History of the Farmington Plan

In 1942 an advisory board to the Library of Congress drafted a proposal for a national program of cooperation among research libraries, aimed at acquiring "at least one copy of every book published anywhere in the world, which might conceivably be of interest to a research worker in America." Each participating library would acquire books in its assigned subject areas, catalog them, and send cards to the National Union Catalog. And thus was born the Farmington Plan, which began operation in 1948 under the sponsorship of the Association of Research Libraries. In 1972, nearly a decade after a two-year investigation revealed the project was failing, the plan was abandoned, but the concept of cooperative acquisitions of foreign library materials remains viable under several other programs today. A chance encounter with a long forgotten copy of The Farmington Plan Handbook led Ralph Wagner to investigate the most famous "failed experiment on library cooperation." The result of Wagner's decade of research is the first in-depth study of the plan's shortcomings and achievements. A History of The Farmington Plan is at once a history of the term itself and the numerous connotations attached to it. Includes copious references to archival sources previously unavailable. An informative read for students of library history and for anyone involved in consortium development. Useful as a basis for understanding the growing phenomenon of international cooperation among libraries.

A very interesting book that answers many questions about the Farmington Plan. In a time when we are again reminded that national security and intelligence are tied to materials not actively collected by North American research libraries, it would be very timely indeed for library administrators, collection developers, bibliographers, and catalogers to re-examine the lessons of the Farmington Plan., An interesting read on the Farmington Plan. Historians of librarianship will be well rewarded by his careful compilation of material; academic librarians will be startled by the similarities to cooperative attempts in our day and in the electronic environment., This is a welcome addition to the growing number of works on American library collections. All chapter essays are well crafted, solidly researched, and grounded in rigorous analysis. The work would be useful in any academic library; the ideas advanced here should prove to be springboards for new research in the field., A History of the Farmington Plan is an enormously interesting book. Its use of primary sources gives a feeling of immediacy that draws the reader along. The book is a must-read for librarians and other scholars who have an interest in the evolving history of scholarship in the United States and where libraries fit in that evolution. This is an important volume that will be used by future scholars both for its content and for its extensive bibliographic citations.

Ralph D. Winter has served as a Peace Corps volunteer librarian at Northern Illinois University, Western Illinois University, Eureka College (Illinois), and Westfield State College (Massachusetts). Currently he is a freelance writer.