APPENDIX 3.

REPORT ON THE INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES.

SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report on the operations of the International Exchange Service during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1919:

The institution submitted to Congress an estimate of $35,000 for carrying on the service during the year. This amount was granted. In addition, Congress, at the request of the institution, reappropriated the unexpended balance of the 1918 appropriation, amounting to $712.90, together with the additional sum of $903.68, for payment of liabilities incurred in the maintenance of the service during the current fiscal year over and above the amount of the regular congressional appropriation. Congress also made the usual allotment of $200 for printing and binding. The repayments from departmental and other establishments aggregated $1,808.87, making the total available resources for carrying on the system of exchanges during the fiscal year 1919, $38,625.45.

During the year 1919 the total number of packages handled was 270,860-an increase over the number for the preceding year of 3,914. The weight of these packages was 291,918 pounds-a gain of 109,093 pounds. This large increase in weight as compared with the small increase in the number of packages is accounted for, in part, by the consignments received for transmission to establishments in France and Belgium whose libraries were destroyed during the war, and, in part, by the accumulations of United States patent specifications received for Great Britain, Belgium, and the northern neutrals. The former were forwarded in boxes unopened, each box being counted as one package only, and the latter consisted entirely of heavy packages.

The publications sent and received by the exchange service are classified under three heads: (1) "Parliamentary documents"; (2) "Departmental documents"; (3) "Miscellaneous scientific and literary publications."

The term "parliamentary documents," as here used, refers to publications set aside by act of Congress for exchange with foreign governments, and includes not only documents printed by order of either House of Congress, but also copies of each publication issued by any department, bureau, commission, or officer of the Government. The Governments to which this class of publications are forwarded send to this country in exchange copies of their own official documents for deposit in the Library of Congress.

The term "departmental documents" embraces all of the publications delivered at the institution by the various governmental departments, bureaus, or commissions for distribution to their correspondents abroad, the publications received in return being deposited in the various departmental libraries.

The "miscellaneous scientific and literary publications" are received chiefly from learned societies, universities, colleges, scientific institutions, and museums in the United States for transmission to similar establishments in all parts of the world.

The number and weight of the packages of different classes are indicated in the following table:

It should be stated in this connection that the disparity indicated by the foregoing statistics between the number of packages sent and those received is accounted for, in part, by the fact that packages transmitted abroad contain, as a rule, only one publication, while those received in return often comprise many volumes. In some instances, especially in the case of publications received in exchange for parliamentary documents, the term "package" is applied to large boxes containing many separate publications. Furthermore, many returns for publications sent abroad reach their destinations through the mail and not through the exchange service.

Under date of September 12, 1918, the Dutch Exchange Bureau reported that five boxes sent by the institution to that bureau in January, 1917, had been lost at sea when the steamship by which they were being forwarded was torpedoed by the enemy. So far as reported, this is the fourth instance in which consignments sent to foreign countries by the institution have been lost through hostile action.

It has not yet been possible to put the service on a prewar basis. so far as the forwarding of consignments abroad is concerned. Ship

ments in boxes are being made as frequently as present conditions will permit to all countries except Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Montenegro, Roumania, Russia, Serbia, and Turkey. It is not thought advisable to forward consignments to these until the peace treaties with the enemy countries are finally ratified by the United States Government and internal conditions become more settled. It is hoped that in the early part of the next fiscal year it will be possible to make shipments to all countries.

To some countries transmissions were not wholly suspended for any long period during the war. However, as was to be expected during such abnormal times, the institution met with many obstacles in its efforts to keep the exchanges open. The charge for ocean freight grew to great proportions. The rate to England, for instance, at one time reached $5.80 per cubic foot. The charge on shipments to that country before the war was $0.16 a cubic foot, thus making the increase more than thirty-sixfold. Such rates becoming too exorbitant, the sending of packages in boxes was discontinued, and the mails were resorted to. Late in the fiscal year, when shipments were resumed to Belgium and the northern neutrals, the office was almost swamped with packages which had been accumulating for those countries for many months.

The chief of the Belgian Service of International Exchanges, in reply to a letter addressed to him early in February asking if his bureau was in a position to resume the distribution of exchanges, stated that there were no longer any obstacles to the renewal of the relations which had been interrupted on acount of the encirclement of iron and fire in which his country found itself during the war. He added:

I should fail most lamentably in my duty, Mr. Secretary, if I did not add to this reply warm thanks in the name of the Belgian Government, in the name of our scientific establishments and institutions, and in my own name, for the extreme kindness which you have shown us in reserving for us until the present time, all the numerous "series" and "collections," one and all of inestimable value, which the war has prevented you from transmitting to us at the proper time.

Applications for permission to forward publications abroad through the service are being received from time to time, both from new and long-established institutions. As an illustration of appreciation of the value of the service by such organizations, may be quoted the following extract from a communication from the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse, acknowledging the receipt of the Institution's letter extending the exchange facilities to that college:

It will mean a good deal to us in developing the exchange of publications for the forest library of this college.

Reference was made in last year's report to the steps being taken by the institution to procure for the war library and museum of the French Government at Paris copies of American documents, and other material relating to the war, for deposit in a section of that library, to be devoted to the part taken by the United States in the conflict. A similar request for posters was received during the year from the British War Museum, and as complete sets of posters as it was possible to procure, have been transmitted to that museum. A number of requests for publications issued in this country were received from other foreign establishments, and in each instance the institution endeavored to comply therewith.

The secretary of the institution took special steps to assist in the rehabilitation of the library of the Society of Sciences, Lille, France, whose collections were destroyed during the war. As a result of his efforts, several hundred publications were received for transmission to that library through the Exchange Service.

During the fiscal year 1919, 803 boxes were forwarded to foreign agencies for distribution, being an increase of 360 over the preceeding 12 months. Notwithstanding this increase in the number of boxes sent, the total number is still far below the average for a normal year. This is due, in part, to the fact that shipments in boxes were suspended until the 1st of February. Up to that date packages were sent to their destinations by mail.

The dates of transmission of the 803 boxes forwarded to foreign countries are shown in the following table. Of these boxes 260 contained full sets of United States official documents for authorized depositories:

Consignments of exchanges for foreign countrics.

Ninety-one sets of United States governmental documents (55 full sets and 36 partial sets) were received for distribution in accordance with treaty stipulations and under the authority of the congressional resolutions of March 2, 1867, and March 2, 1901.

A complete list of the foreign depositories is given below. Consignments for those countries to which shipments were suspended on account of the war will be forwarded to the various depositories as soon as the peace treaties are ratified by the United States Gov

ernment.

DEPOSITORIES OF FULL SETS.

ARGENTINA: Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Buenos Aires.

AUSTRALIA: Library of the Commonwealth Parliament, Melbourne.

AUSTRIA: K. K. Statistische Zentral-Kommission, Vienna.

BADEN: Universitäts-Bibliothek, Freiburg. (Depository of the Grand Duchy of Baden.)

BAVARIA: Königliche Hof- und Staats-Bibliothek, Munich.

BELGIUM: Bibliothèque Royale, Brussels.

BRAZIL: Bibliotheca Nacional, Rio de Janeiro.

BUENOS AIRES : Biblioteca de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata. (Depository

of the Province of Buenos Aires.)

CANADA: Library of Parliament, Ottawa.

CHILE: Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional, Santiago.