Relation of the Federal Government to Research 



Memoranda and Reports 



This is a miscellaneous group of publications, in- 

 cluding most of the publications of the Copyright 

 Office, memoranda on the bibliographical identification 

 of certain rare issues of newspapers, a compilation of 

 the popular names of Federal statutes, an account of 

 international exchange of Government publications, in- 

 formational circulars regarding the Declaration of In- 

 dependence and the Constitution, reports on the "Star 

 Spangled Banner," "Hail, Columbia," "America," 

 "Yankee Doodle," etc. 



Activities Benefiting Other Libraries: 

 Printed Catalog Cards, and 

 Cooperative Cataloging 



Many of the fruits of its own organization and ex- 

 perience can be freely passed on by the Library to 

 other members of the library world. This is chiefly 

 true of matters in which the results are susceptible of 

 publication. Some of these (e. g., the classification 

 schedules, the lists of subject entries, etc.) have already 

 been mentioned above ("Publications in Library Econ- 

 omy"). Two activities, however, undertaken directly 

 for the benefit of subscribing libraries, convey to them 

 currently the results of the cataloging and classification 

 performed in the Library. 



The Card Division 



It is obvious that if a printed catalog card is pro- 

 duced in conformity with a generally accepted stand- 

 ard of cataloging, then this card may be used for its 

 catalogs by any library owning the book which this 

 card represents, without incurring the actual expense 

 of the cataloging process. And since the catalog card 

 bears at the same time a notation indicating its classi- 

 fication, this expense, too, may be saved by the sub- 

 scriber. The desideratum of such a central cataloging 

 bureau was the object of negotiations and experiments 

 by the American library world from 1850 till 1901, 

 when the establishment of the printed catalog card 

 service of the Library settled the question in its broad 

 outlines. The Card Division is the agency which 

 determines how many copies of the card are to be 

 printed, stocks it, and supplies copies of it at cost to 

 libraries and individuals desiring it. The cards now 

 in stock number more than 105,000,000, representing 

 about 1,500,000 separate titles. The regular subscribers 

 to the service number more than 6,000, and the annual 

 sales approximate $275,000, completely paying for the 

 service. Large as this sum is, the saving to the sub- 

 scribers must be measured by the difference between 

 the few cents which is the price of a card, and the 

 dollars which the separate cataloging of the book 

 would have cost. 



The existence of a stock of printed cards represent- 

 ing very largely the items in the general classified col- 

 lections of the Library makes possible several other 

 important features of the service of the Card Division. 

 One of these is the maintenance of depository sets of 

 cards at various regional centers; 73 such catalogs are 

 r.ow established (exclusive of partial sets in United 

 States governmental libraries) including 17 in foreign 

 countries. Another feature is tlie possibility offered 

 for the rapid assembly of titles in any particular sub- 

 ject by pui'chasing cards en bloc within any specified 

 field. 



Incidentally, this card distribution system has done 

 anuch to systematize and improve the standard of cata- 

 loging in libraries throughout the United States. 



Cooperative Cataloging and 

 Classification Service 



Soon after the distribution of the printed catalog 

 cards was begun, it became apparent that a consider- 

 able proportion of the books acquired by libraries 

 throughout the country are not represented in the col- 

 lections of the Library of Congress and catalog cards 

 for them would have to be prepared by the libraries 

 themselves. Such cards began to be printed and dis- 

 tributed by the Library as early as 1909. In 1932 this 

 service was extended to include a project for the 

 "analytical" cataloging of monographs in scholarly 

 serial publications, including such collections as 

 Migne's "Patrologia" and the "Monumenta Germaniae 

 Historica." The desire of libraries to have the decimal 

 classification added to the printed cards resulted in a 

 project first sponsored by the American Library Asso- 

 ciation then transferred to the Library of Congress. 



The several undertakings in cataloging and classifi- 

 cation carried on in behalf and in cooperation with 

 other libraries were brought together in 1934 in the 

 Cooperative Cataloging and Classification Service. 

 The Service is charged with the revision of copy pre- 

 pared by cooperating libraries and the application of 

 the decimal classification. Over 6,000 new cards yearly 

 result from this work and decimal classification num- 

 bers are supplied for about 34,000 books. 



Other Special Services to Other 

 Libraries and to Investigators 



Interlibrary Loan 



Under the sj'stem of interlibrary loans the Library 

 lends certain books to other libraries for the use of 

 investigators engaged in research. The loan rests on 

 the theory of a special service to scholarship which 

 is not within the power or the duty of the local library 

 to render. Its purpose is to aid research calculated to 



