The Annual Report of the Librarian of Congress for 1993 has just been released for public acquisition. It was submitted to Congress earlier by Librarian James H. Billington and accepted by the legislative body.
The report, for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 1993, describes the Library's activities in its three buildings in southeast Washington, D.C., and in national and international outreach programs.
Of particular note in the Librarian's report is the high level of service to the 103rd Congress, which included 129 new members. The Congressional Research Service, the arm of the Library that works exclusively for Congress, provided service to every member and every committee of the legislative body during 1993, responding to more than 615,000 congressional requests.
During the year, the size of the Library's collections grew to 104,834,652 items, while 27,456,787 items were processed, cutting the backlog of uncatalogued items by 18.2 percent.
Two major exhibitions, "Rome Reborn: The Vatican Library and Renaissance Culture," Jan. 8 through April 30, and "Scrolls from the Dead Sea: The Ancient Library of Qumran and Modern Scholarship," April 20 through Aug. 1, together attracted some 400,000 visitors.
April saw the beginning of new electronic access to the Library's bibliographic databases and other records over the Internet. Early in the fiscal year, the Library of Congress News Service began offering information about the Library to computer users dialing in over telephone lines. The News Service received more than 10,000 calls in 1993.
The Development Office provided guidance for obtaining private support to offices throughout the Library. In fiscal 1993, the Library received a total of $8.4 million from private donors, foundations and corporations, a 74 percent increase over the amount received in fiscal 1992.
The year also saw the opening of the Library of Congress Child Care Center on Capitol Hill after years of work for its establishment to serve children of legislative branch employees.
The Exchange and Gift Division celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1993. The Division has established official exchanges with all the nations of the world and amassed the most comprehensive collection of foreign official government documents found anywhere.
Also during the year, items relating to Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Richard Rodgers and Jerome Kern were added to already unsurpassed holdings of American theater materials.
The Manuscript Division received the papers of U.S. District Court Judge John J. Sirica, who presided over court cases that led to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon in 1974.
Columbian historian Germ n Arciniegas gave the Library a collection of research documents of the Vespucci family of Florence from the 14th century through the Renaissance.
The Americas were named after Amerígo Vespucci.
The Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape acquired recordings of three noted women authors, Rosa Chacel, Soledad Pu‚rtolas and Rosa Montero, who were recorded in Spain.
These and other Library activities are described in the 1993 annual report. The paperbound publication is available from the Superintendent of Documents, PO Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954, for $4.75. Cite stock number S/N 030-000-00260-1 when ordering.