Mr. STEED. The next item is the special foreign currency program, which appears on page 133 of the justifications and page 112 of the committee print. Mr. MUMFORD. Mr. Chairman, since this is a rather involved proposal, would it be asking too much to ask for all the text material pertaining to it to be put in the record? Mr. STEED. Because of the wide interest that has been shown, I think we should have the full text included at this point in the record. (The material referred to follows:) 1961 regular bill... 1962 Estimate... Net increase.. +$721,700 +721,700 Analysis of increases 1. Acquisition of books and other library materials__ To acquire and distribute to libraries and research centers in the United States, multiple copies of publications available in 3 countries in the original or reproduction. 2. Bibliographic listings... Lists of materials acquired in these 3 countries will be prepared and distributed to research centers in the United States to inform scholars of the range of books, serials, and other library materials available under this program. 3. Operation of centers___. Centers staffed with foreign nationals will be set up to handle the acquisition, listing, microfilming, etc. 4. Program support (U.S. dollars) For the salaries of U.S. personnel abroad and for the coordinating staff of 2 persons at the Library of Congress, and travel, in some instances. Net increase_____ +$459, 500 +47,000 +148,000 +67,200 +721,700 EXPLANATION OF PROGRAM In accordance with section 104 (n) of the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954 (included in Public Law 85-931, approved September 6, 1958), the Librarian of Congress has been authorized to undertake an entirely new and additional program: To use foreign currencies accruing under this act to provide information of technical, scientific, cultural, or educational significance to the United States through the collection of foreign library materials and the distribution of copies thereof to libraries and research centers in the United States. While the Library of Congress will be on of the recipients, the bulk of the materials will be distributed to Federal, State, and other libraries and research centers specializing in the areas to which the material relates. Since the early months of the fiscal year will be occupied with a preliminary survey, negotiation of contracts, and setting up of centers, actual acquisition operations are predicated on a 9-month period. Initial operations will be confirmed primarily to acquisition and bibliographic listing because these are activities in which the Library is particularly competent. This program will be of inestimable value to librarians, scholars, and research workers, generally, and will bring into this country a wealth of material not readily available through normal book trade channels. It is considered essential that at least one copy of every foreign publication of research value be available in this country. To date this has not been possible, primarily because of financial limitations. Even this, without question, is a minimal program in view of the potential needs. The acquisition of multiple sets as provided by the act will make possible a geographical distribution that will give scholars in many parts of the country ready access to the materials. During the first year it is planned to develop programs in three countries; namely, United Arab Republic, India, and Pakistan. Lists of material acquired in these three countries will be prepared and distributed to research centers in the United States to inform scholars of the range of books, serials, and other library material available under this program. The program overall will combine the specific activities of acquisition and bibliographic listings. The operation of centers and the necessary limited, but direct, dollar support cut across these two activities and result in a four-way budgetary breakdown of the funds requested. The programs under these four captions are set forth below: 1. Acquisition of books and other library materials, $459,500 During the initial 9 months of operation, the Library of Congress will attempt to acquire multiple copies of important current monographs and periodicals and of selected newspapers produced in each of the three countries, for the collections of the Library of Congress and for distribution to the libraries of colleges and universities and other research centers specializing in the areas to which the materials relate. These estimates assume the acquisition of from 5 to 10 complete sets of the current publications of selected countries; each set will comprise from 2,500 to 25,000 pieces. In addition, funds have been included for the purchase of certain older publications either in the original or microfilnı. To arrive at the cost of the acquisitions phase of this program, the Library of Congress considered among other sources of information the following: (a) Published book, periodical, and newspaper production statistics by country. (b) The experience of the Library of Congress on average per item prices, by country. (c) The Library's costs of acquisition administration in the United States. (d) Estimated costs of acquisitions in each of the countries, based upon both published information and the experience of Library area and acquisition specialists. (e) Tentative lists of the U.S. recipients based upon knowledge of the specialization of the various American libraries. For example, it is not unlikely that the Indian material will be sent to the University of Pennsylvania, the University of California, and the Midwest Interlibrary Center among others. It is expected that the materials will be shipped directly from the country in which collected to the recipient libraries in the United States. An advisory committee has been appointed consisting of representatives from several U.S. Government agencies, library associations, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Social Science Research Council. This committee is being consulted on matters which are vital to the successful initiation and continuation of the broad aspects of the program and is eminently qualified to suggest the names of institutions which should receive the materials which are acquired. Before actual operations start, the Library expects to send abroad survey teams from its own staff to explore with the foreign posts the possibilities of acquisition of materials, recruitment of local personnel, and the availability of physical facilities, equipment, and supplies. Estimates for this exploratory work are predicated on 3-month periods for each team in each of the major areas. 2. Bibliographic listings, $47,000 Highly skilled native personnel will work under the supervision of U.S. librarians to prepare bibliographic listings of the books acquired in the three countries. It is expected that these listings, which will present in transliterated form the essential bibliographic data about the works acquired, will be useful to the libraries receiving the publications as a first step in their cataloging and control of the works. It is also anticipated that these listings will be distributed to a larger number of U.S. libraries where they will be a useful tool for reference, for interlibrary loan, and for acquisition of specific items of special importance. 3. Operation of centers, $148,000 In United Arab Republic and India it is planned to have centers staffed with foreign nationals under American supervision. In Pakistan there will be foreign natonals only. Included in these estimates are the costs of rents and utilities, other contractual services, and equipment. The equipment costs would, for the most part, be nonrecurring after the first year. Costs indicated for this activity cover only nonpersonal service items. 