College and Research Libraries By R O B E R T B I N G H A M D O W N S Latin American Union Catalogs THE international character of bibliogra-phy and librarianship lends importance to all major efforts for recording published materials. Of particular significance are undertakings in this field for Latin America, because of widespread interest in Latin American books and the generally unsatis- factory state of national and trade bibliogra- phy in the countries south of us. In the course of their extensive trip in the summer of 1944 on behalf of the Ameri- can Library Association, H a r r y Miller Lydenberg and Carl H . Milam were im- pressed by the number and scope of bibliographical projects, especially union catalogs, in the countries visited. O n the basis of information supplied by these two travelers, complemented by correspondence with and reports from individual Latin American librarians, the present brief re- view has been prepared. T h e three United States libraries in Latin American capitals, operating with funds supplied largely or wholly by the United States government, are playing significant roles in the union catalog movement, for much of the current activity stems from these three sources. All founded in 1942, the libraries are the Biblioteca Benjamin Franklin in Mexico, the Biblioteca Artigas- Washington in Montevideo, and the Biblio- teca Americana de Nicaragua in Managua. Other noteworthy union catalog or union list enterprises are under way in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and possibly additional coun- tries about which no data were available. Beginning with our immediate neighbor, Mexico, the Biblioteca Benjamin Franklin is sponsoring a valuable project for serial publications. W h e n M r . Lydenberg first went to Mexico, in 1941, as director of the Benjamin Franklin Library, he found an urgent need for a union list of serials. Ac- cordingly, " E l Catalogo Colectivo de Pub- licaciones Periodicas Existentes en las Bibliotecas de la Ciudad de Mexico" was established in M a r c h 1943, under the direction of Rudolph H . Gjelsness and with financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation. T h e recently organized Comision Impulsora y Coordinadora de la Investigacion Cientifica has actively col- laborated with the undertaking. T o date, eighteen Mexico City libraries have been cataloged. All except one are in medical and biological fields. Omitting only newspapers, holdings have been re- corded of every type of periodical literature, including magazines, government docu- ments, pamphlets in series, and publications of societies, institutions, and congresses. T h e catalog is restricted to author entries. As for use, a statement from Harold W . Bentley, present director-librarian of the Biblioteca Benjamin Franklin, indicates that the catalog is being utilized for study and for professional research by students and graduates in medicine and biology, mainly in conjunction with the Quarterly Cumulative Index Medicus. T h e entries thus far recorded in the catalog are in process of publication and work is con- tinuing in Mexico City's scientific libraries. By the usual definitions, union lists rather than union catalogs are the chief contribu- tions of the Biblioteca Americana de Nicaragua. T h e principal example is A Bibliography of Books and Pamphlets Pub- lic COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES lished in Nicaragua (with 1942 or Earlier as Date of Publication), to Be Found in Certain Private Libraries of Nicaragua. Issued in January 1945, as the fourth pub- lication in the library's bibliographical series, the work records, with location sym- bols, 2663 titles held in six private collec- tions. These six are rated by the former director-librarian, Edward M a r t i n Heiliger (now in Santiago, Chile), as "among the best in Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua." T h e listing was made by a group of library staff members who visited and examined one collection after another. Among factors which induced the library to embark upon the project were the need for supplementing its small collection of Nicaraguan publications, the desirability of acquiring further knowledge of Nicaraguan books, and to encourage bibliographical work among Nicaraguans. All Nicaraguan imprints encountered, except periodicals, were recorded. Arrangement of the catalog is by author, with a subject index. In the short period since its appearance, the bibli- ography has proved its usefulness, especially as a staff tool for locating desired materials. Prior to publication of the bibliography, the Biblioteca Americana, in July 1944, issued another union list, Lista de Libros de Medicina, Folletos Periodicos, a r e c o r d of books, pamphlets, and periodicals pertaining to medicine available in the Biblioteca Americana, the headquarters office of the Sociedad Cooperativa de Sanidad, and the Escuela Nacional de Enfermeras. T h i s twenty-seven-page pamphlet, designed for the use of doctors and medical students, is arranged by subjects. A majority of titles originated in the United States, though there is a considerable sprinkling of Latin American imprints. Medical publications in the Managua libraries have increased to such an extent since the list appeared that a new edition is under consideration. As to f u t u r e plans, M r . Heiliger wrote that there are other libraries rich in Nicaraguan materials, especially in Granada and Leon, and probably these will be listed early in 1946. Each new issue published of the union catalog will show the holdings of items recorded in previous parts, as well as additional titles. On an average, over sixteen thousand persons are served each month by the Biblio- teca Americana. T h e patrons are prepon- derantly Nicaraguan, but a high percentage of requests for information comes from United States citizens, chiefly soldiers, in- terested in a variety of topics. T h e present director-librarian is Gaston L. Litton. Biblioteca Artigas-Washington T h e third of the three United States- sponsored libraries is the Biblioteca Artigas- Washington, in Montevideo, Uruguay. In J u n e 1945, this library began the com- pilation of a union catalog of works by United States authors and about the United States to be found in the principal libraries of Montevideo. At present the catalog is limited to author entries only. Both books and periodical publications are being entered. T h e problem of obtaining records of current accessions from each library is not yet fully solved. In the case of one institution, the University of Montevideo's School of Engineering, the information is received through current mimeographed lists of accessions. Symbols similar to those in G r e g o r y ' s Union List of Serials a r e as- signed to participating libraries. A r t h u r E. Gropp, the librarian, believes the union catalog will be of increasing value as it develops because of numerous requests for publications relating to the United States. M r . Milam reported there are many sub- stantial collections in Montevideo, with twenty thousand English books, it is said, in the National Library alone. J U L Y t 1946 20 7 Several other Uruguayan union catalog undertakings are deserving