request. In the meantime, I encourage the subcommittee to contact us should Respectfully submitted, Charles C. Mathias, Jr. Charles McC. Mathias, Jr. CONCLUSION OF HEARINGS Senator MATTINGLY. This concludes the hearings on the legislative branch budget request for fiscal year 1983. The subcommitee will recess until further notice. [Whereupon, at 9:40 a.m., Friday, May 14, the hearings were concluded and the subcommittee was recessed, to reconvene at the to call of the Chair.] MATERIAL SUBMITTED SUBSEQUENT TO HEARINGS [CLERK'S NOTE.-By direction of the chairman, the following material was submitted subsequent to the hearing and placed in the record at this point.] LIBRARY OF CONGRESS LETTERS FROM AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION May 28, 1982 The Honorable Mack Mattingly, Chairman Legislative Branch Subcommittee Committee on Appropriations U.S. Senate Washington, D.C. 20510 Dear Senator Mattingly: On behalf of the American Library Association, I request that this letter be made part of the hearing record on the FY 1983 appropriations for the Library of Congress. The American Library Association, founded in 1876, is the oldest and largest national library association in the world. A nonprofit educational organization of almost 40,000 librarians, library trustees and other friends of libraries, the Association is dedicated to the improvement of library and information service for the American people. The American Library Association strongly endorses the request of the Library of Congress for an appropriation of $223,760,000 for fiscal 1983. A modest $2,925,249 of this amount is requested to cover the growing workload of the Library including funds for 60 new positions. The 32 percent increase in readership between fiscal 1979 and 1981 is dramatic testimony to Congress' foresight in providing for their own and the public's expanding needs in the Madison Building. Members of the Association have always maintained a strong interest in the Library of Congress which provides essential services to researchers and to users of school, public, academic and special libraries throughout the United States, as well as critical information for members of Congress. The nation's libraries look to the Library of Congress to serve as both a national and international leader in the preservation of the human record and the adaptation of expanding technologies to the library and information needs of the nation. We fully concur with the two priorities stated by the Librarian of Congress in his testimony before the Subcommittee earlier this month: improving services to the increasing number and variety of the Library's users and improving urgent measures to preserve the Library's deteriorating collections. As Dr. Boorstin pointed out both priorities are measures of economy. The increased staff positions appear to be those most urgently needed to complete occupancy of the Madison Building and essential to make effective use of the Library's outstanding collections and services. It is noteworthy that the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped has managed to expand their program to meet increased reader requirements with little growth in staff. We would like to support the NLS/BPH request for six positions to meet the needs of the Service's readers. For many of the people who use NLS/BPH, the tapes and flexible disks provided are their only source of reading material and thus à whole world of knowledge and information. The NLS/BPH pays many dividends in meeting the basic human needs of a significant segment of our population. (355) Preservation of library materials is a topic that will become more prominent as we move through the 1980s. Library collections throughout the world are deteriorating at an alarming rate, with millions of books, manuscripts, maps, films and photographs endangered. Research on the topic struggles forward with only meager support. The failure of the machine-made paper of the last 150 years to endure has been a disaster for the records of this civilization. The Library of Congress has provided leadership in the field of preservation through its staff and laboratories, developing new ways to prevent or delay deterioration not only for the Library but for all the nation's libraries. ALA strongly endorses Dr. Boorstin's request for $350,000 to begin large scale application of the new diethyl zinc process developed by chemists of the preservation staff. This cooperative effort with NASA at the Goddard Space Flight Center can be a breakthrough in the deacidification process for preservation in all libraries, museums, and other institutions of learning. Considering the great masses of acid paper currently deteriorating on library shelves, the library community is waiting for and needs an operational mass deacidification method. An additional $160,000 for supplies, repair and conservation of rare materials, $225,000 to begin a three-year program to preserve the collection of County Atlases, and $400,000 to begin a five-year acquisition program to acquire the most intensely · used periodicals in microform format are also important components of the Library's preservation and conservation efforts, In its dual role of serving Congress and the public, the Library of Congress makes many contributions to the nation's libraries. A few examples show how the users of many different kinds of libraries benefit from LC programs: - - The most obvious and direct service the Library of Congress provides to Meetings at the Library of the chief officers of the state library agencies "Read More About It," a project cosponsored by