EEPOKT ON SMITHSONIAN ENCHANGES FOE 1883. 



By George H. Boehmer. 



The delays resulting from the removal of the exchange office into 

 temporary quarters pending - the restoration and fire-proofing of the 

 eastern portion of the Smithsonian building and in obtaining the Con- 

 gressional appropriation made for the Bureau, considerably retarded 

 operations during the past year. 



The work of reorganization of the service, begun in 1880, bas been 

 continued during the past year, and the service now represents four dis- 

 tinct divisions, viz, the Eecord, Foreign Exchange, Domestic Exchange, 

 and Government Document Exchange divisions, each of which is in 

 charge of a competent assistant, whose duties are confined to his special 

 department. 



The Record Division. — Mention was made in the reports for 1S81 and 

 an illustration given in that for 1882 of a system of card catalogues, on 

 the debit and credit system, with the corresponding societies in Aus- 

 tria, France, Germany, and Great Britain and Ireland. This system 

 has been extended to comprise all establishments enumerated in the 

 list of foreign correspondents, and now numbers about 1,000 cards. 

 Over 18,000 entries were made ontbese cards during the year, and from 

 them the invoices prepared which accompany every sending. In addi- 

 tion to this work, the assistant in charge of this division is required to 

 credit the correspondents with the acknowledgments made by them of 

 the parcels received, and to keep a daily record of the incoming letters. 

 All the files are kept in this division. 



Foreign Exchange Division. — The duties of the assistant in charge of 

 this branch also included the domestic exchanges until the 1st of March, 

 when these were placed in charge of a new assistant. This had become 

 necessary on account of the constantly increasing work in both depart- 

 ments. 



A full description of the work of receiving and preparing for trans- 

 mission the packages of foreign exchanges was given in the report 

 for 1882, and a repetition of it is superfluous ; it may only be stated 

 that the receipts for this branch were 18,0G3 packages, which were sent 

 abroad in 419 boxes. A detailed statement is appended in the general 

 statistics. 



The work connected with the Government document exchanges is 

 still performed by the foreign exchange department, but, both branches 

 increasing so very rapidly, the suggestion made in the report for 1882, 

 of placing this work in the hands of one assistant, is now renewed. 



Domestic Exchange Division. — This separate branch was established on 



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