By John Y. Cole
Though the Library has grown into the world's largest repository of knowledge ever assembled, a national resource relied upon not only by Congress but by Americans everywhere, its survival was not always so certain.
The institution has grown sporadically, not steadily, between 1800, the year of its founding, and this Bicentennial year. In fact, its fate was often cloudy during the 19th century, and its future direction was frequently debated in the 20th. A "Top 15" list of the most crucial years in the Library's 200-year history follows:
1814
In arguing for the purchase by Congress of his personal library to reconstitute the Library of Congress, recently destroyed by the British, ex-President Thomas Jefferson provides a rationale for the development of a comprehensive, even universal, library: "There is, in fact, no subject to which a member of Congress may not have occasion to refer." After its purchase in 1815, Jefferson's library becomes the base for the expansion of the Library's collections and services and "altogether a most admirable substratum for a National Library."
1852
In four different bills, two approved by President Millard Fillmore and two by President Franklin Pierce, Congress votes to rebuild the Library, which was severely damaged by an accidental fire in the Capitol on Christmas eve, 1851. The elegant new fireproof Library room opens in the west front of the Capitol in 1853.
1865
In his first year as Librarian of Congress, Ainsworth Rand Spofford obtains approval for the expansion of the Library into two new fireproof wings and for a change in the copyright law that requires the deposit of copyrighted materials in the Library. In the next two years, Spofford fills the new wings with the 40,000-volume library of the Smithsonian Institution and Peter Force's incomparable Americana collection.
1870
Congress approves Spofford's proposal to "promote the public interest" by centralizing all U.S. copyright deposit and registration activities at the Library of Congress. The Library will receive two copies of all copyrighted items, ensuring the future growth of its Americana collections.
1897
In February, as the Library prepares for the move into its first separate building, Congress approves an administrative reorganization and a staff increase from 42 to 108. In November the new building opens to wide acclaim from Congress and the public, establishing the Library as a prominent public institution on the national scene.
1901
In his second year as Librarian of Congress, Herbert Putnam makes service to other libraries a prime Library of Congress mission. New services include interlibrary loan and the sale and distribution of Library of Congress printed cards. Putnam also tells President Theodore Roosevelt that the Library will provide leadership "in uniformity of methods, cooperation in processing [and] interchange of bibliographic service."
1925
Prompted by a generous gift and endowment from Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, Congress approves the creation of the Library of Congress Trust Fund Board, enabling the Library to accept and administer gifts and bequests. Librarian Putnam hails "a new era" that will enable the Library "to do for American scholarship and cultivation what is not likely to be done by other agencies." The first festival of chamber music, held in the new Coolidge Auditorium, inaugurates a cultural role for the Library.
1946
The Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 expands and strengthens the Library's Legislative Reference Service and gives it permanent statutory basis as a separate Library department. As a "corrective" to the refusal of the House Appropriations Committee to grant a substantial budget increase and the committee's questioning of the Library's national role, Librarian of Congress Luther H. Evans asks reference director David C. Mearns to "explain the status of the Library" and "tell how it got this way."
The result, Mearns's The Story Up to Now: The Library of Congress 1800-1946, is published in the Library's 1946 Annual Report.
1958
Librarian of Congress L. Quincy Mumford establishes interdepartmental committees on "mechanical information retrieval" and on long-range space planning. Mumford presents the requirements for a third Library of Congress building to the Joint Committee on the Library. (The second building, the John Adams, opened in 1939.) The president approves an amendment to Public Law 83-480, which authorizes the Library to use U.S.-owned foreign currencies to acquire research materials abroad for U.S. institutions. With a grant from the newly established Council on Library Resources, the Library undertakes a one-year test of a "cataloging-in-source" program that will enable publishers "to print cataloging information in the books themselves."
1962
Responding to a memorandum addressing the Library's future prepared by Harvard librarian Douglas Bryant at the request of Sen. Claiborne Pell, Librarian Mumford strongly defends the Library's location in the legislative branch of government and points out that the Library "today performs more national library functions than any other national library in the world."
1965
The MARC (Machine-Readable Cataloging) office is established to begin work toward a standardized method for distributing cataloging information in machine-readable form. The first overseas office in the new National Program for Acquisitions and Cataloging is opened. National books-for-the-blind service is extended to include all people who are unable to read conventional printed materials because of physical or visual handicaps.
1975
In the Library's Great Hall, Daniel J. Boorstin takes the oath of office as Librarian of Congress. It is the first time such a ceremony is held at the Library and the first time that the president and vice president of the United States, the speaker of the House and other congressional leaders participate in the event.
1986
In extended testimony before Congress, Librarian Boorstin bluntly describes the severe effects that recent budget cuts are having on the Library, calling this "A Time of Crisis in Congress's Library, in the Nation's Library." His plea results in the restoration of a substantial part of the recently cut appropriation.
1989
After obtaining congressional consent two years earlier to establish the Library's first Development Office, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington creates the James Madison Council, the Library's first private sector advisory body and support group.
1994
Librarian of Congress Billington creates the National Digital Library Program in the Library of Congress, a pioneering collaborative effort to digitize and make available to the public on the Internet (www.loc.gov) millions of unique American history items from the vast historical collections of the Library of Congress and other research institutions.
Mr. Cole is director of the Center for the Book and co-chair of the Bicentennial Steering Committee.