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Mr. EISENHOWER. No, sir; we do not. The Superintendent of Documents sells them. If he has a balance in his account, which he does have at the end of the year, he deposits it in the Treasury.

Mr. JUMP. There is a very substantial income from these publications. The United States gets the benefit of it.

CONTENTS OF YEARBOOK

Mr. CANNON. What about this criticism that Congressmen receive to the effect that the Agricultural Yearbook repeats a great deal of the material carried in former yearbooks?

Mr. EISENHOWER. The only part that is repeated is the statistical section, and of course, that is necessary.

Mr. CANNON. That is necessary in order to bring it down to date. Mr. EISENHOWER. Yes, sir. We have tried to reduce the Yearbook still further by cutting out certain statistical tables. We have effected quite a large reduction in the past. Now when we drop a statistical table we receive a flood of protests. We have to spend more money in explaining to people why we cut it out than it would cost to print it. There is a section of the book called "What's New in Agriculture", which contains only new information. It so happens that the law authorizing the Yearbook requires us to publish in it something of value to farmers in all sections of the country. We must have some information that will apply to actual farming operations in every region of the country. It would be possible to publish an entirely different kind of year book, but it might not fulfill that particular obligation.

ALLOTMENT OF PUBLICATIONS TO MEMBERS OF CONGRESS

Mr. THURSTON. What would be your idea about changing the method of allotment, so that a certain amount of publications, in value, would be made available to the Member, and permit the Member to select the publications that he desires? For instance, the city Member might want cookbooks, whereas the rural Member might want something dealing with agriculture.

Mr. EISENHOWER. I doubt if that would be satisfactory. First of all, the Department does have the obligation of making available to the people of the country information on all of its projects. As for the cookbook, we have received as high as 1,000,000 requests a year for it. If we printed all of those bulletins, we would not have the money necessary to publish such a bulletin as the one on tick eradication, or other bulletins on vital subjects.

Mr. THURSTON. I mean to have each of the 435 Members credited with what he is entitled to, so that each Member can order such publications as he desires within that amount.

Mr. EISENHOWER. We do try to supply the kind of bulletins that the Members want. I do not think, however, it is quite right to follow that as an absolute rule. If you should exhaust your quota by ordering cook books, some constituents might wish to have a bulletin on the method of controlling bovine tuberculosis. I think that we must control the expenditures so as to cover all those different subjects. Mr. JUMP. As I understand your idea, you would have it made like the stationery allowance, upon which you would draw the publications. I think that might be a very good system from the standpoint of the Member of Congress, but the great difficulty there would be in

printing, if I visualize correctly how it would work. If it were furnishing something like pencils or typewriter ribbons, the articles would always be standard stock, but the difficulty here would be that the Public Printer would never know what publications the Member of Congress would want to order. If he had to meet the requests for publications up to a certain value, he would have to go back and reprint the particular bulletins called for that he did not have on hand. He would have to reprint them, because he could not always get them out of a stock, and that would entail an extra expense that someone would have to bear.

Mr. SINCLAIR. In my State they want crop reports and they want the Agricultural Yearbook. My quota of the Yearbook has long since been exhausted, and I am unable to supply them.

Mr. EISENHOWER. I see your point now, Mr. Thurston. The Joint Committee on Printing has studied the question of allocation of publications to Senators and Representatives every year from the beginning of its history. I understand that it has even considered the possibility of lumping everything together, covering the publications of all the Government departments. The rural Member will want agricultural publications, while some other Members will want publications of the Department of Commerce. Actually what does happen is that there is a lot of swapping done on the outside.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1934.

LIBRARY, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

STATEMENT OF MISS CLARIBEL R. BARNETT, LIBRARIAN

SALARIES AND EXPENSES

Mr. SANDLIN. We will take up the item for the library, Department of Agriculture, which is as follows:

For purchase and exchange of books of reference, law books, technical and scientific books, periodicals, and for expenses incurred in completing imperfect series; not to exceed $1,200 for newspapers, and when authorized by the Secretary of Agriculture for dues for library membership in societies or associations which issue publications to members only or at a price to members lower than to subscribers who are not members; for salaries in the city of Washington and elsewhere; for official traveling expenses, and for library fixtures, library cards, supplies, and for all other necessary expenses, $87,812, of which amount not to exceed $63,738 may be expended for personal services in the District of Columbia. Miss Barnett, we will be very glad to hear from you on the estimates for your activity.

Miss BARNETT. The following is presented for inclusion in the record:

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Increase, Budget 1935, compared with estimated obligations,
1934.

261

1 Includes $4,102 transferred to Department of the Interior in connection with building maintenance service.

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! There is an apparent increase of $852 in the working funds, as follows: A decrease of $498, which is the difference between $4,102 transferred to the Interior Department for building maintenance service covering the period Aug. 10, 1933, to June 30, 1934, and $4,600 dropped from the 1935 estimates for the Department of Agriculture as the amount covering this item for an entire fiscal year, the service now being rendered by the Interior Department.

An increase of $1,350, due to an error in compilation.

The reduction of $12,411 below the appropriation for 1934 consists of

Impoundment of 63% percent of 15 percent pay cut..

Curtailments in 1934 working funds.

Transferred to the Department of the Interior (full-year basis). 5 percent salary restoration..

Error in compilation..........

-$4,708

-7,964

-4,600

+3, 511

+1,350

-12, 411

WORK DONE UNDER THIS APPROPRIATION

This appropriation is used for four main purposes, as follows: (1) For the acquisition of publications needed in the work of the Department; (2) for the work of entering these publications in the permanent catalogs and other records of the library; (3) for the reference and bibliographical service necessary to make these publications readily available to users of the library; and (4) for the circulation of material to Department workers and to other libraries and research institutions of the city, and particularly to the State agricultural-college and experiment-station libraries.

