College and Research Libraries By KEYES D. METCALF and EDWIN E. WILLIAMS International Relations SOME consideration of international li-brary relations is inevitable in a publi- cation honoring Charles Harvey Brown. Mr. Brown has been a member of the A.L.A. International Relations Board since its organization in 1942 and has headed its Committee on Library Cooperation with the Orient and South Pacific. He has also taken a' leading part in p~ojects during the past few years for cooperative purchases in China of books for American research li- braries. During the previous decade, moreover, he had' been active in other international fields, having made a great contribution toward reducing the cost of German peri- odicals and having been interested in library relations with Latin America. His name is known throughout the library world with those of William Warner Bishop, Harry Miller Lyden berg, and Carl H .. Milam. It would be a pleasure to record his achi"eve- ments, but his contribution is not finished and this is not a eulogy. Neither is this an attempt to summarize or laud the international activities of Ameri- can librarians or of the A.L.A. in particular, for that would mean duplicating reports of the A.L.A. Executive Board, numerous recent articles, including Mr. Lydenberg's "An International Board? Why? What for ? What Does It Do?" in the A .L.A. Bulletin for November 1944, p. 457-63 ;I the forthcoming Proceedings of the Prince- ton Conference on International Cultural, Educational,, and Scientific Exchanges; and other publications. It may be more useful here to face a few uncharitable criticisms JULY, 1947 and consider the general problems they sug- gest. As a group, American librarians liave seldom been accused of isolationism, but the A.L.A. Executive ' Board has sometimes found it difficult to decide whether or not it ought to invest a hundred dollars in anvual membership in the International Federation of Library Associations. On the other hand, the A.L.A., by the end of this calendar year, will have spent more than one and three-quarter million dollars on wartime international projects. The paradox may be explained, if not extenuated, by the fact that the hundred for dues has to come out of general, unrestricted funds of the Association, while the million and three-quarters has come entirely from the federal government, the Rockefeller Foundation, and other agencies, not from the Association and its members. A critic might, therefore, argue that the A.L.A. international relations program has reflected little more than an opportunistic willingness to spend other people's money. Some familiarity with the amount of time and effort contributed by men such as Mr. Brown to the A.L.A.'s international activi- ties is one of the best answers to such criticism. M9re than half of the money in question -more than one million dollars-has gone to buy books for foreign libraries. A con- siderable sum has gone to support American libraries abroad and' to subsidize visits to this country by foreign librarians. All of the money has been put to w"orthy use. One objection to a program of this sort, 337 . . however, might be that it is not likely to grow into a permanent international rela- tionship. A great part of it has been for purposes of rehabilitation, and money will not be available for that when the war is a little further in the past. Latin American cultural relations may be a more durable element of foreign policy, but, as has been discovered in the case of the American li- bra·;ies in that area, continuing activities tend to be taken over by the agencies that finance them. It is uncertain how long the A.L.A. will be able to maintain its. Inter- national Relations Office in Washington. Temporary or not, however, there W(lS a job to be done, and the A.L.A. appears to have done it well. If, today, the Depart- ment of State operates American libraries abroad by the score, it is largely because the A.L.A. helped to demonstrate both the need and the means of meeting it. - Not a Two-Way Arrangement · A more serious objection to American international library relations in general might be based on . the observation that they have seemed more like missionary work than exchange. It is natural that this should be the case in a rehabilitation program, but, even in the Latin American field, very little has been spent on development of exchanges as ce>mpared with the amount used for gifts. : Likewise, in the projects involving per-· sonnel, foreign librarians have been brought here to learn ; very few American librarians have gone abroad except to teach. Perhaps this is all right. The fact that thirty-five million Ameri- cans have no library service does not mean that library service is undesirable abroad or that Americans should not help and en- courage others to · equal or surpass the American achievement. The fact that American library cataloging has encoun- tered a "crisis" and that there is very wide- spread dissatisfaction with American library schools, does not mean that foreigners can- not profit by learning American methods and enduring American instruction in li- brarianship. Library history suggests, however, at least to some observers, that American li- brarians might find it worth while to study as well as to teach in foreign parts. In- ventions such as microphotography aRd con- ceptions such as cooperative cataloging and interlibrary loan were not born in this country. Financial difficulties helped to force cooperative acquisition in the libraries of some European countries long before Americans contemplated it at Farmington. American research libraries, of course, have always been fully aware of the need for importing foreign publications. It is easier, in many cases, to do this by means of commercial agents, but exchanges are neces- sary, at least for items available on no other basis. If a two-way traffic is to be en- couraged, it might also be noted that Ameri- can b6oks can be traded for microfilm copies of foreign rare books and manuscripts. lnformatiol} about foreign publications is pre~equisite to acquisition of the publica- tions themselves. Librarians abroad must cooperate in making such information available through national bibliographies, selective lists, and by other means, if the libraries of the United States are to do a satisfactory job of book collecting. Indeed, the whole problem of bibliogra- phy (including indexing and abstracting) is too big for solution by American librarians alo,ne. Probably it is too big to be handled by the librarians of the world alone; they will need the help of scholars and they will require money. But, if all the librarians could unite on a bibliographical program, that