2. County and regional library developments have brought public library service for the first time to 1 million rural children and adults and substantially improved service to 7.6 million more.

This is in no way all inclusive of the good done by this act. It does, however, point out dramatically the contact with the people. Imagine, 1 million people given the opportunity for the first time to use library facilities.

And, what remains to be done?

There still are more than 20 million people in rural areas without public library service. There still are 253 counties with no public library service within their borders.

As I said earlier, I believe a great deal of good has been done under the Library Services Act of 1956. There remains a great deal to be done. I respectfully suggest that the committee would be serving the Nation well to report favorably this amendment extending the act for 5 years.

I would like to thank you, Mr. Chairman, and the members of your committee, for the opportunity to make these remarks.

STATEMENT OF HON. AL ULLMAN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF OREGON

Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, you are considering, along with similar and related bills, my H.R. 10929, which would extend the present Library Servcies Act for a period of 5 years. I am confident that you are fully aware of the importance as well as the merits of this program and that the record of these hearings will reflect the basic statistics which document the achievements under it since its enactment in 1956. These are impressive statistics and evidence the real interest which our State and local governments, as well as our rural people, have in this program. Figures alone cannot, of course, measure adequately the degree to which increased availability of reading materials and other library services have enriched the lives of our people.

Let me, then, confine myself to noting briefly some of the tangibles which the Library Services Act has meant to my congressional district in eastern Oregon. It is a predominantly rural district and the expansion of rural library services is of particular importance to me and to my people. The program which has been put into effect since 1956 has meant, among other things, the provision of a consultant to work in 11 counties of my district studying the needs of the area and establishing library integration projects. An example of the latter is the Central Oregon Regional Library which has been established to serve Jefferson, Crook, and Deschutes Counties. These three counties had a population in 1950 of 36,339 persons, of whom 24,930 lived in rural areas. You can readily see the value of the bookmobile project, for example, which has been set up to serve the area. Another bookmobile program was instituted for Malheur County, an area of 9,870 square miles with an all-rural population of 23,223 in 1950.

In the first two fiscal years of this program, Oregon received Federal allocations totaling $120,651. State funds programed in the same period totaled $331,335, striking evidence that the State is giving this program strong and continuing support. As the State Librarian Eloise Ebert put it in a recent letter to me, "There is no doubt but that this program has stimulated action in improving library services as nothing has before."

The data, which has been submitted to your subcommittee, document also the fact that there is still a job to be done in bringing adequate library services to the people of rural America. In 1959, over 250 counties in this Nation still had no public libraries within their borders and 25 million people in rural areas were still without any public library service. It is because this program has done so much and because there is much yet to be done that I have introduced H.R. 10929 and urge you gentlemen to act favorably upon it. The bill is simple in nature and, aside from the extension of the program, makes changes which are largely routine in character.

I do wish, however, to discuss the last provision, subsection (d) of my bill, since it is possible that some confusion exists as to the purpose of this change in the act. This subsection amends the existing act to provide that allocation of funds will continue to be on the basis of the 1950 census data. It may be asked why, in view of the 1960 census data which will be available in the not

too-distant future, such a continuation of the use of the 1950 data is desirable. The reason, as I see it, is as follows:

1. The present section 9(e) of the act defines "rural area" in terms of a specific population figure, namely an absence of any community of 10,000 or more persons. This definition was an appropriate one at the time formulated and was based on the relative population figures available at that time, since what is "rural" in character depends in large part on its population size in relation to the more densely populated areas.

2. With the growth in national population, this specific definition may not be as appropriate to the purposes of the program. Since increased numbers are characteristic in all parts of the country, a more appropriate definition of the term "rural area" may now be in terms of a larger number of persons. In fact, it seems to me that such a new definition is desirable.

3. At the same time, I think that such a new definition should be formulated on the basis of the new population data which will become available from the current decennial census. If the old definition is used in combination with the new census data, it is inevitable that many areas will become excluded from the program, although their situation would continue to justify inclusion.

The purpose, then, of the proposal to continue to use the 1950 data is to retain all such areas under the program until such time as a new definition of "rural area" can be formulated on the basis of complete data indicating the relative position of all areas to the larger total population which the Nation has. Such a definition may increase the figure now used from 10,000 persons to 12,000 or 15,000. The point is that if we retain the old definition and use the new data, we will certainly force out of the program areas which are, in reality, still rural in nature. If, on the other hand, we try to formulate a new definition in the absence of the new data, we will be unable to do the best possible job of arriving at the appropriate figure. The obvious answer, it seems to me, is to retain the present allocation criteria until the new data are available and then draft a new and more appropriate definition of our term "rural area." This is the approach aimed at by subsection (d).

