Legibility of Library of Congress Cards and Their Reproductions

REPRODUCTION in book form of the Library of Congress Catalog of Printed Cards by the photolithoprint process, a project nearing completion by the Association of Research Libraries with the technical aid of Edwards Brothers, is an achievement which undoubtedly advances solution of some of the serious problems involved in library purchase, maintenance, and use of this important tool. By October 1945 it is expected that all subscribing libraries will have received the complete set of I 76 volumes of this work, containing reproductions of approximately two million Library of Congress cards. Library demand for these volumes already exceeds available supply, and Edwards Brothers plans to reprint the entire work after the war if enough subscriptions are obtained to support a second edition. A supplement to the present edition, to be published immediately after the war, is definitely projected.1 To assure proper distribution of the reproduced printed catalog outside the United States, the Rockefeller Foundation has contributed $3 7 ,500, through a grant to the American Library Association, toward the cost of producing this work. In describing the project, the foundation explained that "expenses for supplying an entire set of Library of Congress cards formerly averaged about $7000. Present procedure, which leaves data from the cards still entirely legible and available in familiar book