Scope and Content Note
The papers of Verner Warren Clapp (1901-1972) span the years 1901 to 1994, with the bulk of the material falling within the period 1945-1972. The papers consist of diaries, correspondence, memoranda, notes, speeches and writings, subject files, and printed matter. The collection is organized into six series: Diaries, Family Correspondence, General Correspondence, Subject File, Speeches and Writings File, and Miscellany.
The early part of the Diaries series, covering the years 1914 to 1917, were kept sporadically, but starting in 1945 the daily logs chronicle each day's activities with only a few exceptions. Although entries in the logs are generally skeletal, noting appointments, attendance at meetings, conferences, telephone calls, and visitors, some carry annotations concerning the purpose and nature of the telephone calls and visits, and include Clapp's responses and comments. Printed programs and materials distributed at some meetings and conferences cited in the daily logs are interfiled in chronological sequence within the logs.
Most of the letters in the Family Correspondence are from Clapp to his wife, Dorothy. They were written in 1945 during Clapp's stay in San Francisco as chief librarian of the Secretariat of the United Nations Conference on International Organization, in 1946 when he attended the London meeting of the Preparatory Commission for Unesco as adviser to the United States delegation on library matters, and in 1947 and 1948 while he was in Japan as chairman of the United States mission to advise on the establishment of the National Diet Library. Like the Diaries, the letters give day-by-day accounts of his activities, but are more illuminating because they relate to his personal impressions and observations about events and people generally withheld from the diaries and formal correspondence. The trip by train to San Francisco and the subsequent difficulties encountered in organizing the secretariat library are described in detail. In addition to reporting on the meetings, the letters from Japan contain comments on Japanese planning for the library, working and living conditions, newspaper coverage of his visit, and the hospitality extended him while in Japan. Other family correspondents include his mother, Mary Clapp; his children; his mother-in-law, Annette Ladd; and his cousins in England, Estelle Gardner and Joan Gardner and Helga Hawkins.
The General Correspondence is concentrated within the years Clapp served with the Council on Library Resources. Most of the letters are to and from individuals in the fields of library science, documentation, and information retrieval, both in the United States and abroad. The correspondence refers to mutual problems, shared interests, library association conferences and meetings, and other library projects and publications, including those of Clapp. This series also contains a number of invitations to speak and some personal correspondence, such as letters from his college friend, Edward Buell Hungerford, and one of his former professors, Odell Shepard. Many of the correspondents, such as David C. Mearns, Archibald MacLeish, Luther Harris Evans, and L. Quincy Mumford, are past associates at the Library of Congress. Other individuals exchanging letters with Clapp are Theodore Besterman, David H. Clife, Jack Dalton, William S. Dix, Charles E. Feinberg, Robert Thayer Jordan, Dan Lacy, Stephen A. McCarthy, Jerrold Orne, Tsuyoshi Saito, Yasushi Sakai, James E. Skipper, Sarah K. Vann, Frederick Herbert Wagman, Ruth Warncke, Joseph Louis Wheeler, and Gordon R. Williams.
The Subject File constitutes the largest portion of the Clapp Papers. The variety of issues appearing in the files reflects the broad range of his interests and efforts in assisting libraries and portrays the international cooperation that existed between libraries and documentation centers throughout the world. Major concerns recurring within the Subject File are bibliographic control over the proliferation of printed materials, including indexing and abstracting services; the preservation of materials already in depository libraries; adequate space; methods of storage and retrieval; dissemination of information regarding library holdings; the durability of paper; improvements in methods of binding; revision of catalog cards; and changes in the decimal classification system. Many of these topics are found in the files of the American Library Association, the Association of Research Libraries, the American Documentation Institute, the Council of National Library Associations, the Special Libraries Association, and the United States National Committee for FID.
One of the more voluminous subject files concerns copyright legislation, particularly from a librarian's point of view. This file includes articles, reports, and papers of various library associations and committees and proposed amendments to the copyright law designed to protect the interests of libraries; it also examines the question of photocopying as copyright infringement. Correspondence and copies of legal briefs, preliminary documents, memoranda, and daily summaries of the Williams and Wilkins v. United States case involving the interpretation of library photocopying as an infringement of the copyright held by the publishers form a significant segment of the copyright subject file.
The years Clapp spent at the Library of Congress not only gave him a "first hand acquaintance with the full range of the Library's work," but the experience had the effect of "marrying" him to the Library from 1921 to 1956. The Library of Congress subject file is primarily composed of personal copies of papers that Clapp collected during those years. Some of the material is especially interesting for the study of the history and operations of the Library. Among the more noteworthy items are the daily "Notes and Queries" prepared between 1941 and 1943 in response to various questions under consideration by the librarian. Topics covered include wartime plans for the security and preservation of the collections, the effects of the war on Library operations and personnel, the reorganization of the Library, personnel grievances, Civil Service classification of Library employees, and the Library of Congress publications program. Carbon copies of "Reports on Important Developments" by Luther Harris Evans between 1941 and 1943 are also incorporated in this subject file.
In 1945 Clapp was named chief librarian of the Secretariat Library of the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco. His continued association with this international organization is well documented in the United Nations Library and Unesco subject files. As a member of the International Committee of Experts on the United Nations Library, Clapp was involved in the early planning for the library in New York and from 1959 to 1962 served as special consultant in connection with the construction of the new United Nations Library. His report on the Conference Library, his review of the organization, work, and utilization of staff of the United Nations Library conducted in April and May 1952, and a 1961 report on the construction of the Dag Hammarskjold building are located in the United Nations Library subject file. The Unesco file contains papers and reports of various committees pertaining to bibliographic, abstracting, and indexing services and includes the Unesco/Library of Congress bibliographic survey.
Subjects highlighted in the Speeches and Writings File series relate to library services, cataloging, classification, automation and mechanization, and the role and responsibilities of libraries and librarians. The majority of speeches were given before library associations and a number are in the form of notes or outlines only. The speeches and writing series also contains a research file composed of materials accumulated in the 1930s when Clapp and his colleague, David C. Mearns, were asked to research the history of the locations of the Supreme Court as background for the dedication of the new Supreme Court building. Their investigations led them to prepare a biography of Elias Boudinot Caldwell. This biography and a report on the chambers of the Supreme Court in Washington between 1801 and 1807 are included in this series