A History of the Farmington Plan

Front Cover
Bloomsbury Academic, Apr 19, 2002 - History - 464 pages

In 1942 an advisory board to the Library of Congress drafted a proposal for a national program of cooperation among research libraries, aimed at acquiring "at least one copy of every book published anywhere in the world, which might conceivably be of interest to a research worker in America." Each participating library would acquire books in its assigned subject areas, catalog them, and send cards to the National Union Catalog. And thus was born the Farmington Plan, which began operation in 1948 under the sponsorship of the Association of Research Libraries. In 1972, nearly a decade after a two-year investigation revealed the project was failing, the plan was abandoned, but the concept of cooperative acquisitions of foreign library materials remains viable under several other programs today.

A chance encounter with a long forgotten copy of The Farmington Plan Handbook led Ralph Wagner to investigate the most famous "failed experiment on library cooperation." The result of Wagner's decade of research is the first in-depth study of the plan's shortcomings and achievements. A History of The Farmington Plan is at once a history of the term itself and the numerous connotations attached to it. Includes copious references to archival sources previously unavailable.

An informative read for students of library history and for anyone involved in consortium development. Useful as a basis for understanding the growing phenomenon of international cooperation among libraries.

From inside the book

 

Contents

Prologue
1
Mr Justice Story
7
The National Library Collection 18761920
15
Copyright

21 other sections not shown

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A History of the Farmington Plan
Ralph D. Wagner
No preview available - 2002

Common terms and phrases

acquired acquisitions program American libraries American Library Association ARL Farmington Plan ARL meeting ARL minutes blanket orders booksellers Boyd brary budget Center central classification Cooperative Acquisitions copy cost country assignments country responsibility coverage dealers discussion duplication Edwin E Europe European evaluation faculty Farmington Plan agents Farmington Plan Committee Farmington Plan Letter Farmington Plan Office Farmington Plan Survey federal fields foreign acquisitions funding goal Harvard Ibid included ington Plan interest interlibrary loan January January 27 Latin alphabet Latin American LC's librarians Library Association library cooperation Library of Congress Library Resources library's literature MacLeish Metcalf microfilming national bibliographies national collection National Library National Union Catalog needs Newsletter NYPL organization participating libraries percent plan's problem program of subject proposal published receipts received research value SALALM selection Subcommittee subject assignments subject responsibility tion tional titles UC Berkeley University Library Verner Clapp Vosper Williams York Public Library

About the author (2002)

Ralph D. Winter has served as a Peace Corps volunteer librarian at Northern Illinois University, Western Illinois University, Eureka College (Illinois), and Westfield State College (Massachusetts). Currently he is a freelance writer.

Bibliographic information

TitleA History of the Farmington Plan
AuthorRalph D. Wagner
PublisherBloomsbury Academic, 2002
ISBN0810842599, 9780810842595
Length464 pages
Subjects › 

History / Reference
  
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