§0 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



"From Budapest it was my purpose to uext go to Venice, but as the most 

 direct route took me through Vienna I availed myself of the opportunity 

 of personally conveying my compliments to Dr. Suess, a foreign associate 

 of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States and the president 

 of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of Austria. The International Ex- 

 changes owes much to the efforts of Dr. Suess in promoting its interests in 

 Austria, as he was instrumental in arranging for the agpncy in Vienna as 

 now constituted, and his personal acquaintance with many eminent sci- 

 entists in the United States and his visits to this country from time to 

 time have served to make him an interested student of America's progress 

 in science. 



"Italy. — Although my principal official duties in Italy were confined to 

 the Biblioteca Naziouale Vittorio Emanuele in Rome, I was favored with 

 the promise of complete sets, so far as they were available, of the munici- 

 pal publications of the cities of Venice, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Naples, 

 Genoa, Turin, and Milan. The sincerity of these promises is proven by 

 the fact that large consignments from Florence, Rome, and Genoa have 

 already been received and deposited in the Library of Congress, while ad- 

 vices are at hand that other collections are on the way. 



"In exchange for these valuable contributions it is understood that the 

 Library of Congress will send to the libraries of the cities above mentioned 

 such publications of this Government as from their nature will be of interest 

 to municipal governments generally, and, among others, to include the 

 reports upon Commercial Relations, Commerce and Navigation, District of 

 Columbia, and the Department of Labor, the Statistics of Railways, Con- 

 sular Reports, and Statistical Abstracts. 



"Count Domenico Gnoli, director of the Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio 

 Emanuele at Rome, assured me that all the official publications of the 

 Kingdom of Italy which were available and not possessed by the Library 

 of Congress would be supplied, and, in my presence, he gave instructions 

 to that effect. 



"The International Exchange Service of Italy — Ufficio degli Scambi 

 Internazionali — is located on the second floor of the National Library Build- 

 ing, and is approached by a stairway on the left of the main entrance and 

 independent of the grand staircase leading to the Library. The space 

 occupied as the office for the exchange service consists of one long room 

 well lighted and well adapted to the purpose. 



"The relationship of the Italian Exchange Service to the Biblioteca 

 Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele is similar in some respects to that of the 

 international exchanges to the Smithsonian Institution. 



"Signor Cavaliere Giovanni Garavini, the chief of the bureau, showed 

 me many courtesies and gave me every possible opportunity to familiarize 

 myself with his methods, which, though systematic and complete, do not, 

 on account of the limited requirements, demand the same detail necessary 

 to ready reference as is practiced by the Institution. 



"The sum of 5,000 lire is annually provided by the National Library for 

 conducting exchanges, and the charges on contributions by Italian corre- 

 spondents to* foreign distribution are prenw^ by the bureau to ports of 



