Assignment of Volume Numbers to the Congressional Series
There is probably no question concerning public documents to which this office has given more consideration than the devising of a plan by which it would be possible to assign the volume numbers to the congressional series as soon as the documents are printed.
There are two very material advantages to be gained, were it possible to solve this question; one that of eliminating the necessity for the public printer to supply storage room for these documents and reports prior to the preparation of the schedule; and the other that the work of the librarians in cataloging these documents and reports would be greatly facilitated by having all of the necessary information at the time the publication was cataloged. The greatest handicap to a solution of this problem is the lack of information concerning the publications which have not been printed and to which document numbers have been assigned. Even now, after the session is closed, we are compelled to hold up the schedule for weeks and sometimes months to learn the title, paging, and other necessary information regarding certain publications to which numbers have been assigned, but which are not printed.
At the present time in preparing the schedule, we endeavor to maintain a numerical arrangement in binding the Senate and House Reports after having classified them as public or private in accordance with the provisions of the printing law. The Senate documents are brought together first by subject and then by number, but, with the House documents, on account of the introduction in this series of all the annual and serial publications, an effort is made to preserve, as far as possible, a departmental and subject arrangement.
It might be well to explain at this point that, although the only volumes distributed to the libraries now as numbered congressional publications are those of which Congress is the author, and of these there are consequently no other editions, the schedules and index must of necessity, on account of the wording of the law at the present time, be made to cover a complete numbered set still provided for the exclusive use of Congress.
There is about only one way to accomplish the numbering of the volumes as soon as printed under the present law, and that is by disregarding entirely any sort of an arrangement and assigning the next open volume number as the documents and reports appear. Of course, the index would furnish the key to these miscellaneous volumes. Such a plan is now being considered by us, and it is hoped that before July 1 some plan can be devised which will permit of a more prompt shipment of the documents and reports to the libraries.
Publication of a Daily Bulletin
The resolution of the Association passed at Pasadena, May, 1911, favoring the publication of a daily or weekly bulletin of the document issues by the superintendent of documents, has not been forgotten or overlooked, but up to the present time the project appears no more feasible than it did at the beginning.
The documents office has not the authority of initiative except to a very limited extent. Its activities are all prescribed and defined by law. It is from the law that the superintendent of documents derives his authority to compile and publish the Monthly Catalog, the Document Index, the Document Catalog, and the series of price lists. It would hardly be proper or prudent for him to begin the issue of another periodical without first asking the permissive or directory action of Congress. Asking does not always mean getting. Legislation concerning the document service has been found heretofore somewhat slow and difficult in the securing. I do not feel that I could predict with any confidence that legislation authorizing a daily or weekly bulletin could be secured at all.
If it could, an appropriation to make it operative would be needed, because it is not practicable for the members of the present cataloging force to undertake any new work. They are working under high pressure to bring the Document Catalog up to date and to keep the Document Index and the Monthly Catalog there.