CONTINUATION OF SUPPORT TO THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP58-00453R000200220002-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 22
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 31, 2001
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: June 4, 1953
• Content Type: MEMO

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*LOC N.O.D.R. Review Decision on File*
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4 June 1953
Tot Project Review Committee
THROUGH: Deputy Director (Intelligence)
SUBJECT: Continuation of Support to the Library of Congress
1. PROBLVI.--To provide an index by subject and area to the open Slavic litera-
ture containing information of intelligence value,
2. FACTS BEARING ON THE PROBL M.--
STATEPMT OF NEED A11D VALUE.--Oven Soviet literature -- books and periodicals -
contains a vast amount of information of high intelligence value. It is
essential that this literature be made accessible to intelligence research-
ers. Although Soviet books and periodicals are subject to export restric-
tions abroad, many have and still do find their way into U.S. libraries;
the flow represents an unrivaled source of information on our main target --
the USSR.
The bibliographic projects outlined in this paper are in direct support of the
DCIts responsibility under NSCID 16 to develop, as a common service for the
intelligence agencies, "indexes, accession lists, and reference services re-
garding foreign language publications of intelligence interest". The over--
riding objective, therefore, has been to develop a systematic approach to
the collective Soviet ;mblishing output available in the U.S. for the bene-
fit of the intelligence research process. The values accruing to i.ntel.l.i-
gence as a result are as follows:
a. It improves the quality of intelligence research. Through organized
access to Soviet literature the researcher can:
Find evidence that may solve his problem without further investi-
gation.
Uncover useful comparative data for assessing or corroborating in-
formation reported by classified means.
Develop new ideas, theories, explanations,*or hypotheses which are
invaluable in shaping the outcome of the research effort.
b. It shortens the time an analyst must spend surveying related informa-
tion in his field; it assures him of com-leteness :nd it is 1ept current.
c. It gives non-linguists the opportunity to examine references that would
be inaccessible otherwise.
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d. It serves to coordinate requirements for Soviet publications by
revealing gaps and deficiencies, and at the same time preventing
publications already in the U.S. from being ordered again.
e. It facilitates research work on the Soviet by academicians and
scholars in the U.S.; the results of their efforts consequently
aids intelligence.
f. It satisfies the community's need for this type of bibliographic
organization economically. The competence, facilities, and material
available at the Library of Congress could not possib3.y be du.plicE.ted
in CIA with logical justification.
WORK ACCOMPLISHED.-Prior to the start of CIA's joint project with the Li-
brary of Congress in November 1951 there did not exist any English language
tool by which researchers could gain access to the information contained in
Slavic Publications available in the U.S. At the instigation of the researc:.
offices in CIA, and with IAC endorsement, the PRC approved a project which
was designed to remedy this situation. The project has developed as,follows:
a. MONTHLY LIST OF RUSSIAN ACCESSIONS (see Tab A_ and B
The MLRA was reorganized and now (a) records the Slavic book receipts
of 57 cooperating U.S. libraries, and (b) provides, in lhglish, full
subject access to books bearing an imprint date of 1945 or later; and,
to articles appearing in over 400 Russian periodicals currently re-
ceived in this country.
b. CYRILLIC UNION SUBJECT CATA{AOq?(see Tab C
A completely new research tool has evolved which organizes in one
catalog, by Sabi eat, the Russian books (including those in Bulgarian,
Ukrainian, Serbians Belo-Russian, and related languages) held by the
Library of Congress and the major research. libraries of the U.S. The
project involves recataloging, in English,, all books bearing an imprint
date of 1917 to 1952; it is near completion except for the translitera.--
tion, typing and reproduction of some 54,000 entries. CIA Library main-
tains a catalog of completed cards for use of intelligence research
personnel.
