College and Research Libraries


Review Articles 

The National Library in 1946 and Before 

Annual Report of the Librarian of Congress 
for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 194.6. 
W a s h i n g t o n , U n i t e d States G o v e r n m e n t 

P r i n t i n g Office, 1 9 4 7 . 5 3 8 p. 
L i b r a r y reports should be required read-

ing f o r librarians. W h e t h e r you accept this 

dictum f o r many reports, or some reports, or 

a very f e w selected reports, you must include 

the Annual Report of the Librarian of Con-
gress for the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1946 
in y o u r list of notable library reports. B y 

w h a t e v e r standard you j u d g e i t — h i s t o r i c a l 

significance, literary excellence, importance of 

administrative or technical issues discussed, 

or sheer institutional d r a m a — y o u must rank 

it among the great reports in A m e r i c a n li-

brary history. C e r t a i n l y it should be re-

quired reading for librarians. A n d more im-

portant today, it should be required reading 

for all members of C o n g r e s s and f o r the 

B u r e a u of the B u d g e t . 

T h e central theme which unifies the w h o l e 

long document concerns a question about the 

scope of the library which most librarians w i l l 

contend w a s answered long ago. Is the L i -

brary of C o n g r e s s the national library or is it 

simply the L i b r a r y of C o n g r e s s ? T h e an-

swer seems clear to librarians generally. I t 

seemed clear to the L i b r a r i a n of C o n g r e s s 

and his associates, w h o , w i t h infinite pains, 

prepared a budget request of $ 9 , 7 5 6 , 8 5 2 for 
the fiscal year 1 9 4 7 , an amount they thought 
appropriate for a full-fledged national li-

brary. B u t the answer w a s not clear to the 

members of the subcommittee on the L e g i s -

lative B r a n c h of the H o u s e C o m m i t t e on 

Appropriations, before w h o m the budget 

hearings w e r e held. T h e y w e r e in doubt. 

T h e y thought it high time " t o give attention 

to the need f o r a determination as to w h a t 

the policy of the L i b r a r y of C o n g r e s s is going 

to be in the w a y of expansion and service to 

the public and to the C o n g r e s s . " T h e y w e n t 

on to say, " I t w o u l d seem that the library 

has evolved into not only a Congressional 

L i b r a r y but a national and even an interna-

tional library." T h e committee w a s not 

ready to resolve the issue i t s e l f ; it suggested 

''that the responsibility f o r determining li-

brary policy rests w i t h legislative committees 

of the C o n g r e s s charged w i t h the responsi-

bility f o r the operations of the library and 

not w i t h the Appropriations C o m m i t t e e . " 

A n d so the Appropriations C o m m i t t e e ex-

pressed its doubt in financial terms by reduc-

ing the library's budget request f r o m 

$9)756,852 to $ 6 , 0 6 9 , 9 6 7 . T h e issue raised by 
the committee rocked the librarian and his 

advisers back on their heels. B u t they rallied 

their forces and accepted the challenge, as the 

Report itself amply testifies. 

I t is not surprising, therefore, that the 

Report f o r "fiscal J 9 4 6 " is in large part an 
instrument of proof designed to show that the 

L i b r a r y of C o n g r e s s is the national library. 

T h a t basic f a c t is o f t e n in the foreground 

or, if not, a l w a y s in the background, t h r o u g h -

out the various parts of the document. 

T h e 5 3 8 pages of the Report may be con-
veniently divided into f o u r parts. T h e first, 

a monograph of over 2 0 0 pages in itself, is the 
history of the library f r o m the beginning, told 

in facile and unstereotyped prose by D a v i d 

C . M e a r n s , director of the R e f e r e n c e D e -

partment, under the title, " T h e Story up to 

N o w . " T h i s is no dry-as-dust public docu-

ment. I t is an absorbing narrative of the 

g r o w t h of a great library through the years, 

told w i t h many quotations f r o m the sources. 

