DEPOSITORY LIBRARY PROGRAM Providing the public with better access to the whole range of Government publications is the purpose of the Depository Library Program. This is the largest program funded by the Salaries and Expenses Appropriation. During Fiscal Year 1978, we distributed nearly 14.5 million publications to libraries which have been designated by Members of Congress or by Title 44 as Depositories for Government Documents. There were 1,231 such libraries by the end of the Fiscal Year. The program was expanded on October 1, 1978 by Public Law 95-261 which authorized the designation of accredited law school libraries as depositories. By February 14, 1979, 63 new libraries had been designated under the provisions of this Act, bringing the total to 1300. An additional 38 requests for designation have been received from law school libraries and are now processed by my office, and requests are still being sent to us. I feel the continuing growth of the Depository program cannot be efficiently accommodated by our current, labor intensive operation. This situation has led us to explore several possibilities for applying computerized data processing techniques and more mechanized material handling to the Depository Distribution function. I expect the experience we gained in modernizing our Sales operations will make this effort a little easier. Our Fiscal Year 1979 Budget included funds for the one-time expenses of this project. MICROPUBLISHING Our request for Fiscal Year 1980 also reflects the impact of our efforts in the field of micropublishing. In the past year 4,800 Government documents were converted to a microfiche format and more than 2.8 million microfiche were forwarded to depository libraries. Action has also been initiated to convert additional categories of documentation to a microfiche format for offering to the depositories. The micropublishing program is proving to have many benefits. The per copy production and distribution costs are lower for GPO and the storage costs are lower for the recipients, when compared to the costs of hard copy. In addition, micropublishing permits us to provide some documents when sufficient hard copy is not available, without incurring the substantial expense of going back to press. CATALOGING AND INDEXING PROGRAM Complimenting the Depository Library Program is our Cataloging and Indexing Program, through which we produce the "Monthly Catalog of U.S. Government Publications". The Monthly Catalog provides researchers and librarians, students and all citizens with an organized guide to the voluminous output of the Federal Government's publishing efforts. Nearly 49,000 documents were cataloged in Fiscal Year 1978. One of our current efforts in this program is the development of an automated system to more efficiently gather information generated in the cataloging process which is needed by our Depository Distribution Program. This system will help us eliminate current manual files. Documents also provides mailing and distribution services to the Congress and other Federal Agencies. Specific provisions of law require us to distribute some publications, and this effort is financed by our Appropriation in the "By-Law" program. The remaining workload is handled on a reimbursable basis, with the publishing agency paying for distribution. INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE SERVICE During 1978 Documents assumed responsibility for the International Exchange Service distribution of publications to 250 foreign libraries. This work was formerly handled by the Smithsonian Institution, and they reimburse us for the expenses involved. Responsibility for distributing file copies of Government documents to the Congress, the Library of Congress, the National Archives and Records Service and other official Depositories was also transferred to us from other organizations within GPO. These new duties increased the workload in this area by 5 percent. In total, Documents distributed nearly 76 million publications without charge to the recipient during Fiscal Year 1978. Much of this workload is associated with the distribution of free Consumer Information publications for the General Services Administration. Our Pueblo Distribution Center handled 3.2 million orders in this program last year, and all expenses associated with the effort were recovered from GSÅ. I am proud of the improvements we have made or plan to complete this year. I am also proud to be able to state that our request for Fiscal Year 1980 of $23,037,000 is $1,428,000 less than the total for Fiscal Year 1979. EXPLANATION OF INCREASES AND DECREASES Mr. BENJAMIN. Explain briefly increases and decreases detailed on page IV-3 of the justifications. Mr. LABARRE. Personnel compensation, a decrease, $242,000. That will be a decrease because by law we are not permitted to include annual salary increases projected at about $300,000. So it will be approximately the same. That is page IV-4. I expect to save some effort because of automation in the Depository Library Program and in the By-Law Program. The other large decrease, I will just go over the large ones, sir. Mr. BENJAMIN. That is all I want. Mr. LABARRE. $583,000 in communications. The reason for that is, we have transferred to the agencies in their page rate costs the cost for mailing the free list of the Federal Register. It has been removed from the By-Law Program. Mr. BENJAMIN. You say that was $581,000? Mr. LABARRE. $583,000. The next large one is $482,000 under contractual and ADP. The expense of 1979 I expect for the automation of the Depository line and on the automation of item books and the automation of the ByLaw line is a one-time expense, and I do not expect additional funding will be needed in that area. The $136,000, the primary saving there, is for a one-time cost for microfilming the bicentennial Cumulative Index to the Monthly Catalog for 1966 to 1970 and the requirement will not be necessary for another 5 years. I think that is all the large ones, sir. Anyhow, my appropriation request is less in 1980 than in 1979. Mr. BENJAMIN. Are there any non-recurring items in here that were carried in the 1979 estimate that are used as a base for 1980? Mr. LABARRE. No, sir, I have taken them all out, and those are primarily for investment in automation where I can handle the increased load placed on the Depository Library Program. EXPLANATION OF PERSONNEL BENEFITS Mr. BENJAMIN. Explain the personnel