On Research Libraries

The formal report of the Committee on Research Libraries, appointed and sponsored by the American Council of Learned Societies in 1967. This is the formal report of the Committee on Reserch Libraries appointed and sponsored by the American Council of Learned Societies.The ACLS Committee was created in response to a request from the National Advisory Commission on Libraries for a study of research libraries and recommendations for their future development.The ACLS undertook this study with alacrity in view of its enduring commitment to the effective performance of the nation's research libraries and its knowledge of the manifold problems with which they are now beset. "At its first meeting on March 2, 1967, the Committee drew up a plan of inquiry and assigned responsibility for each major topic to two or three if its members. Papers were then commissioned and as they were written provided a basis for discussion at succeeding meetings attendend by their authors. The Commiittee's report was then drawn from the minutes of the meetings and the papers, several of which are incorported in it."-Frederick Burkhardt