BIOGRAPHICAL DATA OF MRS. MARGARET WARDEN (MRS. ROBERT D.)

Present Position:

Chairman, Board of Trustees, Great Falls Public Library, Great Falls,

Mont.

Library Activities:

Chairman, American Library Trustee Association (ALTA) Legislative Committee, 1968-69; Member, ALTA Trustee Award National Committee, 1964-65; Chairman, Pacific Northwest Library Association (PNLA) Legislative Committee, 1964; Member ALTA National Library Week Committee, 1965-66; Chairman, Montana Library Association Legislative Committee, 1961-present; Member, Historical Society of Montana; Member, Western History Association.

Civic Activities:

Member, President's Council of College of Great Falls, 1967-present; Co. chairman, National Security Seminar of Industrial College of Armed Forces Membership Committee, 1962; Citizenship Counsellor for Boy Scout Merit Badges, 1957-65; Member, Red Cross Board, 1954-60; Chairman, Blood Program for Cascade County, 1954-56; Chairman, Civil Defense for Schools, 1954-58; President, PTA, 1952-54; Member, Camp Fire Girls Board, 1952–55.

Honors:

Trustee of Year Citation, 1966, Montana Library Association.

Woman of Year, 1955, Great Falls Business and Professional Women's Club.

Kiwanis citation for Montana for most outstanding Red Cross Blood Program.

Mr. OLSEN. If I can interrupt. Chairman Perkins, I do have to run, but I want you to know again that this is the great outstanding leader in libraries in Montana. She represents the voice of myself and of all of the Democrats and we are all Democrats in Montana-of the whole delegation. My near neighbor, Mr. Hansen of Idaho, will respect that. This is the best here that I have brought.

Mrs. WARDEN. Of course, libraries are nonpartisan.

Mr. OLSEN. I am not.

Mr. BRADEMAS. Thank you, Mr. Olsen.

Mr. Allain, we are very pleased to listen to you. As you can see from the clock, you will note we don't have much time. If you will summarize your statement, we will put the entire statement in the record. STATEMENT OF ALEXANDER PETER ALLAIN, TRUSTEE, ST. MARY

PARISH (COUNTY) LIBRARY, FRANKLIN, LA.

Mr. ALLAIN. I am Alex Allain, a Louisiana attorney, a library trustee, president of the St. Mary Parish Public Library Board, a member of the American Library Trustee Association, and a former member of its board of directors. From 1967 to 1969, I served as chairman of the Louisiana Library Development Committee, a standing committee of the Louisiana Library Association charged with planning programs for the development of all libraries and of library services throughout the State of Louisiana.

I am here today to speak in support of the proposed 5-year extension of the Library Services and Construction Act which expires June 30, 1971. Speaking from my experience as chairman of a State library development committee, I would say that at least a 5-year extension period is essential to provide adequate time in which to

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formulate long-range plans to serve the library and information needs of the country. I also support the new priority programs to meet the needs of disadvantaged persons, in both urban and rural areas, for library services; for strengthening the capacity of State library administrative agencies for meeting the needs of all the people of the States; and for strengthening metropolitan public libraries which serve as national or regional resource centers.

I am speaking on behalf of the American Library Association and on behalf of thousands of board members responsible for the operations of State and local public libraries.

Basically, trustees have developed the philosophy that all libraries, that is, public, school, academic, special, and institutional libraries form the basis, the core, and the very heart of our educational process. Without these libraries, the educational process, formal and informal, as it is conceived today, would be greatly endangered. The quality of American education depends upon the quality of these libraries. Furthermore, the future of the United States, politically, socially, culturally, and economically depends primarily on the state of education. Education is an implicit requisite in the development of the ability to think, reason, and understand. Libraries are the most economic, the finest, and most practical device invented by man for education.

The question involved in Federal support in the form of the Library Services and Construction Act as seen by the trustees of the Nation is not whether libraries and education will survive, but rather whether these institutions will be of the caliber necessary to prepare the Nation for continued growth. This is the basic reason that I urge the extension of the act as generally proposed and full appropriation of the amounts authorized.

Hopefully, priority will be placed on special programs to meet the needs of disadvantaged persons in both rural and urban areas. This is of particular importance in this complex age, when basic reading ability and access to current information is vital to job security. Equality of man presupposes the right to equal treatment, but is meaningless unless man has access to equal knowledge. Yet this access is too often determined by circumstances over which he has no control. This priority, if it is authorized in the proposed legislation, would be an acknowledgment of these needs and hopefully the beginning of an attempt to fill them. We assume that these programs would include an attempt to solve the functional illiteracy which plagues both the disadvantaged and the advantaged, and makes dependent beings of otherwise intelligent men. I am pleased to say that our American Library Trustee Association this year adopted a resolution in support of the Nation's "Right to Read" program. With your permission, I would like to insert it in the record at this point.

