the long run we shall have to make very much larger dollar appropriations for this kind of thing-indeed S. 1154 already proposes doing so, and it has my hearty support, save for some details. The existence of these otherwise valueless local currencies which can be used for this purpose is just a happy accident. The burden of proof otherwise is on him who would propose some better employment for them.

Mr. DINGELL. I appreciate the courtesy of this committee and the kindness of the committee in allowing me to be present this morning, and I commend the committee for its diligent and distinguished service to the Congress of the United States.

Mr. STEED. We thank you for your kind words.

THURSDAY, MAY 4, 1961.

OVERSEA LIBRARY PROCUREMENT (SPECIAL FOREIGN CURRENCY

PROGRAM)

WITNESS

WILLIAM DIX, LIBRARIAN, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, REPRESENTING THE ASSOCIATION OF RESEARCH LIBRARIES

Mr. STEED. If you will identify yourself for the record, you may proceed with your formal statement and then we may have some questions.

Mr. Dıx. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, my name is William Dix. I am the librarian of Princeton University and a member of the advisory committee of the Association of Research Libraries, which has authorized me to testify in its behalf in support of the amendment to the budget for the fiscal year 1962 proposed by the President in his communication of March 23, 1961House Document No. 118.

The Association of Research Libraries is an organization of some 50 of the major research libraries of the country, dedicated to strengthening the collections and services of research libraries for the support of scholarship. It is the prime function of the research library to gather and make available for use the books and journals needed by the scholars who depend upon these libraries for the support of their work. No one needs to be persuaded today that the work of these scholars is in the national interest. In particular, it is now clear that expanded study, at the highest academic level, is necessary if this country is to acquire the knowledge of the language, the culture, the economy, the psychology of many parts of the world which we need if we are to deal with them effectively in this decade and later. The kind of knowledge in depth which can in turn be used at the operating levels of government and business is collected and assimilated at academic research centers. For this kind of knowledge a steady flow of publications from throughout the world is essential.

World War II made clear that the United States was woefully deficient in detailed knowledge of many parts of the world. The major libraries of the country, to help fill this gap, started in 1948 a cooperative acquisition project known as the Farmington plan. Some 65 libraries have divided up the fields of knowledge and the countries of the world and have tried to bring into the country at their own expense at least one copy of every book of potential research value. The project has achieved considerable success, but the coverage is far from complete. For example, a recently completed survey of books of research interest known to have been published in Egypt in May-August 1958, indicates that only some 37 percent of them are held by any university library in the United States and that the distribution of even this fraction is very limited. The main reason for this situation is that in many parts of the world (including most of those about which we need to know most) the publishing and book trades are not well organized; we do not even know what is being published until it is out of print. The only satisfactory method of procurement is to maintain procurement missions in each area. The libraries, their resources already strained by the attempt to meet the national need, simply cannot afford to do this unaided.

A distinguished committee created by the Ford Foundation at the request of the Department of State to study the role of American universities in world affairs made its report last December. (The committee included Senator Fulbright and Secretary Rusk, then president of the Rockefeller Foundation.) The committee had this to say about the support of research libraries in the national interest :

University and college libraries are research and instructional tools of the greatest significance. The holdings of many, if not most, libraries are seriously deficient on foreign areas and international matters. Because materials from many countries are often hard to obtain, expensive, ephemeral and likely to be used by only a small fraction of the university community, there is a severe collection problem. Recent steps to free some U.S. Government funds in foreign currencies are encouraging and should be pressed further. Since library needs are too great for any single library to meet, extensive interlibrary cooperation is called for to divide into manageable portions the national effort to build up adequate resources. * ** (Committee on the University and World Affairs, "The University and World Affairs," New York: the Ford Foundation, 1960.)

