Chapter 28. I Become a Virginian, a Beltway Commuter and Special Assistant in the Reference Department of the Library of Congress

AS a result our arrival in Fairfax City, Virginia on July 6, 19 70 was delayed. It was around 5:00 P.M. and still raining heavily when we drove off the beltway on to Little River Turnpike. Although we were only about three miles away from our apartment in Fairfax Square, we decided to stop for dinner at a fast food restaurant located at the intersection of Gallows Road and Little River Turnpike. Tired and hungry we made a dash from the car through the parking lot to the restaurant through the downpour. We were totally soaked as we entered and huddled in a booth. I know we were a sorry looking lot when we were approached by a very pleasant young man who turned out to be the manager and who asked how he might help us. I introduced myself and my family, telling him we were just moving into the area and where. He welcomed us warmly, and gave us menus to peruse. As a gesture of hospitality, he brought each of us a complimentary drink which he identified as an “Orange Slurpee,” which we enjoyed while we made our dinner choices.

Having eaten and rested, we left that eatery at about 6:30 P.M. and proceeded to our new home in Fairfax Square only a short distance down the pike. Since the apartment manager had sent us the keys the week before, we were able to go directly to our apartment, where we were able to unpack the clothing we had brought in suitcases, take showers and get into some clean dry clothes and relax for the evening. I recall that we slept on the floor that night because our beds and the rest of our furniture were not due to arrived until the following morning. I also recall that we did not get much sleep that night. It was not because the floor was too hard because the Lees carpeting and the padding underneath were good. I have since attributed our poor sleep that night to the fact that we were so keyed up as a result of having had to travel for almost a whole day through such a heavy rain storm.

We were all wide awake at dawn of the next day, July 7, partly because we had not slept well and partly because we were anxiously anticipating the arrival of the moving van which was scheduled to arrive some time during the morning. We need not have rushed to get ready for its arrival because it was afternoon before it arrived. The movers however, quickly unloaded and were gone within a couple of hours, leaving us surrounded with boxes to be unpacked.

As expected we spent the next several days getting our apartment organized according to a floor plan that we had worked out before hand. I recall the we had planned;to be settled by the end of the week so that I would have the weekend to rest before reporting for work at the Library of Congress on Monday, July 13. With Ed’s and Paul’s help we managed to meet that objective.

Before I commuted for the first time from Fairfax City, Virginia to Capitol Hill, I had asked Mr. James Dove who was my neighbor in the apartment below us for directions to the Hill, which he graciously gave me. He did not, however, warn me about what I might expect in the way of traffic on the route he laid out for me. The morning of July 13 was my baptism under fire as a commuter during weekday morning rush hours on the Capital Beltway! The traffic jam-ups along the entire route were horrific and to a neophyte such as myself, they were a disturbing challenge. Fortunately, I had allowed my self more than enough time to get to the Library. I was able to report to work on time, even though it took me an hour and a half to make the trip.

My first day on the job in the Reference Department was most interesting and pleasant. Mr. Berry
welcomed me warmly. After a briefing in his office he took me through the department office to greet the staff. He then took me to Mr. Mumford’s office, where he greeted me with the warmth of the old friend and colleague that he was. After I had met Mr. Mumford’s office staff, Mr. Berry took me back to the office that I was to occupy in the Reference Department. He had arranged for me to have an office adjacent to his in the Reference Department Pavilion. I was agreeably surprised that it was an office with windows. The view that I had from my office windows was priceless, one that I cherished and appreciated all through the years that I was privileged to occupy that office. The United States Capitol Building and the beauty of the Capitol grounds was there for me to enjoy and draw inspiration from every day.

Although Mr. Berry had arranged to have my office furnished with an executive size desk, placed with my back to the window and facing the door of my office so as to be able to see people as they entered, my typewriter on a credenza along the window side behind me, provided me with a perfect view of the capitol building every time I used the typewriter. He had also provided me with book cases for books and reference works that I would need, chairs and a couch for visitors. Although worn, the red carpeting that covered the floor of the office made it a warm and most comfortable office, for which I was indeed very grateful.

During the afternoon of my first day, I had another surprise. Mr. Berry had arranged for a reception
for me in the Pavilion part of the office, at which time he had asked Reference Department Division Chiefs, Directors and Administrators of other departments of the Library to come to meet me. I was not only overwhelmed by the friendly welcome that I received from all, but also impressed with the array of scholarship and talent represented in all the people that I met that afternoon. I felt blessed to have been given the opportunity to become one of them. That was my introduction as an officer of the Reference Department of the Library of Congress on July 13, 1970.

