Mr. BAILEY. Without objection it will be accepted for admission in the record.

(The document referred to follows:)

STATEMENT OF THE AMERICAN COUNCIL ON EDUCATION

The American Council on Education is a council of national educational organizations and of approved institutions of higher education. Its membership includes 145 national and regional associations and approximately 1,000 educational institutions. The American Library Association is a member of the American Council on Education.

At a meeting of the board of directors of the American Council on Education on June 19, a resolution was adopted by the board

(1) Approving in principle those provisions of H.R. 11823 that would directly affect higher education, and

(2) Stressing the need for college and university libraries to use such additional sources of revenue as might be provided by H.R. 11823 to introduce new techniques in library planning and operation.

This action by the board of directors reflects first of all a concern for the present physical needs of our college and university libraries. These needs have been described in detail by witnesses for the American Library Association and its affiliated organizations representing college and university libraries. More importantly, however, the action of the American Council on Education's board of directors reflects a concern for the function of the college and university library of the future. In this future, two trends are even now clearly observable that will profoundly influence the operation of college and university libraries.

The first of these two trends is the rapid burgeoning of recorded knowledge in the form of books, periodicals, documents, films, disks, and magnetic tapes. College and university libraries exist to serve scholars, scientists, and researchers who by their productivity increase the store of knowledge. Yet these same scholars must draw upon other parts of the store of knowledge in the course of their own productive labors. In short, the college and university library has to accumulate, classify, and provide storage for more and more information while at the same time providing the facilities to make this information available when needed. In the terminology of the modern science of documentation, it is not enough to store the information, provision must also be made to retrieve it.

While funds provided under title III of H.R. 11823 will make it possible for libraries to acquire books and other conventional library materials, the council is gratified that these funds also will help college libraries make greater use of microfilm and magnetic tape and other new media for information storage and retrieval. It is our hope also that some of the funds available under title IV of the bill will be used for advanced training of college and university librarians in these new techniques of documentation.

The other trend that affects the future development of college libraries is the increasing shortage of fully trained, qualified college teachers. Colleges and universities will have to put greater and greater reliance on independent work by the student and less and less reliance on spoon feeding in small measured doses. But we only shortchange the student if, in our efforts to encourage him to engage in independent study outside the lecture room and laboratory, we do not have available for his use a first-class library staffed by competent professionals. In this context, the library means a collection of books, periodicals, and other materials to which the student has access. And it is precisely in this area that title III of H.R. 11823 would be of greatest assistance to college and university libraries by giving them additional funds to acquire books and related library materials.

The resolution adopted by the Council's board of directors approves of H.R. 11823 in principle as it affects the relationship of the Federal Government to higher education. In particular, it should be noted that title III of the bill is a grant-in-aid program on a matching basis administered by the U.S. Commissioner of Education. In addition, the bill does not make any distinction between publicly and privately controlled institutions of higher education.

The Council suggests that there be added to the language of the bill either in its general provisions or in connection with title III, explicit authority for the U.S. Commissioner of Education to appoint an advisory committee or committees with which he might consult in the administration of programs to be established under the proposed law.

With respect to title IV, the Council notes that the pattern here follows that of institutes for teachers of modern language and for guidance counselors that have been established under the National Defense Education Act. The Council further notes with approval that, in title IV of H.R. 11823, no distinction is drawn in the payment of stipends to participants attending these institutes whether these participants are employed by a public library or by a library connected with a privately controlled institution of higher education. The Council urges favorable action by Congress on H.R. 11823.

Mr. WILLHAM. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. I am Oliver S. Willham, president of Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Okla. It is a privilege to appear before you today in support of H.R. 11823 and other bills to amend the Library Services Act in order to provide a comprehensive program for the development of public, school, college, and university libraries, and institutes for the training of librarians.

