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nently where Government publications will be properly cared for and used, as intended for the good of the public.

This feature of permanency will enable designated libraries to accumulate sets of documents of enduring reference value. The sending of such publications to a library for a year or two and then to another library for a few years makes the books useless and is a most wasteful and extravagant practice both for the Government and for the library. The librarian of the New York City Public Library has called attention to the fact that that library with its 1,800,000 volumes was removed from the list of depository libraries not very long ago by a congressional redistricting. It was put in a district with a small denominational college which the Representative from that district was said to be unwilling to discontinue as a depository. The New York Library, however, continued to receive the Government publications through a branch in another district which fortunately had been designated as a depository.

The superintendent of documents recommends very strongly that designations be made permanent in order that the real value of such designations may be enjoyed by the citizens of the United States.

The following libraries are added to the list of designated depositories: The library of the Government of Porto Rico at San Juan, the library of the office of the superintendent of documents, the library of the Pan American Union, and the Public Library of the District of Columbia.

Up to August 8, 1919, 480 libraries have been designated as depositories of Government publications out of a total of 667 possible designations under the law.

Sec. 27, par. 2.-The library distribution proposed in this paragraph has been urged for a number of years by the American Library Association. Under existing law only the Library of Congress and international exchanges are entitled to all the publications as provided by this paragraph. It is intended to make available for depository libraries substantially every publication of the Government that is printed for the information of the public or the use of Government officials in the transactions of the public business, especially committee hearings, and publications that are not ordered withheld as confidential.

The provision that such distribution to depository libraries shall be made under regulations to be approved by the Joint Committee on Printing is intended to make it possible for the depository libraries to select such publications as shall be sent to them, if such a plan can be worked out by the Superintendent of Documents and the committee. It is a radical departure from the present system of wholesale distribution of Government publications to depository libraries, irrespective of the size of the library, the purposes for which the library exists, or the desire of the library for such publications.

The Printing Investigation Commission in its preliminary report of June 25, 1910, gives an excellent summary of the conditions which exist under the present system and the reasons why this system should be subject to regulation as proposed in the pending bill. The comment of the commission follows:

Libraries present a most perplexing problem in the distribution of Government publications. The lavish manner in which the different branches of the Government and Congress itself supply the libraries of the country with the product of the Government Printing Office and the zeal with which libraries seek public documents have resulted in vast duplications and consequent great waste of costly Government publications. Designated depository libraries were authorized by the act of March 2, 1861, and many libraries still in existence were designated as depositories of Government publications in the sixties, seventies, and eighties. Each Senator, Member, and Delegate is entitled to

designate one depository of Government publications. In addition, the libraries of the States and Territories, the executive departments, the land-grant colleges, the Military and Naval Academies, and the Philippine Government are also designated by law as depositories.

No complete record was kept of the distribution of documents to these libraries until after the establishment of the office of the superintendent of documents by the act of January 12, 1895. From 1895 to June 30, 1909, the superintendent of documents distributed a total of 7,906,892 publications to libraries, 5,592,989 of which went to designated depository libraries, as shown by the following statement compiled from the reports of the superintendent of documents for the years named:

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In addition to this distribution of documents to libraries by the superintendent of documents, thousands upon thousands of documents have been sent to them by Members of Congress and the departments and independent offices of the Government. As before stated, the commission has undertaken to minimize the duplication by departments by having depository libraries stricken from departmental mailing lists. This alone will prevent the distribution of thousands of duplicate documents the coming year.

Libraries also receive a great number of documents from private individuals who have been supplied with Government publications they do not desire by Members of Congress and the departments. A startling incident of the extent of this practice was reported to the commission by the librarian of the Louisville Free Public Library. The Louisville librarian stated that last fall he received 3,000 documents that had been franked to a citizen of Louisville. Nearly all of these publications bore the dates of 1900 to 1904, and many of them were duplicates. In the lot were 20 mail sacks of the 1904 Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture, a total of about 750 copies of that publication alone. Out of the entire number the Louisville librarian says there were only about 300 volumes that his library desired, and he forwarded the remainder, about 2,700 volumes, to the superintendent of documents in Washington, the Government having to bear the expense of mailing this wagonload of publications from Washington to Louisville and from Louisville to Washington.

