12a

West Virginia-Art. XII § 1

The legislature shall provide, by general law, for a thorough and efficient system of free schools.

Wisconsin-Art. X § 3

The legislature shall provide by law for the establishment of district schools, which shall be as nearly uniform as practicable; and such schools shall be free and without charge for tuition to all children between the ages of four and twenty years

Wyoming-Art. VII § 1

The legislature shall provide for the establishment and maintenance of a complete and uniform system of public instruction, embracing free elementary schools of every needed kind and grade, a university with such technical and professional departments as the public good may require and the means of the state allow, and such other institutions as may be necessary.

Senator PELL. Our final witness is Prof. Edward G. Holley, dean, School of Library Science, the University of North Carolina, and vice president, president-elect, of the American Library Association.

Yesterday you spoke to us and gave excellent testimony with regard to the White House Conference on Libraries.

STATEMENT OF EDWARD G. HOLLEY, DEAN, SCHOOL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, AND VICE PRESIDENT, PRESIDENT-ELECT, AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

Mr. HOLLEY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am Edward G. Holley. I am vice president, president-elect of the American Library Association.

With your permission I will merely summarize my testimony because of the length of the hearings thus far.

Senator PELL. Your statement will be included in the record following your testimony.

Mr. HOLLEY. Let me say in terms of the emphasis today, which is the categorical versus general aid in educational matters, that I haveto reverse Shakespeare come to praise categorical aid and not to bury it.

I think the categorical programs for libraries have been highly successful. The American Library Association will certainly speak in terms of preserving the basic library programs as they are. I speak particularly in support of the extension in your bill of the elementary and secondary education title II program which extends through 1977, the program of school library resources, textbooks, and other instructional materials.

I would like to speak particularly of the matter of libraries and elementary schools and secondary schools. When I first went to Houston a decade ago, the city of Houston, which was a very large city, had virtually no elementary school libraries. Thanks to ESEA title II the city of Houston now has many elementary school libraries, but that is not true of the State of Texas as a whole, where 59 percent of the elementary schools still do not have school libraries.

Your own State, Mr. Chairman, does very well. Only 7 percent of the elementary schools in Rhode Island do not have libraries. On the other hand, for the information of the Senator from Vermont, 90 percent of the Vermont elementary schools still do not have elementary school libraries. I have a map here that shows the percentage of schools without libraries in each State. I ask that it be made part of the record at this point. There is a great deal still to be done

Senator PELL. We are doing also a very effective job in my State at times of raising money privately for public school, elementary schools libraries, to try to develop the libraries and this is being done I am not sure it is being done in every State-but it is being done in our State.

Mr. HOLLEY. I think one of the things that has happened in terms of ESEA is that the Federal act itself has led to additional private support and additional State support for school libraries. We would very much like to see that program continued. Indeed,, I would like to make a part of the record a study that the U.S. Office of Education did in terms of the impact of ESEA title II, which for some reason has

not been distributed widely, which shows that this program has been a highly successful program. The name of the study is "An Evaluative Survey Report on ESEA Title II." I ask that it be inserted in the record at the conclusion of my remarks.

I guess one of the things that disturbs me is the point of view that if a program is successful, it no longer needs to be continued. I do find that a strange bit of reasoning, I must say.

Senator PELL. You are talking about title III?

Mr. HOLLEY. I am talking about the title II library programs. In terms of the college programs, title II-A of the Higher Education Act is a program in which I have been very heavily involved as a member of the advisory council of the Office of Education and we often hear the comment: $5,000 does not make a lot of difference.

As you know, the Education Amendments of 1972 mandated the basic grants for library resources which was a very wise provision of Congress, in my opinion. I suppose it does not make a lot of difference to people who have grandiose ideas of how funding ought to take place. But in terms of small schools you mentioned the private sector; I was thinking about the library of Greensboro College, a very fine small college of about 1,000 students, basically a liberal arts college, and their basic grant from the title II-A program of the Higher Education Act of 1965 is roughly one-third of their library materials expenditures and through the provision of that program they have raised additional funds for libraries in that college.

