Relation of the Federal Government to Research 



249 



gress or their committees. During 1937, 20,555 requests 

 were handled. Book rooms with attendants and select 

 reference collections form the depots for the reception 

 and return of books in the several office buildings 

 (Senate and House) of the Members, while a depot 

 (the Capitol station) in the Capitol Building is con- 

 nected by tunnel with the Library. Delivery of books 

 is made via this tunnel (1,200 feet long) by a mechani- 

 cal carrier (time required for passage, 3 minutes). In 

 each book room an adequate reference collection is 

 maintained to care for such reference questions as may 

 be quickly answered. 



Congressional Reading Room. — The Congressional 

 Reading Room is set apart for the use of Members of 

 Congress (Senate and Hbuse) visiting the Library 

 m person, and is equipped with a reference collection 

 and organization sufficient to meet all but the most 

 specialized demands.- 



Legislative Reference Service. — The Legislative Ref- 

 erence Service is the only division of the Library whose 

 declared function is assistance exclusively to Members 

 of Congi-ess or their committees. It was established 

 in 1914 ; its purpose, as originally designated by law, is 

 "to gather, classify and make available, in translations, 

 indexes, digests, compilations and bulletins, and other- 

 wise, data for or bearing upon legislation, and to render 

 such data serviceable to Congress and Committees and 

 Members thereof." More recently Congress added the 

 specific function of preparing and publishing digests 

 of the public general bills introduced in either House, 

 and a "digest" is accordingly issued at intervals during 

 each session. 



The activities of the service closely follow the cate- 

 gories mentioned in the statute : 



1. Collection of material. Assistants are assigned to the 

 study of matters likely to become the subject of legislative 

 inquiry, in order to gain familiarity with the ninteiiai and the 

 sources of Information. A clipping file of leadiuK political, 

 economic, and statistical journals is maintained on subjects of 

 recurrent interest; and further data is assembled on points 

 of special significance. 



2. Classification of material. Classification and indexing are 

 important preliminaries to the ready location of information, 

 espoiijilly in matters of legal reference. Many special indexes 

 are riiei-tme prei)ared and maintained as part of the routine of 

 the service. Four indexes in particular, however, of the high- 

 est importance not only to Congress but to all who require a 

 knowledge of American law, have been authorized by statute 

 :ind issued in published form. These are: 



Index analysis of the Federal statutes, 1789-1931. 2 v. (1908 

 1911). 

 Index to the Federal statutes, 1908-1933. 1 v. (1933). 

 State law index (biennial). 1929- 



' For special service rendered by Law Division, see p. 239, The Law 

 Library of Congress. 



The digest of public general bills carries a subject index 

 of pending measures ; and the final cumulative issue for each 

 session includes an author list of Members of Congress. 



3. Furnishing information. Inquiries submitted to the service 

 are numerous and diverse (4,792 in 1937). Many of them 

 can be answered directly by recourse to the special indexes or 

 flies or special knowledge of the personnel. Many others re- 

 quire investigation, study, and often compendioiis report. Fre- 

 quently the results of such research commend themselves to 

 the inquirer as worthy of publication and they are conse- 

 quently made available as separate congressional documents, 

 or, more often, are inserted in the Congressional Record, or 

 in hearings and reports on pending legislation. Typical in- 

 stances of the first sort are the following : 



Documents illu.strative of the formation of the Union of the 

 American States. 1927. 1,115 p. 



Provisions of Federal law held unconstitutional by the Su- 

 preme Court of the United States. 1935. 200 p. 



Taxation of incomes, corporations, and Inheritances in Can- 

 ada, Great Britain, France, Belgium, and Spain. 1925. 277 p. 



War taxation of incomes, excess profits, and luxuries in cer- 

 tain foreign countries. 1918. 128 p. 



Occasionally the service has been asked to undertake 

 research with a view to publication, as is the case with 

 the revision of the Annotated Constitution, authorized 

 by Senate resolution and now in press. 



The facilities of the Legislative Reference Service 

 are also frequently availed of to supplement the official 

 drafting services of Congress, especially in furnishing 

 precedents of Federal, State, and foreign legislative 

 practice. 



The Chairs 



The Chief Aid to Research is the Human Aid. — In 

 the interpretation of our collections and in the use of 

 the apparatus the most valuable aid is that which might 

 be rendered by an expert familiar with them, who is 

 also a sjiecialist in the subject itself; for it is the knowl- 

 edge of the subject matter that distinguishes such an ex- 

 pert from the technical staff of cataloguers, classifiers, 

 bibliographers, and reference assistants. The knowl- 

 edge necessary is therefore that gained by education, 

 training, and experience in the particular field of re- 

 search involved. It is that of the professor who has 

 taught in it, or of the investigator who has himself 

 done research in it. The employment of specialists 

 would be neither for teaching nor personal research ; it 

 would be rather for the interpretation of the collec- 

 tions, and guidance in their use. 



A corps of such specialists — representing the various 

 major fields of research — adds to the resources of a 

 library, and aids even the mature investigator in the 

 use of its collections; and the Library's service is dis- 

 tinctive in that it couples that knowledge of the sub- 

 ject matter and of the problems and methods of re- 

 search in it with the knowledge of the collections and 



122999—39- 



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