Relation of the Federal Government to Research 



251 



vision; he is responsible for the custody, and mainte- 

 nance of its several collections; for the informational 

 services in comiection with them, both by personal in- 

 terview and by correspondence; for the discharge of 

 the obligations of the Library under the Pennell, 

 Hubbard, and other bequests. He cooperates with the 

 National Park Service and the American Institute of 

 Architects in accomplishing the Historic American 

 Buildings Survey, and other projects toward "an appre- 

 ciation and understanding of the fine arts." 



4. Chair of Aeronautics (Division of Aeronautics). 

 Established November 1929, by the Daniel Guggen- 

 heim Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics. 



The Chair of Aeronautics was made possible at the 

 same time, and from the same source, as were the 

 purchases of the several great collections of aei'onautic 

 literature which, with the Library's existing collection 

 of material, were segregated in the Division of Aero- 

 nautics. The exploitation of this unique collection, 

 its proper utilization toward the solution of the tech- 

 nical problems involved, its contribution toward the 

 advancement of the industry and the national defense, 

 required its organization and interpretation by one 

 who should be more than bibliographically expert in 

 the literature of aeronautics, but who should also be a 

 specialist in the engineering and scientific problems. 

 The incumbent of the Chair of Aeronautics has a re- 

 sponsibility, thei-efore, not only toward the historical 

 aspects of his subject as represented in its literature, 

 but also toward its application and development in 

 so far as these may be forwarded by research in that 

 literature. These responsibilities are discharged by 

 interview, correspondence, and publication, by the prep- 

 aration of bibliographies and indexes, and by the inves- 

 tigation and analysis of actual aeronautical problems. 



5. Chair of Geography (Division of Maps). Estab- 

 lished February 1933, by Mr. James Benjamin Wilbur. 



The foundation of the Chair of Geography was in- 

 tended to secure to one of the largest map collections 

 in the United States the services of a professional 

 geographer. The incumbent of the Chair has not only 

 the administrative responsibility for the collection, but 

 also has competence to make authoritative investiga- 

 tion of the problems upon which map data may be 

 brought to bear. His advice in such problems as are 

 raised by boundary disputes, the determination of ge- 

 ographical names, mapping and surveying projects, 

 geographical aspects of international relations, certain 

 aspects of census enumeration, etc., may be of deter- 

 mining importance. For such advice and aid his serv- 

 ices are often required by the Legislative and by many 

 agencies of the Executive Branches of the Government, 

 by many public and private bodies, and numerous 

 individuals. 



The Consultants 



The idea which actuated the formation of a staff 

 of Consultants was the same as that behind the endow- 

 ment of the Chairs — with this difference: Each chaii', 

 for which the comijensation is a combination of Gov- 

 ernment stipend with the income of an endowment, 

 has full administrative responsibilities in the conduct 

 of a division of the Library, and a subordinate staff'; 

 and is necessarily subject to the requirements conven- 

 tional in the government service. It seemed possible 

 tluit without these responsibilities, and in a relation 

 largely exempted from such conventional requirements, 

 a number of men might be secured for the advisory 

 relation alone, content to receive for it a compensation 

 \shich would be scarcely more than an honorarium. 

 They might be drawn in part from among the teachers 

 in colleges and universities retiring under some age 

 limit, or investigators similarly retiring from researcii 

 work; they might even be younger men still desiring 

 to pursue some research of their own which might 

 proceed concurrently with the service to the Library. 



In addition to the assistance - which, as experts in 

 their fields, the Consultants are able to render directly 

 to students and investigators, their aid is of great im- 

 Ijortance in the purely bibliothecal activities of the 

 Library- — in the selection and purchase of books, in 

 the development of the classific9,feion, in the determina- 

 tion of problems of cataloging and in interpreting the 

 collections. 



The first Consultantship, in Hispanic literature, was 

 established in April 1928 by Mr. Archer M. Huntington, 

 wlio had previously provided a fmid for the purchase 

 of books in this field. Other Consultantships have 

 been made possible by grants from the General Educa- 

 tion Board and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. 

 In the absence of other funds, and to fill a susceptible 

 need, a number of scholars have expressed a willing- 

 ness to serve in the same relation, though without any 

 formal connection with the staff. These are the Hon- 

 orary Consultants. 



Consultants are now available in the fields of history, 

 political science and public administration, economics, 

 church history, Hispanic literature, Romance litera- 

 ture, philosophy, poetry, bibliography, cataloging and 

 classification, library practice, classical literature, mili- 

 tary history, musicology, paleogi'aphy, Roman law, 

 sociology, and Chinese history and culture. 



Publications 



The publications of the Library fall into several 

 groups: (1) texts, (2) bibliographical guides to special 

 fields of study, (3) bibliothecal manuals and com- 

 pendia, (4) bibliographies, catalogs and lists, and (5) 