During the next twenty-two and a half years I was privileged to serve as an officer of the Library of Congress with five Directors, and during the tenures of three Librarians of Congress. First, it was my pleasure to A Virginian, a Beltway Commuter and Special Assistant 301 serve in the nation’s library during the term of the only Librarian of Congress in my time who was a professionally trained librarian, a person who had a degree in Library Science, and who had had many years of service as a successful top level administrator and as a Director in two of the largest public libraries in the United Sates before he was selected to head the National Library in 1954. That person was Lawrence Quincy Mumford, who during his twenty years as Librarian of Congress is credited with having greatly expanded library services to the LI.5. Congress and the national library community. During his term of office his many accomplishments and administrative competence had won the confidence of the members of both houses of Congress, so much so as to have made possible for the Library’s annual appropriations to have been increased from approximately nine million dollars to ninety-six million dollars. To Mr. Mumford also belongs the credit for convincing the Congress that a third library building was needed on Capitol Hill. The James Madison
Memorial Building that now stands on Independence Avenue across the street from the Main Building now known as the Thomas Jefferson Building-is-a monument to his vision and good standing with the nation’s legislators. To enumerate and report on Mr. Mumford’s many other accomplishments during his term as Librarian of Congress would necessitate filling the pages of another book.

I was privileged to be a part of the Mumford administration as an officer of the Reference Department from July 13, 19 70 until December 31, 1974 when Mr. Mumford retired after twenty years of distinguished service as the nations top librarian. As an officer of the Reference Department during the Mumford years I was also privileged to share in a number of happy events. I believe it is in order to share my recollections of a few of those events with you. There was the opportunity afforded me to participate in the dedication and opening of the new recording studio located at the Taylor Street headquarters of the Division for the Blind and Physically handicapped shortly after joining the Library staff, and to do some recording of books for the blind on tapes as a volunteer reader on Saturday mornings during that period.

There was also the privilege of being asked by Mr. Mumford to join him and Mr. Berry on a visit to the White House on one occasion during the Nixon presidency to deliver the first copy of ’A Tour of the White House for the Blind” to Mrs. Nixon. I recall with great pleasure the kind and warm reception we experienced with Patricia Nixon! She was so genuine and so gracious. The foregoing are only a few of the many special events that I was able to share in the 1970’s, during the Mumford years.

In addition to such satisfying and memorable events, I had to endure the greatest sorrow of my life during that period. On June 12, 1973, Grace, my one and only love, passed away after suffering a heart attack without any previous warning of any kind. I was in total shock and completely devastated. Ed and Paul flew in to Virginia to be with me within a few hours. Had I not had them to help me physically and spiritually I really don’t know what I might have done. Also when they had to leave me to return to their respective schools, Ed to the Ohio State School of Dentistry and Paul to Valparaiso University, my job and coworkers at the Library of Congress and my pastor and church friends helped me to make it through the many dark and terrible days that I faced during the entire period of my bereavement. My work and the experiences that I was fortunate to be a part of in the national library were a godsend and played a great part in my survival at the time.

On the day that Mr. Mumford retired, as provided by Library of Congress regulation 211-1, Deputy Librarian John Lorenz became Acting Librarian of Congress. His term of service in that position was to be short lived because President Gerald R. Ford lost no time in nominating a new Librarian of Congress. On June 20, 1975 he nominated Daniel d. Boorstin, the senior historian at the Smithsonian Institution to be Librarian of Congress.

Dr. Boorstin’s nomination like ’the nomination of poet Archibald MacLeish by President Franklin Roosevelt on June 7, 1939 brought opposition from the national library community. In each case the American Library Association took the position that the nation should have as its Librarian not only a scholar but one who is a professionally trained librarian, one who is an experienced library administrator. In Dr. Boorstin’s case in addition to opposition from the professional librarians there was also opposition from the staff of the Library of Congress who also appeared at the Senate Hearings on his confirmation to voice that opposition. However, on September 26, 1975, the Senate confirmed the nomination of Daniel d. Boorstin to be Librarian of Congress, ignoring the testimony of the nation’s librarians just as the Senate had done when it confirmed the nomination of Archibald MacLeish in 1939. Dr. Boorstin took the oath of office on November 12, 1975.

