By Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress.
You have had suggestions as to what may be done for libraries by the city and what by the state. Whatever is left over—if there is anything left over—I am to treat as something that may be done by the nation—the nation not as an aggregate of its parts, but as a unit, acting through its central authority. There is a disposition to contend that everything which may be more effectively or more economically done by a central authority for the larger area should be undertaken by that authority. I am not prepared to go so far. There may be a value in local effort that will repay its greater cost. But in an educational work which involves the accumulation of material some of which is exceedingly costly, only part of which is constantly in use, and little of which perishes by use; a work whose processes are capable of organization on a large scale and the application of co-operative effort: there must be certain undertakings which, relatively speaking, are possible only if assumed by a central authority. It is such undertakings, for the largest area, that I am asked to discover and set forth.
To do so involves consequences which may be inconvenient. For a possible service means a correlative duty. And as I myself to a degree represent here the central authority in question, whatever I state as a service appropriate for that authority, I shall have to admit as a duty in which I must share. I shall try to be candid. But under the circumstances I cannot be expected to be more than candid.
In some respects the Federal Government of the United States has already influenced the constitution, resources and service of our public libraries. It has enacted laws which, having for their primary purpose the protection of authors and publishers, benefit libraries by encouraging the manufacture of books soundly, substantially and honestly made. It has favored public libraries by exempting from tariff duty books imported for their use. It has encouraged the study of the classics by laying a penalty upon the general importation of books less than twenty years old. In its executive capacity it is itself investigator, author, publisher, manufacturer, distributor, statistician, bibliographer, and librarian. It maintains at Washington, with a generosity not paralleled by any other government, bureaus for scientific research; it compiles, publishes, and freely distributes the results of this research. It is the greatest publisher in the world, and the largest manufacturer of books. In a single publication, repeated each year, it consumes over a million pounds of paper stock; and it maintains a bureau whose purpose is to replenish the forests which as publisher it thus depletes. It distributes gratuitously to the libraries of the United States each year over 300,000 volumes, embodying the results of its research, its legislative proceedings, and an account of its administrative activities. It maintains a bureau for the investigation of problems in education, for the accumulation and dissemination of information concerning the work of educational institutions; and it has included the public libraries of this country among such educational institutions. This bureau has issued three reports tabulating statistics concerning them, one also (in 1876) summarizing their history and two (in 1876 and in 1893) containing essays which embody the best contemporary opinion as to library equipment and methods. It has published as a document the A. L. A. list of best books to form the basis of a public library.
Through its bureau of documents it is seeking to index and adequately to exhibit its own publications, to facilitate their distribution to libraries and to afford to libraries as to federal documents a clearing house for duplicates.
All such services are obviously appropriate for the national authority and may doubtless be continued and extended. If the interchange of books among libraries is to be facilitated by special postal regulations this can be accomplished by the national authority alone.
But in the case of a state a service has been described which is to be rendered to local libraries by the library which the state itself owns and maintains. Now the federal government also owns and maintains libraries. What may be demanded of these? Certain precedents have already been established. The library of the Surgeon General's office—the most comprehensive in the world within its special field—sends its books to members of the medical profession throughout the United States, relieving just so much the burden upon local libraries; and it has issued a catalog which is not merely in form and method efficient, but is so nearly an exhibit of the entire literature of the medical sciences that it renders unnecessary duplication of cataloging and analytical work within the field which it covers. This catalog has conferred a general benefit not equalled by any bibliographic work within any other department of literature. It is perhaps the most eminent bibliographic work yet accomplished by any government. The cost of its mere publication—which is the cost chargeable to the general benefit—has already exceeded $250,000.
But this library is but one of several collections maintained by the Federal Government; the aggregate of which is already nearly two million volumes. In each federal department and bureau there is a library. And there is a central collection which in itself is already the largest on the western hemisphere. It was created as a legislative library—for the use of both Houses of Congress. It is still called the Library of Congress. But it is now being referred to as something more. The government has erected for it a building which is the largest, most elaborate, and most costly yet erected for library purposes. The seven million dollars which it cost has been paid not by the District of Columbia, but by the country at large. No such sum would have been requisite for a building to serve Congress alone. It seems to intend a library that shall serve the country at large, if there is any such thing possible. In fact the library is already being referred to as the National Library of the United States. What does this mean? or rather, what may this mean? One naturally looks abroad—to the foremost of national libraries.
The British Museum is a huge repository of material. In scope it is universal. Its purpose is accumulation, preservation, and the aid of research by accredited persons, upon its own premises. Its service is purely responsive. It has printed catalogs of its own collections, but does not undertake bibliographic work general in nature, nor engage in co-operative bibliographic undertakings. It lends no books.