DISCUSSION.-The research tools developed thus far have received high praise
from users. Two major deficiencies, however, have been brought to light:
a. There is no approach by author or institute to the book r::nd -periodical
articles recorded in the MLRA. An author-institute index to open Soviet
literature is urgently required for purposes of scientific intelligence
and for all phases of biographic intelligence. This type of index could
be developed as a byproduct of the routine MLRA processing with nominal
increase in cost. (see Tab D)
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b:: Do 'irov-ision i.a.R been made to catai.og,, on a cont:inUA_ 1g basis
24 ~. in tr?e C:c?rillic Union Subject Catalog. Once 'tie basic .)rO ecx
Z.,:_,e atalor:1ng Ix okslyof 1933.7 ).too 1g152 imprint i ovrez~?Vts~i^elvt 4re..y a i.t.ani
~. 1 xJ ot'# will decline in usefulness unless it is kc Jav cr en 4 b pro-
;mu new material into it. (see,. TO) C)
orariaY of Congress in a letter to the DCI: dated 14 AoriL 195 ,
Tab E) has estimated that the E octal pr?oj ect, ,,a th. inr)rcvements,
d involve the following funds in FY54.: 25X1A
I RUSSIAN t.CCFSSI{)l?S
ON ';LY LIST O
'zo continue MLBA in present f oxTi
develop fy~--product biographic and inwtitu' .i.ona-a ?_
._nfonnr+.tion Cards
f: :LI.LLIC U14ION SUBJECT CATAlOG
To eomo:Ce'tetransliteration and typing of cards or
books now under subject control
'.'7 maintain the catalog on a current basis
-:.,:rough Y54
isupervision of the prcojecst3
Grand Total,
,"{1#NCLUSICIT.-No equivalent to the MLPJ_ or the Cyrillic Union aibj eci. catalog
exists . hich can serve. the intelligence researcher, io'w or in the .uturo, In
'ess
stttr_i ?'_hg the Soviet. he continuation of support to the Library 0"' Congress
for ti;t cr development of these research tools is considered Usti. '5.ed and in
fc.l. accord with the r:_c.eds and responsibilities expressed in N GID 16.
lOTION of a net incsrease of ` 173,344, to aut .ori & ?a
tonal .,Il.ooatiori of - to the Library of Con,re>.s for work on. the
Tarot ec-,,-. during Yi54.
CONGTjfff '3CEs;b::
_e 1 fat? Disserdr.;ation
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ACTION BY APPROVING AiJTHORITY%
Date
Approved (disapproved), exceptions, if any.
Sign E. ture
or Deputy Director
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TAB
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OLD MONTHLY LIST OF RUSSIAN ACCESSIONS
This was the first serious effort to bring under control the entire volume
of Russian language books and periodicals coming into the United States.
Some thirty to fifty universities and public libraries contributed informa-
tion on the materials they were receiving, anc7 the Library of Congress published
the monthly listing with its own resources.
48 issues were published: the first in April 1948, and the last in February
1952, when the greatly improved New MLRA was undertaken with CIA support.
The Old MLRA provided the following:
!or BOOKS:
l., Author's name, transliterated
2. Title, transliterated
3. Subject breakdown, in 17 very broad categories.
(For example, all books on economics, industry, finance,
etc. were listed under the one heading "Social Sciences"
together with works on sociologic, anthropology, psy-
chology, etc.)
Scamnle entry: (Under the subject heading "TECI-INOLOGY")
CHEKOTILLO, Andrei Markovich. Piat' let
stroitelistva i. eksploatatsii ledienykh
skladov; itogi i vyvody. Moskva, Izd-vo
Akademli nauk SSSR, 1946. 78 p.
For MAGAZINES:
1. Title of magazine, transliterated.
2. Title of magazine, translated.
3. Subject breakdown, in 17 very broad categories.
(Each issue of each journal listed once, under the
broad subject heading in : .ch its content for the
Lioa t part belonged).
4. Author's name, transliterated, for each magazine
article.
5. Title, transliterated, for each magazine article.
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NEW MONTHLY LIST OF RUSSIAN ACCESSIONS
Defects in the old MLRA were so serious that they rendered it impossible
for intelligence analysts - except those with Russian-language ability - to
gain any value from it. Even those able to read Russian were greatly handi--
capped in their approach to the overt Russian literature'by the List's
failure to give adequate subject breakdowns.
CIA, in November 1951, approved funds for support of the Library of
Congress's MLRA in order that it might be improved in such ways as to make
it of value to intelligence analysts without Russian-language ability.
The first issue of the New MLRA was published in March 1952, and it-has
appeared regularly ever since.
The Nov MLRA provides the following:
For BOOKS:
1. Author's name, transliterated
2. Title, transliterated
3. Translation of title into English
4. Detailed subject breakdown
Sample entry:
(Under the two subject headings TIN
and COPPER. In the Old MLRA would
have been listed only under SOCIAL
SCIENCES).
DIKANSKII, M.G. (Tin and Copper Market of the
Capitalist Countries after World War II) Rynok
olova i medi kapitalisticheskikh stran posle
vtoroi mirovoi voiny. Moskva, Vneshtorgizdat,
1952. 75 pp.
For MAGAZINES:
1. Title of magazine, transliterated
2. Title of magazine, translated
3. Author's name, transliterated, for each
magazine article.
