material pertaining to the Indians. As in the past, it has been necessary for the bureau to make use of the Library of Congress from time to time, about 200 volumes having been borrowed during the year. Twelve hundred books and approximately 650 pamphlets were received, in addition to the current numbers of more than 600 periodicals. Of the books and pamphlets received, 148 were acquired by purchase, the remainder by gift or exchange. Six hundred and eighty-nine volumes were bound by the Government Printing Office, payment therefor being made from the allotment "for printing and binding * annual reports and bulletins of the Bureau of American Ethnology, and for miscellaneous printing and binding," authorized by the sundry civil act. This provision has enabled the bureau, during the last two years, to bind many volumes almost in daily use which were threatened with destruction. The catalogue of the bureau now records 17,250 volumes; there are also about 12,200 pamphlets, and several thousand unbound periodicals. The library is constantly referred to by students not connected with the bureau, as well as by various officials of the Government service. PROPERTY. As noted in previous reports the principal property of the bureau consists of its library, manuscripts, and photographic negatives. In addition it possesses a number of cameras, phonographic machines, and ordinary apparatus and equipment for field work, stationery and office supplies, a moderate amount of office furniture, typewriters, etc., and the undistributed stock of its publications. The sum of $304.62 was expended for office furniture (including bookstacks at a cost of $205) during the fiscal year. RECOMMENDATIONS. For the purpose of extending the systematic researches of the bureau and of affording additional facilities for its administration, the following recommendations are made: A question having arisen in the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives as to the purpose for which an increase of $2,000 in the bureau's appropriation in 1909 was intended, the work of excavating and repairing antiquities existing in national parks and monuments has been curtailed. The importance of elucidating the archeological problems connected with these ancient remains and of repairing the more important of them for visitors and for future students is so apparent that the need of continuing this work is generally recognized, consequently an estimate of $4,000 "for the exploration and preservation of antiquities" has been submitted for the next fiscal year. Ethnological research in Alaska is urgently needed by reason of the great changes taking place among the Indians and the Eskimo since the influx of white people a few years ago. Unless this investigation is undertaken at once the aboriginal inhabitants will have become so modified by contact with whites that knowledge of much of their primitive life will be lost. It is recommended that the sum of $4,500 be appropriated for this work. The more speedy extension of ethnological researches among the remnants of the Algonquian tribes formerly occupying the Middle West is desired. In a number of cases these tribes are represented by only a few survivors who retain any knowledge of the traits, language, and customs of their people, hence it will be impossible to gather much of this information unless the work is extended more rapidly, as the funds now at the bureau's disposal for this purpose are inadequate. The additional sum of $1,000 is recommended for this purpose. As previously stated, the demand for the Handbook of American Indians has been so great that many schools and libraries have necessarily been denied. The need of a revised edition is urgent, but the revision can not be satisfactorily undertaken and the latest information incorporated without the employment of special ethnologic assistants-those who have devoted special study to particular tribes-and editorial and clerical aid. It is recommended that the sum of $3,800 be appropriated for this purpose. The bureau is constantly in receipt of requests from schools, historical societies, compilers of textbooks, etc., for photographic prints of Indian subjects, since it is generally known that the bureau possesses many thousands of negatives accumulated in the course of its investigations. As no funds are now available for this purpose, it is recommended that a reasonable sum, say $1,000, be appropriated for the purpose of furnishing prints for educational purposes. In most cases applicants would doubtless be willing to pay the cost, but at present the bureau has no authority for selling photographs. The manuscripts accumulated by the bureau form a priceless collection; indeed many of them, if lost, could not be replaced, since they represent the results of studies of Indians who have become extinct or have lost their tribal identity. It is therefore urgently recommended that the sum of $1,350 be appropriated for fireproofing a room and for providing metal cases for the permanent preservation of the manuscripts. Respectfully submitted. Dr. CHARLES D. WALCOTT, F. W. HODGE, Ethnologist in Charge. Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. APPENDIX III. REPORT ON THE INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES. SIB: I have the honor to submit the following report on the operations of the International Exchange Service during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1911, which was prepared under the direction of Mr. C. W. Shoemaker, chief clerk, who was in charge of the service from January, 1910, until June 1, 1911. The congressional appropriation for the support of the service during 1911 was $32,200 (the same amount granted for the past three years), and the sum collected on account of repayments was $4,754.99, making the total available resources for carrying on the system of international exchanges $36,954.99. The total number of packages handled during the year was 228,698-an increase over the number for the preceding year of 7,073. The weight of these packages was 560,808 pounds-a gain of 76,124 pounds. For purposes of comparison the number and weight of packages of different classes are indicated in the following table: The disparity between the number of packages received and those sent may be accounted for, in part, by the fact that many returns for publications sent abroad are forwarded to their destinations by mail and not through the exchange service. This difference is further due to the fact that whereas packages sent are made up in most cases of separate publications, those received contain several volumes-in some instances the term "package" being applied to large boxes often containing 100 or more publications. By referring to the above statement it will be noted that 66 per cent of the work of the office has been conducted in behalf of the United States governmental establishments. Of the 2,380 boxes used in forwarding exchanges to foreign bureaus and agencies for distribution (an increase of 347 boxes over 1910), 385 boxes contained full sets of United States official documents for authorized depositories and 1,995 were filled with departmental and other publications for depositories of