College and Research Libraries By H O M E R H A L V O R S O N The Documents Expediting Project in Its First Year THE DOCUMENTS Expediting Project was set up in cooperation with the L i - brary of Congress July I, 1946, by the joint Committee on Government Documents f o r the procurement and distribution of war documents and other publications not han- dled by the office of the Superintendent of Documents. D u r i n g and immediately f o l - lowing the war, numerous libraries, includ- ing the Library of Congress, tried unsuccessfully to obtain copies of docu- ments which were issued by many govern- ment agencies but not distributed through the usual channels. A s more and more of the requests f r o m libraries were ignored or refused completely, several different li- brarians, whose institutions were members of the Association of Research Libraries, urged the establishment of an expediting office in Washington. T h e assumption was that they could achieve their objective— originally the acquisition of war documents — b y cooperation where they had failed in their attempts as single institutions. Prior to this definite demand, the joint committee had concerned itself with more general matters, such as improving the depository system, the possibility of issuing a list of processed material soon after its appearance, suggesting changes and possible improve- ments in the Monthly Catalog, etc., Since, however, acquisition of otherwise nondis- tributed government publications seemed to be of paramount importance, the joint 1 Paper presented at the meeting of the P u b l i c Docu- ments Committee, San Francisco, J u l y 2, 1947. committee dropped its preoccupation with abstract document problems and concen- trated its activity on the establishment and maintenance of a documents expediting office. In response to an inquiry sent out by the joint committee on Sept. 7, 1945 to 178 libraries, 32 indicated a willingness to sup- port the project in amounts varying f r o m $ 5 0 0 to $25. T h o s e canvassed comprised the membership of the Association of R e - search Libraries, the members of the N a - tional Association of State Libraries, a selected list of larger public libraries, and a selected list of college and university libraries not included in the A . R . L . list. T o t a l indicated subscriptions came to ap- proximately $ 5 0 0 0 ; and the Library of Congress offered office space, telephone fa- cilities, and fiscal arrangements as its share in the undertaking. W i t h this as a start, the joint committee—perhaps w e should say that f r o m this point on " j o i n t com- mittee" becomes a euphemism f o r "chair- man"—proceeded with the task of finding a man or woman w h o could actually do the expediting and maintain the office. Innu- merable trips to Washington f o r consulta- tion and interview of prospective candidates became necessary, but all our efforts met with failure until w e obtained the name of W a l t e r B. G r e e n w o o d , w h o was with the Ethnogeographic Board until June 30, 1946. " B a r t " Greenwood proved to be our man, and with him as "expediter" the project got under way. T h e Library of JANUARY, 1948 15 Congress graciously made room for him in the Exchange and G i f t Division of its Acquisitions Department and placed its facilities at his disposal. W i t h the prompt payment of a $500-subscription by one of the original proponents of the idea the project became a reality and documents be- gan to pour into the Library of Congress A n n e x f o r distribution to the " D o c E x " libraries participating in the project. Subscribers Have Profited In the first year of its operation the proj- ect has distributed over 283,000 pieces to its subscribing libraries. O f this number, the Library of Congress, holding the highest priority, received a total of 5856 pieces, most of which it was unable to procure in any other way. Other libraries have re- ceived fewer pieces, but in every case, the participant has received far in excess of the value of its subscription, so that par- ticipation has proved worth while f o r every one concerned. A s an indication of the success of the project, mention should be made of the fact that the project has sup- plied the library of the Superintendent of Documents, and consequently the Monthly Catalog, with hundreds of pieces which it never had received before. In addition to the material distributed by the project, the expediter has obtained thousands of other items which are sent directly by the issuing agency to the " D o c E x " libraries. T h i s means that con- tacts were made with the agency and wher- ever mailing lists were maintained " D o c E x " libraries were added if not already there. In several instances M r . G r e e n w o o d has persuaded agencies to establish mailing lists where none existed before or to establish a central list of libraries which are to receive all of the processed material issued by the particular agency. Such arrangements were made with the Naval Research Laboratory, the A t o m i c Energy Commission, the Civil Aeronautics Administration, the T a r i f f Commission,, the W e a t h e r Bureau, and the Federal Public Housing Administration. In every case attention has been called to the need for the expeditious arrival in the libraries of publications widely reviewed in the press. In this connection it may be said that the project makes a check of the daily papers to discover such items released to the press but not distributed to the li- braries through established mailing lists. T h e project tries to get these items in quan- tity and then distributes them directly to the " D o c E x " libraries f r o m its o w n office. T h e documents expediter has not con- fined his procurement activities solely to the field of United States government docu- ments but has sought also to obtain for the participating libraries the publications of the many international agencies which maintain offices in Washington. T h e " D o c E x " libraries are receiving these ma- terials by means of mailing lists and by direct distribution f r o m the project's office, just as in the case of U . S . documents. T h i s latter method was followed for the publications of the Far Eastern Commission and the Inter-American Defense Board. For example, the project is receiving for distribution f r o m the Far Eastern C o m - mission its press release series, Civil Affairs Division, W a r Department, " W e e k l y Re- port on Japan to the Far Eastern Commis- sion," Japanese legislation, etc. War Documents Distributed In keeping with the original purpose for which the project was established, the field of war documents was explored early to de- termine the availability of publications fall- ing within its scope. W i t h declassification procedures under way in most wartime agencies, a real opportunity was at hand to procure these hitherto unobtainable docu- ments. Although most agencies were in 16 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES general willing to furnish their publications to interested libraries, the shortage of per- sonnel and the lack of funds largely pre- vented such special activities. T h e task of