benefits item. Are these benefits mandated by statute? Mr. LABARRE. Yes, sir. Mr. BENJAMIN. Would you provide for the record a citation of that? Mr. LABARRE. They are contributions to retirement, health insurance and life insurance, and they are roughly 10 percent. Mr. DEVAUGHN. The citation is Title 5. Mr. BENJAMIN. Don't you use about 8 percent after calculating the lapse rate? You are a little higher. Mr. LABARRE. The comptroller is with me. Mr. MERCER. We use about 10 percent. Mr. BENJAMIN. I guess my question is, why would it be 10 percent for GPO and 8 percent for others? Mr. MERCER. I don't know, sir. Mr. LABARRE. Yes, sir, we will furnish it for the record. [The information follows:] EXPLANATION OF PERSONNEL BENEFITS The GPO uses a 10 percent factor to project personnel benefits, because our actual cost experience is 10 percent as shown below. This 10 percent is in line with other legislative agencies. The General Accounting Office, has a 10 percent rate. The Architect of the Capitol has rates that range from 9.2 to 18 percent, the Capitol Power Plant has a 10 percent rate, and the Library of Congress has rates ranging from 9.8 to 10.5 percent. This rate will change based on the items included in the benefits. Included in the GPO rate are expenses for the Government contributions to employee group health, life insurance, and retirement plans as well as expenses for Department of Labor accident compensation, incentive awards and uniform allowances. COST FOR TRAVEL Mr. BENJAMIN. On travel, what is your figure? Mr. BENJAMIN. What traveling is involved there? Mr. LABARRE. That is primarily two large travel budget expenses. One is for the Depository Library Council to the Public Printer and public expenditures for the Depository Library Program. The other, by far and away the largest expense, is for our inspectors of the Depository Library system. It is required by law that all of the depository libraries be inspected. I have made the decision they should all be looked at once every 3 years. I need this money to make sure the inspectors review the actual operation of each depository library and that they are in fact carrying out the mandate of the law. Mr. BENJAMIN. How much does that involve in a trip, and how many trips are we talking about? Mr. LABARRE. Well, sir, I am hiring my third inspector now because of the increase in libraries. These people are gone 9 months out of the 12-month year, and there are 1,300 libraries and they inspect approximately 400 libraries a year. Mr. BENJAMIN. How much do you use for travel in fiscal year 1978? Mr. LABARRE. Approximately the same amount, sir. Mr. BENJAMIN. That was with two inspectors? Mr. LABARRE. Yes. Mr. BENJAMIN. Now with three? Mr. LABARRE. The point is I will have them home much more. It turned out to be a little bit more than two individuals could handle. They were gone too much. Mr. BENJAMIN. That was 9 months out of 12. How long will they be home now? Mr. LABARRE. I expect they will be home about 5 months. Mr. BENJAMIN. What do they do when they are home? Mr. LABARRE. We have many other things we wish to have them do. They work in the Depository program. They assist in the cata loging and indexing of publications. They also write up their reports and prepare for the Council meetings. They work on instructions for the depository libraries. TRANSPORTATION OF THINGS Mr. BENJAMIN. Transportation of things which you indicate as local and long distance deliveries to Members of Congress and warehouses. You are requesting $74,000. What is that? Mr. LABARRE. That is primarily for delivery of material within the Washington area, and the payment to the successful bidder to deliver mail from Eisenhower warehouse to the Postal Center. Mr. BENJAMIN. From Eisenhower to the Postal Center? Mr. LABARRE. Yes sir. Our entire library distribution division is located on Eisenhower Avenue in Alexandria, Va. As we prepare depository shipments, for example, we place these in a commercial truck and deliver it to the nearest U.S. Postal facility in Merrifield, Va. Mr. BENJAMIN. You don't have vehicles yourself? Mr. LABARRE. I have vehicles to make local deliveries but none are large enough to handle the bulk mail. I deliver material as required to the House and Senate, and I also deliver material locally between the two warehouses. RENTAL CHARGES Mr. BENJAMIN. Your rent request is for $378,000. On page V-3 you state that your leased storage areas cost $1.6 million. Which items are covered under your rental charges on page IV-3? Mr. LABARRE. The Eisenhower complex, the Library and Statutory Distribution Service and miscellaneous equipment is covered under that $378,000. Our General Sales Program is essentially in Laurel, Maryland. That is my largest space. The Depository Library Program, the Cataloging and Indexing Program and the ByLaw Program are all on Eisenhower Avenue in Alexandria, Virginia. That is the rental required for that space, sir. Mr. BENJAMIN. If we have a new building, will that rental be eliminated? Mr. LABARRE. Yes, sir. TELEPHONE EXPENSES Mr. BENJAMIN. Are telephone expenses included in classification 5? If so, explain the long distance telephone service provided and how you control your long distance calls. [The information follows:] Included in classification 5 is $2,860 for telephone expenses. This amount is part of the cost of our automatic call distributor which helps us handle incoming phone calls from our customers. All of our remaining telephone expenses are paid out of the GPO Revolving Fund. The Documents Sales Service uses FTS rather than commercial long distance for telephone calls to and from bookstores and, except in rare emergency situations, uses FTS rather than commercial long distance for business calls. The automatic call distributor is a device that takes incoming calls to the Sales Service Order and Information Desk on one number and automatically distributes the calls to the first open line on one of twenty desks staffed with personnel trained to answer inquiries and to accept telephone orders, so the customer does not have to wait unless all twenty phones are busy simultaneously. Costs of commercial long distance calls are controlled by supervisory personnel requiring personnel to use FTS rather than commercial long distance, except in emergencies when FTS is overloaded. All commercial long distance calls are further reviewed to ascertain their official business validity. 35-533 - 798 (Pt. 2) |