NO. I ETHNOGEOGRAPHIC BOARD — BENNETT 23 



area bibliographies, and the specialized library, were assembled and 

 arranged in order to facilitate and improve the information sources. 



As the Government agencies became more stabilized, war areas 

 contracted, and foreign intelligence replaced the domestic, the 

 demands on the Board's information service dwindled. The first year 

 of operation was the period of greatest activity. By the end of 1943 

 requests were notably fewer in number and correspondingly of 

 greater complexity. After 2 years the first Director felt that the 

 Ethnogeographic Board's primary objective had been achieved, and 

 tendered his resignation since, as he stated in a letter of June 21, 

 1944, "... I came to Washington primarily to be of service in the 

 war efifort. ..." He felt that the nature of the activities would, and 

 should, change. His prediction was correct, since the third year was 

 marked by requests for other than pure information. 



The Board received its initial direction from those cooperating 

 committees which it, in part, represented. Once connections with 

 War and Navy Departments were established, the nature of their 

 requests controlled the efforts of the staff. At the semiannual Board 

 meetings, the members offered guidance to the Directorate and sug- 

 gested new action. Since these suggestions were frequently not of a 

 strictly informational nature they were seldom practical for the small, 

 overoccupied Washington staff. The Board members emphasized 

 the dual function, to answer and to sell. The Director gave priority 

 to answering. His office was perfectly willing to distribute and 

 promote any pertinent materials, but did not have time, staff, nor 

 techniques to stimulate the scholarly profession in the production of 

 more salable documents. 



The description and analysis starts with the Area Roster, the 

 Information Files, and the Promotion Techniques. Unfortunately, 

 the various activities of the Board cannot be neatly segregated. The 

 roster was compiled largely during the first year, but the informa- 

 tion service started the first day. A letter answering a query would 

 often include data on personnel, photographs, bibliography, and a 

 promotion pamphlet, so that any description which separates these 

 activities must not only be somewhat artificial, but also involve some 

 duplication. In some ways this topical approach may seem to over- 

 simplify, but little clarity would be gained by a presentation of the 

 Board's first year's rush of business. 



AREA ROSTER 



The Board built up a file of the area experiences and linguistic 

 abilities of some 5,000 individuals which it entitled: "World File of 



