the Library Services Act appropriations for 5 fiscal years. I am especially pleased with this new bill, however, because I feel it will be invaluable in our efforts to improve the quality of education for our young people and will contribute immeasurably to community and individual growth and development. By eliminating the 10,000 figure as a population minimum, we open vast new opportunity to communities throughout the country. By raising the ceiling on funds, we will enable public elementary and secondary schools, as well as institutions of higher learning, to establish and maintain adequate library services. The provisions which would enable training of librarians will increase the contribution each library makes to the community and/or school.

Mr. Chairman, I believe that this legislation is among the most important bills to be considered by the Congress this year-or, for that matter, any year. The $67.5 million appropriation for fiscal 1963 and the $70 million for each of the following 4 years is an insignificant figure when compared to appropriations for national defense, but I believe it to be of inestimable value in the all-out efforts to assure national security.

We must arm our citizens intellectually and morally, as well as physically. A library, more than any one other place, is the repository of learning, of all that comprises culture and education. Its shelves contain records of the ideals and principles upon which the free world was founded. We cannot expect future generations to continue fighting to safeguard ideals to which they have not been fully exposed, and proper understanding comes in the main from the written word. We must assure that all citizens have the opportuntiy for full individual intellectual development, which is symbolized by the library. Our future progress, economically and culturally, is directly dependent upon such a program as this legislation proposes.

The library is the heart of the community, the center of life of the college or public school. To the young child who sits enthralled during a "story hour," to the old citizen who comes to the library for the companionship of books, to the student who sees the entire pagentry of civilization come to life through the magic of books, the library is more than a cavernous old building full of musty volumes. It is the heart of a meaningful, rich life typified by the love of books and learning. The free public library was probably the greatest contribution ever made to the intellectual growth of man. It has made it possible for generations of citizens to become exposed to ideas, to profit from records of the past and build on the hope of the future. It has helped make of us a learned people.

We have the opportunity-indeed, the obligation-to assure that the principle embodied in the free public library system is continued and that each and every community, each and every public school, each and every institution of higher learning can provide library facilities for its citizens and its students. Mr. Chairman, I know that I need not impress upon you the importance of this bill. The cost of this legislation is neglible, but the price we would have to pay without the opportunities provided by this bill is astronomical.

The American Library Association has estimated that 50 million Americans have inadequate or no library service at all. There are serious deficiencies in specialized library service programs for specific interest or age groups. We face a boom in school-age population which will be a tremendous strain on existing libraries, and even now we have 10,600,000 children who go to public schools without any library whatsoever. Nearly half of our public schools have no libraries. Nearly 60 percent of 4-year colleges have below-standard libraries. These are shocking figures, for they mean that a tremendous number of people are being improperly equipped for life, that students are being denied the full, rich range of knowledge, that young people are being deprived of an opportunity for intellectual development.

We cannot permit this situation to continue. This legislation is of vital importance to the future of our civilization, and I am sure that this committee will take early action on its provisions.

I congratulate the distinguished chairman of this subcommittee for his leadership and wisdom, and I am proud to be associated with him in this extremely important project.

STATEMENT OF HON. CHESTER E. MERROW, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I appreciate the opportunity you have given me to present testimony in support of H.R. 12006, a bill to amend the Library Services Act in order to make areas lacking public libraries or with inadequate public libraries, public elementary and secondary school libraries, and certain college and university libraries, eligible for benefits under that act, and for other purposes.

This legislation has been introduced by several of my colleagues. I am pleased that the committee is holding hearings on this measure. I hope the Library Services Act, which I supported from the very beginning and which I, with several of my colleagues, introduced, will be amended during this session.

SIX YEARS' EXPERIENCE WITH LIBRARY SERVICES ACT ENACTED IN 1956 Six years' experience with the Library Services Act enacted in 1956 has demonstrated its great value in stimulating State and local action to provide new and improved library services in rural areas. According to the statement of the Commissioner of Education before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on February 20, 1962, in the first 5 years of operation under that law, new or improved library service was provided for over 36 million people.

County and regional libraries made public library service available to more than 2 million persons who formerly had no library service at all. Over 300 new bookmobiles have been placed in operation under projects made possible by the act. State funds for rural public library service have increased approximately 75 percent since 1956 and local appropriations for this purpose have increased about 50 percent.

PRESENT ASSISTANCE LIMITED TO AREAS HAVING LESS THAN 10,000 POPULATION Assistance under the present law is limited to areas having less than 10,000 population. Nearly 100 million of our people live in areas which cannot benefit from the law as it is now written. The Commissioner of Education stated that nearly 50 million have inadequate public library service or no service at all. Moreover, many suburban areas which have received assistance under this program are, as a result of population growth, becoming ineligible at the very time their need is the greatest.

Public demand for service from every type of library is increasing at a rate no one could have foreseen a few years ago. Many factors account for this change a heightened interest in every phase of scientific development, the toughening of curriculum requirements and the greatest stress on independent study in high schools and colleges, the need of adults for continuing education, inservice training and job retraining materials, and the broader cultural interests stimulated by the higher educational levels attained by more and more of our people.

