Now the library services bill is designated, of course, to assist communities of 10,000 population or less in correcting this situation. It is a case where the bill will make it possible to put on demonstrations or otherwise to bring to the attention of the people their own needs for library purposes.

I would like to say right here that the American Library Association believes that the States can do it. We believe that they are doing it slowly, but that it is going to be necessary, if we are going to do it in a reasonable amount of time, to have the help that comes from a bill of this sort which makes it possible to give this demonstration in these rural areas.

In most cases the community of 10,000 or less will not be able to finance its own program. And, of course, what it amounts to in most cases will be bringing together these small and weak libraries into what we call larger area service where the weak library can be taken in either in a county system or in a regional. It may be a multicounty system or a regional library so that the greater tax base makes it possible for the small rural community to have as good library service as the larger community.

This legislation will be of tremendous help here because it will make possible breaking over into these communities-which we have not been able to reach up to now, and usually through demonstrations or through the institution of the larger area service—get a demonstration before the community of what can be done.

Perhaps it is not quite fair to ask these rural communities to vote taxes for libraries when they don't know anything about libraries. They have never had them. They have no understanding of what libraries mean. And we feel that this demonstration in the various States, which will come from this bill, is going to be a great impetus in developing the self-help through the States and through the local taxing source, and that after the 5-year duration of the bill we are going to be in a good position where the State and local communities are going to be in the position to carry it on themselves.

The small community, we believe, will readily see the advantage of combining to secure good library service.

The American Library Association believes there is great merit in the provisions of the library service bill. I would like to tick off some of these. Mr. Elliott mentioned it to some extent in his testimony this morning, but I would like to go over it with you, and I have some charts here which I am asking Miss Bennett to turn as we need them.

Can you all see these charts?

Mr. LANDRUM. Yes.

Mr. RICHARDS. This first one shows what is needed to provide minimum library service in the United States. On the basis of $1.50 per capita, we need $240 million. Now being provided by State funds are $6 million, and now being provided by local funds $154 million. That leaves $80 million necessary to be raised in the various States and localities if we are to do the job on the basis of $1.50 per capita.

The next one represents what State funds are now spent for public libraries. This shows, in descending scale, the various services, schools, for instance, at the beginning with $28.22; highways, $23.12; public welfare, $16.22; health and hospitals, $6.47; natural resources, $3.50;

public safety, $2.67; government agencies, $2.62; employment administration, $1.20; airports, 37 cents; and, libraries, with a magnifying glass here at the bottom, six-hundredths of 1 cent.

(The following telegram was subsequently received from witness John Richards :)

Hon. FRED G. HUSSEY,

Chief Clerk, Committee on Education and Labor,

House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.:

In order to correct the mistake in interpretation of the chart showing amount of money spent for State funds for library extension, I would like to state that it should be 6 cents per capita.

So we are not in very good shape at the present time.

JOHN RICHARDS.

The next one shows who pays for our public libraries today. The local public funds coming from local sources are 87.4 cents. These are all per capita. State funds, 1.7 cents; endowments, 4.8 cents; and all other sources of income, 6.1 cents. That would be gifts, of course, of various kinds.

Mrs. GREEN. On that last chart, was that 6 cents or six-hundredths of a cent?

Mrs. RICHARDS. Six-hundredths.

Mrs. GREEN. Of 1 cent?

Mr. RICHARDS. That is right.

Then the next one shows, in the Federal library services bill, who controls what. The local State controls, (1) making up the plans, made at the State level by the State agencies; (2) selection of books and periodicals; (3) personnel appointments; (4) management of library operations; (5) choice of areas to serve.

And then the Federal controls are represented by checking State plans to see if they meet specifications set by Congress, and checking to see that States fulfill financial provisions of the act.

You will see from that that the State controls are pretty adequate and will guard against any fear that there may be of Federal control. I believe that this is very adequate in the bill.

In the next chart we have just sort of a cartoon. In the case of the public library great progress has been made, but we are far short of the goal providing equal opportunity for all citizens to have access to library services because there are still 26 million—and actually it is 26,900,000, almost 27 million-who do not have access to a public library.

On the next chart is just a little schemized, stylized cartoon of new life for rural-library services: means better informed citizens, indicating that the Feederal funds, with the matching funds going into the local public library, are going to give greatly improved service in a wide range of territory.

Now just to tick off these points in the bill which we believe are thoroughly good:

1. It stimulates the States and the localities to close up the gaps in the provision of adequate public-library service for their residents in the small towns, villages, and farming communities.

2. It authorizes a modest amount, $7,500,000 annually, for a period of 5 years.

3. It has a definite termination date. And I would like to say in regard to that that the American Library Association has no thought whatever of coming back for further funds after this termination

date. We believe that we can do the job with this money if we can have it for 5 years to stimulate at the local level something which is already very much needed and wanted.

4. After the initial allotment of $40,000 each State's potential additional allotment is determined by the percentage of the total national rural population living in each State.

5. It requires the State to match each Federal dollar with State and local funds on the basis of the ratio of States' annual per capita income to the United States annual per capita income.

6. It stipulates that the States shall have control over: the formulation of the plan for each State; selection of books and periodicals; appointment of library workers; management of library operations; determination of areas to be served.

7. It stipulates that the Federal Government shall check the State plans against the specifications in the act, and, of course, the act guards against or prohibits the use of any of this money for buildings or for purchase of property. In other words, it has to go into actual service along demonstration lines.

We believe that this bill is wisely drawn. It provides for Federal administration through the United States Office of Education, and for State administration by the State library agencies.

