26 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1912. 



No change has been made in the amount ($32,200) granted by 

 Congress during the past, four years for the support of this branch 

 of Government work carried on under the direction of the Institu- 

 tion, and the usual sum was collected from various Government and 

 State establishments for services in connection with the transporta- 

 tion of exchanges, the total available resources for meeting the ex- 

 penses of the system being $36,591.02. 



The publications dispatched by the Exchange Service are classified 

 under four heads : First, the Congressional Record ; second, " Parlia- 

 mentary documents " ; third, " Departmental documents " ; fourth, 

 " Miscellaneous scientific and literary publications." 



The term " Parliamentary documents ? ' as here used refers to 

 publications set aside by law for exchange with foreign Governments, 

 and includes not only copies of documents printed by order of either 

 House of Congress, but copies of each publication issued by any 

 department, bureau, commission, or officer of the Government, The 

 object in sending these publications abroad is to procure for the use 

 of the Congress of the United States a complete series of the publica- 

 tions of other Governments, and the returns are deposited in the 

 Congressional Library. 



The term " Departmental documents " embraces all the publica- 

 tions delivered at the Institution by the various Government depart- 

 ments, bureaus, or commissions for distribution to their correspond- 

 ents abroad, from whom they desire to obtain similar publications 

 in exchange. The publications received in return are deposited in 

 the various departmental libraries. 



The " Miscellaneous scientific and literary publications " are 

 received chiefly from learned societies, universities, colleges, scientific 

 institutes, and museums in the United States and transmitted to simi- 

 lar institutions in all parts of the world. 



At the request of the Secretary for the Interior of the Union of 

 South Africa the Institution discontinued the sending of full sets of 

 governmental documents to Cape Colony and the Transvaal and 

 partial sets to Natal and the Orange River Colony, substituting one 

 full set for the Government of the Union of South Africa. There 

 are therefore now sent through the Exchange Service to regular 

 foreign depositories only 54 full and 32 partial sets of official 

 documents. 



Xo countries were added during the year to the list of those with 

 which the immediate exchange of official parliamentary journals is 

 carried on, the number of countries taking part in this exchange 

 being 29. 



