The international exchange is carried out by the means of the Romanian Academy Library.
The first exchange connections were established in 1870, when the Romanian Academic Society received from the Danish Science Academy more collections of periodicals in exchange for 26 volumes published by the former. In 1872, the Society for the Study of the Romanic Languages in Montpellier set up a first exchange with Revue des langues romanes.
In 1874, at the proposal of the writer Alexandru Odobescu a systematic exchange relationship with foreign scientific institutions was started.
The first relationships with the United States were established in 1883.
Until 1952, the Romanian Academy Library was the national exchange center in Romania. At the end of WWI the Romanian Academy Library had 145 partners and at the beginning of WWII 850 partners. Nowadays, the whole academic exchange network involves about 15,000 partners, for all the scientific profiles.
In 1949 the special Service for Exchange was founded, taking over tasks from other services. It is in charge with the exchange of the publications of the Romanian Academy, issued by the Publishing House of the Romanian Academy.
The service is coordinated by the scientific council of the library and financed by the Romanian Academy. The exchange is done with homologous institutions, with university and scientific libraries, according to the conventions of scientific cooperation made in the beginning years.
Besides the shipping of the materials, the service also provides information about the exchange possibilities and coordinates the exchange activity of the editorial departments of the academic journals.