous applications on articles not subject to copyright, or for projected works or for book manu- scripts previous to publication, are each covered by a form letter with an index card of a distinctive color for each, so that a full record is kept in the Copyright Office of such errors without unduly complicating the copyright records proper. The Copyright Office now handles approximately half a million items of entries, deposits and correspondence during the year, and covers into the Treasury more than $100,000, returning to the government a substantial sum above the direct cost of administration.

The Copyright Office prints annually a summary of