LIBRARIES FACED WITH INCREASED COSTS

While libraries everywhere are faced with rapidly expanding demand for their services, their costs of providing this service are steadily mounting. Added to the ordinary increase in the costs of books, labor, materials, and supplies is the shift in reader interest to more expensive books and materials in the scientific field. Small liberal arts colleges have been finding it particularly difficult to keep up adequate library collections to support modern programs in physics, chemistry, mathematics, and the whole range of scientific subjects so vital to the progress of our Nation.

MORE TRAINED LIBRARIANS NEEDED

Increased expenditures for the purchase of books will do little good if trained librarians are not available to select those needed for particular libraries and to assist students and other readers to use them to the greatest advantages. Serious shortages of adequately trained personnel have developed. Any program to improve library service must include assistance to overcome this shortage.

H.R. 12006

To help State and local governments and public and nonprofit institutions of higher learning to extend and improve their library services, I recently introduced H.R. 12006. This measure authorizes appropriations of $20 million a year for 5 years for grants to States on a matching basis for extension of public library services in areas having no service, or inadequate service, and $30 million a year for 5 years for similar grants for library services in public elementary and secondary schools. Appropriations of $10 million a year for 5 years are authorized to enable the Commissioner of Education to make grants to institutions of higher education to assist and encourage them to enlarge their library collections. An appropriation of $7,500,000 is authorized for fiscal 1963, and $10 million for each of the 4 succeeding years to enable the Commissioner to contract with such institutions for library training institutes.

As a safeguard against any possible danger of Federal control, the bill expressly stipulates that nothing therein contained shall be deemed to authorize any department, agency, officer, or employee of the United States to exercise any direction or control over any public library or the library of any institution of higher education which is not a library administered by a department or agency of the United States, or the personnel of any such library or the selection of books for it.

Today, more than ever, adequate libraries staffed by well-trained librarians are indispensable for every level of education-elementary, high school, college, and adult. To make sure that this service is provided, the Federal Government must cooperate with the State and local governments and with institutions of higher education. H.R. 12006 provides for an extension of the type of cooperation which has already proved so successful under the Library Services Act.

TESTIMONY OF HON. GEORGE P. MILLER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

The influx of people into California has been a striking phenomenon of recent years. California has taken mighty strides in many fields toward meeting the challenge of this population explosion. One of these fields has been education. Library development has advanced in rural areas with the help and stimulation of the present Library Services Act, but it has not reached the stage where it can be said to meet adequately the problems presented by California's popula tion boom. Our troubles lie not just in our rural areas but in our cities and their suburbs, not just in our public libraries but in school and college libraries as well.

Through the proposed amendment to the Library Services Act, it would be possible to make an attack on some of our most critical library problems in metropolitan areas, because the legislation currently under consideration lifts the population restriction of the present act and would make more money available. It would be possible, also, to make a good beginning on the nearly overwhelming problems of library service to children and young people, both by school and public libraries.

As for school, college, and university libraries, many of the school and college libraries, particularly, are extremely lacking in sufficient library materials to meet the needs of students. H.R. 11823, H.R. 11824, and related bills would be a great stimulus to their acquiring many more of the books and related library materials that are needed.

College, secondary, and elementary students go from library to library seeking, often vainly, to find the library materials needed for their studies. In many communities, students have deluged the public libraries after school hours, making it literally impossible for adults to find room to be served. Schools and colleges very commendably require wide reading of many different materials, rather than single textbooks, but the materials required by this change in teaching practice have not been supplied, either in the schools, colleges, or public libraries. The need is acute for many more books in all of these libraries.

Acute shortages of librarians further intensify California's problems. For this reason the provisions for financial assistance to recruitment and training of librarians are an important aspect of the legislation.

As chairman of the Science and Astronautics Committee of the House of Representatives, I am quite conscious of the need to expand the educational resources for our youth, so that they may face the dynamic challenges of the scientific and technical world of tomorrow. The space program of the United States vividly reveals the need for full development of the potentiality of our young men and women with talent in the sciences. For good citizenship in these complicated times the need is equally great in other fields of learning. This full development of young people and adults cannot occur unless there are enough tools of learning to go around.

A second consideration that the space age brings about is the need to properly conserve the extensive volumes of research material that are being continuously developed on a variety of technical subjects. Also, numerous new journals and periodicals are being published on scientific matters. These advances certainly place a great burden on the librarian while at the same time making it imperative that assistance be given to libraries to meet the ever changing situations that confront them.

Bills currently under consideration will not banish overnight California's shortages in library materials and trained personnel but the legislation can act effectively, as has the present Library Services Act within its limited area, to stimulate this State, as well as all other States, to remedy the critical deficiency in this service so essential to the Nation.

