FROM: AG

TO :

INTER-OFFICE CORRESPONDENCE

' 4' 1943

COMMENTS :

SUBJECT:

Interview of AG with Mr. K. D. Metcalf, Pres. Amer. Library Assn., and
Col. Jones of

the Surgeon General's Library - March 26, 1943

  Jones says Surgeon General's  Library started about 1803 - first 60 years'
history unimportsnt - John Billings cane to the Library in 1865 and left in 1895
and the excellence of the collection an6 the scope of work are monmcnts to BIs
intelligence and ability.                                     Ellen he
left in 1895 the Library was managed by a succession of Army officers with pre-
3umably literary tastes and interests.
but he did not become the librarian.

Billings started the Index Medicus in 1880.

Fielding Garrison grew up with the

Library

In 1930 the Library begun to suffer from inauer;uate government support - +he

Index catalog was suspended  1932-35 for this reason.  It had taken the best ener-
gies and most of the Library staff nnd when Jones took over
were considerably disintegrated in the absence of any system for their care or ac-
cession.
1940 and
public, of intcrnal management and of accessions, md Jones states that Putnam was
right .

in 1935 the collections

Jones saw Putntua (Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Librsry of Congress)  in
he told Jones that the Librhry was in a bad way in point of serving the

A new building was authorized in principle in 1938, expectedb cost $3,753,000.

This money was not voted, however.
and working drawings, and Eggers and Higgins of Mew York mkde these plans on ex-
pected cost of qb3,750,000 - size of building 279x206.  Discussion then raged on sub-
ject
Medical center and the second group in favor of its location in the City of Washing-
ton and near the Library of Congress.  The District of Columbia autiiority for parks
and  planning and the D. C. Fine Arts  Commission approved the plans the the hearings
on the locstion were parttlped

reorganization - now he doubts this order of procedure and indeed thinks that a study
by a group to be appointed by the kmer. Library dssoc. should be maue bearing on re-
organization and policy.

In 1939, $130,000 was voted to

prepare plans

of location of the building, one group in favor of its loccLtion at the Army

                 as o December 7, 1941.

Jones said he thought at first that the building should come first and then a

  At present Jones has leased 1/2 of
as a protection for the old, rare books.
been transferred, but the full number has not yet been sent to Cleveland.

the Allen Memorial LibrRry in Cleveland
Beginning July 1, 1942 some 60,000 hhve

Surgeon General's Library - - -

2

  Library personnel Jones says totals about 60 plus eight in Cleve1:md.
Many of  these are on Civil Service appointment. The microfilm activity is in-
creasing as are all of the Library's public services. Accessioning has been
a hit and miss affair until receti'7. r.
profeasional library trairling out of the staff of 60 - Jones is vague on his
information regarding numbers of persons on library staff but says that the
payroll is $215,000 a year.

There are not more thm 18 persons with

Jones is 65 and has had no library training but has been on the job for the
                                                 would like

past seven years.
any survey made to be published,  Says that the Surgeon Generd has approved a
survey and publication thereof provided the survey is not made upon any condi-
tions of permission to request or secure further funds fro1nCongress.  Jones has
no objection to surveyors studying the situz.tion intimately and getting full in-
fornation from librcry staff.

He wants to have a policy established - indeed he

The Army Medical Center in Washington has its own librtlry of about 30,000

volumes and the Army has no wry direct motive for lavish support of the Surgeon
Generals'
micrifilming as done at the SGL.
justify either the size of the SGL or its budget.
of being a national medical library with a now irreplaceable collection of medical
literature.

Library except for services they obtain in the way of lending books and

Jones believes that actual Army use does not

Its main claim is rather that

Metcalf says ALA would collaborate gladly in making a survey.

Surveys have

been done of the Chicago Public Library and for the Universities of Florida,
Georgia, and Indiana. M. SRYS at this time some librarians have mple free time
to devote; some others would be v:ry busy, but he believes n competent survey group
could be secured,

I

told Jones that if the FlF were to make an appropriztion it

would preferably

to submit the

be made to the ALA and that the application should coiire fron the Am. on the
initial formal request
matter to the Board on or before the June Executive Committee meeting and the.t
the date line for the proposal would have to be the 5L? of May.

of Col. Jones, an6 that I would he prepared