The institution which I represent here today is one of the land-grant universities throughout the country which are this year celebrating the centennial of the signing of the Morrill Act by President Lincoln. This act was designed to provide practical training for the many to whom college training had not heretofore been available and, through the land-grant colleges thus brought into being, made a college education available to all. In our work in these institutions, and particularly through the experiences of our home demonstration agents, our workers in the field of agricultural extension and vocational education, and our county agents, all of whom have done such effective work in getting into practice new developments and procedures discovered through research, we have become increasingly aware of the lack of access to books in many areas, both urban and rural, throughout the country. In the past 5 years, under the Library Services Act, we have seen the bookmobiles begin to bring books to thousands in rural areas who have not had access to them before and we are gratified that an extension of this act is now being contemplated to broaden significantly the area and types of libraries covered by this important legislation. Title I of the bill wisely eliminates the present population restriction which has been set at 10,000 or less and would bring books and other public library resources to many more people than presently is possible. The importance of books in the lives of people everywhere has been brought even more forcefully to my attention by our experience under the point 4 program. Several of our land-grant institutions, including Oklahoma State University, have been engaged for some years in bringing training and technical assistance to some of the underdeveloped countries in the world. We at Oklahoma State, for instance, have been assigned particular responsibility for this work in Ethiopia and we are also doing work in Pakistan. Once again, we have seen the need for books and libraries which, for most of these people, are practically nonexistent at the present time. In a recent trip to several of these countries, I was impressed by how much a book was prized by these people often even more than food. It would be passed from hand to hand until it became so soiled and dog eared as to be almost unreadable and still it was eagerly sought by the next person in line. Anywhere in the world, if books are available, people will read. Here in our own United States unfortunately there are serious deficiencies in book resources.

The assistance to libraries in public elementary and secondary schools provided for in title II of this bill will, in my opinion, provide a much needed emphasis on their development which has often not kept pace with other areas within these schools. The urgent need to increase teachers salaries, to erect modern buildings, and to acquire laboratory and technical equipment, coupled at time with a lack of recognition by the school officials of the importance of the library in the school, have often resulted in very short shrift for the library. This situation is so bad that now some 40,000 public schools-almost half the total number-have no libraries at the present time, and yet over 10 million children are attending these very schools.

Lack of attention by administrators to this important function of the public school is further complicated by the shortage of trained librarians for these schools. It is estimated that over 100,000 trained librarians for our public schools are needed at the present time and they are nowhere to be found. At my own university we have in our college of education one of the largest teacher training agencies in the State. It is constantly deluged with calls for school librarians and teacher librarians and, in spite of our best efforts, we are able to meet only a small percentage of these requests with the graduates of our department of library science. The proposal for training institutes in title IV is an effort to meet this need and one of which I highly approve.

In connection with the proposed grants to college and university libraries as specified in title III of the bill, I can speak with more intimate knowledge. In common with college and university presidents throughout the country, I have been greatly put to it to find sufficient money for the acquisition of library materials. The constantly increasing amount of research in our institutions results in a much larger amount of published material which becomes more costly each year as costs of printing and distribution increase. For example, Chemical Abstracts, a widely circulated periodical and a must subscription in most college and university libraries, has in the last few years advanced its subscription price from $60 to $200 per year, and Biological Abstracts from $50 to $180. These journals are typical of others which are basic to any work beyond junior college in the physical and biological sciences.

It is not necessary to emphasize here the importance of higher education and advanced research. Suffice it to say that everything, even our very survival, depends on the people we train, the research they do, and the discoveries they make. And all institutions, both large and small, are making their contributions to this work. And basic to each of these institutions and the work it does is the library. Again, I can speak not only from my experience as president of my institution but also from years as a teacher and some 10 years as chairman of our library committee prior to assuming my present position of president.

These institutions are finding it increasingly difficult to provide sufficient funds for the library to acquire adequate materials. This is just as true of the large institutions as of the junior colleges, for the larger the institution, the greater the research and other demands made upon the library. In many institutions, due to limited funds

and the urgent necessity to increase salaries, the percentage of total institutional income devoted to the library has gradually but constantly declined during the past 15 years. In standards recently published for college and junior college libraries, a minimum bookstock of 50,000 volumes for libraries in 4-year colleges and 20,000 volumes for junior college libraries is recommended. At present, 6 out of every 10 college libraries do not meet this standard and likewise 9 out of 10 junior college libraries fail to measure up; in fact, many newly established junior colleges have no libraries at all. This is in itself ample evidence of need to augment library collections.