program should have a better chance of succeeding than any of its predecessors. Americans and, in particular, American 338 I COLLEGE AND -RESEARCH LIBRARIES librarians will hope that American books continue to go abroad on at least as large a scale as they have gone during the past few years. The excellent libraries main- tained by the Department of State can help to create a demand for American publica- tions, but they cannot supply all the needs of foreign scholarship for American ma- terials any more than the needs of American scholarship for foreign publications could be met by a few such foreign-supported libraries in the United States. Gift Period Near End Rehabilitation gifts have already passed , their peak. It is unlikely that any other gift program will take their place, and it may not be desirable that one should. The question, then, is whether any form of ex- change can do the job, and it is hard to see any hope for exchange transactions of this magnitude unless ex-change is organized on a national scale, so that a single agency can supply what i~ wanted from this country and ask, in return, for what is needed by the libraries of the United States. Suggestions for the development of such an organization have recently been under consideration at _ the Library of Congress and at the Ameri- can Book Center, but it is too early to say what will <;:orne of them. It does seem safe to predict that exchange of publications, no matter how well de- veloped, must continue to be a transaction chiefly and directly benefiting scholars and research libraries. It is not likely to become of imm~diate concern to the public and school librarians who make up a majority of American librarians and of A.L.A. mem- bers. Any survey of international library activities or of the membership of A.L.A. boards and committees in the field confirms the impression -.that international library matters in general have been chiefly of inter- est to those libr.arians who serve scholars. JULY, 1947 Other librarians serve the cause of inter- national relations largely by dissemination of books published in this country and have perhaps more direct interest in the interna- tional cooperation of publishers than of librarians. If this continues to be the case, it·would seem to be the duty of the Associa- . tion of Research Libraries and the Associa- tion of College and Reference Libraries rather than the A.L.A. as a whole to carry a large share of the qurden of international 1 ibrary relations. If there is an alternative to this situation, it seems probable that it will arise in the field of personnel rather than -exchanges of publications. If a library ought to serve all the intel- lectual interests of all groups in its com- munity, perhaps it is reasonable to assert that no institution in that community should be less provincial than the library. If this is true, it may follow that a yea~ spent _ abroad w~rking in a foreign library would be a desirable addition to the education and experience of almost any American member of the profession. Probably, also, most American librarians would welcome such an opportunity. If the program were recipro- cal, as it ought to be, the presence of foreign librarians on the staffs of a good many institutions in this country should also con- tribute to the broadening of American li- brarianship. Obstacles There are numerous obstacles. Lack of language equipment bars a large proportion of American librarians from export to any non-English-speaking country. Money would be needed, both to cover travel costs and to help to equalize the great variations between salary scales. Many local laws and restrictions would have to be repealed or modified. There ought to be a.· clear {Continued on page 367) 339 3 I. Lends assistant director: general ad- ministration full cooperation in recruit.ing. 32. Conducts exit interviews. See also assistant director: general administration. 33· Assigns duties, approves schedules; etc., . in accordance with approved library policy. 34· Confers with assistant director: gen- . eral administration in regard to personnel problems. 35. Notifies assistant director: general administration of impending vacancies or authorizes arrangements by which the head of the department makes such notification. (The intent of this statement is to insure use of the assistant director: readers' serv- ices as a channel of action of personnel mat- ters.) Budget Preparation and Allocation of Funds 36. Receives budget recommendations from all departments in the readers' services. International Relations 37. Submits budget recommendations for salaries and wages in the readers' services for use of the assistant director: general ad- ministration in the preparation of the Dud- get. 38. Submits budget recommendations for library additions and library binding. 39· Reco'mmends allocation of the budget for library additions and library binding. 40. Recommends internal adjustments of the budget for library additions. Reports 41. Analyzes, through statistical and -other records and through the assistance of the staff, the work of the readers' services with a view to securing the information necessary for intelligent management and over-aU planning. . 42. Establishes the necessary procedures for accumulating such information. 43· Reports achievements annually or as need requires. (Continued from pag'e 339) realization by administrators that it will chance of materializing unless American li- take a good deal of trouble to find the best brarians-public, school, special, college, · means of using foreign librarians and, at the and research-want it very much and go same time, preventing their American ex- after it vigorously. Most librarians have perience from becoming merely a year of never taken part actively in international unenlightening clerical drudgery. library relatio~; but there has never been If an international program for exchange an inten~ational project that promised to of per~onnel involving hundreds of li- benefit most of them directly. International bra,rians per year would be very difficult to exchange of personnel on a large scale, if it arrange, its results are almost equally hard is desirable, would be as , novel in this re- to estimate. Any pr_oposal that a year of spect as in any other. If librarians approve work in another country be made a normal of the idea and if enough of them possess part of the preparation of librarians is at some of the qualities that have distinguished least as novel as was the first library Charles Harvey Brown throughout his school. career, fears of novelty or difficulty will not Such a program wil( have a negligible stop them from doing something about it. JULY, 1947 · 367