HOUSE ALLOWANCE OF NET INCREASE OVER 1966 APPROPRIATION

Senator MONRONEY. We have as our first witness Mr. John G. Lorenz, the Deputy Librarian of Congress, accompanied by members of his staff.

We welcome you, Mr. Lorenz, and we ask that you proceed with your statement.

Mr. LORENZ. Thank you very much, sir.

As you know, the House of Representatives, through H.R. 15456, granted the Library of Congress an increase of $3,468,500 over the 1966 level of appropriations.

In its report, the committee stated:

As noted on many similar occasions in years gone by, a first class library, responsive to the demands of users, either grows or stagnates; it cannot stand still and remain first class.

It is inevitable that its collections, the demands for services, and thus its volume of work will steadily mount.

We are pleased with this recognition by the House that the Library of Congress is a growing, dynamic institution, and I hope that the Senate will concur by granting these increases, and also I might add by restoring some of the decreases.

The House bill reduced the total of 149 positions requested under all appropriation heads (except for the special foreign currency program and for the Monthly Index of Russian Accessions) to 124 positions, a reduction of 25 positions.

It specifically disallowed the items for the Monthly Index of Russian Accessions project and also reduced by $100,000 the $685,000 requested for continuance of the Library's automation program.

It provided, I am very gratified to say, $880,000 for the rental of space to relieve congestion and overcrowding until the Madison Building is completed; it provided $109,700 for binding, printing, supplies, and other household expenses; and $20,000 of the $70,000 requested for books for the general collections.

The request for the Copyright Office was granted in full, a recognition by the House that, as a result of the copyright fee increase initiated late last year, applicants should have better and faster service. The books for the blind request was also granted in full, and the selfsupporting Card Distribution Service request was reduced by only the $28,000 needed to print the Monthly Index of Russian Accessions. Among the items not allowed by the House, are several which I believe merit further consideration by this committee.

MONTHLY INDEX OF RUSSIAN ACCESSIONS

First, under our main appropriation, "Salaries and expenses, Library of Congress," I urge the inclusion of $478,000 to continue the production of the Monthly Index of Russian Accessions.

This involves 64 employees on the staff of the Library. This comprehensive index is the only publication of its kind in the United States. It lists and characterizes (in English) not only books but also articles in periodicals published in the U.S.S.R. and elsewhere in in the Russian language.

More than 300 libraries throughout this country cooperate by contributing for inclusion information about their holdings of Russian

materials. Thus, the index is a guide to the Nation's collections in this important area for research. The discontinuance of this valuable publication will result in there being no organized access to much of this material for American researchers; not only will the reference work of the Library of Congress be hampered, but there will be much duplication of effort and expense on the part of many university libraries and research institutions across the Nation.

AUTOMATION PROGRAM

The Library also needs the full appropriation of $685,000 requested for our automation program. We have now reached a point in this program where we are engaged in developing the detailed system leading to the automation of our bibliographic operations.

The funds allowed will be sufficient to proceed in 1967 with the main contractual effort and with one of the special pilot projects which was initiated with foundation funds.

DEFERMENT OF STUDIES

However, without the $100,000 cut by the House we will have to defer related essential work on such problems as filing rules for automated systems, computer programs for book catalogs, and machine-indexing techniques.

Unless these important special studies can be carried on simultaneously with the major effort, the date on which the overall system can become operational will be delayed for months.

LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE SERVICE PERSONNEL

The House reduced from 46 to 23 the number of positions requested for "Salaries and expenses, Legislative Reference Service." Because the demands upon this service have reached unprecedented levels, in number, scope, and depth of research requested, we urgently need added help, and we hope to be able to convince this committee to allow all 46 positions, which are, incidentally, part of a 2-year program to bring the Service to sufficient strength.

We are certain that, even should we be able to eliminate the unreasonable demands referred to in the House report, that this will not materially reduce the heavy legitimate and growing workload on the Service and all staff requested will be badly needed in 1967.

PRINTING OF MONTHLY INDEX OF RUSSIAN ACCESSIONS

The $28,000 for the printing of the Monthly Index of Russian Accessions in the "Distribution of catalog cards" appropriation was disallowed. These funds will be needed along with the appropriation for staff to produce the index.