of mention. T h e National Library maintains listings of materials which it sends to libraries, created under its sponsorship, in the interior. Printed cards are issued for all items cata- loged ; the receiving library is supplied with sets of cards and duplicate cards are re- tained in the National Library's central file. T h e library school of the engineering association has devoted some attention to union lists. One student, as a thesis, pre- pared a list of "Periodical Publications in English in the Field of Medicine in Libraries of Montevideo," recording 133 entries found in three libraries. Another student wrote a similar thesis in the field of library science. Recently, an Association of Teachers of English was formed. Among the organization's first projects was the compilation of a list of materials, useful for the teaching of English, available in about ten libraries of Montevideo. Still another hopeful sign is the establishment of an official library school. T h e law creating the school specifies also a bibliotecological commission, charged with responsibility for setting up a national centralized cooperative catalog. Union Lists in Brazil In Uruguay's neighbor to the north, Bra- zil, a union list of scientific periodicals was issued as early as 1936. T h i s work, in two mimeographed volumes, was done under the direction of Prof. Jayme A. Cavalcanti and covered the holdings of the leading libraries of Sao Paulo, plus one Rio de Janeiro library. Another union list of serials, for Brazilian biological and medical libraries, was undertaken in 1945, again under the supervision of Prof. Cavalcanti, who is president of the Servigo de Divulgagao Bibliografica of the Fundos Universitarios de Pesquizas at Sao Paulo. T h e catalog now in preparation is on cards and will record the holdings of some fifty libraries. Except for these instances, Brazilian li- braries are reported to have made no note- worthy progress in the union catalog field. T h e president of the University of Sao Paulo, in 1942, suggested that libraries send cards for all books cataloged to the Biblioteca Municipal of Sao Paulo, then under the direction of Rubens Borba de Moraes who has since gone to the Biblio- teca Nacional in Rio de Janeiro. For various reasons, the proposal has never been put into effective operation. Union Catalog in Chile Chile has a single example of a union catalog. T h e r e the Central Library of the Ministry of Agriculture at Santiago, in June 1944, started a catalog to record the holdings of libraries serving the various specialized divisions of the agriculture de- partment. Seven such bureau libraries are now included, and, in addition, contribu- tions of cards for their collections are being furnished to the catalog by the libraries of the Agronomy Society of Chile and the University of Chile's School of Agronomy. At present, the union catalog contains only author entries, but a complete dictionary catalog is planned for later development. Among the patrons of the catalog are pro- fessors, technicians, agricultural students from the University of Chile, and the Ministry of Agriculture staff. Interesting f u t u r e plans were described by Hector Fuenzalida y Villegas, librarian of the University of Chile Central Library. A group of librarians are to be trained in the university, through a Rockefeller Foundation grant, to prepare a union cat- alog of the twenty-two libraries associated with the different faculties or schools of the university. According to the program, which it is estimated will require eight 212 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES years to complete, the most important li- braries of the university are to be recataloged at the beginning. An individual catalog for each library, with author and subject entries, will be made and a duplicate card forwarded to the central library for the union catalog. T h e university's collections total more than 300,000 volumes. Another potential development noted by Senor Fuenzalida is in the field of law. T h e library of the University of Chile's School of Juridical and Social Sciences is attempting to obtain a duplicate of the ex- cellent catalog of the National Congressional Library in Santiago. T h e latter institution, with approximately 200,000 volumes, is rich in legal materials. T h e school would use the combined record as a basis for a union catalog of law and legislation. Some important work in the union cat- alog field is under way in Argentina, but efforts to obtain direct information from that country have failed. One project which attracted M r . Milam's attention in particular, and which he considered an ex- cellent beginning, was a printed union list of current periodicals in and around Buenos Aires. Another undertaking centering in Buenos Aires is a union catalog for each of the six Argentine navy station libraries, with central accessioning and cataloging. A grant from the Rockefeller Founda- tion was made to the University of Buenos Aires in 1942 for the establishment of a bibliographical center. T h e university has a college and six professional schools served by libraries located in various quarters of the city, possessing a total of some seven hundred thousand books and pamphlets. One of the center's first activities was to begin the preparation of a union catalog of all holdings in the several libraries of the university system. From Caracas, Venezuela, while no union catalog was reported, Enrique Plan- chart, director of the Biblioteca Nacional, wrote that a solid foundation for a future union catalog was being laid by recataloging operations now in progress for the National Library, the Ministry of Health and Social Assistance Library, and the Biogen Founda- tion Library. All three are dictionary cat- alogs on cards, the last two principally concerned with medicine. One of the ser- vices of the Biogen Foundation Library is the preparation of medical bibliographies, at the request of students, indicating libraries where the works listed may be consulted. A similar situation exists in Peru, where union catalogs have not been established, but whose National Library at Lima and the University of San Marcos Library are developing modern catalogs that might be used eventually as a basis for one or more union catalogs. Distinctive Features T w o distinctive features of the union catalog situation in Latin America emerge from the foregoing discussion. First is the stress on medicine, biology, and other scientific and technical fields—a natural emphasis in this scientific age. Second is the fact that the union catalog movement in Latin America is in its infancy. W i t h one or two exceptions, all union catalogs now in existence were founded within the last five years. T h e impetus, as in the United States, has come primarily from governmental funds and foundation grants. Financial assistance from the Rockefeller Foundation, for example, has been received for the bibliographical centers in Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, and Santiago. T h e r e is every probability that the union catalog idea will spread to other Hispanic-American countries, stimulating them to record and make better known their resources. J U L Y t 1946 20 7