biennium, together with a supplemental digest of the more important legislation of the period. 2 U. S. C. 164a. Same; official distribution The Librarian of Congress is directed to have the indexes and digests authorized by section 164 of this title printed and bound for official distribution only. 2 U. S. C. 165. Appropriation for biennial index There is authorized to be appropriated annually for carrying out the provisions of section 164 of this title the sum of $30,000, to remain available until expended. Salaries and expenses, distribution of catalog cards 2 U. S. C. 150. Sale of copies of card indexes and other publications The Librarian of Congress is authorized to furnish to such institutions or individuals as may desire to buy them, such copies of the card indexes and other publications of the Library as may not be required for its ordinary transactions, and charge for the same a price which will cover their cost and ten per centum added, and all moneys received by him shall be deposited in the Treasury. 29 Stat. 545 General increase of the Library of Congress For purchase of books for the Library *** ; for purchase of files of periodicals, serials, and newspapers *** Increase of the Law Library 2 U. S. C. 135. Purchase of books for law library The Librarian shall make the purchases of books for the law library, under the direction of and pursuant to the catalogue furnished him by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. 29 Stat. 545 Books for the Supreme Court *** for purchase of new books of reference for the Supreme Court, to be a part of the Library of Congress and purchased by the marshal of the Supreme Court, under the direction of the Chief Justice ***. Books for the blind 2 U. S. C. 135a. Books and sound-reproduction records for blind; annual appropriation; purchases There is authorized to be appropriated annually to the Library of Congress, in addition to appropriations otherwise made to said Library, $1,125,000, which sum shall be expended under the direction of the Librarian of Congress to provide books published either in raised characters, on sound-reproduction recordings, or in any other form, for the use of the blind residents of the United States, including the several States, Territories, insular possessions, and the District of Columbia: Provided, That of said annual appropriation of $1,125,000, not exceeding $200,000 thereof shall be expended for books in raised characters and the balance remaining shall be expended for sound-reproduction recordings and for the purchase, maintenance, and replacement of reproducers for these sound-reproduction recordings, all of which books, recordings, and reproducers will remain the property of the Library of Congress but will be loaned to blind readers under regulations prescribed by the Librarian of Congress for this service. In the purchase of books in either raised characters or in sound-reproduction recordings the Librarian of Congress, without reference to section 5 of Title 41, shall give preference to nonprofit-making institutions or agencies whose activities are primarily concerned with the blind, in all cases where the prices or bids submitted by such institutions or agencies are, by said Librarian, under all the circumstances and needs involved, determined to be fair and reasonable. 2 U. S. C. 135b. Same; circulation; choosing of libraries; preference to veterans The Librarian of Congress may arrange with such libraries as he may judge appropriate to serve as local or regional centers for the circulation of such books, under such conditions and regulations as he may prescribe. In the lending of such books preference shall at all times be given to the needs of blind persons who have been honorably discharged from the United States military or naval service. Mr. HORAN. I want to say this in defense of the Appropriations Committee: We are on a schedule. We have to perform our duties whether school is in or out. We have to get the bills through. That, I think, sometimes accounts for the actions of the Appropriations Committee. We review the work of you administrators and we see things that ought to be included in our reports or even as language in the bill. We are constrained to do that. Legislative committees do not have to act. Quite often they do not. That is a source of embarrassment to me at all times, because I always feel that the Appropriations Committee has a sole duty to measure out the money. But we have to do that in terms of what you have done with what we have given you. Mr. CLAPP. This is what happened in 1897. Mr. HORAN. Certainly. For that reason I want that explanation to be here. Because it is difficult to write an appropriation bill without having some legislation in it. Mr. CLAPP. You are right. Mr. HORAN. For things that have been neglected. Quite often the damage that that neglect has caused comes to our attention and we are constrained to take some action which appears to be a legislative action when we on a fiscal basis have to perform our duties. Mr. CLAPP. Yes, sir. Mr. HORAN. That undoubtedly was the occasion in 1897. Mr. HORAN. When the Appropriations Committee, seeing the neglect of the legislative committee that had this duty and had failed to act, was on a schedule. Congress was about to adjourn. Mr. CLAPP. And they adjourned earlier in those days than now. Mr. HORAN. Yes. They included this in their bill. Mr. CLAPP. Yes. Mr. HORAN. Please continue with your answer, which is most interesting. Mr. CLAPP. So in 1897 we moved into this new building, and we expanded the collection, digging them out of the garrets and cellars of the Capitol, and more stuff immediately began to flow to us. One of the principal proposals made during the hearings before the Joint Committee on the Library in 1896 was that the Library of Congress should serve the needs of other libraries in bibliographic matters. This came to a head in 1901, when we began to print the catalog cards. I do not need to show you a catalog card, sir, do I? We began to print them. It had been obviously true that if we printed the catalog cards for books and sold them at the cost of printing to other libraries this would save the other libraries the cost of cataloging themselves. Our classification is on the card, and it would