partial sets and for miscellaneous correspondents. Several changes have been made during the year in the routine of the Exchange Office looking to the economical and efficient administration of the service. These changes are here briefly referred to. It had been the practice for many years to keep a card record of both incoming and outgoing packages-a credit and debit account with each establishment or individual using the facilities of the Exchange Service-thus enabling the Institution to answer inquiries concerning the transmisson of any particular package without delay. As the keeping of these cards involved a great deal of labor-quite out of proportion to the benefits derived therefrom-and also as most of the information given thereon could, with the expenditure of a little more time, be obtained from other records in the office, the detailed statement of outgoing packages has been discontinued. This curtailment in the work has made it possible to dispense with the services of one of the clerks in the record room. The discontinuance of these cards has, furthermore, brought about a change in the work in the shipping room whereby the preparation of consignments for transmission abroad is facilitated. 66 Since the fiscal year 1897 there has been printed in the report on the exchanges, under the caption Interchange of Publications between the United States and Other Countries," a statement showing in detail the number of packages sent to and received from each country through the International Exchange Service. In most instances, the statistics contained in these statements indicated that a much larger number of packages were sent abroad than were received in return. While it is true that a certain disparity exists, the statements were misleading, since, as already explained, a great many packages are received through other channels by correspondents in this country in return for those sent through the Exchange Service. In view of this fact, and also because the statistics contained in these statements were seldom required for the use of the Exchange Office, the keeping of the detailed record from which they were derived has been discontinued. The time saved by this and other minor changes in the receiving room has enabled the clerical force in that room to keep the work required in handling and recording the large number of packages received for transmission through the service more nearly up to date. Mention was made in the last report that the German authorities had in contemplation the founding of an institution at Berlin to further cultural relations between Germany and the United States, and that one of its functions would be the transmission and distribution of German exchanges. This establishment, which is known as the "Amerika-Institut," was organized in the fall of 1910, and the exchange of publications was taken up by it on January 1, 1911. On the latter date the exchange agency maintained by the Smithsonian Institution in Leipzig at the publishing house of Karl W. Hiersemann was discontinued. Prior to the discontinuance of the Leipzig agency the interchange of publications between correspondents in Luxemburg and Roumania and those in the United States was conducted through that medium. In compliance with the Institution's request, the Amerika-Institut has been good enough to assume charge of the distribution of packages in Luxemburg. The Academia Romana at Bucharest-the depository of a partial set of United States governmental documents-has been approached with a view to enlisting its services in the interchange of publications between Roumania and the United States, and it is hoped that the academy may find it convenient to have this work conducted under its auspices. The Japanese exchange agency and the depository of a full set of United States governmental documents was transferred by the Japanese Government, during the latter part of the year, from the Department of Foreign Affairs to the Imperial Library at Tokyo. The regular series of official documents, as well as all publications for distribution in Japan, are therefore now forwarded to that library. An application received by the Institution from the under secretary to the Government of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, Allahabad, India, for copies of such United States official publications as might be of interest to it was favorably acted upon by the Library of Congress, and that Government was added to the list of those countries receiving partial sets of governmental documents. The first shipment, consisting of six boxes, was forwarded to the under secretary on October 11, 1910. Two cases forwarded from Washington in October, 1910, containing exchanges for miscellaneous addresses in New South Wales, were destroyed in transit to that country, the steamship by which the consignment was transmitted having been burned at sea. The senders of the packages contained in these cases were communicated with, and it is gratifying to state that it was possible for most of them to supply copies of the lost publications. The work inaugurated in 1908 of actively seeking returns from foreign countries for the exchanges sent to them by this Government has resulted during the year in the acquisition of important collections of publications for the Library of Congress and for several other establishments of the Government. About 10,000 foreign governmental documents of a statistical character, returned by the Library of Congress as duplicates, have been stored for some time in the Smithsonian Institution. These books were arranged and listed during the year under the direction of the assistant librarian, while the Exchange Service, through which the documents were received from abroad, provided the extra clerical assistance required. Upon completion of this work most of the documents were forwarded to the New York Public Library to complete its series of foreign governmental publications. FOREIGN DEPOSITORIES OF UNITED STATES GOVERNMENTAL DOCUMENTS. In accordance with treaty stipulations and under the authority of the congressional resolutions of March 2, 1867, and March 2, 1901, setting apart a certain number of documents for exchange with foreign countries, there are now sent regularly to depositories abroad 55 full sets of United States official publications and 34 partial sets, the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh having been added during the year to the list of countries receiving partial sets. The recipients of full and partial sets are as follows: DEPOSITORIES OF FULL SETS. Argentina: Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Buenos Aires. Baden: Universitäts-Bibliothek, Freiburg. Bavaria: Königliche Hof- und Staats-Bibliothek, Munich. Belgium: Bibliothèque Royale, Brussels. Brazil: Bibliotheca Nacional, Rio de Janeiro. Canada: Parliamentary Library, Ottawa. Cape Colony: Government Stationery Department, Cape Town. Chile: Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional, Santiago. China: American-Chinese Publication Exchange Department, Shanghai Bureau of Foreign Affairs, Shanghai. Colombia: Biblioteca Nacional, Bogota. Costa Rica: Oficina de Depósito y Canje de Publicaciones, San José. |