MESSRS. BINGHAM, GILLETT, TAWNEY, IN CHARGE OF THE LEGISLATIVE, EXECUTIVE, AND JUDICIAL WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1908 LEGISLATIVE, EXECUTIVE, AND JUDIUL APPROPRIATION BILL. Hearings conducted by the subcommittee, Messrs. H. H. Bingham, Frederick H. Gillett, James A. Tawney, L. F. Livingston, and Albert S. Burleson, of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, in charge of the legislative, executive, and judicial appropriation bill for 1910, on the days named. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1908. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. STATEMENT OF MR. HERBERT PUTNAM, LIBRARIAN OF Mr. BINGHAM. What is the sum total of all the appropriations received during the present fiscal year for your Library of Congress? Mr. PUTNAM. $719,365.74. That is the amount of the current law. It includes the library and the library building and grounds-all purposes for the library except printing and binding, which is in another bill. It includes $100 000 for the new book stack. Roughly speaking, the appropriations for the library and the library building and grounds are about $600,000 a year, of which nearly $100,000 is reimbursed to the Government by fees of the Copyright Office and of the card section, covered into the Treasury. Mr. BINGHAM. Those are the two sections of the library from which fees are received, and the only two? The others are a positive expenditure? Mr. PUTNAM. Yes, sir. Mr. TAWNEY. There is a discrepancy here, Mr. Putnam, of something like $7,000 between your statement of the amount appropriated under the current law and our statement. We have $726,755, including the $100,000 for the stack, shelving, etc. Mr. PUTNAM. I took mine from the report. That is because in the statement before you the files for the House of Representatives were included. There was $6,000 appropriated for equipping some space in the new Office Building for receipt of the House files that were deposited with us. Of course that has nothing to do with the library proper. Mr. BINGHAM. Now, the sum total of force, according to the exhibit above, is 438 subordinate force? Mr. PUTNAM. Yes, sir. That includes the library building and grounds. It includes all charwomen, and the like. Mr. BINGHAM. What changes have occurred in that force during the past year, say, under the current law? 3 Mr. PUTNAM. We have had in my force the addition of one position in the copyright office at a salary of $2,500. Mr. LIVINGSTON. What makes the change between 430 and 478 in the estimates here? Mr. PUTNAM. For the next year 30 positions in my force, and the balance, presumably, in the superintendent's. Mr. BINGHAM. Now, eliminating the two divisions of cards and copyright, what is your force now in the library? Mr. PUTNAM. My force consists of about 200 persons. ORGANIZATION OF THE LIBRARY. Mr. PUTNAM. In the first place, of course, there is the office of general administration, my own and the chief clerk's. There is the division that sees to the ordering of material, the purchasing and the receiving, and the accessioning of it. There is a division that sees to the classification and the cataloguing of the books and pamphlets, and there are the various special divisions that handle material, special in form, putting it through all the processes after its initial receipt. These are the divisions of manuscripts, maps, music, prints, periodical, documents, and law, including the law library at the Capitol; and finally, sir, there is the reading-room force, the general readingroom force, which takes care of the central reading room, the book stacks, and the special reading rooms. Mr. BINGHAM. All that is for the continuous calling for books by visitors? Mr. PUTNAM. Yes, sir; and books for outside use. Mr. BINGHAM. What are the rules as to outside use? Mr. PUTNAM. All Senators and Representatives and their families. have the privilege of taking out books for family use; also all the members of the Supreme Court and the various courts and the higher officials in the executive departments. But, in addition, any scientist in a government bureau making a request for a book through the librarian of that bureau or department may get books. In addition, beyond that any investigator in the United States anywhere who needs, for a purpose calculated to advance the boundaries of knowledge and not merely for general reading or recreation, a book that we have and which it is not the duty of his local library to supply can have it borrowed from us by his local library for his use there. Mr. BINGHAM. And that as a rule is an honest call? The records show the return duly? Mr. PUTNAM. Yes. We judge each application on its merits; and its merits, or credentials, you may say, may consist in the fact that the man is a professor in a university pursuing scientific research, or the book itself is one that is of interest only to a man who is pursuing scientific research. ACCESSIONS TO THE LIBRARY. Mr. BINGHAM. Now, about what is your annual receipt of booksthe number, all publications, excluding newspapers? Mr. PUTNAM. Last year it exceeded 100,000 books and pamphlets, and about 60,000 other articles, manuscripts, maps, music, and prints. Mr. BINGHAM. One hundred and sixty thousand a year, and those are all what you call home publications, in the sense of United States publications? Mr. PUTNAM. No, sir. They include our purchases as well, which are chiefly from abroad. Mr. BINGHAM. You must have a vast surplusage, then. Do you keep all these contributions of publications and manuscripts, etc.? Mr. PUTNAM. I assume you are referring to what comes to us from copyright? Mr. BINGHAM. Yes. Mr. PUTNAM. Only a portion of what comes to us from copyright are drawn into the library proper. There are a million and a half of articles coming from copyright which we are now seeking to dispose of. Mr. BINGHAM. What do you mean by disposing of it? TRANSFER OF SURPLUS MATERIAL. Mr. PUTNAM. We ought to have authority specifically by law, authority to transfer them to other government libraries; for instance, to the library of the Surgeon-General's office, medical books which are appropriate to their collection, but not to ours. We ought to have authority to utilize this material to strengthen other special government collections, which must be maintained in spite of the fact that we are making the great general collection. A bill granting that authority should, in our opinion, be enacted, and as to copyright deposits, such authority is granted in the new copyright bill, which is now pending. Mr. GILLETT. You mean as to special books? Mr. PUTNAM. Yes. Mr. GILLETT. Even if you do not have duplicates? Mr. PUTNAM. Yes. And then there would be the matter of exchange outside of government libraries. Mr. BURLESON. That would be mutually advantageous, both to your library and the other libraries as well? Mr. PUTNAM. Yes, all through the country, to strengthen weak collections. For instance, many small college libraries, particularly throughout the West and South, could be strengthened in that way. Mr. TAWNEY. What do you mean by exchange? Do they have books that you could utilize here? Mr. PUTNAM. They can help us to the books that they can get hold of through local influence. Mr. TAWNEY. Would not that result directly in disbursing for their benefit? Mr. PUTNAM. Yes. There would be regions from which, if this system were carried out in a large way, we should not get as much as we should give. In the large cities, however, we should; for instance, with the New York Public Library. Mr. GILLETT. Why would they have books that you would not have? Mr. PUTNAM. Because there are a great many local publications that are never copyrighted, for one thing, and therefore they do not come to us through copyright. |