38 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. lO/ 



reports, it is certain that at least some important results were ob- 

 tained. Furthermore, both the Army and Navy continued to request 

 this service, which would not have happened if the results were all 

 negative. If the request for the Baedeker's Guides is at all typical, 

 the effective response could be estimated as between 7 and 8 percent, 

 which is certainly creditable. In many cases the approach was some- 

 what hit or miss, but the over-all impression is that the hits were fre- 

 quent enough to justify the procedure. 



Although the Area Roster continued to be of some service until the 

 closing of the Board, its future value is dubious. An ex-traveler or 

 resident is seldom as good a source of information as the man on the 

 spot, and unoccupied spots have diminished rapidly. The Board did 

 not undertake the recording of all the new experience and training, so 

 its files are largely outmoded. The 5,000 names now in the card file 

 could probably be reduced to about one-tenth of that number, whose 

 experience would be of postwar value. If this were done, the task 

 of building an up-to-date file would be simplified. The Board's roster 

 technique could be followed in a future emergency with about the 

 same success. There will always be sources of names for question- 

 naires and follow-up requests or interviews. Perhaps, however, a 

 more systematic registration of area experience and trained person- 

 nel will be devised in the interim. 



Obvious lacunae in area knowledge and personnel influenced the 

 building of the roster, but the files themselves do not permit any 

 sound evaluation of the true situation. The greatest efforts were 

 made to fill in the little-known regions. Areas outside the war thea- 

 ters were intentionally neglected, and little attention was paid to the 

 better-known countries of Europe. In other words, the roster does 

 not serve as a yardstick for the specialized personnel of world areas. 

 Some have considered the inclusion of so many nonprofessionals a 

 deplorable situation, but it is equally valid to use this as an indication 

 of the value of registering the experience and organizing the knowl- 

 edge of "amateurs." 



INFORMATION FILES 



With the exception of the Area Roster and the Cross-Cultural 

 Survey file, the Washington office had few systematic information 

 files. The advisability of creating a backlog of information and 

 sources in anticipation of needs was discussed at one of the first 

 Board meetings, but relatively little was ever done about it. Instead, 

 the Directorate depended on its own knowledge of sources and on 

 the i-esourcefulness of its Sponsors. This was a deliberate policy. 