I could repeat many examples like this and I have indeed repeated this in the statement so I will not continue with that. But I am pointing out the fact that for a relatively small amount of money in terms of the total appropriation for education, these funds have stimulated additional funds for libraries in institutions of higher education. I feel most strongly that this program ought to be continued.

I think that if it had been continued at the $25 million appropriation level we had for a year or two, within a decade we probably would have had adequate libraries in most places instead of mediocre ones.

I would like also to address myself to the problems of funds under HEA title II, particularly the funds for library education. Unlike some other disciplines which are overcrowded these days, with people who obtained graduate degrees which are no longer marketable, the doctoral programs in library science have not been in superabundance, if I may use that term. I have some data on that too in my statement.

So I would like to see continuation of those HEA title II-B fellowships. You mentioned yesterday, Mr. Chairman, the need for libraries to share what they have and to cooperate more. I have found that title III of the Library Services and Construction Act which is designed to encourage interlibrary cooperation among all types of libraries has done just that. The stimulus of Federal dollars, even though those dollars have been very few, has achieved a great deal in encouraging this kind of cooperation.

We have heard from other witnesses this morning about the need for adquate statistics and that continues to be a problem. It is amazing to me that on the eve of the bicentennial we have nothing comparable to the 1876 statistical compilation of the Office of Education on libraries.

It is very difficult to get adequate information on where we are in terms of libraries at all levels. For instance, the library statistics of colleges and universities, institutional data, last appeared in 1971. We have gone on, one year collecting data, the next year not collecting data and I certainly applaud that part of your bill which requires that the Office of Education shall set up a center for collecting accurate statistics in all kinds of areas of education.

Regionalization has been mentioned by a number of individuals this morning, and their impression is not different from mine, and that is that regionalization of the Office of Education has not been a helpful development. I would certainly concur with that.

Lastly, I would mention that the idea of a National Commission on Educational Policy Planning and Evaluation seems to me to be a good one and one that deserves the most careful study.

I do not know whether you have selected the right number of people or from the right groups or whatever, but as I have suggested from my testimony yesterday, I am heartily in favor of a discussion of what the Federal policy and the Federal role ought to be in education and libraries. I certainly applaud that part of your bill as a step in that direction.

I believe that is a brief capsule of my statement, Mr. Chairman. I do thank you for the opportunity to present it and will be happy to answer any questions.

Senator PELL. Basically, as I understand your testimony, you support the idea of the categorical programs that affect you, as giving you some direction in your funding and some other direction which you appreciate?

Mr. HOLLEY. I think that is precisely correct, Mr. Chairman. I believe I have heard my colleagues in the elementary and secondary area comment that in terms of administering the ESEA title II program, there have been very few problem areas. It has apparently been well administered. There are few criticisms from the nonpublic sector, which has also been involved, as you know, in this area. I would say that we have the same problem with everybody else who would wish there was more money available.

We think that these programs have worked well and lest that be forgotten I am happy to add this testimony at this point.

Senator PELL. Then in summary, do you support or oppose the administration's revenue-sharing education bill?

Mr. HOLLEY. I am not sure I speak for the association on this point, but I certainly speak for myself. It is unclear to me that administration's bill will advance the cause of education to any significant degree. Senator PELL. Speaking personally, then, you would oppose it or support it?

Mr. HOLLEY. I would oppose it.

Senator PELL. Now, if there is full funding of the categorical programs we have now, would that not relieve the crisis of your libraries around the country?

Mr. HOLLEY. Yes, indeed. In this evaluation of ESEA title II that was made by the Office of Education to which I referred earlier the point was made that if the funding had been adequate, we would have achieved the goals originally envisioned by the Congress for that program.

Senator PELL. Thank you. Thank you, indeed, Dean Holley for being with us.

I now order printed in the record at this point all pertinent material submitted for the record by persons unable to attend today's hearing. [The prepared statement of Dean Holley and other pertinent information supplied for the record follow:]