46 ANNUAL R.EPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 



Several changes have been made during the year in the routine of the Ex- 

 change Office looking to the economical and efficient administration of the 

 service. These changes are here briefly referred to. 



It had been the practice for many years to keep a card 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 1S97 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 through the Exchange 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 force 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 compliance 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 



