88 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1911. 



IV. Service, loan copies and exchanges : 



1. Partial, general, and special; 



2. National ; 



3. International, special ; 



4. International, scientific. 



The subject of " International Exchanges" was briefly reviewed, and the fol- 

 lowing resolution was passed: 



It is desirable to promote further developments of international exchange 

 service, especially in obtaining frequent dispatch, in Increasing the number of 

 countries taking part in the international convention, and in providing for 

 gratuitous transmission of all correspondence relative to request for exchanges, 

 to the receipts for publications and to their return. It is especially desirable to 

 admit free or beneficial associations and institutions to such exchange. 



It is desirable that the Smithsonian Institution, the initiator of the service of 

 international exchanges, should itself promote the revision of the international 

 convention of 1SS5 for the purpose of realizing these improvements. 



The congress officially visited the Congo Museum at Tervueren and closed 

 with a banquet on the evening of August 27. 



The Congress of Archivists and Librarians, second to assemble, but first in 

 point of numbers and scope, met at Brussels from Sunday, August 28, through 

 Wednesday, August 31, under the auspices of the Association of the Belgian 

 Archivists and Librarians, M. Louis Stainier, administrator-inspector of the 

 Royal Library of Belgium, being the official in charge of the preliminary prepa- 

 rations. The printed list showed 18 countries represented by national com- 

 missions (with especial reference to archives), 12 countries represented by offi- 

 cial delegates, delegations from 9 Belgian learned societies, 49 libraries and 

 other institutions entered on the registry and 389 individual names, these last, 

 of course, representing the personnel of the representative delegations as well as 

 individual members. These 389 enrolled participants represented 21 different 

 countries, including, besides the United States, England. Canada, Germany, 

 France, Belgium, Holland, Austria, Hungary, Spain, Switzerland, Portugal, Rus- 

 sia, Italy. Brazil, Cuba, Denmark, Sweden Norway, Luxemburg, and Monaco. 



This congress was convened on the afternoon of the 28th of August with 

 addresses of welcome, and immediately divided into two sections, the archivists 

 and the librarians, which held separate meetings. My time was largely de- 

 voted to the library section, and the discussions relating particularly to library 

 methods included cataloguing, classification, and the placing of books upon the 

 shelves. My paper on the International Exchange Service, having been printed 

 in advance and distributed, was read by title. This paper is as follows : 



There is no more important subject to lie discussed at the Congres Inter- 

 national dee Archivistes et des Bibliothecaires than that of the international 

 exchanges, as the value of that service to libraries can not be overestimated. 

 The time has come when the scientific and learned institutions, the public, the 

 research workers, and the students of literature demand the scientific and 

 literary publications of the world. 



Considering the question "Dans quel sens a-t-il lieu de reorganiser et 

 d'etendre le service des echanges internationaux " from an American point of 

 view, it does not appear that reorganization is what is needed, for a system 

 of International exchanges working with the hearty cooperation of all nations 

 has not yet ever been developed on the lines of the existing conventions. 



The present international exchange service is operating under two conven- 

 tions made between certain powers, and the work is based upon them. One 

 of these, signed at Brussels in 188G and officially proclaimed in 1889. made 

 provision for the exchange of official documents and scientific and literary 

 publications. The other, which was concluded and proclaimed at the same 

 time, provided for the immediate exchange of the official journal, as well as 

 of the parliamentary annals and documents of the contracting parties. The 



