secure an adequately trained staff in order to provide the maximum of library services with the materials available, or, to provide additional library space. We congratulate you for this service in behalf of school libraries. Without an adequate library the whole quality of collegiate education is seriously endangered. Your bill will make a most constructive beginning to remedy the economic threats which curtail proper functioning of school libraries. Please send us a copy of your bill and any relevant materials concerning it. Sincerely yours, Rev. HUGH J. PHILLIPS, Librarian. FULTON COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION, Hon. CLEVELAND BAILEY, Chairman, General Subcommittee on Education, DEAR CONGRESSMAN BAILEY: I respectfully urge favorable consideration by your committee of H.R. 11823. This is the omnibus library bill which provides Federal funds for the extension of public library services, college and public school library services, and library institutes. It is my conviction that this legislation would be tremendously helpful to education generally. I write not only as a local school administrator but also as the president-elect of the Department of Rural Education, National Education Association. Over the course of many years here in Georgia, we have spent substantial sums both from local and State sources in the development of our library program. The increasing demands that are being made upon education today require further extension of our library services, and an extension that we cannot make without additional funds. I am sure this situation prevails generally throughout the country. I sincerely hope there will be a favorable committee report on H.R. 11823 and also a favorable vote by the House. May I request that my letter be made a part of the record. May I take this opportunity also to thank you for your consistent support of educational legislation through many years. Sincerely yours, Representative CLEVELAND BAILEY, DOUGLAS G. MACRAE, Assistant Superintendent. IRVINGTON SCHOOL DISTRICT, Chairman, General Subcommittee on Education, DEAR MR. BAILEY: We are very much interested in the legislation concerning Federal aid to school libraries. We wish you and your committee to know that we endorse this most heartily and will do anything possible to give it the support necessary for passage in Congress. The greatest number of users of library books and facilities are among the younger people. The school, being closest to these young people, would seem to be the most economical place to make the services available. Our district is most interested in this since we are starting to establish libraries and purchase books for each of our many schools. We urge strong support of this legislation. Thanks for your interest in the matter. Sincerely, GUS C. ROBERTSON, Superintendent. CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, July 9, 1962. Hon. CLEVELAND BAILEY, DEAR MR. BAILEY: Although I have expressed my pleasure to you personally over the introduction of H.R. 11823 to amend the present Library Services Act, I do want to write and say how much I value your interest in the Nation's library program and how pleased I was to be able to testify at the hearings last week. It has been a long struggle to get proper financing for the erection of new libraries as well as the improvement of existing libraries in many areas. With the tremendous growth of communications and transportation, libraries are faced with an addiitonal problem; namely, serving nonresidents in libraries where book collections are of sufficient size to attract students and adults who find their local collections inadequate. I do hope that consideration can be given to appropriating more than the $20 million anticipated in title I for public libraries for the metropolitan libraries are going to need some real funds in order to experiment with regionalized service to taxpayers of other governmental units. Personally, I would like to see the Federal appropriation pegged at approximately 10 cents per capita in order to give the various States enough money to: (a) continue their speed-up in rural library service and (b) to adequately demonstrate what metropolitan and regional library centers can do for residents over a larger area. Sincerely yours, EMERSON GREENAWAY, Director. PRINCE GEORGES COUNTY MEMORIAL LIBRARY, Hon. CLEVELAND BAILEY, Chairman, General Subcommittee on Education, DEAR SIR: On June 26, 27, and 29, your committee held hearings on the comprehensive bill to amend the Library Services Act (H.R. 11823). The provisions of this bill are very important to library development in urban and metropolitan aeas. We, here in Prince Georges County, find it very difficult to meet the demands for library service from our rapidly and constantly increasing population. Another source of library income is needed, and we look to an expansion of the aleady successfully proven Library Services Act for the needed assistance. There is no question of the need for good library service for everyone in the United States. The problem is for the libraries to get the budgets necessary for the needed service. The wider base of the Federal tax dollar will give much-needed help in providing enough money to greatly improve library service in urban and