Naval History and Heritage Command

MEMORANDUM

TO: Director Naval Historical Center

FROM: Navy Department Library

SUBJECT: Present Conditions and Plans to Enhance the Library's Service to the Navy, the Naval Historical Research Community and Related Interests

1. Library services to the Navy Department, the Defense and Military Departments have continued at approximately the same rate as for previous years. Services to other federal agencies, the academic community and the Public were provided at a rate similar to earlier years.

2. For the library user, the current trend of levying service fees for interlibrary loans is becoming a significant expense item for extended research projects. We are now processing a far greater number and variety of requests from college and university libraries than in the past. This situation is aggravated by the fact that a growing number of major universities are now charging for filling interlibrary loan requests. For example, Cornell University now has a minimum charge of $5.00 per request, while Yale University charges borrowing institutions a minimum $8.00 per request. The implication of such policies for federal libraries is obvious. At present we charge no fee for interlibrary loans nor is such a policy anticipated. Consequently, more and more libraries are depending on federal resource libraries such as ours to fulfill expressed needs. A further implication of this charge-for-service policy is that which occurs when it becomes necessary for us to tap (via the interlibrary loan process) the resources of an institution that charges for such a service. Generally these institutions require payment with the request. For us this becomes awkward since we have no ready source of funds to use for such matters and interlibrary loan requests fill a fairly immediate need and cannot be put off pending necessary processing of vouchers. Serious consideration must be given to the establishment of a "petty cash" fund to meet such exigencies.

3. Special Projects completed or underway since 1975

a. The War at Sea: France and the American Revolution A Bibliography was published in April 1976 in time for the christening of the destroyer (DD974) Comte de Grasse by Madame Giscard d'Estaing in May.

b. Preparation of circulating copies of major segments of the U.S. Naval Administrative Histories of World War II.

c. Preparation of a draft of "An Annotated List of Pre-1700 Imprints in the Navy Department Library" as sample treatment of the Library's rare and unique materials in book-catalog form.

d. Conversion of some 4000 titles to the Library of Congress system including a substantial part of the Rare Book Collection made possible by temporary help hired for this purpose.

e. Arranged for participation for this Library and other Naval libraries in the Ohio College Library Center System. Participation by other Naval libraries is on their own initiative.

4. Projects planned for ensuing months

a. Completion of the annotated Catalog of Rare and Unique Materials held by the Navy Department Library. This will entail the descriptive listing of some 3000 printed works and approximately 2000 manuscript or typescript items or related groups of material.

b. Cataloging of a unique collection of some 50 cubic feet of materials relating to the Navy's participation in the exploration of Antarctica. Included are the reports of various foreign national teams. This collection, gathered by Dr. Henry Dater, over a period of 25 years, were rejected by the Center for Polar Archives because they were not United States government records. A small sample of titles was searched in the Antarctic Bibliography; no more than 30 to 50 percent were recorded there. This material when processed will supplement the Library's holdings relating to the Navy's interests and operations in exploration, particularly Polar Exploration.

c. Expansion of the Navy Department Library's participation in the Ohio College Library Center System by the installation of the Tycom Label-Maker for the preparation, simultaneously with catalog card production, of spine labels for cards and pockets.

d. Full utilization of the OCLC system potential will;

(1) Eliminate the typing requirement of the cataloging function.

(2) Eliminate alphabetizing of catalog cards.

(3) Drastically reduce searching in the National Union

Catalogs and similar resources for previously prepared catalogue copy.

e. It is now estimated that 75% or more of new titles acquired and titles to be converted to the Library of Congress system will be located in the OCLC data base of some 3,000,000 titles. This Data Base, through the efforts of the 600 member libraries is growing at an estimated 3000 titles per week.

/s/ Walter B. Greenwood

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