Let me conclude by thanking the subcommittee for this opportunity to indicate on the record the reasons for my sponsorship of H.R. 10929, and again urge you to give the proposed extension of the Library Services Act the favorable consideration which I deeply feel that it deserves.

Mr. ELLIOTT. Now, may I say to my colleagues that it gives me very great pleasure to present Mrs. Bernice Youngblood, the chairman of the executive board of the Alabama Public Library Service. Mrs. Youngblood is a resident of our hometown of Jasper, Ala. She is a member of the Alabama Library Trustees Association and is also a member of the American Association of Library Trustees.

I would like to say that I know of no one who has worked more diligently to improve the library service of all Alabama than has Mrs. Youngblood. A few years ago she was active in the founding of public library at Haleyville, Ala., also in the congressional district that I have the privilege to represent. She has these recent years been very active in support of the Walker County Public Library in our hometown, and she told me, while coming down here a little while ago, that local funds for the support of the Walker County Public Library have doubled since 1956, which is a great tribute to her interest in the library and the Library Services Act.

We are very happy to have you, Mrs. Youngblood, and it is an honor and privilege to welcome you to testify before us.

STATEMENT OF MRS. BERNICE YOUNGBLOOD, CHAIRMAN OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD OF THE ALABAMA PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICE, JASPER, ALA.

Mrs. YOUNGBLOOD. Thank you, Mr. Elliott and members of the subcommittee. I had not expected this detailed introduction. In my prepared statement I have introduced myself.

I am a member of the Alabama Library Trustees Association, and of the American Association of Library Trustees. I am not a librarian. Having no professional status, my interest in rural libraries is that of a layman. I know very little about the technical operation of libraries, but can speak with authority and from a standpoint of 50 years actual participating experience on the problems of rural people.

I am here in response to your invitation, representing more than 2 million people in Alabama who will have inadequate library service in 1961, even in spite of the beginnings made with the help of the Library Services Act. Included in that number are approximately 117,000 people in rural Alabama who have no public library service at all.

Alabama, of course, has a very special pride in the Library Services Act, and in the contribution made to its passage by our senior Senator Lister Hill, and by our Congressman, Carl Elliott, of the Seventh District. We have the same special interest and concern in legislation to extend the act for another 5 years.

Friends of the library in Alabama have written letters, sent stories, and given me much verbal advice on what to say to this subcommittee. One bit of instruction you'll appreciate came from the editor of our local weekly newspaper. He said, "Don't tell the subcommittee your library philosophy-they have their own." Of course, we're well aware of your library philosophy from your recorded speeches and your voting records. We're most grateful to you for your expressions of that philosophy, and for the vision and leadership you have shown in anticipating personal and social needs for American education.

Our first President, George Washington, in his annual message admonished the first Congress to "promote science and literature," thus establishing good precedent for the passage of library legislation, but it was not until the 84th Congress that such legislation was finally passed.

When the Library Services Act was passed it was for a 5-year period. It was referred to in too many speeches as "priming the pump." That perhaps was bad analogy. How could we speak of "priming the pump" in connection with libraries, when in so many hundreds of rural counties all over this country there was no library service at all? You cannot "prime the pump" before the well is dug. Your rural constituents who wanted libraries were too pleased that the bill was passed at all to quibble over semantics. To librarians and friends of libraries, who had never had any money, $7.5 million looked like all the money in the world. And it would have been a right considerable sum if we had ever actually received that much. We are most hopeful now that we will receive the full appropriation during the next year.

But if it took the Congress of the United States more than 150 years, or 184 years, or however long the time, to recognize the support of libraries as a governmental function, it is understandable that State and local governments may need more time. Not more than 184 years but more than 5 years. We have made a tremendous step forward with the help of the LSA; if we should fail to get an extension of the act it would be a reversal-a retreat from progress.

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The plan in Alabama, and I believe this is true in every State, has called for the formation of regional or multicounty libraries. This has involved an educational process, first to convince local appropriating bodies that the public library should be an integral part of general local government, and second that we can have better library service with less expense with the cooperative or multicounty library. County boards of revenue have the good politician's fear of venturing into new fields of spending; they fear losing their autonomy as political units; they have to be reassured many times over that Federal aid to libraries does not mean Federal control or domination. And in Alabama sometimes they tell us we cannot get more library support from the county treasury because there isn't any local money. "That's all there is," they tell us, "there isn't any more. And we've already borrowed against next year's budget."

