The Impact Of Federal Legislation On Academic Libraries

Abstract

Federal aid to libraries is a fairly recent phenomenon in the library field. Librarians began their first serious bid for some funds to help extend library services to rural areas just after World War II and, after about a decade of effort, succeeded in getting the first Library Services Act in 1956 which thus became the first of a considerable body of federal legislation dealing with libraries of various kinds. As I try to describe the impact of the various bills on a particular type of library in this instance, the academic library an important consideration must be kept in mind; namely, that a bill for one area which paves the way for or influences the action on a subsequent bill relating to another area provides an impact on this second area which is just as vital and real as if the bill had been originally designed for that area. This certainly is the case with the Library Services Act. Then few seemed really interested in libraries: no administration would put the item in its budget, sponsors had to be searched out and persuaded, and even many of our friends were hesitant to come out and vote for libraries, partly because many still did not realize what books and libraries could do and what they could mean to people. Apparently almost no one at that time anticipated how popular library legislation would become, and it was not until about five years ago, when the extension of the Library Services Act was voted out of the House Rules Committee by the most overwhelming vote ever given such a measure in the House, that people in and out of Congress, including the Administration, suddenly realized it was a popular thing to support libraries. From there on, library bills have multiplied and have been Administration bills, and the question has been not whether or not to support, but how much and how wide the application will be.

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