During the 15 years from 1895 to 1909, inclusive, there were returned to the superintendent of documents a total of 1,579,164 documents which libraries had received in duplication or had discarded as obsolete or useless. That is an average of more than 100,000 a year, which, besides the cost of printing and binding, put the Government to double postal expense and then generally had to be sold for a trifling sum as waste paper. This excess and duplication in the distribution of documents to libraries is rapidly becoming more serious as the number of Government publications keep increasing year by year. During the last three years ended June 30, 1909, the superintendent of documents had returned to his office from libraries a total of 754,367 publications, the great bulk of which went into the accumulation recently ordered sold as waste

paper. The following statement, compiled from the reports of the superintendent of documents, shows the return of documents to his office by libraries:

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1 Includes documents returned by library, House of Representatives.

That the Government distribution of documents to depository libraries is becoming too heavy a burden for many of them to bear is also evident from the decreasing number of depositories and from the fact that out of a total of 615 possible designations only 457 libraries had been named as depositories on April 16, 1910. On January 1, 1900, the number of depository libraries reached its highest mark of 501. The average number for the last 15 years is 471. The following statement shows the number of depository libraries each year since the office of the superintendent of documents was created:

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In the 15 years since 1895 the depository libraries have received an average of 11,875 publications each. The number of publications sent to each depository library in the fiscal year ended June 30, 1909, was 2,981, or close to 3,000 for each depository. Reports received by the commission from 279 depository libraries show that only 21 of this number now have on their shelves as many publications as they received from the superintendent of documents since 1895, and all but 2 of these 21 depositories were designated prior to 1895. The library of the Yale University, which was designated as a depository in 1859, has retained only 10,000 of the Government publications sent to it. Harvard University library, designated in 1860, has 8,250 Government publications; Princeton University library, designated in 1884, has 11,000; Dartmouth College, designated in 1884, has 10,000. The Department of Agriculture library, designated by the act of January 12, 1895, has about 11,000, practically the total number it has received from the superintendent of documents.

The present law requires the superintendent of documents to send the same number of publications to every designated depository, whether it is located in an Arkansas village or in New York City. It is obvious that the small libraries have not the facilities to handle the flood of documents, averaging 1,000 a year, that the superintendent of documents sends them, nor have such libraries enough readers to warrant this overwhelming supply of Government publications. As a result, the smaller libraries, and many of the larger ones as well, return to the superintendent of documents thousands of publications every year because they have no space in which to even store these documents. Undoubtedly the documents returned to the superintendent of documents are only a small part of the number that these libraries dispose of each year. This

is shown by the small number of Government publications the libraries report as now having on hand.

The following instances illustrate the present extravagance in distributing Government publications to depository libraries, large and small alike:

The Branch Normal College, at Pine Bluff, Ark., which had its library designated as a depository in 1882, reports to the commission that it has approximately 4,000 Government publications in its library now, despite the fact that it received 11,875 documents from the superintendent of documents since 1895 and not counting the number of publications sent to this library from 1882 to 1895. This library reports a total of only 200 volumes in its library in addition to these Government publications and states that fully half of the latter are ip "storage." The report of the Commissioner of Education for 1909 shows the Branch Normal College to then have had a total of 3,400 volumes in its library, or 800 less than reported to the commission on June 6, 1910. The Branch Normal College had 302 students enrolled this year. Notwithstanding these facts, the librarian of the Branch Normal College wants the Government to continue sending all its publications to Pine Bluff, Ark., and the superintendent of documents will have to keep supplying this library with the same number of publications as he does the great libraries of New York City, Chicago, and St. Louis as long as it is a designated depository under the present law.

The public-school library of Perryville, Mo., was designated a depository in 1902. It has 1,900 Government publications and 500 or 600 other volumes on its shelves. This school reports 337 students. The public-school library of Chillicothe, Mo., was designated in 1884 and has 300 Government publications and 7,000 other volumes. Its students number 1,332. The Mechanics' Mercantile Library, of San Francisco, Cal., was designated in 1889. It has 2,700 Government publications and 30,000 other volumes. All these libraries want to continue receiving every Government publication, although they have retained only a small part of those sent them for years past. The public library of Fairfield, Iowa, a town of 5,000 population, was designated as a depository in 1862, and yet it has only 7,677 Government publications on hand now, with 14,755 other volumes.

