46 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 
Several changes have been made during the year in the routine of the Ex- 
change Office looking to the economical and eflicient administration of the 
service. ‘These changes are here briefly referred to. : 
It had been the practice for many years to keep a ecard record of both in- 
coming and outgoing packages—a credit and debit account with each establish- 
ment 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. 
Since the fiscal year 1897 there has been printed in the report on the ex- 
changes, 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 Ex- 
change Service. In most instances, the statistics contained in these state- 
ments 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 througb the Hxchange 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 ferce 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 func- 
tions 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. Hierse- 
mann was discontinued. 
Prior to the discontinuance of the Leipzig agency the interchange of publi- 
cations between correspondents in Luxemburg and Roumania and those in the 
United States was conducted through that medium. In @ompliance 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 