The Congress has already indicated its support by approving the Dingell amendment section 104(n) -as a part of Public Law 480. If appropriations can be approved to implement the modest program now being proposed by the Library of Congress, a test can be made of the effectiveness of what seems to be an inexpensive method by which the Government can meet some of its responsibility for the support of research in this area. The problem of these excess accumulations of U.S.-owned local currencies is a complex one, but the use of a tiny portion of otherwise unused surplus balances for the furthering of a better understanding of other cultures should win favor both here and in the countries which hold these currencies.

Such a program cannot be viewed as a gift. The institutions which will be receiving publications will thereby incur financial obligations for cataloging and servicing them at least equal to the value of the books and journals. They will merely be acting as distribution agents for the Government as it meets its obligations.

The proposed legislation will enable the Library of Congress to set up procurement programs in three critical countries in which there are large unused surpluses of U.S.-owned local currencies: India, Pakistan, and the United Arab Republic. The materials thus acquired would be distributed to the major centers of research on these areas, where they would be fully cataloged and made available to all students and scholars in the country.

We believe that this program would provide to the research libraries substantial resources now unavailable to them, would enable them better to meet the demands of scholars for material to assess the political and intellectual life of areas which the United States needs to know better, would strengthen the country's training program for critical languages, and would clearly, therefore, serve the national interest. The availability of unused surpluses of U.S.-owned local currencies makes it possible for the Federal Government to share with the universities the expenses of this significant program at nominal cost. We urge the approval of the President's proposal.

Mr. STEED. Mr. Dix, is it your understanding that if this program is adopted, the work already being carried on by research libraries would be continued or would it take the place of that work?

Mr. Dıx. No, sir; we have made among ourselves the librarians have talked about this an informal agreement that those of us who receive publications under this program would not cut our budgets for these same areas, but we would try to use that more for restrospective publications and other things where we are weak, to fill in gaps in our collections, counting on this program to bring us up to date with the current things. As I understand it, the plans of the Library of Congress would be simply to acquire current publications, things being published now in each country.

Mr. STEED. Although this item by itself as it is now proposed is a relatively small and minor one, we are aware of the fact that this is the beginning of a new program and would be interested in what comments you could make on what the ultimate growth and extent of it might come to be.

Mr. DIx. This would depend, of course, entirely on you gentlemen. I would hope that it was, as you say, a beginning of something which might become larger if it worked. It is experimental in the sense that it has never been tried in exactly this fashion. We believe it would produce a significant quantity and quality of useful materials. I would hope personally, I think most of the librarians would, that it would be extended to other critical areas where we have difficulty getting material and where there are also surpluses.

As I understand it, these surpluses vary from year to year and from country to country, but there certainly are other areas about which we need to know more and in which there are surpluses. I would hope if this works, that the Library of Congress would propose under the general authorization of section 104(n) a somewhat expanded program in another year but this, of course, would be entirely up to the Congress.

Mr. STEED. In the vernacular, to use U.S.-owned local currencies is a sugar-coated pill for appropriations of the sort which would make it much easier in the country where we had these funds. Are there any critical areas in countries where no such funds are available that might eventually be a problem to consider?

Mr. DIX. I think so, but I am not completely informed about the existence and the location of these funds, but it is my understanding there is not an awful lot of this money in Latin America right now, and in Latin America we do need to get more material. We have not been as good as we ought to be there, surprisingly enough.

As I indicated before about the one sample from Egypt, about which I happen to know a little better, since my own university, Princeton, does specialize in the Middle Eastern area, I am surprised every time we make any kind of sample, when we can find any basis for making a sample, really how little we have gotten in spite of quite substantial efforts, efforts of this sort, for example, if you permit me to cite again a local example.

We sent a man over to the Middle East from our library, a specialist in these things, who spent some 6 months over there last year trying to set up relations with dealers and contact with libraries from whom we might get material on exchange. This is good, but it is not quite good enough. We find you need to have somebody on the ground.

Now back to your question, sir. I hope that if we could get some help from the areas in which these surpluses do exist, the libraries themselves from their own funds could find some way to increase their activity in the area where there are no surpluses. That would be my hope.

