ABSTRACT
The Library of Congress is essentially a service agency. It secures and preserves great collections of written, audible, and visual records, which are secured and preserved for use by someone else. When Congress looks at the Library, most of the members and their staffs see two quite separate and independent institutions: the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and the National Library, the CRS and the Library of Congress. The Library worked out an at-cost method by which the material could be placed on-line and paid for at hourly rates. The plan was taken to the congressional oversight committees, and the Library was told no, the material must be limited to Congress only. The result of the tug of war is that the CRS has somewhat receded from its committee-first instruction. In fact, it is splitting the member-versus-committee investment of time and resources about equally, but no one on any side of the argument is happy with the situation.
