Mrs. GRIFFITHS. The need continues great in Michigan not because of a lack of interest and self-help. The development of library facilities has suffered equally as much as the development of adequate school buildings.

We have had a library-assistance program in Michigan since 1937, and great progress has been made in the intervening years. But the question today is one of finance and not lack of appreciation of the problem.

Michigan is now spending approximately $400,000 on its library program. The addition of Federal grants would enable Michigan to expand its program to a great degree.

In addition to aiding rural areas, this legislation will help bring library benefits to those fringe areas around our fast-growing urban

centers.

This is particularly true of my district which includes the northwest part of Detroit and the communities of Livonia, Northville, Plymouth, Redford Township, Plymouth Township, and Northville Township. Much of this area is outside the Detroit city limits and has seen tremendous growth in recent years.

The communities of Plymouth and Northville and the townships of Plymouth and Northville are in need of additional library service, and would qualify for assistance under this proposed legislation.

This program of library aid offers a unique opportunity to Congress. With its passage we can give great stimulation to cultural advance

ment in our nation.

While there has been great progress in many areas of endeavor in recent years, this nation has let its attention to education and library facilities falter.

Libraries are a principal adjunct to our educational system. Every citizen should have access to the information a library affords. An informed citizenry is one of our best bulwarks of freedom and libraries serve a vital function in this area.

The fact these bills vary authorization for a modest annual grant-inaid program is another proof there is no intent to take over or influence library administration.

The selection of books and materials, personnel, and administration is left unfettered in the hands of local and State authorities.

It is my sincere hope that the committee will give favorable consideration to this legislation.

Mr. LANDRUM. Are there any questions?

Mr. METCALF. I have no questions, Mr. Chairman, but I wish to thank our colleague for the splendid statement and a very informative one as to conditions in her own district.

Mr. LANDRUM. Mrs. Green?

Mrs. GREEN. I would also thank the Congresswoman from Michigan for this statement as to the needs in Michigan.

And, also, may I comment, Mr. Chairman, on the nice addition to the members of the committee this morning?

Mr. LANDRUM. I was about to comment on that.

If Mrs. Griffiths would bear with us just a moment, I understand this is the sixth grade of the Walter Reed School from Arlington, Va., with Miss Virginia Tindall as teacher.

Am I correct?

Miss TINDALL. That is correct.

Mr. LANDRUM. I believe Mrs. John Forsythe is accompanying the group also. Her husband, I understand, was at one time counsel for the Committee on Education and Labor.

We might add that certainly it is a distinct pleasure to the members of this committee to have you young citizens visit us, and to know that you are becoming interested in the welfare of our country at such an early age in your lives.

You have just come in during the period that Congresswoman Martha Griffiths of the State of Michigan has presented to this committee her views with regard to a bill that has been introduced in the House

of Representatives to provide for the authorization of money to support public libraries in rural sections.

It might interest you to know that the way a bill gets to become law is it is first introduced by some Member of the House. It is referred to an appropriate committee. There are 19 standing committees. Bills pertaining, such as we have this morning, to education, which you boys and girls participate in every day, are referred to the Committee on Education and Labor.

This present committee is a subcommittee of the main committee appointed and directed by the chairman to hear testimony in relation to bills introduced by various members of Congress.

As this record is made the bill will be reported either favorably or unfavorably to the full committee, and acted upon by the full committee, and then, if reported favorably, will go to the House of Representatives, and, there, be debated, and, if passed upon favorably by the House of Representatives, will go over to the Senate and receive the same treatment that it has received in the House.

If it meets all of those tests, then it becomes law. And, by that time, you boys and girls might be ladies and gentlemen, and you will be participating in it.

We are glad to have you here.

Thank you, Congresswoman Griffiths.

Mrs. GRIFFITHS. Mr. Chairman, I think they would be interested to know that in the State of Michigan the way that we first helped libraries a long time ago was to permit you to pay to keep from fighting the Indians, and that money went for the libraries.

Mr. LANDRUM. Thank you, Congresswoman.

Our next witness, I believe, is Mr. John Richards, vice president and president-elect of the American Library Association, and librarian from the Seattle, Wash., Public Library.

Mr. Richards, will you take the stand and identify yourself for the record, please, and proceed.

STATEMENT OF JOHN RICHARDS, DIRECTOR, SEATTLE PUBLIC LIBRARY, SEATTLE, WASH., AND PRESIDENT-ELECT, AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

Mr. RICHARDS. Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, I am John Richards, director of the Seattle Public Library, which is the largest public library in the State of Washington, and one which will not benefit directly under this bill.

