ABSTRACT
The fact that the Library is a legislative agency asking the legislature for funds is only partially in its favor. There are so many legislative agencies competing over a relatively small segment of the budget that success is always fragmentary. The legislative pie must be divided among the Government Printing Office, the General Accounting Office, the Office of Technology Assessment, the Congressional Budget Office, the Architect of the Capitol, the Botanic Garden, et cetera, et cetera—and the Library of Congress. The Australian's proposal—an independent executive agency library—is the solution most often suggested by the public, but proposals occasionally appear in which the national library would become a subunit of the Smithsonian. The library world proposes an equally self-evident solution—but a different one, of course. For years, librarians have been urging that the Library of Congress be put into the Department of Education and be run in the same way that Howard University and Gallaudet College are overseen by that agency.
