Other Academic Libraries With some exceptions, college and junior college libraries, both publicly and privately supported, are inadequate. In some cases, the libraries are so poorly housed and stocked that the quality of the instructional program is seriously impaired. Very often newer colleges enroll students before adequate library resources are on hand to support their studies. National standards which stipulate a minimum of three professionals— one for administrative duties; one for reference and circulation; and one for cataloging—are rarely met in the smaller colleges. As a result, many of these campuses lack the staff and library services they need and are unable to improve their situation. After 1945, when college enrollments and budgets were on the rise, some colleges were able to expand their library programs. Those that did now have strong collections for their undergraduate users. Many other libraries, however, were less fortunate, and several constraints in the past few years have kept them from remedying the situation. Inflation, the information "explosion," changing curricula, decreasing enrollments, and decreasing budgets are some of the reasons for their slow growth. With acquisitions being curtailed, college libraries are in a declining situation, and their ability to be responsive to the demands of their students and faculty is diminishing. College and junior college libraries borrow more than they lend, and a national cooperative program would increase their ability to satisfy the specialized demands of their constituents. State Library Agencies State library agencies generally perform several major functions: (1) they serve as a regular library for state government employees; (2) they serve as a statewide resource center for interlibrary loan and reference; and (3) they provide a focal point within the state for long-range, statewide library planning and development. states still varies widely in terms of scope of responsibility, authority and organization. In some states, the state library agency is an adjunct of the State Education Department, and, in other states, it is an independent agency or separate department. Support of state library agencies varies considerably. Some states provide strong support in terms of basic budgets and state aid for public libraries and multitype library cooperation, while others provide minimal support to the state library agency and only token assistance to statewide programs. Thus, state library agencies are struggling to establish a new functional role in the library community that will change their image from that of an extension service to public libraries (an operating responsibility) to one of leadership in the evolution of library systems and information networks (a policy-making and coordinating responsibility). Public libraries, in some states, have led the way toward system and network development. Today, however, the state library agency must assume the responsibility as the coordinator of such development for all types of libraries and information activities within the state. Sustained state and Federal funding will enable the state library agency to develop new referral patterns, utilize new technology, and create new interface activities to ensure that the total library and information resources of the state are used effectively and efficiently. Federal Libraries Within the Federal establishment the United States government operates more than 2,300 libraries which support specific Federal statutory missions and have, as a consequence, accumulated specialized resources of major significance. In particular, the Library of Congress, the National Library of Medicine, and the National Agricultural Library possess important national collections. Although some informal cooperative efforts among Federal libraries do exist, they are not yet organized as a formal network. However, Federal librarians meet periodically to discuss programs of common interest, and, to a limited extent, they share resources and engage in cooperative education and training programs. Through the Federal Library Committee, the Federal library community is striving to achieve greater coordination. A proposal to form a Federal library network which would function as a major component of a national information network is presently under study by the Federal Library Committee. The Federal Library Committee was established in March 1965 at the initiative of the Library of Congress, with the cooperation of the former Bureau of the Budget, to improve coordination and planning among research libraries of the Federal Government, so that common problems might be identified, solutions sought, and services to the government and the nation improved. Currently, the primary responsibility of most Federal libraries is to serve their departmental personnel. Most Federal libraries do recognize the value of serving the general public, but few can do so because of budgetary and administrative constraints. A serious need exists, therefore, to promote their use more widely. To enable more Federal libraries to make their resources available to the public will require specific authorizing legislation or specific fund allo cations. Many Federal libraries do not enjoy the full support of their agency administrators. The latter frequently consider libraries to be part of overhead-no different from such categories as supply, mailroom, inventory, etc. In an effort to change this attitude, some libraries have changed their name from "library" to "information center," hoping this new phrase will more aptly convey the substantive character of their function. Federal libraries need to be strengthened in many ways to enable them to serve a larger section of the population. An entirely different set of problems besets another segment of the Federal information community. This is the group of activities established in various departments to maintain bibliographic control over, and provide dissemination of technical reports. The major organizations in this field include: the National Technical Information Service (NTIS); the Defense Documentation Center (DDC); the NASA Scientific and Technical Information Facility; and the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC). Among these information services the government has placed under control several million technical reports and has made copies of these reports available to large constituencies. Unfortunately, each started as a mis sion-oriented operation, concerned with a limited body of information and with a limited clientele. This is reflected in the substantial differences in their operations. The results have been confusion, frequent duplication, and, not surprisingly, underutilization. The development of common standards, consistent policy, and greater coordination in this area is crucial to a truly effective National Program. At present, there is no governmentwide policy concerning the process by which new Federal libraries and information services are established. As a result, duplicate collections can easily be built. To avoid such costly errors, all agencies should be required to consider alternatives like: (1) contracting for information services with an existing Federal information service or library; or (2) contracting with the private sector for such services; or (3) developing network arrangements in the public and private sectors to satisfy the new need for information. It has been suggested that government agencies should not initiate information services which can be provided by the private sector unless the cost to the government would be significantly reduced or unless the services of the private sector are unable to meet the government's specifications for timeliness, quality and continuity. The Commission is keenly aware of the need to establish government policy with respect to the roles to be assumed by the public and the private sectors in the distribution of published materials gathered through government programs. Both sectors have important roles to play, and means must be found which will encourage them to be mutually reinforcing rather than competitive. Because information generated by the government is in the public domain, mechanisms are required which will encourage the private sector to cooperate with the government for efficient and effective marketing and distribution of information collected or generated by the government. General Observations From testimony taken at the Commission's regional hearings, from relevant research studies and reports, and from conferences with professional and lay groups, a number of observations can be made concerning some of the major problems besetting the nation's libraries. The list is not all-inclusive, but mented and uneven. They evolved independently and do not presently constitute an orderly national system. The level of library and information service in the United States is below the American Library Association's standards in most parts of the country. Certain segments of the population are better served than others. Library development is often unsystematic and unintegrated. This fragmented development has resulted in waste, duplication, and the inefficient use of the total national knowledge resource. Moreover, if libraries continue to develop as they are now-unrelated to one another, a miscellany of informal cooperative arrangements, lacking common standards and compatibility, etc.-in a few years time, it may no longer be possible to organize them into a cohesive national system. (2) Library and other information resources in the United States are unevenly distributed, a fact which stems from the uneven population distribution and diverse tax structures in the country. While some people in the United States have easy access to rich resources, others are deprived of even the most basic materials. Financial support of libraries varies widely. Thirteen states, for example, have no state aid programs for public libraries, and many communities throughout the country lack the most elementary form of basic library service. According to the 1968 Report of the National Advisory Commission on Libraries, "some 20 million Americans, largely in rural areas, have no public library service at all, and some 10 million more have access only to very small libraries with very inadequate collections and little or no service from professional librarians." Although the population which has access to library services today represents a substantial improvement over the situation which existed thirty years earlier, the service outside urban centers is usually inadequate. (3) There is a critical need to identify and address the problems of those without even the most basic information services and those who are being served only marginally. (4) With the increase in the amount of material being pub |