I am here as an official representative of the American Library Association in my capacity as president-elect of the association. And may I say that the American Library Association, a nonprofit organization, has a membership of over 20,000 librarians, trustees, and friends of libraries, and has, since its organization in 1876, worked very hard for library development throughout the entire country.

I have a prepared statement which I believe has been given you people, and I shall keep more or less closely to it.

I should like to start out by giving a little idea of the place of the public library in America.

The free, tax-supported library, where it has been well supported, is recognized as an integral part of the public education in its various communities where it exists.

The library has supplemented and worked with the public schools in each community so that the children of each community shall have an integrated book program in school and out. The public library takes over during the summer, for instance, with its reading program. During the year the school classes come in for lessons. And, all together, the situation is such that the library is recognized as a part of the educational program, and the children use it very extensively. Actually, of course, the public library has been a bulwark against juvenile delinquency, and it has been a positive force against the comic-book problem which has come to the fore rather recently.

We realize that modern education does not depend on one or even the few textbooks, but tries to have students use as many sources of information as possible. And this development of public education has meant that school libraries and public libraries have been harder pressed as far as use is concerned in recent years.

The public library, of course, is the one opportunity for all adults, regardless of the amount of their formal education, to carry on continuing education throughout life. And I think you will agree that never in the history of the Nation have adults needed unbiased information more than they need it today.

With the many complex problems facing our people today, the national welfare requires, I think, that a well-stocked library, as a kind of headquarters for unbiased facts, be available to all our people.

The library in a sense is an essential agency in an urgent effort to insure that our democracy has educated citizens aware of and understanding the serious problems which face the Nation and the world. Where libraries are available people are making continuous use of them. The use of libraries for informational purposes has grown tremendously in recent years. The well-stocked library is rapidly becoming the first source the citizen uses when he needs help in the solution of his day-to-day problems or when he needs to get an understanding of the complex world in which he lives.

The almost universal coverage of the mass media-and by that I refer to radio, television, and cheap print-has greatly increased the business of the public library. Almost everyone today has access to the statements and opinion which bombard him from headlines and from loudspeakers. Since much of this is confused or contradictory in some cases, the citizen needs a source to which he can turn for reliable facts. The public library is such a source and is being used increasingly in this connection.

Now as the educational level of the community rises more people use libraries. And, of course, I might mention that at the present time our high schools have an enrollment of over 72 million, and our colleges-212 million.

We in the public libraries definitely have been able to trace a great increased use because of the work which we do with the people in formal education.

Unfortunately, many citizens are denied this essential service. Approximately 27 million people in the United States are without access to local public-library services of any kind; 90 percent of these people are in rural areas. They live on farms or in small villages. Some of them are in the fringe areas around large cities, and areas affected by defense activities and other Federal projects.

Of the approximately 3,000 counties in the United States, 404 do nothave a single public library within their borders, and in only 3 StatesDelaware, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island-does local public library service reach every resident.

So you can see that this problem is not spotty. It really covers the entire country.

After careful study, the American Library Association has found that it takes $1.50 per capita to render even minimum library service, and that this minimum applies to a community having at least 25,000 population. In other words, a community with less than 25,000 population cannot do the job on $1.50 per capita. Actually it has been estimated that an operating budget of at least $60,000 per year is necessary if good standards are to be maintained and good service is to be given.

Now of the approximately 7,500 public library systems in the United States, 29 percent are struggling along with less than $1,000 to spend a year; 60 percent with less than $4,000, and 77 percent with less than $10,000.

So, to this almost 27 million people without any library service, we have, of course, to add other millions which have very poor service, service which in some cases is hardly worthy of the name library service.

This is a rural problem, as has been indicated. In rural areas throughout America many of them are unable to finance good service because of sparse population and tax limitations. Many of these communities cannot raise the money necessary to provide good library service. The States, through their library extension agencies and local communities, have been striving to remedy this poor coverage for many years. As a matter of fact, some of the State agencies go back 60 years in their attempts to get good library service for their people. And still we are far behind, as the figures show.

The American public library is a small service agency of Government, as compared with the large policymaking or law enforcement agencies, and by the very nature of its service it does not attract or provide reasons for pressure group legislation in competition for the tax dollar.

So, whereas in large urban areas we have been able to do a good job in some cases and a fair job in others, in a large part of the rural areas we simply have not done the job at all.

I have some charts here which I am not sure you can see from up there, but I hope you can.

This one represents the operating expenditures per capita for local public library service, and is arranged by States with West Virginia at the bottom with 19 cents per capita, and Massachusetts at the top with $2.10 per capita.