" FOR THE INCREASE AND DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE." 



THE INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE SERVICE 



OF THE 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 



In effecting the distribution of its first publications abroad, the 

 Smithsonian Institution established relationships with certain for- 

 eign scientific societies and libraries, by means of which it was 

 enabled to materially assist institutions and individuals of this coun- 

 try in the transmission of their publications abroad, and also for- 

 eign societies and individuals in distributing their publications in 

 the United States. 



In recent years the Smithsonian Institution has been recognized 

 by the United States Government as in charge of its official Ex- 

 change Bureau, through which the publications authorized by 

 Congress are exchanged for those of foreign governments ; and by 

 a formal treaty it acts as intermediary between the learned bodies 

 and literary and scientific societies of the contracting States for 

 the reception and transmission of their publications. 



Attention is invited to the fact that this is not a domestic, but 

 an international exchange service, and is used to facilitate such ex- 

 changes, not within the United States, but between the United 

 States and foreign countries only. 



The Smithsonian Institution will receive from any person or 

 institution of learning in the United States a package addressed, 

 under the following rules, to any person or institution abroad, and 

 will deliver it to the addressee free of expense: Its agents and 

 the exchange bureaus abroad will likewise receive from associations 

 of learning or individuals in their respective countries such pub- 

 lications as may be delivered to them under rules similar to those 

 prescribed herein, and will forward them to Washington, after which 

 the Institution will undertake their delivery, free of expense, to the 

 respective addresses in the United States. 



The rules established for the operation of the Exchange Service 

 provide for the distribution of books, pamphlets, charts, and other 

 printed matter, sent as donations or exchanges, to any accessible 

 point abroad, and without expense to the sender beyond that of 

 the delivery of the packages to the Smithsonian Institution in 

 Washington, and also without expense to the recipient. Similar 



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