It compiles and publishes bibliographic lists. It compiles and publishes "calendars" and group or topical catalogues. From time to time it edits and publishes texts in its possession. Its service to Congress is special and unique. It includes (in its Legislative Reference Service) the "preparation of data" bearing on legislation pending. As the office of copyright, it maintains a department quite unique among libraries, and which amounts to the maintenance of a distinct bureau. As our National Library, and with the above varied responsibilities, it can not afford to have less than the best obtainable (1) Knowledge, experience, and judgment in the development of its collections; (2) Technical perfection in its processes:-classification, cataloguing, and the other treatment of material; (3) Skill, training, and experience in reference work, bibliography, and interpretation; (4) In its consultative service (e. g., in law, art, music), specialists who are authorities in the subject matter; (5) In its service to our highest tribunal and its bar, not merely the most comprehensive law library, but the most competent administration and interpretation; (6) In its legislative service-effective apparatus as to all legislation enacted in every country, and experts who will digest it, the law, the facts, the authorities in matters of opinion: experts comparable at least to those who are employed by the interests seeking legislation. This also unique. THE ORGANIZATION. The Library is an "independent establishment.” It is not under any department nor board of trustees. The Librarian, though appointed by the President, reports direct to Congress. His estimates go to Congress without revision by the Budget Bureau; and he has full and final authority in the expenditure of the appropriations, the selection of his staff, and the operations of the Library. The Librarian, being the chief executive of the Library, has five principal aides: 1. The Chief Assistant Librarian, who (except in the absence of the Librarian, when he becomes Acting Librarian) devotes his time chiefly (1) to the selection of material to be acquired for the main collection and (2) to advanced and special reference work. 2. The secretary, who handles all correspondence in the first and last instance, keeps the files of the main office, and incidentally receives many visitors and directs them to the appropriate authorities. 3. The chief clerk, who is in fact the "general administrative assistant" to the Librarian, represents him in the disposition, regulation, and discipline of the service, the purchase and distribution of (general) supplies and minor equipment. Is the "personnel officer." Handles all requisitions upon the Government Printing Office, all pay rolls, and vouchers. Keeps records of these and of appropriations. Handles and deposits receipts for sales of cards (over $100,ooo per annum), involving 3,000 accounts. Is the custodian of small trust funds (deposits, etc.). In the absence of the Librarian and Chief Assistant Librarian, he becomes Acting Librarian. He is, therefore, much more than a "chief clerk" under the usage of the departments. 4. The Register of Copyrights, who handles the entire routine of the copyright business. 5. The "administrative assistant" for the building, who acts also as disbursing officer. There are four divisions affecting the administration, the collections, or the operations as a whole. In logical order: I. The mail and delivery, which receives and despatches all mail, express, and freight, and makes deliveries of books in Washington. 2. The order division, which places all orders for the purchase of material for the collections (incidentally (a) verifying the absence of the items recommended and (b) pricing the items to be bid for at auction, confirming the reasonableness of the prices on those offered); conducts all business with dealers; checks the invoices; prepares the vouchers; and keeps detailed records of orders and accessions. It receives also and acknowledges all other material incoming through gift or exchange, and receives and forwards all copyrighted material selected for the collections. It handles, also, and sees through the press all publications of the Library, and their distribution. 3. The binding division, which prepares the specifications for the binding and repair of all material (the actual work being done by the Government Printing Office bindery). 4. The bibliographic division, which advises inquirers (including correspondents) as to sources beyond the ability or possible attention of the reading room staff, and prepares lists of source material on various topics, some of which are elaborate and reach publication. Dealing with the book collection as a whole are— The classification division (with the shelf listing The card division. These divisions comprise in the aggregate 130 persons— nearly one-half of the total staff of the Library (excluding the copyright office). Their work is fundamental and its consequences farreaching, for— 1. It establishes (in the printed cards) a record which is permanent, and a scheme of arrangement of the collection on the shelves which will exhibit it by subject, and fix the relative location of the books by a notation which will be indefinitely elastic. 2 Its results in the printed cards-are communicated to other libraries (already 3000 in number) who accept and utilize them in their own records as authoritative and final. It has thus become a central bureau of cataloguing (and in a measure, of classification) for the entire country. Cataloguing (by subject) and classification are recognized as the most technical and difficult of the Library sciences. The construction and application of a system to this collection of 3,000,000 books and pamphlets, with 100,000 yearly additions, involves a problem not undertaken by any other national library (for neither subject catalogues nor a subject classification is in vogue in the large libraries abroad); nor in degree, or the mass affected, paralleled by any American library. It requires the very broadest knowledge of bibliography, history, literature; the nomenclature at least of all art and science; and all European languages. Its responsibilities here are unique: and they cannot be met by any qualifications short of the highest obtainable in the profession. Dealing directly with the reader or investigator are: The reading room service, with its subsidiaries (including the room for the blind), which, with the periodical division, meets the inquirer in his first approach to the general collection (and, during certain hours and on Sundays, the special collections also), has the custody of it, serves it, and renders first aid to its use. Also handles all loans of material. In the area to be covered, and the complex and exacting nature of the constituency to be satisfied, the task is a large and critical one. The bibliographic division which not merely aids inquirers as to bibliographic matters beyond the possible attention of the reading room staff, but compiles bibliographies of general utility and serves as a central bureau of counsel and information on bibliographic questions. There are eight divisions dealing exclusively with material special in form or in field. They are: 1. The law division, concerned with all law, including the law library at the Capitol. 2. The document division, handling all official documents (including those of the States and foreign countries). 3. The Smithsonian (section) having custody of the publications of learned societies and institutions deposited by the Smithsonian-the largest such collection in the world. 4. The Semitic, Slavic and Oriental division, with its three sections (involving as many specialties). 5. The manuscript division. 6. The map division. 7. The music division. 8. The print division. In each of these divisions the administration includes not merely the custody and routine service of the material: It includes also (1) the development of the collection by inquiry, selection and solicitation, (2) classification and cataloguing, and aids to its effective use, (3) the interpretation of it, (4) consultative service to those seeking it as an authority. Each of these involves a collection of huge dimension, in some cases the largest existing in any institution, and which might plausibly constitute a library by itself. Its subject matter is special, and its vocabulary. It involves distinct problems in its development, treatment, and interpretation. It therefore requires at its head not merely an administrator with bibliographic knowledge, but a specialist versed in the subject matter. In the case of The law division, a lawyer, with ability to handle not merely the "common" but foreign law. The document division, a specialist in political science and economics. The Smithsonian division, a scientist. The Semitic, Slavic and Oriental, a Hebrew scholar, a Russian scholar, a Chinese scholar. The manuscript division, a historian (American history). The map division, a specialist in cartography. The music division, an authority in the art, science, and literature of music. The print division, an authority in the fine arts, with a thorough knowledge of their history and technique, and a familiarity with the examples of them in monuments, galleries, and museums. The special knowledge involved in each chief is equivalent to that of a professor in a university. And in minor degrees it must be represented in his subordinates also. The legislative reference service involves specialists in law, political science, economics, skillful in precise and impartial interpretation and statement. CHIEFS OF MAJOR DIVISIONS. 1. The Grade (5) conforms exactly to the language of the act. These chiefs are “administrative heads of major subdivisions" of "a large organization"; and they are also "consulting specialists." 2. It is the grade proposed, we understand, by the allocating executives, for the chiefs of divisions within scientific bureaus, whose chiefs are allocated to grade 6. It is |