University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The Impact Of Federal Legislation On Academic Libraries

Low, Edmon

Content Files
Low3340.pdf

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/1531

Description

Title
The Impact Of Federal Legislation On Academic Libraries
Author(s)
Low, Edmon
Issue Date
1966
Keyword(s)
Federal aid to libraries --United States
Date of Ingest
2007-07-16T19:09:14Z
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.
Publisher
Graduate School of Library Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Series/Report Name or Number
Allerton Park Institute (13th : 1966)
ISSN
0536-4604
Type of Resource
text
Genre of Resource
Conference Paper / Presentation
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1531
Copyright and License Information
Copyright owned by Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 1966.

Owning Collections

1966: Federal legislation for libraries PRIMARY
Allerton Park Institute Proceedings (no. 13, 1966); Edited by Winifred Ladley