The crux of the matter is that each State, through its own State plan, will have an opportunity to attack and solve its individual problems in its own way. Our States are widely diverse in their approach to libraries, as in other matters. They have different histories, and they are in different stages of development. It would be most unfortunate to try to establish an overall pattern into which each State would have to fit.

And I want to stress again the fact that in many cases, probably in most cases, the State plan will include and will foster and will emphasize the organization of local and county libraries into larger units.

In other words, what we will try to do is to get these small communities which cannot themselves, through their limited taxing power, do the job which needs to be done. We will get them into a larger unit, and it will be easy to do that, we feel, because of the demonstrations which are made possible.

It may also follow the demonstration plan which has been so successful in Louisiana where the State library agency promotes demonstrations of good library service in the parishes for one year, after which the local governmental agency takes over. The experience there has been very fine on demonstrations.

Because each State will develop its own plan to suit its own individual needs, and must match the Federal funds provided under the bill, we believe there will be great opportunity to foster in these rural areas the desire for effective libraries, and that these rural districts will have an excellent chance to become completely self-supporting at the end of the 5 years in the legislation.

Now I would just like to say a word as to why this legislation is timely. In fact, why it almost has an immediate urgency. And I would like to mention that within recent years, perhaps the last 6 or 7 years, two important national studies of the whole field of public library service have been published.

First, the National Plan for Public Library Service, in 1948, was sponsored by the American Library Association, and, more recently, the Public Library Inquiry, sponsored by the Social Science Research Council.

These two studies are almost definitive studies. They are, in a way, monumental works. And for the first time these publications have helped to clarify the condition of library service today and the need for Federal-aid to libraries in the modest form in which we are asking it.

Along with numerous State and local surveys, they drive home the fact that-and this is a quotation

while the United States has some of the best library service in the world, it has a good deal that is almost the worst

in view of the fact that we have so many of our rural areas that are completely unserved. This means that we have in this country a multitude of separate libraries of varying degrees of effectiveness, and we have no library network of cooperating libraries as we should have, or we have no library system in the sense that public schools have a system.

The thing that we are trying to get here is a pattern which will take care of this, and give every person in this community, in this country, the minimum amount of library service which he needs.

With this clear awareness of the seriousness of the problem, librarians, trustees, and friends of libraries are interested in the program as they have never been before. In many States we have State development committees now formed and working, and we have had many State surveys which complement or supplement the two monumental studies which I just mentioned. This means that in each State today there is a concern about library conditions which there has never been before. People are talking about it. They are working on it. They are trying desperately to see what can be done.

I believe, I sincerely believe that if this legislation were to be passed that there would be a maximum and effective use of the money put at the disposal of these rural libraries. I believe that it would be a situation that would respond immediately and quickly, and that we would find that this 712 million for 5 years did a tremendous job for these almost 27 million people who do not have that service at the present time.

Librarians have been working toward a network of cooperating libraries. The larger public, State, and university libraries and those of standing institutions such as the Library of Congress, Harvard College Library, and the New York Public Library, all loan their books generously to other libraries on request for the use of individual patrons who would not otherwise have access to this material.

This interlibrary loan service has grown tremendously in the last few years, and is envisaged as covering the whole country if and when a cooperative network of libraries is available to serve as the request center.

At present the large number of people without libraries are outside this network, and, so, unable to make use of this rich storehouse of material which is available.

Once adequate service points have been established in these rural areas these 27 million citizens now without local sources, local library

service, will not only have access to their own local collections but will have at their disposal, on request, also the best material in print on any subject in which they may be interested. In other words, there is a potential here which far exceeds what will be made readily available to them through their own local community.

Before closing I believe I should say something about the difficulty of financing even such a modest program as this bill envisages. We are, of course, all aware of the large demands on public funds in a period when so much must be appropriated for defense purposes. I have two observations to make on this point.

First, we have no reason to expect that present conditions are going to improve soon. Apparently we are destined to live for years to come in a period of stress and strain and high taxes. We are just becoming more or less used to it.

Second, adequate library service represents an important contribution to the strength and stability of the Nation.

Now in this connection I would like to remind you of the part played by libraries in the recent war effort when men and women surged into our technical departments, for instance, for material that would assist them in training for special war work. We simply were hard put to supply the demand. We had, of course, a large influx of the war industries, and the Government agencies stepped up their use of libraries tremendously because of their need of special services which public libraries could render.

But, most important of all, it seems to me, when libraries were available the rank and file of our people were able to keep themselves informed with regard to the war and its conduct, and, so, were able to understand the problems of the Government at a time which called for mobilization of our total strength.

And I believe we have to consider this within the framework of the emergency through which we are going today: libraries are a necessity if we are to keep our citizens informed and ready to take their part in the democratic kind of government which we all approve and enjoy.

Our free libraries, together with our free system of education, are tremendously important today in keeping the spirit of America strong during the troubled times through which we are passing.

Can we afford to let almost 27 million Americans continue without local library service?

That, sir, is the close of my formal statement.

Mr. LANDRUM. Do you have any questions, Mrs. Green?
Mrs. GREEN. Yes; I have 2 or 3.

Coming from the Northwest, I am delighted to see another person from the Northwest area, and such a very fine representative.

I had a question, Mr. Chairman, in regard to the charts. Would it be possible to take pictures of these and get them down and insert them in the record?

May I say that if it is mechanically possible, may I ask unanimous consent to insert them?

Mr. LANDRUM. That would be up to the organization presenting them, if they are able to present to the committee photostats of the size that could be put into the record.

Mr. RICHARDS. I did not quite get your question.