In spite of the fact that we haven't received the full appropriation, in spite of the lack of trained librarians, in spite of the inevitable slowness of any educational process, we have made impressive advances toward our ultimate goal of extending library service to all our citizens.

The Library Services Act funds have meant that in Alabama we have new or improved library services for 707,705 people; we have increased State appropriations for library service from $108,000 to $179,000; we have increased total support for library service from $1,097,000 to $1,595,000; we have increased statewide support for library service from 36 cents per capita to 52 cents per capita; we have increased use of books from loans of approximately 6 million to approximately 7 million.

Some of the result of the Library Services Act money is too subtle to evaluate in figures. Citizen support has increased beyond all estimation. Over the country membership in the American Association of Library Trustees has more than doubled since 1957. In Alabama we have approximately 800 library trustees who are active on the State level; this does not include friends of the library groups, federated women's clubs, parent teachers associations, Jaycees, and other civic groups who have libraries as their main project. Some years ago one of your colleagues here in the House made the remark that libraries have no political appeal to the voters. There was some truth in his comment at the time, but there is less and less with each passing year. I can speak for the rural voters of New York or New Jersey, California or Connecticut, Oregon or Alabama (because rural people of all States have this in common) we are interested in libraries. Not as repositories for books, but as an investment in a democracy's most important natural resource-the intelligence of its people.

I have here a copy of a memorandum to the Washington office of the American Library Association from the director of the Alabama Public Library Service, subject, "Estimates of Regional Accomplishments Under the Library Services Act as of June 30, 1961, and of the Effects in Alabama of Terminating the Act on That Date." I believe this is a correct and concise statement, and I would like permission to make it a part of the record.

Mr. ELLIOTT. Without objection that permission is granted.

REPORT BY EMILY WHEELOCK REED, DIRECTOR, ALABAMA PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICE

ESTIMATES OF REGIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS UNDER THE LIBRARY SERVICES ACT AS OF JUNE 30, 1961, AND OF THE EFFECTS IN ALABAMA OF TERMINATING THE ACT ON THAT DATE

(a) Regional accomplishments under Library Services Act as of June 30, 1961: 1. Formation of seven new regional libraries serving 27 counties with improved or extended service available to 759,095 people.

2. Four counties with a population of 100,915 without public library service prior to Library Services Act, now receiving service.

3. All of seven new regional libraries and one already established regional library have been strengthened with books, professional and clerical staff and equipment.

4. Twelve additional bookmobiles will be in service.

(b) Needs which will be unmet if the Library Services Act is terminated in 1961:

1. Plans which will have to be abandoned:

Completion of four county demonstration library grant.

Completion of grants to two new regions and to another region for expansion to include a third county.

Plans for regional libraries to serve 38 counties not adequately served at present, 5 of them without any public library service.

2. Deficiencies anticipated on June 1, 1961 :

People unserved: 116,839 people in 5 counties still with no public library service; 600,000 people living in counties having only town or municipal libraries with no effective means of giving rural library service.

People inadequately served: Over 2,500,000 people still in need of greatly improved service in spite of the beginnings of service organized under LSA. Book stock is still only a little more than half a book per capita. No film collection except at State level; a small one on library service. Only a few record collections in the State, none at State level.

Need 18 more bookmobiles to serve all rural areas.

Furniture and equipment for 10 new regional libraries.

3. Additional staff members to carry on plans for extension of service: 41 professional staff; 71 nonprofessional and clerical.

4. Effect of 1960 census figures on programs now underway: None. It will make some projected regional developments more difficult and unwieldy. Our problem has been, and continues to be, a need for a complete lifting of a population limit so that the natural urban center can benefit from integral participation in a region. A contractual arrangement does not achieve the same organizational unity, even if the urban center can be convinced that it gains from participation.

5. Result if Federal funds cease in 1961: The result would be disastrous. The State agency, which has grown enormously in its services and potentialities under LSA stimulation, would have its staff cut by more than half, and its services by even more. Our job of developing libraries over the State will be hardly half done by July 1, 1961.

Mrs. YOUNGBLOOD. We have come so far with the help of the Library Services Act. We stand to lose so much unless the act is extended by passage of H.R. 9812.

Thank you very much for the privilege of appearing before this subcommittee.

Mr. ELLIOTT. May I say to you, Mrs. Youngblood, that it has been a real pleasure to have you appear and I want to congratulate and commend you on the very fine statement about the progress of libraries particularly in Alabama.

Mrs. YOUNGBLOOD. Thank you, Mr. Elliott.

Mr. ELLIOTT. That is, the progress in Alabama under the Library Services Act of 1956.