No. 138, August 2004

Verner Clapp was born of American parents in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1901. His family returned to the United States when he was small. He graduated from Trinity College, Connecticut, and then studied philosophy at Harvard. His career as a librarian started when he got a summer position at the Library of Congress (LC) in 1922, following his college graduation. He was so fascinated with the job, while becoming disenchanted with philosophy at Harvard, that he returned to LC next year. After that he spent 33 years (1923-1956) at LC, eventually becoming next to the top, Chief Associate Librarian (1947-1956). 

In 1956 he left LC to accept the invitation to chair the Council on Library Resources (CLR*), widening his activities even further to every aspect of librarianship. He served as the first president of CLR until 1967, and continued to work as a consultant at CLR until his death in 1972. He was also president of Forest Press, Inc., the publisher of the Dewey decimal classification, from 1960 until his death. 

Although Verner Clapp had often voiced regret at not having had a formal library school education, his extraordinary achievements have proven his outstanding ability to capture the essentials of the field and put his ideas into practice. To name a few, at LC it was Verner Clapp who laid the groundwork for establishing a special service to Congress called the "Congressional Unit," which later became the present Congressional Research Service, one of the most outstanding library services of the world. He was also the first director of the acquisitions department, and was an advocate of the Cooperative Acquisitions Project, which enabled LC to acquire overseas materials for itself and other American research libraries. Thus he served as an impetus to enrich LC's collection which has eventually become the world's largest library collection. 

Outside LC, he participated in the initial revision of the Copyright Act. He also served as an advisor to the United Nations, and was involved in the foundation of the present U.N. Library in New York. He was also active in UNESCO's library and bibliographic affairs. Until his death in 1972, he continued to work on new projects. One of his last projects was the development of a Cataloging in Publication (CIP) program, an idea which is now utilized in many countries.

He received many professional awards: the Melvil Dewey Medal, the Lippincott Award, and Honorary Life Membership of the American Library Association; the "Librarians' Librarian" award of the Association of Research Libraries; and a "Special Citation" of the Special Libraries Association. 

On June 15, 1972, Verner Clapp died, and on the next day Mike Mansfield, later U.S. ambassador to Japan, made a speech in Congress commemorating the achievements of Verner Clapp. His proposal to put Clapp's biography into the Congressional Record was unanimously approved by Congress. Also at LC, a memorial meeting for Verner Clapp was held for his friends and colleagues to celebrate his life, a kind of event which is rarely organized by LC. 

*The Council on Library Resources (CLR) changed its name to the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR).