is dramatic and innovative research, experimentation and demonstration of alternatives to contemporary arrangements. It is this which I find most heartening about the projected agenda for the proposed National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. Libraries and information services in the culture today fall desperately short of the needs now manifest for information and intelligence for community services, decision processes in government and business, and as support for research and scholarship in the universities and research centers. A formal body such as is contemplated by this legislation can be a powerful instrument to help propel this institution and this professional discipline forward and it is for these reasons that I most heartily and enthusiastically endorse the proposed legislation and the agenda for work which the legislation puts before this Commission. I hope these remarks may be helpful. Sincerely, PAUL WASSERMAN, Dean. Hon. JOHN BRADEMAS, THE KENT-CAROLINE PUBLIC LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION, Chairman, Select Subcommittee on Education, SIR: Thank you for your recent letter informing me of your sponsorship of H.R. 8839 to establish a national commission on libraries and information science. Be assured that the Maryland Library Association looks upon the creation of a permanent commission as a vital step in the development of a truly national information network. We are urging Senators Joseph D. Tydings and Charles McC. Mathias, Jr., to co-sponsor the companion bill, S 1519, and when the bill reaches the floor of the House of Representatives we will urge Maryland's delegation to give it wholehearted support. Very truly yours, WILLIAM N. RAIRIGH, Chairman, Federal Relations Committee, Maryland Library Association. EDUCOM, Boston, Mass., April 4, 1969. Representative JOHN BRADEMAS, Chairman, Select Subcommittee on Education, DEAR CONGRESSMAN BRADEMAS: I have just reviewed the bill which you proposed to submit on March 12th covering the permanent National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. I believe that the bill appropriately deals with the importance of this area in our nation and commend you for your effort in bringing it about. If there be anything that EDUCOM can do to help in this area, please rest assured of our interest and enthusiasm. Sincerely yours, JORDAN J. BARUCH, President. THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS, Hon. JOHN BRADEMAS, Chairman, Select Subcommittee on Education, DEAR CONGRESSMAN BRADEMAS: The Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, at its monthly meeting of March 1969 voted to support H.R. 8839, the bill to establish a permanent National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. The State Library Commissioners, charged with the extension, improvement and encouragement of library services in the Commonwealth, are certainly behind legislation which provides for the establishment of a commission empowered to study and evaluate all library resources at a national level. We are in a position to realize the importance and necessity of proper utilization and coordination of all libraries and information services. HR 8839 appears to be the necessary step at this time to insure the proper action. The Report of the National Advisory Commission on Libraries envisions giant strides in the ultimate improvement and availability of library resources and services for all the American people. Basie to such improvement is step No. 1the establishment of a National Commission which would initiate the implementation of the several excellent recommendations contained in the 'National Report' itself. Sincerely yours, RICHARD J. SULLIVAN, Chairman, Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. THE LIBRARIES, MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, Hon. JOHN BRADEMAS, Chairman, Select Subcommittee on Education, DEAR MR. BRADEMAS : Thank you for sending me a copy of your Bill-To Establish a National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, and for Other Purposes. I find the Bill excellent and hope it will achieve speedy passage. May I compliment you particularly on the inclusion of information science as one of the primary purposes of the Commission. May I make one or two minor suggestions. In Section 5(a), (2) 1.2 after 66* * * needs of the nation" and in Section 5(a), (4) 1.2 after “* * * informational needs" might I suggest that you insert "including the need for specialized personnel." Adequately trained personnel is one of the major problems of the library and information field today. Therefore, I suggest that this be mentioned explicitly. Concerning Section 6(a) on membership, might I suggest that the membership of the Commission include two librarians and four information scientists. Under the present wording there could be five librarians and no information specialists or vice versa. The great majority of librarians in the country are public librarians who have little knowledge of or interest in information science. Few if any information scientists have anything in common with public librarians. Information science includes librarianship as one of its subdisciplines. Therefore, it would be highly desirable that librarianship and information science be represented on the Commission by separate individuals. I should be happy to appear before the Select Subcommittee on Education if you wish. As librarian of a research library, I and a hundred or so of my colleagues find myself at a point where librarianship and information science intersect. The Association of Research Libraries speaks for this group. As for the broader interests of information science, they are best represented by the American Society for Information Science. I hope both these associations will make presentations at your hearings. Sincerely, WILLIAM N. LOCKE, Chestnut Hill, Mass., March 31, 1969. Hon. JOHN BRADEMAS, DEAR MR. BRADEMAS: It was with much more than routine enthusiasm that I received your March 12 announcement of the introduction of a bill to establish a National Commission on Libraries. Even allowing for the bias engendered by twenty-two years as a librarian, I believe that there is strong objective support for the contention that libraries are probably the most flexible, extensive, and promising source of educational enrichment in the widest sense of the phrase which the country possesses. Any move, therefore, which strengthens this somewhat disjointed and under appreciated resource, and the Commission certainly has great potential toward this end, deserves the highest praise. As you suggest, the several professional library associations will undoubtedly provide adequate testimony for hearings. In the unlikely event that there were anything I could offer additionally to the success of the bill or to the functioning of the ensuing Commission to offer my services. 2134 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C. DEAR MR. BRADEMAS: Thank you for your letter of March 12 regarding your introducing a bill to create a permanent National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. The creation of such a Commission was by far the most important recommendation of the National Advisory Commission on Libraries and I should like to express my profound gratitude to you for your initiative in undertaking to implement that recommendation. In so doing you are performing a public service of great and lasting significance for the well-being of education, scholarship, industry and government in this country. Respectfully yours, FREDERICK H. WAGMAN, Director. Hon. JOHN BRADEMAS, DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS, Chairman, Select Subcommittee on Education, Congress of the United States, House of Representatives, Washington, D.O. DEAR CONGRESSMAN BRADEMAS: Dr. Stuart C. Rankin, Executive Director of the Michigan-Ohio Regional Educational Laboratory (MOREL), has asked me to comment upon the bill which you and several of your colleagues have introduced to create a permanent National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. Having read and reread the proposed bill, and having followed with interest the deliberations of both the Committee on Scientific and Technical Information (COSATI) and the reactive proposal of the Ad Hoc Joint Committee on National Library/Information Systems (CONLIS) on the same matter, I find your bill very much to my personal satisfaction. It represents, to my mind, a reasoned and reasonable approach to a critical problem regarding effective utilization of our national resources. Specifically I would like to offer the following observations: The key concept, in my view, is that we must provide the necessary library and information services to "achieve national goals and to utilize most effectively the nation's educational resources" (Section 2). With our vast educational needs (broadly defined) today we literally cannot afford to expend time and resources reworking the same ground or failing to gain from each other's experiences. Our needs are national and so information coordination must also be national. Defining education more narrowly, to the formal institution, there is increasing application of information handling techniques originally developed for science and technology to the literature of the field. The major example of this effort, of course, is the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC). In the Midwest, like activities include those of the MichiganOhio Regional Educational Laboratory (Regional Information System), the Ohio Education Association's Association Referral Information Service, and the Wayne County (Michigan) Intermediate School District's ASSIST Center. While there is close communication between the last three mentioned programs and ongoing cooperation between them and ERIC, there remains a very real need to provide a broader type of coordination, not only among educational information services, but with allied areas in the social sciences and humanities. A national agency is necessary to accomplish this. As an example, I may soon have the task of creating a master plan for educational information services in the State of Michigan. A national commission carrying out the functions included in your bill would be of inestimable value in this endeavor. In fact, it should be a necessity to accomplish national compatibility among such systems. Only in this way can attainment of our national goals be effectively gained. I would make a plea for a very broad interpretation of the term "information." The one reservation I have about the CONLIS proposal is that it is couched mainly in terms of print resources. While not depreciating their great value, that information which can be obtained immediately and directed from human and institutional resources should also be taken into consideration. Information in print form, almost by definition, includes a time lag factor which reduces its freshness to some extent. The ongoing activities of persons and projects can be as current as a telephone call, however. In reality both immediate (face-to-face) and mediated information are necessary for intelligent decision making, both must be taken into account for maximum impact. Placement of the proposed Commission within the Executive Branch, with operational support coming from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, neatly solves a rather delicate problem. The pervasive autonomy of the Executive Branch is available and yet a direct connection is maintained with the department through which informational services should be made available (HEW). I am curious as to the relationship of the Commission and COSATI under this arrangement. Will the Commission incorporate COSATI, coordinate it, or merely cooperate with it? One unresolved question which I have after reading the proposal is the degree of authority which the Commission will have. The only prohibition to heed the opinions and directions of the Commission that I found in document was found in Section 5d where the heads of all Federal agencies are "directed to cooperate with the Commission in carrying out the purposes of this Act." Is this sufficient? It may well be some leverage is provided through fund coordination. A proposed solution to this problem, which has appealed to me, was that of the "responsible agent" as delineated in Recommendations for National Document Handling Systems in Science and Technology (Systems Development Corporation, 1965). The SDC study, done for COSATI, recommended both a "capping agency" (the Commission?) and agents in each department and organization who were responsible for the information activity of their agency. This would seemingly tie down responsibility and promote accountability. My reactions have been somewhat random. In general I am extremely supportive of the proposed legislation. I hope my comments have been of value. If I can be of any assistance regarding passage and implementation of the bill please call on me. I would also like to be kept informed as to the bill's progress. Sincerely, GEORGE H. GRIMES, Supervisor, Curriculum Laboratories, Detroit Public Schools and Consultant, Information Services, Michigan-Ohio Regional Educational Laboratory. Hon. JOHN BRADEMAS, FARMINGTON DISTRICT LIBRARY, Chairman, Select Subcommittee on Education, DEAR MR. BRADEMAS: Many thanks for your letter of March 12 and attachment of Bill to establish a National Commission on Libraries and Information Science and for other purposes. This is much needed legislation, and very long overdue. I want to study the Bill and if I have any specific comments, I shall write you. I am just so very pleased that it is finally introduced, and with an interested Chairman as you are, delays in acting upon it should not occur. Very sincerely, MARY F. ALLISON, Secretary, Board of Trustees, Member, Oakland County Library Board. 28-638-69-14 Hon. JOHN BRADEMAS, STATE OF MICHIGAN, Chairman, Select Subcommittee on Education, Washington, D.O. DEAR SIR: I was pleased to read of your introducing House Bill #8839 which would create a permanent National Commission on Library and Information Science. Section 6(a) of the bill you introduced, stating that only five members of the committee shall be professional librarians or information specialists, is excellent. I believe it is important to library service that we have represented on the Commission individuals from other professions. President Nixon, on October 22, 1968 said "in a world where knowledge is the key to leadership, a modern progressive library system is a vital national asset." I would like to add that funding of a modern progressive library is vital. Establishment of the Commission would help the library profession but progress will depend on the amount of funds allocated for library purposes. We need to have full funding for all Titles of the Library Services and Construction Act. Without this money no amount of recommendations or studies by the Commission will be of any value. We need this money to implement library services in all states. Sincerely yours, ROBERT RAZ, Institutional Library Consultant. Hon. JOHN BRADEMAS, Congress of the United States, STATE OF MICHIGAN, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, BUREAU OF LIBRARY SERVICES, Lansing, Mich., March 14, 1969. SIR: I urge you to continue your efforts for the passage of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science Act. We desperately need a commission to inform the President and the Congress of the needs and importance of libraries throughout the nation. We, in Michigan, will do everything we can to assist you, and I, personally, offer my services. Sincerely, DALE H. PRETZER, Deputy State Librarian. MINNEAPOLIS PUBLIC LIBRARY, Minneapolis, Minn., March 28, 1969. Representative JOHN BRADEMAS, House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. DEAR REPRESENTATIVE BRADEMAS: I appreciate your letter of March 12, and the enclosure of the draft of a bill to establish a national commission on libraries and information science. Your support of such legislation is deeply appreciated by me and others in Minnesota. Sincerely yours, ERVIN J. GAINES, Director. |