Report on the International Exchange 
Service 
Sir: I have the honor to submit the following report on the ac- 
tivities of the International Exchange Service for the fiscal year 
ended June 30, 1958: 
The Smithsonian Institution is the official United States agency 
for the exchange with other nations of governmental, scientific, and 
literary publications. The International Exchange Service, initiated 
by the Smithsonian Institution in the early years of its existence for 
the interchange of scientific publications between learned societies and 
individuals in the United States and those of foreign countries, 
serves as a means of developing and executing in part the broad and 
comprehensive objective, “the diffusion of knowledge.” It was later 
designated by the United States Government as the agency for the 
transmission of official documents to selected depositories throughout 
the world, and it continues to execute the exchanges pursuant to con- 
ventions, treaties, and other international agreements. 
The number of packages of publications received for transmission 
during the year was 1,094,798, a decrease of 110,241 packages under 
the previous fiscal year. The weight of the packages received was 
743,329 pounds, a decrease of 84,568 pounds. During the current 
year 19 Government depository sets were assembled for transmission 
abroad as compared to 21 sets assembled during the previous fiscal 
year. The reduction in the number of Government sets assembled, 
together with the use of corrugated cardboard boxes in place of wood 
boxes for packing the Government sets for transmission, accounted 
for 14,000 pounds of the decrease in weight. One Government de- 
partment transmitted during the previous fiscal year 71,500 pounds 
of publications that had accumulated durmg World War II and 
transmitted only 258 pounds of backlog publications during the cur- 
rent year. 
The average weight of the individual package decreased to 10.86 
ounces as compared to the 10.99-ounce average for the fiscal year of 
1957. 
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