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Dissertation Information for Sarah Jordan Miller

NAME:
- Sarah Jordan Miller

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Library and Information Science

SCHOOL:
- Columbia University (USA) (1979)

ADVISORS:
- Oliver L. Lilley
- Richard L. Darling

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Phyllis Dain
- Susan Otis Thompson
- Margaret Frances Stieg
- Jane Anne Therese Hannigan

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: THE DEPOSITORY LIBRARY SYSTEM: A HISTORY OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS TO LIBRARIES OF THE UNITED STATES FROM THE EARLY YEARS OF THE NATION TO 1895

Abstract: The depository library system in the United States, having
continuing importance for libraries in their acquisition and use of
government publications, bears the imprint of distribution policies
developed during the nineteenth century. The library community
contributed significantly to shaping those policies, including those
going into effect in 1895.
Laws dating from the first years of the federal government
provided for the distribution of government publications. Some of
the legislation contained provisions for distributing the publications
to libraries, an 1813 enactment, the first with such provisions,
authorizing sending certain congressional publications regularly to
specified types of institutions. Additional distribution occurred
through ad hoc legislation for selected publications. Congress, on a
number of occasions beginning in 1817. directed distribution of
copies of the publications to libraries.
The distribution of congressional publications underwent a
change with a series of laws passed from 1857 to 1859. The laws,
providing for the designation of depositories on the basis of
congressional districts and for the states at large, brought within
the distribution system a wider range of libraries than had been
encompassed by the 1813 enactment.
Further modification occurred with the Printing Act of 1895.
Retaining from the 1857-1859 laws the congressional-district basis
for the designation of depositories, the Act provided, also, for
distributing a variety of publications to the depositories, setting
standards for them, selling publications, compiling catalogs and
indexes, and establishing within the Government Printing Office a
Superintendent of Documents office charged with the sale of publications
and their distribution to depositories. The Act, greater in scope
than any previous distribution legislation, instituted a new and
comprehensive program.
An examination of the history of the distribution of government
publications to libraries gives insight into the distribution policies
and practices in effect during the nineteenth century, the influence
of these on the growth of library collections of government publications,
and the significance of library developments to the century's distribution
legislation. New light, in addition, is thrown on various matters
on which assumptions have been made. No legislation, for instance, for
distributing federal government publications to libraries existed before
1813. Nor did the Library of Congress regularly distribute the
publications: this responsibility, prior to the creation of the Superintendent
of Documents office, was assigned first to the Department of
State and then to the Department of the Interior.
The 1853 Librarians' Conference takes on new significance.
Action taken in response to a resolution which the Conference adopted

precipitated
Congress' first move toward revising the distribution system
of 1813, a move which resulted in the legislation of 1857-1859.
Social and cultural conditions together with those of a
political and economic nature had a bearing on the century's
distribution policies. Certain individuals played important roles
in distribution matters. Timothy Pickering was instrumental in
bringing about the first legislation for the distribution of government
publications to libraries. In the last decades of the century
Melvil Dewey, Samuel Swett Green of the Public Library of Worcester,
Massachusetts, and Richard R. Bowker were among those encouraging
"reform" of the distribution system then existing. John Griffith Ames,
supervising the distribution of publications to libraries from 1874
to 1895, advocated, throughout that period, passage of new distribution
legislation.
Developments in libraries and librarianship had a significant
impact on the distribution policies which went into effect, with the
provisions of the century's distribution enactments invariably
showing evidence of the influence of library needs and interests.
The provisions of the 1895 Printing Act paralleled closely the
recommendations which had emanated from the library community in
preceding years, and the program which the Act began was one which the
library community had largely formulated.

MPACT Scores for Sarah Jordan Miller

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-01-31 06:01:54

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Students under Sarah Jordan Miller

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None