4. Title, transliterated,,, for each magazine
article.
5. Title, translated, for each magazine article.
6. Detailed subject breakdown for each magazine
article in the same way as for books.
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`l'IB C.
CYRILLIC UNION SUBJECT CATALOG
In 1942 the Library of Congress began assembling an author catalog of
publications, in the cyrillic alphabet, known as the SLAVIC UNION CATALOG.
It listed all the Slavic books available in the U.S. with an indication of
the particular library in which they were located; by 1952 the catalog held
220,000 entries. From an intelligence standpoint, the catalog had a major
weakness: there was no way of finding Russian books dealing with a specific
subject or area. In November 1951, :SRC approved a project for recasting the
SLAVIC UNION CATALOG into a CYRILLIC UNION SUBJECT CATALOG. It called for
recataloging material in the cooperating libraries in detail by ,g b,'e t
area and tle in DI "1h. A sample of a typical card appears below.
Elements underlined in red are the cross references under which additional
cards would be filed for this entry in the main catalog.
CTRIC POWER PRMTiCTION.
GORSHKOV, A. S.
Tekhniko-ekonomicheskie pokazateli teplovykh
e_lektricheskikh_stantp_ -[Technical-economic
indices of ~ehermoe1.ectric power plants]
Moskva, Gos, energe izd-vo, 1949. 287 p.
(50-26855)
TK1041.G67
1. Electric power production. 2. Electric
over-plants,.
Library of Congress Cyrillic Union Subject
Catalog 45401
The Library of Congress has been unable to complete this project acco-L'din.g
to schedule mainly because of difficulties encountered in hiring typists who can
transliterate from the eyrillie. The Librarian of Congress estimates that a sum
of- is required to transliterate and type 54,000 remaining entries on
stencils for reproduction on cards. Failure to complete this work will mean that
considerable sums already expended to review the material, bring it under subject
control, and translate titles into English, will be wasted.
When the project is done intelligence researchers will have available in the
CIA Library and at the Library of Congress a catalog of over one million cards
covering all subjects in Slavic books printed from 1917 to 1952. The catalog
will increase in usefulness and timeliness if post-1952 books are similarly
cataloged and interfiled with the previous material. The Librarian of Congress
reports that about 25,000 new cyrillic titles are received annually by the co--
operating U.S. libraries- he estimates that 1953-1954 publications can be
cataloged for a sum of
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BIOGRAPHIC AND INSTITUTIONAL DATA IN THE
MONTHLY LIST OF RUSSIAN ACCESSIONS
There remains in the MLRA, as it is now being produced with CIA support,
a serious defect from an intelligence standpoint:
The MLRA does not now provide an alphabetic index to the authors of the
books and magazine articles listed. Such an index is urgently needed for
purposes of scientific intelligence and for all phases of biographic intelli-
gence.
For exainale: Neither the Biographic Register nor its publication, SOVIET
MEN OF SCIENdCE, has any information on a Russian by the name of S.A. Gutsevich.
However, the New MLRA shows that this man is the author of a 171-page book
entitled "Survey of the Rust Fungi of the Crimea", published by the Leningrad
State University in 1952.
This subject is of high importance from the standpoint of biological war-
fare. It is therefore important that we find out as much as we can about
Gutsevich, and about any similar studies being pushed by the Leningrad State
University. At present we have no means of doing so.
The additional $25,234 requested for the WiRA would provide for CIA two
or more copies of each entry in the MLRA in card form. These would. be filed
by the Biographic Register, alphabetically by name of author, and alpha-
betically by name of the institution concerned.
Thus, at relatively small additional cost, CIA would be able in future
to look in its file under the name of S.A. Gutsevich, and immediately find
out the titles and dates of all books and magazine articles which he had
published. It would also learn with what institutions he had been working.
By looking under the name of Leningrad State University it would find out
what other books and articles on similar subjects had been published by that
institution, together with the names of the scientists concerned.
An approach of this sort - somewhat similar to Shepard's Citations in
the legal field - is by all odds the best and cheapest way of finding out
what scholars and scientists are doing in the USSR.
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TIAL
uul~ E
V NATION
THP, LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS
WASHINGTON 25, D. C.
Attention: Mr, James N. Andrews
Assistant Director, Office of Collection
and Dissemination
Sir:
A thorough review of the products of the Cyrillic Union
Catalog Project -- the expanded N: nt y Llgt 91 RUff2 Q AC9,65Bi01as
and the Cyrillic Subject Union Catalog -- at the and of the first
calendar year of full production justifies entirely, i believe, the
original decision of your Agency to undertake the project.
Molat LW 91 Russian Accgsaj
Allocated
Fiscal lc.53
Requested for
Fiscal 1954
With the aid of your Agency, the P" t LL-L, 91 }; 2
1egalsion is now the most nearly complete current bibliography of
Russian publications that is available outside the Soviet Union,
largely taking the place of the unobtainable Soviet national bibli-
ography, KnI a Letopi. Although the original estimates were
acmewhat low and required revision after the first few months of
operation on the expanded basis, I believe the resulting product
adequately meets the specifications originally presented by your
agency together with the changes requested from time to time to
increase the usefulness of the publication.
The present staff of the ?.ont,1,y is adequate for
maintaining it in its present form Lnd coverac?e. however, lack of
personnel trained in the proofreading; of typed cards is delaying
cc r 114 T I i
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production. To overcome this situation in part one cf the filer-
typists has been trained in this work and detailed to do the ob.
One person cannot handle the wcrk loads however, so we have added
two GS-5 proof readers in estimating the budget for fiscal 1954.
The remaining differential between the estimates for fiscal 1954 and
fiscal 1953 is the result of anticipated in-grade salary increases
to staff meerbers, the promotion of two assistants originally hired
as trainees, and the addition of one translator.
C gula=l P AIM CatAloq
Allocated To be returned to Requested for
Fiscal 1953 your Agency Fiscal 1954
Q31" subject Mpl= & jz -- g n 9S
: -- 9g.? a
The delay 'xperisnced in developing the typing staff to
prepare multilith mate for cards for the Cyrillic Subject Union
Catalog has created a considerable savings which will be returned to
your Agency in Lay, 1.953, as agreed upon in our letter of August S. 1952.
At the same time, this delay forestalled completion of the typing and
reproduction of the cards by June 30, 1953, as we had originally
anticipated. The request submitted herewith is for funds adequate to
complete the typing of rats and the reproduction of cards for entries
already brou,ht undear subject control.. Failure ;,o complete this work
will mean that the considerable stuns expended for the subject control
work will.. have been wasted.
With the completion of this catalo: there will be available
for your Ag3ncy, other govarrent agencies, and research workers
generally, the free world's only available extensive subject control
of Russian publications from 1917 to une 30, 1952.
-Cyrillic Sub i eci U g Qat .leg -- ContIn ation
f is 1. 1952
When the work on the Cyrillic Subject Union Catalog was
begun, it was realized that current additions representing materials
acquired by the Library of Congress and the 32 cooperating res
u V e " . ~~ IM
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 libraries could not be han(Led with th* available staff if the major
work of producing subject entries for the existing catalog was to be
accomplished within the limits of the project. Therefore, the entries
received for the catalog after July 1, In52, have been held for
processing into the Cyrillic Union Catalog until the work on the catalog
frcm 1917 to June 30, 1952 has been completed. The Library of Congress
does have its own control over these entries.
Bringing these cards under subject control and then continuing
the development of the catalog on a current basis is the only feasible
method of obtaining comprehensive subject control for Russian publi-
cations (including those in Bulgarian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Belo-Russian
and related languages) held by the Library of Congress and the major
research libraries of the United States.
To a limited degree subject control over monographic
materials can be obtained through the Yonthly LW 2: g"A j ggpion.
The most serious drawback of the Monthl. j;, with regard to such
control is the fact that it is not comprehensive in its coverage,
since it includes only monographs bearing an imprint after 1945. Thus,
books printed before 1945 and received by the Library of Congress or
the cooperating libraries are not included in the c thiy L,is,t, but
are entered only in the Slavic Union Catalog (an author catalog).
The only way to place them under subject control would be to include
them in the Cyrillic Union Subject Catalog on a current basis.
It is estimated that a total of 25,000 Cyrillic titles
are received annually by the Library of Congress and the cooperating
libraries. In order to bring the Cyrillic Union Subject Catalog up
to date in fiscal 1954, a total of some 50,000 entries will have to
be processed (25,000 received between July 1, 1952, and June 30, 1953;
and 25,000 received in fiscal 1954).
With the completion of this project, continuation of the
program on a current basis would require about half the staff necessary
for the current two-year program.
Current Bi nvraphi cA Pro i ect
New Project
Requested for
Fiscal 1954
The current biographical project proposed by your repre-
sentatives would in essence be a by-product of the operations of the
2::ont lj&& 2f Ruggi, cc sions. In preparing translations of,
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