save the cost of classifying. In 1901 Congress authorized us to sell copies of these cards. What seemed in 1901 to be a very little minor piece of business has now developed into a very major piece of business. As you know, we sell 20 million catalog cards in a year. They are used for multitudes of purposes. They are not just used to catalog books in other libraries, but they are used to make up book catalogs. We lay them out and photograph them. We compile bibliographies by using them. That has turned out to be one of the most useful labor-saving devices ever invented, certainly in library work. Now, this congressional authorization gave us immediately a link with the other libraries of the country that had not existed prior to 1901. From this link another chain of circumstances has developed. There are activities like the union catalog, the national union catalog over in the Library, and all of our bibliographical cooperative activities with other libraries. Now we are engaged with other libraries in an intensive search to find out how we can cut our costs, by dividing up the fields of acquisition. There is no reason why the Harvard Library and the New York Library and the Cleveland Library should all be buying Turkish newspapers. Probably there is not more need in this country than for one set of Turkish newspapers. Who shall buy them? It takes all kinds of cooperation. We are engaged in cooperative ventures of this kind. With this background, sir, may I answer your question: What is my view of the function of the Library of Congress? My personal view of the function of the Library of Congress is that it should in the very first place serve Congress. However, I would be very reluctant, or I would be very sad if these enormous collections of music, of law and of manuscripts-this is one of the treasures of the world you have here, sir-could not be utilized and if the public at large were deprived of the use of them. Actually, if the executive departments were deprived of the use of them the executive departments would have to build up much larger libraries than they do now. The Department of Agriculture is the principal agricultural library of the world, but the Department of Agriculture relies on us for I will not say practically everything outside of agriculture but for an awful lot of stuff, so much stuff that they maintain 1 and sometimes 2 people up here just to get out the books they need down there. That is similarly true with other agencies I could name. It is even true with universities in the vicinity. As to American University, we have assigned a study room for the use of American University. That is so that all their people can go to that one study room. They can have a man there to collect the books. It saves us work. It saves them time. It saves them money in keeping these books in their library. Consequently, I believe sincerely, sir, that although we are running an extremely expensive operation over here-believe me, this $10 million bill dazzles me as much as it does you, and I would love to cut it down-although we are running an expensive operation I believe, sir, sincerely that it is an operation run in the interest of overall efficiency. Does that answer your question, sir? Mr. Bow. I am very happy to have that answer, because I quite agree with the gentleman from Virginia that I think there should be a recodification so that we will know the limits and exactly the purpose of the Library of Congress. I can understand why some of these things perhaps have run afield. Mr. CLAPP. They grow up like Topsy. Mr. Bow. They grow up. We just do not know where the limits are going to be. I think there should be a recodification. I think the suggestion made by the gentleman from Virginia that that should be one of the projects of the Librarian of Congress is very good. I do appreciate the answer to the question. I was not able to find it in the code. Mr. CLAPP. The codification project has been dear to my heart for many years. As a matter of fact, I have already drafted several codifications. The great question there is how to get them acted on. PREVIOUS CODIFICATIONS Mr. Bow. You say you have drawn some? I am just wondering if they have ever been presented, or why they were not acted on. Mr. CLAPP. Back in 1950, or earlier than that, this committee in its report stated that it could not appropriate-it was earlier than 1950; it was 1946-intelligently regarding the Library of Congress unless it had better basic legislation to work from. And it suggested to the Librarian that he go look for the basic legislation. So the Librarian looked. He approached the legislative committees. I do not know what his answer was from them. But in any case, he established an Advisory Council, which included a number of librarians. The librarian of Harvard University was on There were businessmen and industrialists, like the president of the Steuben Glass Co., and representatives of the learned societies. There was a representative of the other Government libraries on it. And so on. Mr. HORAN. And no Members of Congress? Mr. CLAPP. No, sir. This committee, which was called the Library of Congress Planning Committee, came up with a report in 1947 which was submitted to the legislative committees and has not been acted on, sir. Mr. HORAN. This subcommittee has already agreed to include reference to this discussion in its report. Unless there are further questions, I would suggest that we go on with the first section, the Administrative Department. Mr. CLAPP. You would rather work from the chart than from the book? Mr. HORAN. We will work from both. Mr. CLAPP. Right. Mr. HORAN. You will have to relate the chart and the justifications as we go along here. We will take them by sections. COMPARATIVE SUMMARY OF APPROPRIATIONS 1954, AND ESTIMATES, 1955 Mr. CLAPP. Let me draw your attention first to table I. Mr. HORAN. We will put table I in the record at this point. (The information is as follows:) APPROPRIATIONS AND PERMANENT POSITIONS, 1950-54 Mr. CLAPP. I would like to add to table I this table here, sir, which is a 5-year conspectus of appropriations and permanent positions. Mr. HORAN. This is in accordance with the request we made Monday? Mr. CLAPP. Yes, sir; it is. (The information is as follows:) |