Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-05-30
LIKED BY LIBRARIANS
The Bill to Reform tho Publication Of
Public Documents.
Passed by the House and Now Await
ing Action by the Sem
ato Committee.


now in the hands of the Senate committee
on printing. and while the average citizen
Is not particularly interested in 1t. the H.
brary fraternity Of the whole country il
giving 1t earnest and united support. In
conversation with Star reporter gen.
tleman familiar with the conditions which
the proposed measure is intended to i'm
prove talked Interestingly upon the sub
ject.
For years past" he said. 1.-The American
Library Association has had a standing
committee on public documents, and Its
reports a the annual meetings and the fol-
lowing discussions have been a feature that
has filled a large space in the annual me-
moars OF the body. 1t Is of no special in
terest to the ordinary citizen to know that
the government printing Office Is the larg-
est publishing house In the world. and that
Its publications are Issued according to
methods which have no counterpart else
where. If he gets the one book he wants
he cares very little whether the same book
may be issued In a variety of other editions
or whether the preceding and succeeding
numbers Of the same series are 30 issued
that no family resemblance is shown in
thelr outer appearance. These eccentrici-
ties are however, Of great importance to
the librarian. for he must know everything
that Is published and In what series it be-
longs. Every variation from the accepted
methods of publication in which he has
been trained Increases his labors and in
the public documents these variations are
so numerous that, as Mr.. A. r. Spofford
Librarian of Congress. says in a letter to
the printing committee concerning the bill
III. X. S237). they have long been the ter
ror of librarians and the despair of all try
ing to consult the documents And he
ADDS that no one except an expert giving
his whole time to the business, could pos
sibly keep up with them or successfully
hnf 70
trustees Of the Boston Public Library at
present the best equipped library in the
country, In a communication on the same
subject, say: Under the present methods,
the labor Of tracing material Is so great
mat TO insure against omissions there will
De necessary in a library like this the con-
slant service Of an attendant who shall
90 nothing else but trace the government
publlcatiors and apply for such as do not
come In ordinary course
Librarians Greatly Perplexed.
IF all libraries We're as able as the Con-
gressional and the Boston Public to enjoy
special librarians to give their whole time
to the pIblic documents the need of re-
form In the methods of publication would
Eot be SO pressing" he continued. But as
matter of fact, nearly all libraries are
poor ana struggling institutions, with over
worked ana undermanned staffs, to whom
the perpleXities of the public documents
are burden Of the severest kind. They
must receive the documents, partly because
they get them free and partly because. as
works OF reference, they are necessity 10
every general library. But the libra rians
who understand them are very few About
seven hundred libraries are now regularly
supplied from Office in WASHINGTON
ana they get from this source, on the aver
age, fully one new book every Gay In the
year. A considerable percentage of the
librarians frequently write to Washington
10 complain that they have not received
inns or that document, which had been
sent to them long before. The trouble Ia
that the books are so disguised In various
bindings, numberingS, letteriags volumes
parts, supplements, appendices ard what
not, ana under the names of 10 many de-
partments, bureaus. commi Ssions offices
and surveys that the unfortunate libraria ms
cannot find them even when they are right
under their noses. This is SO very common
SO very well informed about most things
that the stories that might truthfuliy be
told about 1t would hardly be credited.
Present style of Publication.
ut would be wearisome to undertake to
tell here the many particulars in which
the methods Of publication of the public
documents differ from ordinary methods,
and the description would necessarily be
too technical to be clear. Suffice 1t to
say that most Of the annual reports are
printed in four editions. which bear so
little esemblance to each other in the
covers and title pages that nobody could
by these guides alone be sure they We're
the same books. The edition which is sent
TO the Libraries is worse than any of the
others for library use. being bound in
sheep, which most modern librarians de-
test, and in a numbered series, by which
every imaginable subject is grouped in one
numerical arrangement, and the subject ar
rangement which every modern librarian
wishes to make of his books is made i'm
possible. except by breaking up the nu-
merical arrangement and scattering the
consecutive numbers all over his shelves
THE present objectionable methods Of
publishing the public documents were not
devised by anybody They are growth.
They were not SO much out of the way
when the number of publications was
small and the number of libraries in the
country smaller still. 1t has long been rec
ognized that the old methods have been
outgrown. and should be changed, but not
till bill H. r. 1927 was framed had any
plan been devised which met with general
acceptance as promising to produce the
needed Improvements without any increase
OF work or cost.
What tho New Bill VIII Do.
1.-The new bill. of course. is somewhat
technical. but, broadly stated, this is what
1t will do said tho gentleman in conclu-
sion: I'll will take the annual reports out
Of the numbered congl essional document
series, and thus make them available for
library classification. 1t will cause the
publications Of each department and of
each Independent bureau and commission
to he bound always in distinctive color,
so that identification will be immediate
and easy. 1t will require the outside let
terng to relate to the subject matter of
the book. 1t will require each bound book
to have a title and a date on its back. 1t
will require the outside lettering and the
title page of every public document TO be
the same OIL and in every copy of that
document 1t will provide that there shall
be but o, e edition Of any public document,
except reprints, and If a reprint that fact
must be stated on the title page. These
are the most important provisions, and
simple as they appear, they would COM
pletely revolutioniZe the present methods
of publication, and make that which here
tofore has been complex and puzzling here
after simple and Ineligible"
The bill las the approval of the public
printer, the foreman Of printing, Ainsworth
r. Spofford, librarian of Congress: DR..
John G. An es. for many years superin ten
dent Of dc cuments; Mr.. VIM. ]. Rhees, for
forty years in charge Of documents in the
Smithsonian Institution: Senator Mcmillan,
Representative Taft, Henry NJ. Utley, De-
troit Public Library: DIR. James K. Hos
mer, Minneapolis Public Library; Warren
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