REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 107 



1875, tbo autboisLip of wliicli is attributed principally to the representatives of 

 France; were stricken out of the amended articles considered in 188:? at tiie in- 

 stance of France; and in 1886 that Government declined to take further part in the 

 conference. 



It is, in fact, scarcely possible for the exchange ollices of most foreign countries to 

 procure all of the official publications of their Goveruments for exchange jiurposes, 

 the publishing arrangements of the governmental departments being for the most 

 l)art quite separate and distinct from one another, and there being no law, except in 

 the United States and Belgium, requiring them to'fiirnish copies for this ))urpose. It 

 is indeed extremely difiicult even for the exchange agent of a Goverment to ascer- 

 tain what the official publications of the different departments and bureaus are. 



The text of the two conventions as finally agreed to by the conference of 188G is 

 presented herewith as Exhibit B. 



During the past year some nnusnal pains have been taken in the efforts to increase 

 the number of official publications received from foreign countries, it appearing that 

 the United States Government now sends out about twenty times as many packages 

 to other Governmen ts as it receives from them, and that this disproportion has been 

 annually on the increase for several years past. (See Exhil)it C.) With some difli- 

 culty and at the cost of much correspondence a list, still not complete, f)f French 

 official publications has been compiled, containing four hundred and twenty-one titles. 

 Of these tbe library of the Smithsonian Institution received during the calendar 

 year 1887 thirty-nine titles .and the National Library forty-one titles. 



During the liscal year 1887-'88 three shipments were receivetl from the French Bu- 

 reau des Echanges, on the Gth of June and the 8th of December, 1887, and the 12th of 

 April, 1888, containing nine official packages for the Library of Congress. The num- 

 ber of titles contained in these nine packages can not now be precisely stated, but 

 was prolialily not greater than that received during the calendar year. 



On the other hand, there were four shipments of official publications to France 

 from this country during the fiscal year, containing seven hundred and sixty-three 

 packages of official publications. 



What has just been said relates only to the international exchange of official publica- 

 tions, intended for the national libraries of the Governments y).nrticipating. By far 

 the larger part of all of the business of this office is actually governmental business, 

 a considerable proportion of the so-called " literary and scientific'' exchanges l)eing 

 really an exchange of official publications between the bureaus or official subdivis- 

 ions of the different Governments, for the benefit of the bureau libraries, and not for 

 that of central or national libraries, as contemplated by the international agreements 

 already referred to (Exhibit B). '' 



Most of the foreign Government bureaus, and of our own as well, desire to enrich 

 their individual libraries, and do not regard the deposit of one set of the publications 



'These publications are .as strictly a part of the "official or governmental "ex- 

 changes as are those provided for by the resolution of Congress granting fifty copies for 

 foreign natioii.al libraries. While, therefore, long usage has sanctioned thedesignations 

 "literary and scientilic'' and "ofticia!," in the sense explained .above, I think tiiat iu 

 the interest of convenience and intelligibility, hereafter it will be bett(>r to express 

 simply the distinction which really exists, namely, that between the ollici.al and un- 

 oflicial exchanges, by tiie abjections " governmental " and " miscellaneous ; " meaning 

 by the former all publications sent or received by the Government or its luireaiis, and 

 by the latter all others. The publications of the Smithsonian Institution, which 

 are partly " government.al " and partly " iniscollaueous," although divided so far as 

 the exchange records and statistics are concerned, are accounted for as a whole by 

 the office routine of the Institution. I am not aware of any other office or organiza- 

 tion whose publications would not fall wholly within one or the other ot these 

 classes. 