the Library's Center for the Book and CBS Television encourages viewers of dramatizations of CBS specials to patronize their local libraries and bookstores to read books relating to the program. The Center for the Book serves as a focal point for private sector contributions for such projects. Another project of the Center for the Book, "Books Make A Difference," also stimulates an appreciation for books and reading.. Interviewers have visited communities throughout the United States to talk to people about books which helped to shape their lives. Excerpts from the interviews will be made available to libraries, bookstores and radio stations. The Federal Library Committee, headquartered in the Library of Congress, promotes more efficient use of federal library resources. One example of its efforts is the Intergovernmental Library Cooperation Project, established in 1980 with the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, to study governmental library resources and services in order to determine ways to improve coordination among federal libraries and between federal and nonfederal libraries. The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped operates a reading program that provides free braille and recorded books and magazines to more than seven hundred thousand visually and physically handicapped individuals through a nationwide network of 160 cooperating libraries. On behalf of the American library community and the users of libraries nationwide, we would like to commend the staff of the Library of Congress for their continued pursuit of excellence. In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, we ask that the Subcommittee approve the full request of $223,760,000 for the Library of Congress. Sincerely, Mileen Cooke Eileen D. Cooke ALA Washington Office June 17, 1982 The Honorable Mack Mattingly, Chairman Legislative Branch Subcommittee Committee on Appropriations U.S. Senate Washington, D.C. 20510 Dear Senator Mattingly: This letter is submitted on behalf of the American Library Association, a nonprofit educational organization of almost 40,000 librarians, educators, trustees and other friends of libraries, dedicated to the improvement of libraries and information services for all citizens. We request that it be made part of the hearing record on appropriations for the Government Printing Office. We look forward to working with the Public Printer in what promises to be a dynamic marketing program for government publications and the depository libraries. It is because of our intimate knowledge of the usefulness of government publications, as well as our belief that the citizenry should have access to materials printed at public expense, that we supported the Public Printer's original FY 1983 budget request of $28,889,000 for the various programs of the Superintendent of Documents and the $303,000 pay raise supplemental for FY 1982 for the Office of the Superintendent of Documents. When the Public Printer, Mr. Sawyer, testified before your subcommittee last month, he stated that the pay supplemental for fiscal 1982 would not be needed and requested $550,000 less in the salaries and expenses appropriation for FY 1983. In light of Mr. Sawyer's proposal to furlough GPO employees, the American Library Association is surprised at his request for less funding. ALA is concerned that the furloughs may disrupt the operations of the Superintendent of Documents whose office receives appropriated funds to cover statutorily mandated services. ployees whose salaries are covered by appropriations should not be furloughed for lack of business when the Monthly Catalog is seriously behind in providing access to documents already distributed. The furloughs are also likely to delay the timely distribution of government documents to Depository Libraries. Em Indeed, we think that there is an urgent need to provide more funds for the Government Printing Office in order to keep unique and indispensible government documents like the Federal Register and the Congressional Record widely available to the public. A year's subscription to the Congressional Record increased last year from $75 to $208 a year. We deplore the skyrocketing 300 percent increase in the price of the Federal Register, from $75 to $300 a year, which took effect on March 29. While the Public Printer has stated that the approved increases to the subscription rates for the Congressional Record and the Federal Register have eliminated the need for subsidies for these publications, full cost recovery means that small businesses, hard-pressed public, college and school libraries and many of the public at large will not be able to afford these essential government documents. Only those willing and able to pay high prices or to go to a depository library will be able to keep abreast of the proposed and promulgated policies of the various agencies of the federal government. We recommend that the cost of subscriptions to the Congressional Record and the Federal Register be restored to their previous, affordable levels, at least for nonprofit institutions, and that cost recovery be achieved by increasing charges to the government entity placing the notice. This would be consistent with the current deregulation fervor and would place the cost at the source. The philosophy behind our position has been expressed on numerous occasions. ALA believes that a democracy has an obligation to make available to its citizens the results of its actions, including its information collecting activities and its research and development efforts. It simply makes good sense to encourage citizen |