Somehow M r . M e a r n s is able to fit his style 

to each period he describes in the library's 

history. T h e very phrases used as captions, 

often selected f r o m the supporting documents, 

add much to the flavor of the text. F o r 

example, the heading, " O u r U n i o n D o e s N o t 

Require I t , " is selected f r o m the letter of 

an indignant Bostonian w h o opposed the ridic-

ulous idea of the establishment of a library 

f o r the Congress. " T o the C o m p l e t e Satis-

faction of C o n g r e s s " is one of the headings 

used in the story of the administration of 

H e r b e r t P u t n a m . A n d the account of A r c h i -

JANUARY, 1948 89 



bald M a c L e i s h ' s s t i r r i n g five y e a r s as l i -

b r a r i a n is told u n d e r the caption, " T h e B r u s h 

of the C o m e t . " T h r o u g h o u t the n a r r a t i v e , 

q u o t a t i o n heaped upon q u o t a t i o n s h o w s t h a t 

the l i b r a r y w a s c o n t i n u a l l y r e f e r r e d to by its 

l i b r a r i a n s and o t h e r s as the " N a t i o n a l L i -

b r a r y . " 

I n the second p a r t of the Report, the n e w 

l i b r a r i a n , L u t h e r H . E v a n s , t a k e s up the n a r -

r a t i v e . I n v i g o r o u s sentences, he describes 

f r a n k l y and f o r t h r i g h t l y the events of " f i s c a l 

1 9 4 6 . " Special emphasis is laid on the f a t e 

of the 1947 b u d g e t , described above, and on 

the a p p o i n t m e n t of the L i b r a r y of C o n g r e s s 

P l a n n i n g C o m m i t t e e , composed of e m i n e n t 

scholars and l i b r a r i a n s , selected by the li-

b r a r i a n to advise him on the proper f u n c t i o n s 

of the l i b r a r y in the f u t u r e . O t h e r c h a p -

ters of the Report p r o p e r deal v i v i d l y and a l -

w a y s f r a n k l y w i t h the " S e r v i c e of M a t e r i -

a l s , " " A c q u i s i t i o n s G r a n d S c a l e , " " P r e p a -

ration of M a t e r i a l s , " and " A d m i n i s t r a t i o n , 

P e r s o n n e l , and F i n a n c e . " T h e s e c h a p t e r s 

depict the l i b r a r y in action in its s e r v i c e t o 

the C o n g r e s s and the n a t i o n a l g o v e r n m e n t 

and t o l i b r a r i e s and s c h o l a r s t h r o u g h o u t the 

nation. S t u d e n t s of l i b r a r y a d m i n i s t r a t i o n 

w i l l be specially interested in the c o m p l e t e o r -

g a n i z a t i o n c h a r t of the l i b r a r y , w h i c h s h o w s 

f o r each a d m i n i s t r a t i v e u n i t the n u m b e r and 

g r a d e s of its staff m e m b e r s . 

T h e third p a r t of the Report is a m o s t u n -

u s u a l a d m i n i s t r a t i v e d o c u m e n t . I t is a c o m -

plete reprint of the " J u s t i f i c a t i o n of the 

E s t i m a t e s , L i b r a r y of C o n g r e s s , F i s c a l Y e a r 

1 9 4 7 . " T h i s the l i b r a r i a n himself d e -

scribes as " t h e m o s t i m p o r t a n t s t a t e p a p e r to 

issue f r o m the L i b r a r y since the R e p o r t of the 

C o m m i t t e e on L i b r a r y O r g a n i z a t i o n in 1 8 0 2 . " 

I n cold figures, w i t h c o g e n t s u p p o r t i n g s t a t e -

ments, this c o u r a g e o u s d o c u m e n t sets f o r t h in 

" m a n - y e a r s " and d o l l a r s w h a t the present a d -

m i n i s t r a t i o n of the l i b r a r y thinks w i l l be r e -

quired to o p e r a t e the n a t i o n a l l i b r a r y at f u l l 

c a p a c i t y . T h e f r a m e r s of the " J u s t i f i c a t i o n " 

s o u g h t to cope f u l l y , f o r the first time, p e r -

haps, w i t h the needs and p r o b l e m s of the l i -

b r a r y in all its technical p r o c e d u r e s and its 

m a n y services. 

