88 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 
IV. Service, loan copies and exchanges: 
1. Partial, general, and special; 
2. National; = 
3. International, special; 
4, International, scientific. 
The subject of “ International Exchanges” was briefly reviewed, and the fol- 
lowing resolution was passed: 
It is desirable to promote further developments of international exchange 
service, especially in obtaining frequent dispatch, in increasing the number of 
countries taking part in the international convention, and in providing for 
gratuitous transmission of all correspondence relative to request for exchanges, 
to the receipts for publications and to their return. It is especially desirable to 
admit free or beneficial associations and institutions to such exchange. 
It is desirable that the Smithsonian Institution, the initiator of the service of 
international exchanges, should itself promote the revision of the international 
convention of 1885 for the purpose of realizing these improvements. 
The congress officially visited the Congo Museum at Tervueren and closed 
with a banquet on the evening of August 27. 
Yhe Congress of Archivists and Librarians, second to assemble, but first in 
point of numbers and scope, met at Brussels from Sunday, August 28, through 
Wednesday, August 31, under the auspices of the Association of the Belgian 
Archivists and Librarians, M. Louis Stainier, administrator-inspector of the 
Royal Library of Belgium, being the official in charge of the preliminary prepa- 
rations. The printed list showed 18 countries represented by national com- 
missions (with especial reference to archives), 12 countries represented by ofti- 
cial delégates, delegations from 9 Belgian learned societies, 49 libraries and 
other institutions entered on the registry and 389 individual names, these last, 
of course, representing the personnel of the representative delegations as well as 
individual members. These 389 enrolled participants represented 21 different 
countries, including, besides the United States, England, Canada, Germany, 
France, Belgium, Holland, Austria, Hungary, Spain, Switzerland, Portugal, Rus- 
sia, Italy, Brazil, Cuba, Denmark, Sweden Norway, Luxemburg, and Monaco. 
This congress was convened on the afternoon of the 28th of August with 
addresses of welcome, and immediately divided into two sections, the archivists 
and the librarians, which held separate meetings. My time was largely de- 
voted to the library section, and the discussions relating particularly to library 
methods included cataloguing, classification, and the placing of books upon the 
shelves. My paper on the International Exchange Service, having been printed 
in advance and distributed, was read by title. This paper is as follows: 
There is no more important subject to be discussed at the Congrés Inter- 
national des Archivistes et des Bibiiothecaires than that of the international 
exchanges, aS the value of that service to libraries can not be overestimated. 
The time has come when the scientific and learned institutions, the public, the 
research workers, and the students of literature demand the scientific and 
literary publications of the world. 
Considering the question “Dans quel sens a-t-il lieu de réorganiser et 
a’étendre le service des échanges internationaux”’ from an American point of 
view, it does not appear that reorganization is what is needed, for a system 
of international exchanges working with the hearty cooperation of all nations 
has not yet ever been developed on the lines of the existing conventions. 
The present international exchange service is operating under two conven- 
tions made between certain powers, and the work is based upon them. One 
of these, signed at Brussels in 1886 and officially proclaimed in 1889, made 
provision for the exchange of official documents and scientific and literary 
publications. The other, which was concluded and proclaimed at the same 
time, provided for the immediate exchange of the official journal, as well as 
of the parliamentary annals and documents of the contracting parties. ‘The 