EMERGENCY FUNDS APPLICABLE UNDER THIS HEADING

An allotment of $2,650 under the Civil Works Administration has been made to the library for the rehabilitation of library collections. These funds were made available and will be obligated during the fiscal year 1934.

Miss BARNETT. On the basis of the authorized withdrawals from the Treasury in the fiscal year 1934, the figures for 1934 and 1935 show very few differences, aside from the increase of $3,511 for the purpose of restoring the salaries to 90 percent of their full basis and the transfer of $4,102 to the Department of the Interior to cover the cost of cleaning which was formerly borne by the library. In justice to the library, we need to look below the surface of the figures to compare the amount available for the purchase of books and periodicals for the years 1934 and 1935 with the amounts for the 2 previous

years.

35962-34-4

COMPARISON OF AMOUNTS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE OF BOOKS AND PERIODICALS

In 1931 and 1932 the amount available for books and periodicals, after deducting the amount necessary for running expenses, was $29,300. In 1933 this amount dropped to $22,700, a loss of $6,600 compared with the two previous years. This was due to the fact that in that fiscal year the library was moved to its new quarters, and it was necessary to spend a large amount for new equipment and repairs. As the stacks for the library were not ready, we had to spend between $2,000 and $3,000 for temporary wooden shelving.

In the fiscal year 1934 it is estimated that the amount available for books will be $2,000 less than in 1933. Thus the amount available will be approximately $8,600 less than in 1932.

In the fiscal year 1935, on the basis of the present estimates, the amount available for books will be approximately $9,500 less than in 1932.

The depreciation of American currency also affects the purchase of books. The periodicals which were ordered for the library for the calendar year 1934 cost us $1,100 more than the same periodicals cost us for the calendar year 1933. This amount added to the $9,500 loss previously explained represents a total loss to the library for the purchase of books and periodicals of more than $10,000, or about one third less than in the years 1931 and 1932.

It seems important to bring out these facts, because, of course, the scientists cannot purchase from their personal funds all the books that they need in their work. It is necessary, therefore, for scientific institutions to have adequate libraries. With the increase in the number and cost of scientific publications, the increase in specialization, and the increase in the number who need these publications, scientific libraries find it difficult to meet the demands upon them. They often receive bitter complaints when unable to supply the books that are wanted by the scientific workers, and if the workers cannot obtain them, they feel that obstacles are placed in the way of research.

In the case of libraries occupying strategic points as regards their service to scientific research, the harm which can easily be done through curtailment of funds can be repaired only with great difficulty, particularly in the case of the purchase of periodicals which must be obtained currently in order to keep files complete. We believe that the library of the Department of Agriculture occupies one of these strategic points in the field of agricultural research, because of the importance of its collections and because it serves not only the department but the State institutions. Reduction in funds, therefore, is felt not only by the Department but also by the institutions cooperating with the Department, particularly the State agricultural colleges and experiment stations.

NATURE OF BOOKS AND PERIODICALS IN LIBRARY

Mr. SINCLAIR. Mr. Chairman, I presume I ought to know, and no doubt the older members of this committee do know, what constitutes the library of the Department of Agriculture. Are they all scientific books that are in your library?

Miss BARNETT. Scientific, technical, and economic books.

Mr. SINCLAIR. And they are gathered from all over the world, are they?

Miss BARNETT. We aim to get all the scientific publications connected with agriculture issued by other scientific institutions throughout the country.

Mr. SINCLAIR. And you get scientific periodicals from other countries, as well as from the United States?

Miss BARNETT. Yes; we do.

Mr. HART. And in different languages?

Miss BARNETT. In different languages; yes, sir.

Mr. HART. Do you translate them?

Miss BARNETT. The library does not translate the publication, but the various offices have workers who are able to use these publications in different languages. The library itself does not do translating.

Mr. HART. If you should fall short, for instance, of some special publication that was needed, is it not possible to obtain it from the Congressional Library?

Miss BARNETT. Our library supplements the Library of Congress in the subjects in which we are interested. We do not duplicate unless the publications are used so frequently that it is not feasible to depend on the Library of Congress. It must be taken into consideration that there are many departments of the government that are making use of the Library of Congress.

Mr. HART. Yes; that is true. I was just referring to the possibility of a missing reference book or publication that you might need, and I thought you might supplement your service by picking it up down here.

Mr. JUMP. We do that. They use the Congressional Library freely.

Miss BARNETT. Yes; we do. The Library of Congress gives us wonderful service. It delivers each day to the library the books that are requested by the Department the previous day.

Mr. JUMP. The books that we only need occasionally we get from the Congressional Library. The books that are in use continuously we could not expect that Library to furnish.

Miss BARNETT. We also make great use of the Surgeon General's library.

TRANSFER OF FUNDS TO DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Mr. SANDLIN. I notice you have a transfer here to the Department of the Interior of $4,600.

Miss BARNETT. That was for the cleaning.

Mr. SANDLIN. That is for service that is now being rendered by the Interior Department?

Miss BARNETT. Yes, sir.

ALLOTMENT OF C.W.A. FUNDS

Mr. SANDLIN. I notice that your justification states:

An allotment of $2,650 under the Civil Works Administration has been made to the library for the rehabilitation of library collections. These funds were made available and will be obligated during the fiscal year 1934.

That does not show any appropriation at all, does it?

Miss BARNETT. No; it is just an extra allotment.

Mr. SANDLIN. You feel that you need all of this money that you

have requested, do you?

Miss BARNETT. I do, indeed, and more.

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