metropolitan areas-even as the present provisions of the Library Services Act have improved and are continuing to improve rural library service. May I urge that you give this amendment (H.R. 11823) your very strong support, that it may be brought out of committee soon and then your continuing strong support in getting it through the House. The provisions of this bill are essential for improving and strengthening the library service for all the people of our country. Yours very truly, GEORGE R. HAMMOND, President. PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, Hon. CLEVELAND M. BAILEY, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. DEAR CONGRESSMAN BAILEY: I am writing to urge favorable action by the General Subcommittee on Education of the House of Education and Labor Committee on H.R. 11823. While all of the provisions of this bill seem to me important to the national welfare, as a university president I am especially interested in the assistance proposed for college and university libraries under title III. No university can perform its functions of teaching and research effectively without a library appropriate to its program. Since World War II a number of factors have combined to make the maintenance of an effective library a very heavy burden upon each university: 1. In the national interest the colleges and universities of the country have expanded their programs of teaching and research to include many new fields of science and many areas of the world. The realms of outer space and of the interior of the atom are hardly more new to Americans than the languages and cultures of many parts of the world. Yet we must be prepared to deal with them all. 2. In these same fields and areas there has been an explosion of publication, so that our libraries need to acquire a great deal more material than they once did. 3. The increase in the cost of books, periodicals, and binding has been very heavy. 4. In response to the national need, our colleges and universities, both public and private, have been increasing their enrollments as rapidly as their resources would permit. 5. The increase in independent study, in forcing the student to rely more upon his own initiative in solving problems, has thrown a heavier burden upon the library. This is a healthy trend, leading toward better teaching and sometimes sounder instructional financing; yet it clearly demands better libraries. The combined effect of these factors on library budgets has been such that I know of no university president or librarian who is not seriously concerned with the problem. Title III of H.R. 11823 offers no direct assistance toward the staff and building costs which make up the greater part of library expenditures, but by assisting with acquisition costs, it would ease the burden substantially. Since the pool of research material in our university libraries is a national resource, serving the Nation as a whole, direct assistance at the Federal level seems to me appropriate. Its matching provision should stimulate local initiative. Its lack of distinction between public and private institutions reflects the universality of library use and of the library problem. I congratulate you upon the introduction of this nonpartisan, realistic legislation, and I hope that the General Subcommittee on Education will act favorably upon it. Sincerely, ROBERT F. GOHEEN. JUNE 18, 1962. Hon. HORACE R. KORNEGAY, Washington, D.C. DEAR MR. KORNEGAY: In behalf of the North Carolina Congress of Parents and Teachers, I respectfully ask your most serious consideration of the provisions of House bill H.R. 11823, and the benefits to accrue to North Carolina children if this bill becomes a law. As you know, school libraries in North Carolina, by and large, are shockingly below reasonable standards, both as to the kind and number of books, and the essential library services, that are available to students. The PTA in North Carolina continues to do what it can. During the school year just ended, parent-teacher associations across the State put on special programs to improve the libraries of the schools they serve, and encouraging progress was chalked up in many of our schools. These efforts will continue. However, the best that the PTA and other volunteer agencies may do is only fractional with respect to the need, and unless there are some special rescue efforts such as the bill in question, it will remain the bitter truth that many if not most of our children will move through school without reasonable access to the books they need. I have a strong confidence that all of North Carolina's Representatives in the National Congress will regard H.R. 11823 as largely outside controversial areas, and as a possible and reasonable means of reducing the needs and the inequities that are restricting the attainment of our schoolchildren. With respects and best wishes, I am, Sincerely yours, Mrs. H. S. GODWIN, President. THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF TEACHERS OF ENGLISH, Hon. CLEVELAND BAILEY, DEAR MR. BAILEY: Members of the National Council of Teachers of English are vitally interested in the Library Services Act (H.R. 11823) and related measures to obtain additional Federal support for library programs. As teachers of reading, those of us in elementary and