4. Program support (U.S. dollars), $67,200 Estimates for this activity are based upon salaries for 9 months of the American supervisory personel overseas and 9 months for the supporting staff at the Library. Related costs for retirement and group life insurance are added, also oversea allowances for personnel abroad. It is then assumed that personnel abroad will accept 25 percent of their salaries in foreign currencies. There are also added items for travel which cannot be financed by foreign currencies. Details of these estimates are shown in the following table: In India and United Arab Republic it is proposed that U.S. personnel administer the program and supervise the native personnel in acquiring, listing, and distributing the publications. In Pakistan, it is proposed to have native personnel acquire and distribute publications. Mr. STEED. May I ask if this text includes the authority in the basic law for this program? Mr. ROGERS. I have the text of the law here, sir. Mr. STEED. I wanted to be sure the reference was in the record. Mr. ROGERS. You just want the subparagraph rather than the whole law? Mr. STEED. That would be sufficient. Mr. STEED. Since this is a small curtailed program-I think you refer to it as a pilot program-this year as opposed to the program submitted last year that the committee turned down, perhaps you could make a statement of what the item proposes to do. Mr. MUMFORD. The purpose is essentially the same. The difference between what we are proposing here and what we proposed before is that this proposal covers less area and amounts to less in terms of the money required to execute the program. The fundamental purpose is to acquire important publications from foreign countries that are not easily available to this country now, and to locate them in research centers in this country. The number of copies may range from 5 to 10 or more. We have had an advisory committee working with us on locations. No final determination has been made, but in general it would be the institutions that have developed programs requiring materials from these particular areas. Mr. STEED. Is there any substantial acquisition of materials of this kind being made now? Mr. MUMFORD. There are efforts being made but it is extremely difficult-I might say impossible for American libraries to acquire as well as they should from a distance without having someone on the spot to identify what is being published and to obtain the publications and get them over here, and some of the institutions do not have the money to invest in that kind of publications. Mr. STEED. Could you give us some examples of the type of research centers that would especially benefit from a program of this sort? Mr. ROGERS. May I speak first, sir, to the problem and then add this at the end? It is easy for one who is not familiar with foreign publishing to think of it in the same pattern we have in the United States, but it is very different. Publishers frequently are more or less fly-by-night or they bring out small editions that rapidly disappear so that by the time we get knowledge of a publication and try to obtain it, it is too late. That is why it is so important to have someone in a foreign country who knows the needs of research libraries to obtain publications as fast as possible. As some index of how poorly the libraries in this country are doing, a study has been made in the last year or so of our success or failure in the Middle East. This would include north Africa and what we think of as the Near East. A list of publications was compiled which were adjudged by specialists as being of research importance to American scholars on this area. This was done independently. Then they went on to find out how many were obtained and they found only 37 percent were obtained. This is not 37 percent of all publications, but 37 percent of the publications of research significance which we should have been getting. This is some indication of really how badly we are doing despite our efforts. As to the libraries that might get these publications, I think I can only give you examples, based on a specialized program that we are already conducting. There is a wheat loan program concerned with obtaining documents-official documents from India. This was set up by a member of the staff of the Library of Congress and it was decided, based upon the recommendations of scholars, that these publications, three in number, should go to the University of Pennsylvania, the University of California, and the Midwest Inter-Library Center. The Midwest Inter-Library Center is a specialized library in Chicago that is really a holding library for a group of about 20 Midwest research libraries. I would say that this is typical of the distribution, except we would hope that there would be a greater distribution because of the greater number of available copies. Mr. STEED. What is the breakdown in terms of American dollars and local currency funds involved in this item? Mr. ROGERS. Roughly, $67,000 in hard dollars that is, U.S. dollars and $654,500 in U.S.-owned foreign currencies or, roughly, 1 to 10. Mr. STEED. Are local currency funds in the three pilot countries available? Mr. ROGERS. Yes, sir. The Bureau of the Budget has identified these countries as those with excess currencies. This term means that these are excess to any foreseeable regular requirements of the U.S. Government for other purposes. POSSIBLE REQUEST IN 1963 AND LATER Mr. STEED. Assuming that the committee approved the item as you propose it here, what could we anticipate to be the followthrough in the next several years? Mr. ROGERS. Well, in the first place, we have asked for acquisition money for 9 months, and this would mean that that part that we would carry on at the same level would have to be larger. There are some initial costs, such as establishing centers which would come out, but you could anticipate that it would be larger, and I would expect that we would want to increase the number of copies from 10 to a good many more, depending upon what the demands were from the colleges and universities of this country once the program had proved itself. It might also be desirable to expand the program into other countries eventually. QUESTION OF U.S. LIBRARIES SHARING THE COST Mr. STEED. Since this would obtain materials that I assume would become the property of these various research libraries, once it had been acquired, is there any contemplation that those libraries would participate in the cost of this program? Mr. ROGERS. There is no provision for that in the law. I would like to point out that a library assumes a great financial responsibility, even though it accepts something that appears to be free on the surface, because in most research libraries it costs more to process a book, that is, catalog, and get it on the shelf, than the original cost of the material. Not only that, but these libraries would have to undertake to make these books available to other libraries on interlibrary loan. So, actually, they would be assuming a very considerable responsibility and financial burden if they participate in this program. Mr. STEED. Do you contemplate that this program, when and if started, in the next few years would necessitate your asking for additional amounts in order to include other countries? Mr. ROGERS. I think this is quite possible. |