COLLECTION AND DISTRIBUTION OF LIBRARY MATERIALS (SPECIAL FOREIGN CURRENCY PROGRAM)

Under "Collection and distribution of Library materials" (special foreign currency program), we had requested funds to initiate new programs in five countries which are in the excess-currency category. The House allowed funds for Poland and Yugoslavia, and deleted

the other three. We are very gratified that Poland and Yugoslavia, which we requested previously, were allowed by the House this year. We have restudied the situation in regard to the other countries requested in an attempt to cut our request to the minimum, and we would now like to request the appropriation in full for the Tunisia program ($137,000 in U.S.-owned foreign currency and $12,796 in U.S. dollars) and $40,000 in foreign currency only for the Ceylon program. We now propose operating a limited program in Ceylon from our base already existing in South India, eliminating the need for hard dollars and reducing the need for foreign currency. The program in Guinea, although valuable, is of less immediate importance, and is not now being requested.

ACQUISITION OF CURRENT WORLD EDUCATIONAL PUBLICATIONS

Finally, under funds transferred from the Department of Healh, Education, and Welfare, as authorized by the Higher Education Act of 1965, the Library of Congress is charged with acquiring, insofar as possible, all library materials currently published throughout the world which are of value to scholarship and with providing catalog information for these materials promptly by printed catalog cards and by other means.

The recent Supplemental Appropriation Act provided $300,000 to start this program in fiscal year 1966 and the Labor-HEW appropriation bill for fiscal year 1967 contains $3 million for the same purpose. This program, as you know, is undertaken primarily for American research libraries, but all libraries, to the extent that they acquire foreign publications, would benefit from prompt centralized cataloging.

UNIFORM TREATMENT OF OVERSEAS PERSONNEL

To fulfill the requirements of this program, the Library will establish, on a selective basis, several overseas offices. In order to assure uniform treatment of Library of Congress overseas staff, the House committee was asked to transfer language already authorized under collection and distribution of library materials to the library-wide administrative provisions heading.

We also requested, under the latter heading, authority to provide allowances and other benefits to the extent authorized for other U.S. overseas employees. This was probably not explained fully enough to the House committee but we hope to do so before this committee. My colleagues and I, Senator, will be glad to elaborate on my introductory remarks and on the justification before you.

MONTHLY INDEX OF RUSSIAN ACCESSIONS

Senator MONRONEY. Thank you very much, Mr. Lorenz, for your statement and for the information that it contains.

This Russian accessions that you mentioned we have been handling in the Library of Congress for how many years?

Mr. WELSH. Since 1948, sir.

Senator MONRONEY. It began in 1948?
Mr. WELSH. Yes, sir.

PRIOR CONTRIBUTIONS BY DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AND NATIONAL
SCIENCE FOUNDATION

Senator MONRONEY. As I understand it, you had Government clients who paid for a major portion of the cost of this and the Library of Congress assumed what percentage of the cost?

Mr. WELSH. In 1964, sir, we received about $100,000 from direct appropriations. One of the other contributors provided $361,000 and a second contributor $168,000, about one-fifth, sir.

Senator MONRONEY. The total cost is roughly a half million, isn't that right?

Mr. WELSH. Yes, sir.

Senator MONRONEY. And give me those figures again. I mean the Government agencies that were interested, not by name.

Mr. WELSH. In 1965 Department of Defense, $361,000.

Senator MONRONEY. $361,000?

Mr. WELSH. Yes; and National Science Foundation $168,000.
Senator MONRONEY. Those were the two sponsors?

Mr. WELSH. Yes, sir.

POLICY OF SUPPORTING INITIATION OF PROGRAMS

Senator MONRONEY. This started in 1948 and they have been supporting and maintaining this until the current year, and what is the reason for their dropout?

Mr. LORENZ. I understand it is the policy of the National Science Foundation not to continue to support this kind of effort on a permanent basis. They prefer to get something like this started and then have the operating agency take over the cost of this kind of project.

ATTITUDE OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

Senator MONRONEY. I cannot understand, though, Mr. Lorenz, if this is as valuable as many scholars say it is, and with growing needs for international information and indexing of the items that are published in Russia, why our educational institutions look the other way and say the Library of Congress should pay for this whole thing.

MARKET AVAILABILITY OF INFORMATION

Personally, I think if it is worth having, it should be supported by other agencies. The Department of Defense, which has given substantial funds through the years, now says, "Well, we can acquire it commercially and we no longer need it because the information is available on the market." These things are not matters that I think we should duplicate. Is it because we have duplicate sources for this information. Mr. LORENZ. No, sir.

UNIQUE CHARACTERISTICS OF PROGRAM

Senator MONRONEY. Or that this is not the type of thing that there is any need for?

Mr. LORENZ. No, sir. We have a rather full statement here of the uniqueness of MIRA, what this index does that no other source of information does, and if you would like to enter this into the record I think it would be very instructive.