secondary schools are aware that the basic skills cannot be taught unless children have access to reading materials. Ways must be found to expand the number of books available to the schoolchildren in most portions of this country. More than 10 million elementary children currently lack access to classroom libraries, and well over 150,000 high school children. Teachers of English are also interested in strengthening college libraries, particularly those in teacher training institutions. In some cases programs in the subject matter preparation of teachers are handicapped because desirable resources are not available. Services of professional libraries are urgently needed in the school districts of this country. Additional support for such services in the several States would strengthen the American educational effort. Sincerely yours, JAMES R. SQUIRE, Executive Secretary. WISCONSIN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, Representative CLEVELAND BAILEY, Chairman, General Subcommittee on Education, House Office Building, Washington, D.C. DEAR CONGRESSMAN BAILEY: On behalf of the Wisconsin Library Association, may I indicate our full support for your comprehensive bill to amend the Library Services Act (H.R. 11823). The intent and provisions of the proposed legislation tie in well with the planning which is being carried on in our own State. We believe that the lifting of population restrictions in the act will lead to more satisfactory working relationships between urban and rural libraries and encourage more effective systems of service. The school and college provisions will help to close the serious gap between our rapidly growing student population and their inadequate library facilities. We hope that the aid for library education will ease the severe shortage of properly trained staff. Passage of this legislation will be a landmark in American library development. Sincerely yours, BERNARD SCHWAB, Cochairman, Library Legislation and Development Committee. Hon. CLEVELAND M. BAILEY, CAZENOVIA COLLEGE, Cazenovia, N.Y., July 17, 1962. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. DEAR MR. BAILEY: We would like to write you to express our support of H.R. 11823 which you introduced and which would strengthen college libraries. We want to stress the need for extra revenue in libraries to be used to introduce the new techniques in library planning and operation. We feel that educational institutions teach effectively only when their libraries can supplement their teaching with excellent material. Sincerely yours, Mrs. JACOB E. ECKEL, President. PENNSYLVANIA LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, July 18, 1962. Hon. CLEVELAND BAILEY, Chairman, General Subcommittee on Education, DEAR SIR: The proposed expansion of the Library Services Act embodied in H.R. 11823 offers opportunities for much needed improvement and extension of library services. Never adequate, the library resources of the Nation have not grown in proportion to the increasing needs of a growing population with a rising educational level and more leisure time for intellectual pursuits. The increased appropriation for public library services and the removal of the restriction to use in rural areas offers help to many fast-growing suburban communities which are completely or virtually without library facilities. Even with a correspondingly broadened tax base, the central city, which may have great difficulty meeting its own increasing demands, would be unable to provide the great increase in facilities and materials needed for these newly built-up areas. More Skyrocketing enrollments have placed a strain on all school facilities. over, today's teaching methods, having abandoned reliance on extensive use of a few textbooks, call for use of a wide variety of library materials. Inadequate school libraries not only throw undue burdens on public library resources, but also weaken the effectiveness of the educational program. Few schools at present have libraries which can even support today's curriculums, let alone provide the enrichment and challenge so vital to the development of the aboveaverage student. In higher education too, less reliance on textbooks, vastly increased enrollments, and rapidly expanding programs of study and research call for tremendous increases in library resources. The proposal before your committee also recognizes that trained personnel as well as materials are necessary for extending and improving library services at all levels. Sincerely yours, LORENA A. GARLOCH, President. SCENIC REGIONAL LIBRARY, FRANKLIN, GASCONADE, WARREN COUNTIES, Hon. MORGAN M. MOULDER, House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. DEAR SIR: We wish to thank you for introducing H.R. 11946, a bill to amend the Library Services Act, on May 31, 1962. We are anxious that this bill be passed. Establishment of Scenic Regional Library was a direct result of the Library Services Act. Over 50,000 people in Franklin, Gasconade, and Warren Counties who previously had little or no access to public libraries are now benefiting from services provided by a modern library system. Throughout Missouri and the Nation equally dramatic expansion and improvement in public library facilities have been made possible by funds provided under the act. |