Verner Clapp

Verner Warren Clapp (June 3, 1901 – June 15, 1972^[1]) was a librarian and writer.

Clapp was the son of US-American parents, who returned to the US after his birth in Johannesburg, South Africa. After graduating at Trinity College, Connecticut, he studied philosophy at Harvard University. From 1922 to 1956, Clapp worked for the Library of Congress, where he was promoted to chief assistant librarian in 1947. Clapp played a significant role in both issues of loyalty oaths and microfilming of materials at the Library of Congress.^[2]

From 1947 to 1948, he was chairman of the U.S. Library Mission to Japan. He also was president of the Council on Library Resources from 1956 to 1967.

Clapp was married to Dorothy Devereaux Ladd Clapp (September 8, 1901–April 10, 1983).

Awards and honors

The Clapp Collection at Japan's National Diet Library
1968 - Clapp was decorated with the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold and Silver Star (Kun-Nito Zuihosho) by the government of Japan^[3]

The story of permanent/durable book-paper, 1115-1970. Restaurator Press, 1972.
The Future of the Research Library University of Illinois Press, 1964.
Copyright: A Librarian's View Washington, Copyright Committee, Association of Research Libraries, 1968.
The University library and the wise man: addresses by Theodore R. McKeldin and Verner W. Clapp. 1958
Current trends in libraries of the United States government Editors: Verner W. Clapp and Scott Adams. 1953.
The Constitution of the United States; an account of its travels since September 17, 1787, with David Chambers Mearns. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1937.

^ Dictionary of American Library Biography. (1978). Bohdan Wynar, ed. "Clapp, Verner Warren (1901-1972)." Littleton, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited. p. 77-81. ISBN 0872871800
^ http://libraryhistory.pbwiki.com/Verner%20Clapp accessed February 19, 2009
^ http://www.ndl.go.jp/en/publication/ndl_newsletter/138/385.html accessed February 19, 2009