Mr. STEED. As you know, Dr. Edmon Low, librarian at Oklahoma State University, situated in my district, is currently, I believe, national president of the Association of College and Research Libraries. Mr. Dix. Association of College and Research Libraries. Mr. STEED. He has been in touch on this matter and also asked that I convey his personal greetings to you when you appeared here. Mr. Dıx. Thank you.

Mr. STEED. Are there any questions, Mr. Bow?

Mr. Bow. I have a few, Mr. Chairman. Of course, my concern is the budget, Mr. Dix.

Mr. Dix. Of course.

Mr. Bow. I am worried about a great national debt, about increasing it and entering into new programs when we do not know how far they are going to go. Obviously, the universities and colleges and foundations have been making some expenditures in these areas.

I am wondering why the colleges and libraries and foundations would not be willing to purchase from us the materials we were able to secure at cost to the Government.

Mr. DIx. I think they would. I again cannot speak for all libraries, but it is my feeling if we could get some help in the procurement side, the actual physical cost of the material is something we might be able to swing ourselves, particularly if, on the other hand, as section 104(n) indicates in general terms, some help through these counterpart funds could be provided in cataloging material. I do not know how far you want me to go into it. It is rather complicated. Mr. Bow. I am interested in hearing what you have to say.

Mr. DIX. There is a rough rule of thumb you can find in most university libraries that the cost of a book in the hands of the reader may be divided roughly into three parts: one is the purchase price, two is the cost of getting and cataloging it, getting it on the shelves, and third is the cost of keeping it there ready for use, keeping it where you can find it and servicing it, getting it into the hands of a reader and back on to the shelf when he is through.

Our own budget at Princeton runs pretty close to this. The total budget is almost a million dollars. We spend for acquisition of materials, the cost price, about $250,000 a year. So that it runs not far from this formula.

As I said, the libraries under the present proposal of the Library of Congress would not be getting much cataloging, as I understand it, but would be getting simply bundles of material which they in turn would have to catalog themselves. If it were possible and if the distribution of currencies were worked out in such a way that the Library of Congress could supply for itself in the local areas and in turn for us, all the libraries of the country, a certain amount of cataloging, then we would be in position, I think, to pay the cost of the material itself, more.

I come back, however, sir, to my original statement, that in these difficult and critical areas I think we simply do not have enough money to do the job that the scholars who depend on us are asking us to do without some assistance.

Mr. Bow. I noted you used in your statement in several places reference to the Federal Government's responsibility.

Mr. Dıx. Yes, sir.

Mr. Bow. This is the first time this has come to my attention, that the Federal Government has a responsibility. I do not know just from what that responsibility stems.

Mr. Dıx. May I expand on that a minute?

Mr. Bow. Surely.

Mr. DIx. This is a phrase I chose after some thought because I tried to think through for myself. It seems to me, let me put it this way, the Federal Government is responsible for the conduct of our foreign affairs in the broad sense. I think the knowledge of these critical areas of the world which exists in this country is equally critical to the conduct of these foreign affairs. This I admit is a long and trickle down process.

Mr. Bow. It is the long way around.

Mr. Dıx. Yes, but the knowledge of the people of this country who need to have knowledge of these areas, both in Government and in business, is derived in large measure and in depth, I think, from what goes on in the academic research centers, the books that are produced about India, for example, the good reliable books on the economy of India, on the psychology based on Indian religion and all the rest, tends to be written out of academic research centers, colleges if you

will.

I think these scholars depend on two sources for their information. One is visits to the areas themselves, and the Federal Government through the Fulbright Act and others has been substantially of assistance in this area.

The other kind of knowledge, I think, comes from the libraries, from the books. This is a chain reaction here, but I do think there is a Government responsibility in the sense that this is critical to the whole conduct of our foreign affairs.

Mr. Bow. Do you think we could get foundations such as the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, or this association of 65 libraries

Mr. DIx. Research Libraries?

Mr. Bow. There are 50 in that?

Mr. DIx. Yes.

Mr. Bow. There was another reference to some 65.
Mr. Dıx. Yes, sir.