distributing these documents would have to be done by some other means or not at all—and it was precisely here that the basic thinking which underlay the establish- ment of the Documents Expediting Project proved to be soundest. T h e office has provided the necessary channel of distribu- tion f o r this type of document, which can be obtained in no other way. T h e repre- sentative of a group of cooperating libraries makes contact with the agency ( o r its suc- cessor), demonstrates the libraries' needs f o r its publications, and accepts responsi- bility for distributing and for carrying out any other details in connection with release of the publication in question. Every de- classified document had to have its declassi- fication authority verified to avoid any breech of security regulations, and in addi- tion, each copy had to have its restriction canceled before it could be sent to a library. T h r o u g h liaison with the various declassifi- cation committees of government agencies, the expediter has sought to learn of docu- ments as soon as they were released and then to procure copies for the participating li- braries. In several instances the project has succeeded in initiating declassification procedures for some types of publications. T h e Library of Congress has made avail- able for the project's distribution a wide variety of U . S . military government docu- ments (in English) procured by the Library of Congress Mission in Europe. Here, too, the interest of the participating libraries warranted the expenditure of considerable effort to process these materials for distribu- tion, especially since many of the titles were not available f r o m any other domestic source. Some documents, such as the O M G U S Military Government Regulations, had to be assembled before being distributed to the libraries; this single title entry involved the handling of some 125 parts for each copy assembled. T h e same was true of the Official Gazette of the U . S . A r m y M i l i - tary Government in Korea. For the L i - brary of Congress as well as for other government agencies the project has pro- vided a machinery of distribution not other- wise available. A s one of its activities, the project issues a mimeographed bulletin containing in- formation about documents which may be of interest to participating libraries. Being in daily contact with many government agencies, the documents expediter often gets news of new or forthcoming publications and never misses an opportunity to offer the services of the project to the agency. T h i s liaison cannot be considered the least of the benefits of participation in the proj- ect. Libraries Must Support Project D u r i n g the first year of operation the project has received foundation support to help defray distribution costs, and w e are hoping for similar aid f o r the second year. But what the project requires more than anything else is a wider basis of support f r o m libraries. Apparently it is not gen- erally known that the quantity of docu- ments issued by government agencies in Washington but not distributed by the Superintendent of Documents equals the quantity issued through the Government Printing Office. T h e so-called all-deposi- tory libraries, therefore, receive at present only a part of the total production of gov- ernment agencies, and it is this vast quantity of nondistributed publications—printed, multilithed, mimeographed, etc.—which the joint committee is anxious to get into the hands of libraries before the supply is ex- hausted or destroyed. W e have demon- (Continued on page 24) J A N U A R Y , 1948 17 the way to more scientific analysis and fundamentals in government publications as a communication medium in American life and as a publishing venture in the realm of research and administration. T h e future course should be one in which the Superintendent of Documents becomes increasingly conscious of libraries and their clientele as consumers and, in turn, libraries become increasingly aware of the resources and management problems of the office of the Superintendent of Documents. A cur- sory reading of the past t w o annual reports reveals sufficiently a picture of the mana- gerial problems. In any event, several steps warrant attention in the road ahead. T h e office of the Superintendent of Documents is not merely a sales agency; it has great potentialities and should strive f o r a posi- tion of leadership in cataloging and biblio- graphical control of federal publications of all kinds. T h e subject approach must be exploited to the fullest. W h e n it develops that funds and personnel are inadequate to maintain the balance of vast, free distribu- tion and sales on the one hand and necessary bibliographic and indexing activities on the other, organized library opinion through the A . L . A . National Relations Office and through members of Congress should be mobilized well in advance of the appropria- tions deadline. Libraries should press f o r a change in legislation which w o u l d make it possible to obtain a liberal appropriation f o r travel by the Superintendent of D o c u - ments—for the purpose of visiting deposit- ories, witnessing documents collections and librarians in action, and gaining first-hand knowledge of the importance of biblio- graphic and indexing aids in libraries. W e must impress deeply upon the Super- intendent of Documents that, through the instrumentality of libraries, government publications are brought into the hands of scholars, technicians, researchers, subject specialists, and American library patrons as a whole. Large as the volume of sales by the Superintendent of Documents may be to private individuals it nevertheless rep- resents but a small fraction of the larger clientele, actual and potential, reached through the medium of libraries. T h e pur- suit for all processed publications must con- tinue and a system of distribution perfected — a prime responsibility of the Superintend- ent of Documents and the successful achievement of which w o u l d greatly cement the relationship with American libraries. Major bibliographic or cataloging activities, for all practical purposes, appear to be pos- sible only on a self-sustaining basis, as evi- denced in the large library enterprises of the Library of Congress. T h e quality of the relationship will de- pend upon the quality of understanding and good faith of the t w o parties. The Documents Expediting Project (Continued from page 17) strated pragmatically that these materials are available to those libraries which are aggressive enough to go after them on a co- operative basis. Furthermore, with an economy-minded Congress and with print- ing costs mounting higher and higher, it may well be that libraries may have to rely more and more on the kind of service provided by a documents expediting office f o r the acquisition of government publica- tions. T o guarantee adequate distribution of the many publications n o w on hand the joint committee invites additional subscrip- tions to the Documents Expediting Project and assures every participant a substantial return on its investment. 24 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES