[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 111 (Tuesday, July 11, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S9724]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


     THE 125th ANNIVERSARY OF LIBRARY OF CONGRESS COPYRIGHT SERVICE

 Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, as Chairman of the Joint 
Committee on the Library of Congress, it is my pleasure to acknowledge 
the 125th anniversary of the statute which centralized our Nation's 
copyright registration and deposit system in the Library. This law, 
signed by President Ulysses S. Grant on July 8, 1870, was the single 
most important factor in ensuring that Congress' library would 
eventually become the Nation's library and, in fact, the greatest 
repository of knowledge in the world.
  Today, Dr. James Billington, our Librarian of Congress, will 
recognize the role of the copyright in building the Library's 
unsurpassed collection over the past 125 years in a program being held 
in the Jefferson Building's Great Hall. I join with Dr. Billington in 
celebrating the anniversary of this important statute.
  The act required both that all works be registered in the Library and 
that the Library be the repository of these copies. The Library could 
hold the copy of the work as a record of the copyright registration, 
but it also had the opportunity to make the work available as a 
resource for others. The joining of copyright and the Library was, and 
continues to be, a mutually beneficial arrangement. Then-Librarian of 
Congress Ainsworth Spofford believed that bringing copyright to the 
Library could help it become a great library, and he strongly urged 
passage of the 1870 legislation. However, I think even he could not 
have foreseen that the Library of Congress would become the great 
institution it is today.
  It is hard to overemphasize the importance of copyright deposits to 
the collections of the Library and the resulting growth of the 
institution. Within a decade after the 1870 statute, the Library's 
collections tripled. When foreign works were granted U.S. copyright 
protection in 1891, many works from other countries were brought into 
the Library through copyright deposit.
  Among the works the Library has received through copyright deposit 
are: the first edition of a Dvorak opera; an unpublished composition by 
the 14 year-old Aaron Copland; all the network news programs since the 
1960's; rare performances by artists such as Martha Graham captured on 
videotape; and important Civil War and Spanish-American War 
photographs.
  The importance of the copyright deposits to the Library continues 
today. Some of the Library's most heavily used collections, such as the 
local history and genealogy collection, would hardly exist were it not 
for copyright deposit. In fiscal year 1994, the value of works received 
through copyright deposit was estimated at more than $15 million. The 
acquisition of these works could not have been accomplished through 
purchasing and gifts.
  Mr. President, the Library of Congress provides valuable and unique 
services to the Congress and the Nation. Copyright continues to play an 
important role in the Library's work and I once again join in 
commemorating the 125th anniversary of the act which brought our 
national copyright system to the Library of Congress.


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