As an officer of the Library, I was privileged to be an invitee at the ceremony when Dr. Boorstin took the oath of office as the twelfth Librarian of Congress. It was an inspiring occasion held in the magnificent Great Hall. In attendance were President Gerald R. Ford and Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller. Representative Lucien N. Nedzi of Michigan, Chairman of the Joint Committee on the Library presided. The oath was administered by the Speaker of the House of Representatives Carl Albert. I recall learning at the time that Dr. Boorstin took the oath on the Thomson Bible, one of the treasures from the collection of Thomas Jefferson housed in a specially secured, temperature controlled vault of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library.

During the first few months after his arrival Dr. Boorstin visited the various departments and divisions of the Library to meet the staffs and to become acquainted with the work and the organization and structure of the various departments of the Library. His visit to the Reference Department stands out in my mind because of the question that he asked me at the time. I recall sitting around the conference table in Mr. Berry’s office with the new Librarian, Mr. Berry and the other officers of the department. During the course of the meeting, after Mr. Berry had given Dr. Boorstin a briefing on the work of the department and its organization, the Librarian made a point of asking each of us a question.

When he came to me, he asked how I felt about the Library’s policy with regard to service to high school students. The policy was not to encourage high school students to use the Library. High school students were required to present a letter signed by the principal of their school certifying the student’s specific need to use the resources of the Library of Congress. Otherwise the Library maintained that students should use their school or public libraries.

In response to his question, I told Dr. Boorstin that coming from a public library as I did he would have to take into consideration that I naturally would have a bias on the matter, that as a public librarian, I had long felt that while high school students should not have free access to the rare and special collections of the Library, that they should at least have access to the general collections because many of the school and public libraries available to students did not have collections with the depth and scope available in the much larger general collections of the Library of Congress. I continued saying that such students as the scholars of the future were being deprived of the resources of the nation’s library. I concluded by asking him, “how would you have felt when you were a high school student and a budding scholar to have been barred from using the resources of this great library?” I was surprised by” his reply. He smiled and said, “for your information, I am still a budding scholar.” In the days that followed, I often wondered whether he had considered my reply and question to him on that day impertinent. I need not have worried because my relationship with Dr. Boorstin became one of professional, mutual respect and remained so until the day of his retirement almost twelve years later.

Five months after his appointment as Librarian of Congress he decided to reorganize some of the departments of the Library. The Reference Department was one of them. In April of 19 76, the department was divided into two departments. Those divisions of the old department that had custody of the special collections were brought together to form what became known as the Research Department. Dr. Alan Fern, who had been the Chief of the Prints and Photographs Division one of the special collections was promoted, becoming the Director of the Research Department. This department included the Geography and Map Division, the Latin American, Portuguese, and Spanish Division, the Manuscript Division, the Music Division, The Orientalia Division, the Prints and Photographs Division, the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, and the Slavic and Central European Division. Mr. Fred Croxton became Director of the Reader Services Department. This department included the Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, the Federal Research Division, the General Reference and Bibliography Division, the Loan Division, the Science and Technology Division, the Serial Division, and the Stack and Reader Division, all of which had been a part of the original Reference Department.

Mr. Paul Berry, Director of the Reference Department was laterally transferred to head a new unit that was named The Library Environment Resources Office. As Director of that office, he was to have the responsibility for the entire physical plant, space planning, assignment of space, physical moves, and to oversee the completion of the new James Madison Memorial Building, etc. As a professionally trained librarian with many years of experience in the Library of Congress in a number of administrative positions, Mr. Berry took to his new job with the same dedication, skills and professionalism that had been the hall marks of his service as Director of the Reference Department and all the other jobs he had held before that.

The breakup of the Reference Department and Mr. Berry’s transfer came as quite a shock not only to the members of the department itself but also to staff members of other departments and caused staff members throughout the library to wonder as to its cause and the rationale for the breakup of the second largest department in the Library of Congress.

Like Mr. Berry, the staff like good soldiers took their respective transfers into the two newly formed departments in the spirit of dutiful acceptance and cooperation, vowing to continue to work as hard as ever and to see to it that the Library’s readers received the same quality service that they had received before under the old organization.

Although the staffs of the divisions of the former Reference Department were separated into new units with different heads, they continued to operate in the same dedicated fashion they had operated under the old arrangement. There was no indication that the various clienteles served felt any difference in the way that they were being served.

A Virginian, a Beltway Commuter and Special Assistant