STATEMENT OF HON. ABRAHAM J. MULTER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW YORK

Mr. Chairman, it is my pleasure to appear before this subcommittee to support a legislative measure which I have introduced to further extend the scope of Federal financial assistance to the States for library services. My bill, H.R. 11948, would amend the present Library Services Act to include areas of our Nation lacking public libraries or with inadequate public libraries, and to help expand public elementary and secondary school libraries and certain college and university libraries. The bill would also stimulate education programs for the training of persons in the field of library science.

The declaration of policy as stated in the bill is a summation of my feelings about the need for an expanded program of Federal financial assistance for library services. As the declaration points out, there is a growing need for information and education for all our people. Today's rapidly expanding body of knowledge makes good libraries essential at all levels of education from elementary school through adult education in order to provide maximum opportunities for study and research and to produce well-informed citizens who are capable of exercising sound judgment and engaging in profitable employment. I might also call attention to the fact that the modernization of our society and current technological developments have reduced the work hours of the day and week and given the average worker considerable leisure. It is reasonable to assume that citizens will read good books as an important phase of wise leisure and recreation. There is evidence, therefore, of an increasing demand and need for adequate library services for the public and for our schools.

As every member of this subcommittee knows, the present deficiencies of public libraries, school libraries, and college and university libraries are critical. In my opinion there is an undisputable need for a coordinated program of library development to help bring about maximum availability and utilization of library resources and services.

The legislation I propose would help the States accomplish this purpose through several programs of financial assistance. Title I of the bill is concerned with public libraries. Under this title an appropriation of $20 million will be authorized for each of 5 years beginning with the fiscal year ending June 30, 1963, to be used for payments to States which have an approved plan for the further extension of public library services to areas within the State without such services, or with inadequate services. The title authorizes the appropriation of specific sums for the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Canal Zone, and provides that the remainder of the appropriations for the title be divided among the States according to the population of the State to the population of the United States. A provision is made for State matching funds in accordance with the ability of the State to match Federal funds, as determined by per capita income within the State.

Title II of the bill provides assistance to library programs in public elementary and secondary schools through an authorized appropriation of $30 million for 5 years beginning with the fiscal year ending June 30, 1963. Funds under this title are to be allotted to the States according to their ratio of the State's school-age population (5–17) to the school-age population of all the States. The title also contains a matching provision which is based upon State per capita income.

Mr. Chairman, it is appalling to me to note that in many elementary and secondary schools the library is only a table in the back of the classroom where some few children of high motivation might wish to sit and read. All too often the classroom teacher has had little or no training in the selection of reading materials for elementary and secondary age children. Thus at an early age when they are developing an appreciation for books and the world of knowledge to be found therein, many of our schoolchildren are left out of this important adventure. Current statistics report that more than 10 million children go to public schools where there are no school libraries and more than 40,000 or nearly half of all our public schools have no libraries. There is certainly a need for a forceful echo of the ideas of Leslie W. Dunlap who in a discussion of the history of libraries has pointed out:

"*** As the objectives of the schools broadened to include training for living in a democracy in addition to instruction in traditional subjects, the role of school libraries became increasingly more important. Libraries now are widely recognized as an integral part of schools, and the future of school library services depends directly on the place of the school in contemporary society."

99 1

The third title of my proposal to amend the Library Services Act is concerned with the library services of our colleges and universities. Title III authorizes library grants to institutions of higher education to assist and encourage such institutions in the acquisition for library purposes of books (other than textbooks), periodicals, documents, and other related materials. The grants authorized under this title are graduated in amount according to the level of higher education offered by the school. For example, the grant would be $1,000 for schools offering a 2-year educational program; $2,500 for an institution offering an educational program for which it awards a bachelor's degree or a more advanced degree, or $5,000 if the institution provides an educational program for which it awards both bachelor's and advanced degrees.

I hardly need mention to this subcommittee the importance of library services to our institutions of higher education which have the responsibility for the education and training of our most qualified students. To envision higher education without adequate accompanying library facilities for research and study is to propose a race without a course: You may well have people going somewhere but the starting place would have been missed. I say this because the thoughts and theories of past scholars as recorded in books provides a starting place for newer directions, interpretations, and, in fact, contradictions by those of this era who would seek true understanding and knowledge. It has been said by many people in many different ways:

"More than any other instrument of society the library is custodian and disseminator of the world's knowledge. Libraries preserve and make available the results of previous human experience; they are the instruments which make possible the enrichment and extension of that experience.'

The challenges to higher education in these special times are tremendous; they relate to the basics of human sufferings and hunger; of freedom and selfgovernment; of progress and more abundant life; of free thought and expanding horizons. If it still holds that from research comes the truth then we must be concerned indeed that those who are seekers of the truth through the academic disciplines of higher education have available to them adequate facilities for research of which the library is a fundamental part.

A fourth title of the bill also relates to instiutions of higher education. It would make available to participating institutions funds for the operation by them of short-term or regular session institutes for training to improve the

1 Dunlap, Leslie W.: "The Story of Our Libraries." Prepared for Collier's Encyclopedia. Library and Education Division, Collier's Encyclopedia. New York, N.Y.

2 U.S. Office of Education. "The State and Publicly Supported Libraries." Introduction Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1956.