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.
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MPACT Scores for Sarah Jordan Miller A = 0
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calculated 2008-01-31 06:01:54
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