Appendix III. 



REPORT ON THE INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGES. 



Sib : I have the honor to submit the following report on the operations of the 

 International Exchange Service during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1911, 

 which was prepared under the direction of Mr. C. W. Shoemaker, chief clerk, 

 who was in charge of the service from January, 1910, until June 1, 1911. 



The congressional appropriation for the support of the service during 1911 

 was $32,200 (the same amount granted for the past three years), and the sum 

 collected on account of repayments was $4,754.99, making the total available 

 resources for carrying on the system of international exchanges $36,954.99. 



The total number of packages handled during the year was 228,698 — an in- 

 crease over the number for the preceding year of 7,073. The weight of these 

 packages was 560,80S pounds — a gain of 76,124 pounds. For purposes of com- 

 parison the number and weight of packages of different classes are indicated 

 in the following table : 



The disparity between the number of packages received and those sent may 

 be accounted for, in part, by the fact that many returns for publications sent 

 abroad are forwarded to their destinations by mail and not through the exchange 

 service. This difference is further due to the fact that whereas packages sent 

 are made up in most cases of separate publications, those received contain 

 several volumes — in some instances the term " package " being applied to large 

 boxes pften containing 100 or more publications. 



By referring to the above statement it will be noted that GO per cent of the 

 work of the office has been conducted in behalf of the United States govern- 

 mental establishments. 



Of the 2,380 boxes used in forwarding exchanges to foreign bureaus and 

 agencies for distribution (an increase of 347 boxes over 1910), 385 boxes con- 

 tained full sets of United States official documents for authorized depositories 

 and 1,995 were filled with departmental and other publications for depositories 

 of partial sets and for miscellaneous correspondents. 



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