685-705 Dr. BILLINGTON. It was originally physically located in the Capital. And the Librarian of Congress and the Clerk of the House of Representatives were the same person initially. John Cole is the historian with the Library of Congress. Mr. COLE. I will send something over. The Library was created when Congress was still in Philadelphia looking to move to the new capital of Washington. It was created as part of the government in the new capital, put into the Capitol Building, never thought of as not being a Library of Congress. Mr. FAZIO. We didn't have a major debate on separation of powers over the location of the Library? Mr. COLE. Not until the beginning of this century when one Member of Congress suggested the name be changed to the National Library. That didn't get very far. Basically, through the 19th Century a national role was developed with the consent of Congress. Now with the consent of Congress we have developed an international role as well. I will send you something on it. [CLERK'S NOTE.-Information will be retained in the subcommittee's files for 1 year.] Mr. HARRIS. I was the custodian on the Papers of the Continental Congress for 15 years. One of the interesting documents I remember there is a resolution, a recommendation from Madison himself concerning the need to establish a library for the pre-Federal Congress. Mr. FAZIO. That is why we named our nicest building after him. There was some thought there. Dr. BILLINGTON. The first Continental Congress in 1774 met in a library building in Philadelphia. The first thing they debated was borrowing privileges. The link between the legislature and the library is almost prenatal in that sense. I don't mean to take time away from Mr. Cylke. Mr. FAZIO. I have a question I will submit to be answered for the record. [The question and response follows:] 1 Total reference inquiries include 889 Info Pack requests not idensified by specific commister name. Total reference hours include 168 hours distributing Info Packs not identified by specific commillee name. BOOKS FOR THE BLIND Mr. CYLKE. It occurred to me that we have never discussed the foreign interests of the library program for the blind. Just as a point, you might be interested to know that we collect in 80 different languages. Mr. FAZIO. We never have talked about that. Mr. CYLKE. No. We serve a very large Spanish constituency and just this year expanded our Russian context. We have always had a gift and exchange program. The Russians have adopted our technology, and we are in the process of, not gift and exchange, but formal buying of, Russian language tapes and various dialect tapes. You see, when we serve Mr. FAZIO. Do these have to be available only to people in this country who have these handicaps? Mr. CYLKE. Yes. They are available only to blind and physically handicapped individuals. Mr. FAZIO. I have a lot of constituents from Russia. Mr. CYLKE. That is why we have the collection. German, French, Russian, Italian and the largest group is Spanish. Our largest constituency. When I say largest, however, I am talking quite small, low thousands. But you get a great number, for example, in Puerto Rico, obviously, Texas, Florida, California, New York and the Chicago area all have Spanish speaking blind and physically handicapped residents. Mr. FAZIO. There are a lot of elderly people here who came from other countries and are much more proficient in their language. Mr. CYLKE. One of the fastest growing groups is now the Cambodian, Loatian, Vietnamese contingency. As a matter of fact, we are experiencing difficulties in acquiring those languages and producing those books. Now to the point of our budget request. The thrust I have this year is to express true appreciation for what you did for us last year. We asked you to support us 100 percent and you did. We can't ask for anymore than that. Our request this year is 4 percent, which is modest. You will notice in there that there is no request this year for sound reproduction machines. The reason for that is, again, the thoughtful $1.5 million that you put in the kitty for us so that we can pick it up at the end of this fiscal year. That added to the base, will be enough. So the request that I have is, again, a 4 percent request. That is 2 percent under inflation. We are managing in a, hopefully, very efficient way. We would appreciate your attention. We do have one problem, and I would like to raise that, if I may? BOOKS FOR THE BLIND AND PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED Mr. FAZIO. We covered some of this subject in the Supplemental section of the hearings. If we are able to deal with the problem of the National Defense Authorization Act will we then be in good shape? Mr. CYLKE. Are there any questions? Mr. FAZIO. I don't have any. Do you, Mr. Lewis? Mr. LEWIS. No. Mr. FAZIO. We can take care of your problems, or at least make sure that someone else does. Mr. CYLKE. Thank you very much. Mr. FAZIO. Thank you. I don't have anymore questions. Jerry, do you? Mr. LEWIS. No, except to say that these hearings are more than just for budgetary purposes for us. It is really a delight to have this renewal of the kind of work that is being done. Even though we have difficult budgetary times, the Library has done very well in this committee over time. It is because of the good work you do. Mr. FAZIO. I have some questions that I will submit to be answered for the record. [The questions and responses follow:] BOOKS FOR THE BLIND AND PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED Question. For the record, update the readership, acquisition, and machine data on pages 827-835 of last year's hearings. Response. Following are copies of eight (8) charts which updates readership, acquisition, and machine data. |