These facts, along with other interesting information concerning depository libraries, were ascertained by a letter and list of questions which the commission sent to each depository library (457) on May 20, 1910. Though the libraries were urged to make immediate reply, only 279 had answered up to June 16, 1910, which of itself is a significant fact in revealing the indifference of nearly half of the depository libraries as regards the distribution of Government publications.

The proposition has been urged freely by library associations and others interested in the subject that depository libraries be permitted to make selections of Government publications to be sent to them, instead of being required to receive all as at present. The commission laid special stress on this question in its letter to the librarians on May 20, 1910. Of the 279 librarians that have replied to date, 112 expressed the desire to make selections of Government publications, instead of receiving the total output of the document office.

The Superintendent of Documents has made a careful inquiry of the depository libraries in regard to the selection plan, which the Joint Committee on Printing is authorized to put into effect under this paragraph, and reported to the committee that of the 474 depository libraries then on his designated list 276 had signified their intention to make selection of the Government publications to be sent to them instead of receiving all, while the remainder, 198, requested that they be continued on his list to receive all the publications of the Government. The tremendous waste in the present method of distributing public documents to depository libraries is shown by the fact that in the last 20 years more than 2,000,000 of the documents sent to these libraries by the Superintendent of Documents were returned by them to the Government Printing Office. The great bulk of these returned documents had to be sold as waste paper, after the Government had been put to the expense of printing and binding

them and paying the cost of their transportation from Washington to all parts of the country and then back to Washington.

There is no record of the hundreds of thousands of documents that the libraries have undoubtedly cast aside as worthless, not taking the trouble to return them to the Superintendent of Documents. During the last 20 years the Superintendent of Documents has sent to the depository libraries approximately 14,000,000 Government publications, of which one-seventh have been returned to him as useless to such libraries. This fact alone shows the need of the proposed reform. The saving to the Government will be very great not only in the publications themselves but in transportation by mail to and from these libraries, and this can be effected without the reduction. of efficiency in serving libraries with such publications as they desire. The Superintendent of Documents has already outlined a plan whereby he will be advised of the needs and wishes of the various libraries and will then promptly forward such publications immediately upon receipt of them from the Public Printer.

CERTAIN DEPOSITORIES ABOLISHED.

It is also proposed in this section to abolish the present distribution of certain geological publications, the Patent Gazette, and the Journals of the Senate and the House to special depositories, and to make these publications available only for the regular depositories.

The present law authorizes the designation by each Senator and Member of four public libraries in his State or district to receive the monographs, bulletins, and reports of the Geological Survey. The Superintendent of Documents reports only 725 geological depository libraries on his list out of a total possible designation of 2,144. The reports of the Superintendent of Documents show 677,812 publications were sent to these geological-depository libraries from 1895 to June 30, 1909. As is well known, the geological publications are among the most expensive issued by the Government, containing, as they do, elaborate illustrations and maps.

The Printing Investigation Commission communicated with the geological-depository libraries as to the necessity for continuing their existence. One hundred and fifty-eight libraries replied that the geological publications were of little or no use to them, and 145 libraries expressed a desire to make selections of geological publications rather than receive all as at present. One hundred and eighty-nine of the libraries on the geological-depository list made no reply to the inquiry of the Printing Investigation Commission, in spite of the fact that the commission's letter contained the statement that failure to respond to its inquiries would be construed to mean that the library desired to be discontinued as a depository; therefore it seems that practically half of the geological depositories have no use for or else prefer to make selections of geological publications.

Each Senator and Member is also authorized under the present law to designate eight libraries to receive the Patent Gazette. The superintendent of documents reports a total of only 2,304 Patent Gazette libraries on his mailing list out of a possible total designation of 4,488. The Printing Investigation Commission, several years ago, requested these libraries to advise the commission whether the Patent

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