REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 21 



THE SMITHSONIAN INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE SEE VICE. 



The International Exchange Service was inaugurated half a century 

 ago as a means for developing and executing in part the broad and 

 comprehensive objects paramount in the mind of the founder for the 

 "increase and diffusion of knowledge." 



The "increase of knowledge," accomplished only by constant research 

 and persistent experiments, as prosecuted by the Institution in its vari- 

 ous branches, would not alone have fulfilled the objects and attained 

 the results desired by the founder. The knowledge obtained must also 

 be diffused, and in order that the memoirs, contributions to knowledge, 

 and annual reports published by the Institution might be systemat- 

 ically exchanged for publications of other scientific institutions through- 

 out the world, the exchange system was inaugurated. 



The advantages of the service have not been confined to the Institu- 

 tion alone, but have been shared by scientific societies aud educational 

 institutions everywhere for the ultimate purpose of increasing the 

 resources of their libraries. That the best results might be attained, 

 the Institution proceeded to establish relations with various scientific 

 societies and libraries in England and Germany, where the interchange 

 of publications was more extensive than in other countries, and it was 

 found to be not only advisable but necessary that agents should be 

 employed and paid some salary from the funds of the Institution. With 

 the exception of the two countries named there is a systematic exchange 

 of publications with nearly every nation of the civilized world without 

 any expense to the Smithsonian Institution for the distribution of pack- 

 ages after the delivery of cases to the authorized agency. 



Although the exchange service was originally established in the 

 interest of science, for many years it has forwarded and received so 

 many publications of the United States that the latter function has 

 superseded the original design of the Bureau, both as to the number of 

 packages and their weight, and especially since it became the official 

 medium of the National Government for the distribution of parlia- 

 mentary and scientific publications of the several Bureaus it has 

 undergone a complete change and necessarily many improvements have 

 been adopted in the system. 



The appropriations made by Congress for the support of the ex- 

 changes since 18S1 have never been adequate, notwithstanding the 

 tad that treaty obligations made it compulsory for the Exchange 

 Bureau to forward Government publications and receive the parlia- 

 mentary documents o.f other countries for the Library of Congress. 

 Without mentioning the cost to the Smithsonian Institution of the 

 transmissions of the United States Government prior to the Exchange 

 Bureau becoming the official representative of the Government, the 

 Institution has advanced during that period over $45,000 from its own 