Federal grants are needed to aid the college and university maintain their book collections at a level to meet the demands of new teaching methods, research, and greatly increased numbers of students. Furthermore, the activities in public, school, and college libraries do not stand apart from one another; they are all interrelated and dependent on one another. We in the college and university field depend on the public schools for students who are well trained and well read; they in turn depend on our libraries while in college and on the public library facilities after they graduate. People are now active users of some kind of a library for most of their lives and this dependence will increase, not lessen, in the years ahead.

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, you are to be commended for your interest in and broad support of libraries and I urge your favorable consideration of this bill. It has been a pleasure to appear before you today in its behalf.

Mr. BAILEY. Mr. Scott, have you any questions?

Mr. SCOTT. No questions.

Mr. BAILEY. I am sure my colleague to my left who was one of the sponsors of the original Library Act will have some questions. Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. I have enjoyed your testimony very much, Dr. Willham. I would like to ask a question on the statement you just submitted from the Council on Education. Do you have some relationship to the council and are copies of that report available to the subcommittee?

Mr. WILLHAM. I just had one copy. I believe we will have copies to distribute later. The Oklahoma State University is a member of the American Council and I was called from Dr. Wilson's office and asked to present that and they just sent the copy over to me at the beginning of the hearing.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. I would like to ask you about the setup in Oklahoma with respect to the State library administrative agency. Do you have such an agency in your State?

Mr. WILLHAM. Could I ask Mr. Low to speak to that? He is somewhat more familiar with the State organization than I.

Mr. Low. We do have a State library

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. Not a State library. This would be the socalled administrative agency.

Mr. Low. I guess I misunderstood your question, sir.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. On page 8 of the bill the basic determination of whether library services are adequate or not which will determine whether or not Federal funds are made available within the State, rests on what is called---and it is on page 8 of the bill-the State library

administrative agency. I assume there must be such an agency in your State.

Mr. Low. Yes. In Oklahoma that is known as the Oklahoma State Library headed by Ralph Hudson. That combines the usual functions of the State library and the State extension work to libraries and it is through the agency that the present Library Services Act as it is now directed.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. How adequate would that agency be in making a determination as to whether or not a particular library had adequate services or whether a particular community needed a new library? Would you feel they would be adequately equipped to make the determination as to whether the State university should get any money and if so, should they make the determination for what purposes it should be spent?

Perhaps Dr. Willham will be the more appropriate one to answer that.

Mr. WILLHAM. We would certainly be working with them.

Knowing Mr. Hudson as I do I believe he would be in a position to exercise judgment. I think he would also be calling for some help throughout the State in making his survey of the library needs.

Mr. Low. However, sir, if I may say the aid to college and universities libraries is administered through the Office of Education and HEW. The expanded public library aid would be through Mr. Hudson.

As the bill is now written Mr. Hudson would not be determining, in the college and university field, who received money.

Mr. WILLHAM. That is right. We would certainly be working with him.

Mr. Low. But we all work together on it.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. My attention has been called to the fact that title III makes direct grants at the Federal level to the institution. Mr. WILLHAM. But we do work together as a unit in Oklahoma. We are trying to look at the whole picture down there.

Mr. Low. The multicounty library, for instance, down in the southern part of the State, our Chickasha multicounty library which was established by the Library Services Act activity, and other multicounty libraries in the State, when they have calls for books that they cannot be expected to have-technical books and so on-they relay those calls to the University of Oklahoma or to me at Oklahoma State, and we send the books out.

We are trying in an informal way to make a network of libraries in the State to the point where we supply with our much larger collection the things they could not be expected to have. So in that sense we work with them, even though there is no official connection between the two. We are working very closely together to develop a consistent library pattern of service throughout the State. That is done in many of the States, too, I happen to know.

Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. May I ask in brief what is your basic justification for an expansion of the present Federal library program? Mr. WILLHAM. It is to enable us to try to go further.

As I mentioned in my testimony we are hard pressed at the present time with the increase in prices and the like to really keep up.