L a s t of all c o m e the s t a t i s t i c a l appendices. 

E v e n these are interesting. A f e w i l l u s t r a -

tions m a y s e r v e to indicate the c o m p l e x p r o b -

lems of p r o c e s s i n g and s e r v i c i n g w i t h w h i c h 

a g r e a t l i b r a r y m u s t g r a p p l e . A c c e s s i o n s 

f o r the y e a r 1946 t o t a l l e d 4 , 2 9 1 , 3 4 6 " p i e c e s . " 

T h e n a t i o n a l union c a t a l o g n o w c o m p r i s e s 

1 3 . 7 1 8 , 4 8 9 c a r d s . P r i n t e d c a t a l o g c a r d s to 

the n u m b e r of 2 7 , 5 8 4 , 2 1 1 w e r e sold or dis-

t r i b u t e d . R e a d e r s served w e r e 699,740. 

N i n e p a g e s are r e q u i r e d m e r e l y to list the 

p u b l i c a t i o n s issued by the l i b r a r y . 

T h e r e v i e w e r finds no s t a t e m e n t in the Re-

port itself of the n u m b e r of " m a n - y e a r s " r e -

q u i r e d to w r i t e it. W h a t e v e r the c o r r e c t 

figure m a y be, he has no c o m p l a i n t t o m a k e . 

A s a l i b r a r i a n and a t a x p a y e r he is quite 

r e a d y to c o n t r i b u t e his mite to the cost of 

setting d o w n in cold type, f o r the C o n g r e s s 

and the people to see in c o m p l e t e d e t a i l , the 

f a c t s and figures a b o u t their n a t i o n a l l i b r a r y 

in 1946 and in the y e a r s b e f o r e . — C a r l e t o n B. 

Joeckel. 

Further Progress in Cataloging 

U . S. L i b r a r y of C o n g r e s s . D e s c r i p t i v e 

C a t a l o g i n g D i v i s i o n . Rules for Descrip-

tive Cataloging in the Library of Con-

gress. P r e l i m i n a r y edition. W a s h i n g t o n , 

U . S. G o v e r n m e n t P r i n t i n g O f f i c e , 1 9 4 7 . 

I 2 5 P -
I n the J u l y 1947 issue of College and Re-

search Libraries, this r e v i e w e r discussed the 

t w o s i g n i f i c a n t d o c u m e n t s 1 w h i c h p r e p a r e d 

1 U . S . L i b r a r y of Congress. Processing Depart-
ment. Studies of Descriptive Cataloging, a Report to the 
Librarian of Congress by the Director of the Process-
ing Department. Washington, U . S. Government Print-
ing Office, 1946; and U . S. L i b r a r y of Congress. 

the w a y f o r the p u b l i c a t i o n of the n e w Rules 

for Descriptive Cataloging. T o any one 

f a m i l i a r w i t h these t w o d o c u m e n t s , the r u l e s 

come as no surprise. T h e y are m e r e l y the 

c r y s t a l l i z a t i o n — t h e f o r m a l e x p r e s s i o n — o f 

f u n c t i o n s and principles w h i c h , in their e a r l i e r 

fluid state, had a l r e a d y been w i d e l y discussed 

and p u b l i c i z e d . A n d w h i l e there are d o u b t -

lessly rules w h i c h in application w i l l need 

A d v i s o r y Committee on Descriptive Cataloging to the 
Librarian of Congress. Report. Washington, L i b r a r y 
of Congress, 1946. 

90 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES