By GAIL FINEBERG
In the fall of 1992, the Library of Congress's Collections Policy Office invited other divisions to propose projects aimed at enhancing the Library's holdings of material by and about minority groups.
Hartley Walsh, Collections Policy librarian, coordinated the division's projects and their recruitment of volunteers to identify the Library's current holdings, search for items missing from the shelves and identify additional books, serials and recordings needed for the Library's minority collections.
Vivian Bellinger-Biggers, a senior cataloger in the Literary Section of the Copyright Office, has been compiling a list of materials for young readers on African American scientists. "This bibliography will be distributed to librarians and teachers," Ms. Bellinger-Biggers explained. "We hope the material will provide young African-Americans with role models and may encourage them to pursue science careers."
Since November 1992 Ms. Bellinger- Biggers has spent 12 hours per week searching the Library's stacks and data bases to identify current holdings, comparing them with those in local libraries. She ordered many special searches to find missing items and consulted publishers' catalogs and other sources such as Vivian Sammons's Blacks in Science and Medicine, for potential acquisitions.
"Fortunately, because of the past efforts of individuals in the Science and Technology Division, information on the subject of African-American scientists is better represented in the Library's collections than we thought," Ms. Bellinger-Biggers said. "I've reordered missing materials and discovered new items, some of which I'll use in compiling a Library of Congress 'Science Tracer Bullet' [literature guides on specific topics published by LC's Science and Technology Division] on African- American scientists for younger readers. We've targeted this guide especially for use in school systems and after-school programs.
"Working on this project has been a wonderful experience for me," she continued. "I've had a chance to access different data bases, meet and talk to knowledgeable individuals both in and outside the Library and review print sources and bibliographies that I didn't know about. I've also learned quite a bit about the Library's many catalogs and collections.
"I hope the information we're providing in our guide will bring our resources to more people's attention and that teachers and librarians will purchase some of the materials listed for their media centers and school libraries," she added.
Meanwhile, Gail Austin, a senior serials cataloger in the Serial Record Division, who is on detail to the Science and Technology Division, has nearly completed her "Science Tracer Bullet," called "African- American Women in the Sciences and Related Disciplines." She too has conducted an extensive search for items buried in the Library's collections and elsewhere. To find these materials, she consulted indexes, journals, bibliographies and copyright records.
Ms. Austin sought advice and information from a variety of organizations and individuals, including the National Science Foundation and the Association for Women in Science. She contacted Gloria Gaymon, author of 215 African American Women You Should Know About, who provided her with a copy, and Janet Sims- Wood, of the Spingarn Center at Howard University, who provided Ms. Austin with several of her bibliographies, which proved extremely useful. Ms. Austin also contacted Audrey Daniel, national coordinator of Minority Women in Science (MWIS) at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, who, after hearing about her project, invited her to speak to the MWIS meeting in Boston on Feb. 14.
Added Ms. Austin: "The listing includes books and articles on several professional groups, including minority nurses, mathematicians, even black female dentists. Libraries, teachers and many nonprofit organizations are anxious to receive such bibliographies. We'll distribute our lists through the depository library system and distribute copies for use at schools' 'career days' and provide pamphlets in the Library's Science and Technology Reading Room."
Geraldine Ostrove, a senior policy specialist in the Cataloging Policy and Support Office, is also focusing on women's contributions in her assessment of the Library's current and potential holdings in women's music. The category covers a broad range of music types, such as "feminist," "lesbian" or "ritual" music, in addition to more common stylistic categories of jazz, vocal, instrumental, gospel, etc.
"The Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division believes there are hundreds of sound recording publishers -- especially the smaller ones -- who have failed to comply with copyright law, which requires that two copies of each recording be deposited with the Library," Ms. Ostrove explained. "For example, I've searched on the [Copyright Office History of Monographs file], and MUMS [the Library of Congress's cataloging data base] for every item in the 'Ladyslipper' mail order catalog, which specializes in many types of music by and about women. We have less than 25 percent of their recordings.
"But just trying to identify manufacturers of individual recordings can be tricky," she continued. I've had to cast a wide net to find them."
Since last October, Ms. Ostrove has spent many hours searching data bases, poring over catalogs, tracking down manufacturers, checking the Library's holdings and recommending items to be ordered. As part of this project, she intends to make online records to enter in the MUMS data base for sound recordings that are on order.
"If patrons can gain information on recordings before they're received or cataloged, they'll know what's coming in or might be available elsewhere," Ms. Ostrove said. Catherine Garland, head of the Processing Section in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, "came up with the idea and is helping to shepherd it through. I think it will go a long way toward informing both patrons and library personnel of what's available."
Since January, William Collins, chief of Copyright Cataloging, has been examining the Library's holdings on Baha'i faith. Baha'i is a worldwide religion that emerged from Islam in mid-19th century Iran. Mr. Collins, the author of the extensive Bibliography of English-Language Works on the Babi and Baha'i Faiths, relies heavily on the experience and contacts he acquired as the director for 13 years at the International Baha'i Library in Israel.
On the whole, the Library of Congress has reasonably good holdings on the Baha'i faith in English, both original works and in translation, but we have relatively few of the many original works written in Persian or Arabic, especially of Baha'i scriptures. I plan on researching those next," he said. (The Library generally limits its acquisitions to primary or scholarly works in their original language or English translations or both.)
"Many Baha'i publications are difficult to find because publications are not always listed under 'Baha'i' in bibliographies, so it takes a lot of digging to find titles," Mr. Collins added. "I've requested 40 recent titles from publishers' catalogs, but that's just the tip of the iceberg."
Although a few catalogs and indexes are published by Baha'i publishing trusts in such countries as India, Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia, many works on and by members of this faith are not widely publicized. In some areas of the world, and in Iran, where the faith is repressed, works either cannot be published or book stocks have been confiscated.
"I learn a lot about what's out there by talking to my contacts back at the center, miscellaneous pamphlets we receive here from bibliographies in published works and from friends who hear about new titles coming out," Mr. Collins said. "Some original works by Russian authors are starting to come out now; it's a challenge trying to keep up with it all."
The Baha'i faith claims about 6 million members in 205 countries and territories throughout the world. There are about 120,000 members in the United States."The Library has not collected all translations of the Baha'i sacred texts as it has for other major religions," Mr. Collins said. "I hope that ... we will be able to acquire more of this material."
Finally, Eniko Molnar Basa, a cataloger in Serial Record, and Ken Nyirady, a senior reference librarian in the European Division, will begin in August to survey Hungarian- American newspaper holdings at LC and other libraries. Ultimately, they hope to list more than 300 titles (not all of which will be available at the Library) on a data base in the European Reading Room and in hard copy for patrons' use.
"I believe that most of the Library's holdings represent the period before World War II, when immigration to this country was at its height," Ms. Basa said. "Later, the Hungarian communities became assimilated and eventually dispersed, and many of the Hungarian-American community newspapers went out of business. The Library's periodical collection in this area is more extensive."
"I believe that, as a rule, the Library of Congress does not include ethnic-American newspapers in its collections," Mr. Nyirady added. "We hope to acquire some of them retrospectively, on microfilm, in the future."
These pilot projects could lead to other efforts to assess and enhance holdings throughout the Library's collections. "We're the link between the collections and the people with their individual research needs," explained Constance Carter, the SCience and Technology Division's head of the Science and Reference Section. "So much valuable information is buried here, hidden under broad classifications in indexes or misplaced on the shelves. And of course, there are many titles that we don't have but should. That's why these guides are so important."