NO. I ETHNOGEOGRAPHIC BOARD — BENNETT IO7 



of Learned Societies, has made an estimate of the minimum number 

 of experts which this country needs for every major area of the world. 

 This would serve as an initial guide for the registration and allow the 

 emphasis to be placed on quality rather than quantity. The rosters 

 built up by the Ethnogeographic Board and other organizations would 

 assist in evaluating past experience, but special efforts would be 

 needed to record the new experience. Most scholastic institutions 

 keep some record of the experience of their personnel, but it would be 

 harder to obtain information from Government and business. 



The methods of training of new area experts lie beyond the experi- 

 ence of the Ethnogeographic Board. Much could be learned from the 

 area and language programs of the universities and from some of the 

 Government training programs like the Inter-American Training 

 Center. However, many of these special programs have already 

 closed, and the universities are reluctant to add variants to their stand- 

 ard curricula. Artificial stimulation will probably be needed to in- 

 spire the universities to undertake a job which falls entirely in their 

 special field of education. 



Area Materials 



The Board did not attempt to build up extensive files but it kept 

 constantly on the lookout for sources of information, such as bibli- 

 ographies, photographs, motion pictures, maps, outlines, summaries, 

 and the like. Their experience shows that most area materials are 

 poorly organized, and widely scattered throughout the country. A 

 summary statement from the staff members on the results of their 

 search for sources would help to formulate a plan for filling in the 

 gaps. Two Board projects have, in part, been appraisals of the exist- 

 ing area materials. The survey of area studies in American universi- 

 ties includes notes on the available teaching materials, maps, photo- 

 graphs, slides, mimeographed outlines, motion pictures, and other 

 useful items. A preliminary statement on resources in the universities 

 could be prepared from the files without great difficulty. The present 

 War Document Survey has as its primary aim the appraisal of the 

 area materials assembled by Government agencies during the war. 

 It would still be necessary to cover the resources of research institu- 

 tions, libraries, and the like. 



A statement on the relative merits of different kinds of area ma- 

 terials is also needed. Presumably the war, agencies and the commer- 

 cial concerns can determine their own needs, so that the appraisal 

 could be limited to those materials best adapted for area instruction. 