(The document referred to follows:)

RESOLUTION ADOPTED BY THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY TRUSTEE ASSOCIATION AT THE ASSOCIATION'S MIDWINTER CONFERENCE, JANUARY 24, 1970

Whereas, education is one of the essential requirements for the maintenance of a free government by informed, thoughtful citizens; and

Whereas, education is impossible without the facility to read the printed word and comprehend its meaning; and

Whereas, modern, well-stocked, well-staffed libraries, accessible to all the population, are necessary in order to provide our citizens with a wide range of materials that will promote the enjoyment of reading, as well as meet their educational needs; and

Whereas, it has been reliably shown that too large a proportion of Americans do not read with facility and understanding: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That we, the members of the American Library Trustee Association, lend our full support and cooperation to the President's stated goal of assuring that every American will have the opportunity to learn to read with ease and enjoyment, and have access to a full range of reading materials to meet his need ; and be it further

Resolved, That we do hereby endorse President Nixon's "Right to Read" program and urge that full funding of existing legislation in order adequately to support libraries, and additional necessary funds to assure the success of the "Right to Read" program, be provided by the Congress.

In connection with the title III program, interlibrary cooperation, I would like to point out that the various kinds and types of libraries of the Nation are independent from each other in terms of their governing bodies but they are interrelated in their information function. The weakness of one casts additional demands upon others. For example, a weakness in school libraries at the elementary, secondary or even college level, forces students to use the public libraries excessively, thus straining resources. For this reason, I urge that special attention continue to be focused on strengthening cooperative programs among the various types of libraries as a separate program, as currently authorized under title III (interlibrary cooperation) rather than consolidating these activities with the other LSCA programs as proposed by H.R. 16365.

However, to stimulate greater cooperative effort, I recommend 100 percent Federal funding of these projects, eliminating the 50 percent matching now required, for two reasons: First, to avoid the timeconsuming procedures and redtape involved in trying to arrive at equitable cost-sharing formulas and in mixing the funds of the various types of libraries involved. Second, and even more important, to overcome the financial barriers to cooperative participation by poor libraries in economically depressed areas, unable to raise the required matching funds.

As you know, only a very limited amount of money has been appropriated to carry on title III programs. In my own State of Louisiana, we are making progress but much more needs to be accomplished in terms of providing adequate library service to all our citizens.

The services of a librarian-management consultant on planning and establishing a processing center at the State library was funded under this title, as was the operation of a TWX communications system connecting 12 academic, eight public and three special libraries with the State library's reference department. A statewide survey of library resources was begun in this year, a project considered basic and essential to the implementation of the State plan for seven (tentative) regional library systems connecting all types of libraries. Title III funds were earmarked for preparing for a demonstration of one regional (multiparish) library system including all types of libraries. In cooperation with the office of the Secretary of State, a cards-with-documents program was initiated which made funds available to the recorder of State documents for the purchase of Library of Congress cards which will be distributed to selected academic, public, and special libraries.

Finally, I urge that Federal money spent for education as well as libraries, which are a part of the educational process should not be viewed as an expense, but rather as an investment in the future of America.

A dramatic example of the benefits derived from the Federal investment in LSCA programs can be cited in Louisiana's title IV-A program which, among other things, provides library service to correctional institutions. Following the establishment of this specialized State library service, officials in both the State department of corrections and the individual institutions recognized immediately the value of the library in the rehabilitation process and entered into a joint financing agreement with the State library. Since State funds are not presently available, the officials and the inmates themselves have approved the use of the inmates' welfare fund for the projects. The books and other library materials for each project are carefully selected to meet the needs of the residents and to correlate with the education, rehabilitation, and recreation programs of the institutions. The current issue of the Louisiana Library Association Bulletin carries a brief account of this highly successful program, which I would like to submit for the record. We have now six projects going. We have 28 projects left to complete in Louisiana of this nature. We certainly hope that money will be forthcoming for these.

In conclusion, I urge passage of amendments to the Library Services and Construction Act which will: (1) extend the Library Services and Construction Act for at least 5 years; (2) include a provision for strengthening metropolitan public libraries and indeed any library, whether it is a metropolitan library or not, which serve as national or regional resource centers; (3) recognize as a new priority, programs designed to meet the needs of disadvantaged persons, in both urban and rural areas for library services; and (4) provide funds for strengthening the capacity of State library administrative agencies for meeting the needs of all the people of the State.

I also urge that Congress fully fund all appropriations authorized. Thank you for the privilege of appearing before you today. (The attachments accompanying the statement follow :)

[Louisiana Library Association Bulletin, Winter 1970]

INSIDE LOUISIANA'S CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION LIBRARIES

INTRODUCTION

(By Vivian Cazayoux, Associate State Librarian and Formerly Library
Consultant for Institutional Service)

With the addition of Title IV-A to the Library Services and Construction Act in 1967, the Louisiana State Library was able to begin to fulfill its responsibility to provide library service to the health, welfare and correctional institutions maintained by the State of Louisiana. Enacted as a legal function in 1946, and long recognized as a moral obligation, this service was not implemented previously because of a shortage of personnel and funds.

Today, two and one-half years since the passage of the title, library service has been inaugurated at all three of the adult correctional institutions in Louisiana: State Penitentiary, Angola-April, 1968; Correctional and Industrial School, DeQuincy-February, 1969; and Women's Penitentiary, St. GabrielJuly, 1969.