LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE SERVICE PERSONNEL Senator MONRONEY. You requested 14 additional personnel in the Legislative Research Division. Dr. MUMFORD. I am not sure I know what that reference is to. Senator MONRONEY. The Senator says: I am writing this letter to you as chairman of the Legislative Subcommittee of the full Appropriations Committee with regard to a situation which I have encountered through requests I have made to the Library of Congress for information. On March 4, I contacted the Legislative Research Division for some information. I was advised that the Division was 2,200 requests for information behind from just Members of Congress alone. I was advised that this Division of the Library was receiving over 700 requests a day for information from Members of Congress. I was further advised that this was far above their usual workload and that indications were that Members of Congress were using this facility of the Library more and more to assist their office research work. Mr. MUMFORD. That must be the Legislative Reference Service. I think, Mr. Chairman, that he may have confused our request for 14 positions in the Reference Department, to which I have referred earlier. Most of them are involved in processing, but some are for service. In our justification book on page 12 and the top of page 13 these are enumerated and he may have taken these to be for legislative research. Senator MONRONEY. Those 14 were the ones to provide additional staff for sorting, arranging, indexing, shelving, filing, and other processing functions in the following divisions: Manuscript, map, music, orientalia, prints and photographs, serial, and stack and reader. Mr. MUMFORD. That is right. Senator MONRONEY. Four new jobs would relate to LRS and we gave you four last year and that is all you have requested. Mr. MUMFORD. That is correct. Senator MONRONEY. I think our discussion earlier fully explains the situation and how we might be able to give greater relief to expediting some of these matters. I will ask that Senator Mundt's letter in full be carried prior to my comment. EXCHANGE AND GIFT DIVISION There will be placed in the record at this point the following information from the justifications relating to the request for an additional three positions for the Exchange and Gift Division. (The justification referred to follows:) To meet increase in exchange and gift work An important part of the exchange of publications is the provision of specifieally requested publications and the selection and provision of general publications in subject fields designated by exchange partners. For these purposes, the Exchange and Gift Division attempts to maintain a large collection of duplicate U.S. Government publications in order by issuing agencies and a large collection of duplicate commercial publications in rough subject arrangement. It has been the practice for all staff members engaged in exchange work to locate items for exchange as required. Exchange work is increasing-1,115,200 pieces were sent out on exchange in 1963, 1,173,885 pieces were sent out in 1964, and it seems assured that this trend will continue. At the present time, the maintenance and selection of the duplicate exchange collection involves several man-hours a week of 12 members of the exchange sections graded at GS-7 to GS-11. In order to allow these people to spend more of their time on productive acquisition activities that will further bolster the Library's collections, it is deemed both practical and economical to have one person solely assigned to this work who is familiar with the organization of the material through constant use. One GS-7 duplicates exchange assistant is requested for this purpose. Stamper-sorters are responsible for stamping incoming materials to provide indicia of ownership, source, date of receipt, and count. They must also stamp surplus duplicate outgoing materials to cancel ownership marks and to provide a count. They sort and route materials and assist in opening and shelving incoming materials. The exchange work shown in the tables below illustrates a continuing upward trend. Only a portion of the items listed below must be stamped, but as the total workload increases, the stamper-sorter work also increases. Two GS-2 stamper-sorters are requested to handle the additional workload. Total incoming materials.-Exchange, gift, by virtue of law (Public Printer, Copyright, Books for the Blind), and official donations (local and State agencies, transfer from Federal agencies): 1962_. 1963 1964 - 4, 408, 325 4,876, 129 5, 419, 787 Total outgoing materials.—Exchange, transfer to Federal agencies, donations to institutions, and discard: 1962 1963. 1964_ 2,877, 428 3, 428, 912 3, 688, 909 BOOKS FOR GENERAL COLLECTIONS AND LAW LIBRARY Senator MONRONEY. There will also be included pages 29 through 36 of the justification case relating to the additional positions requested for the Order and Serial Record Divisions and to apply class K, the classification for law. (The justification referred to follows:) To provide staff for work resulting from requested increases in the appropriations: "Books for the general collections" and "Books for the Law Library" Order Division, 3 positions: Order preparation section: 1 GS-7 order librarian_. 1 GS-5 acquisitions assistant.... 1 GS-4 invoice examiner_____ Total (2). Personnel benefits.. 3 positions_‒‒ $6, 050 5,000 4, 480 15, 530 1, 210 16, 740 The requested appropriations for books for the general collections and books for the Law Library for fiscal 1966 amount to a $145,000 increase over 1965 appropriations, or an increase of 18.6 percent. They represent an increase of 21.3 percent over the 1963 appropriations-the last to provide additional staff for the Order Division which is responsible for book purchases. The requested appropriation increases would mainly affect areas concerned with ordering and receiving large numbers of individual items at relatively small individual cost. The major impact of the increased funds would be felt in the Order Preparation Section and the Inspection and Invoice Units of the Receiving and Clearing Section. It is requested, therefore, that three budgeted positions be added to permit the Division to retain currency of operations; this represents a staff increase of 6 percent. To maintain currency in the recording and control of serials and to reduce arrearage Serial publications (periodicals, journals, yearbooks, etc.) comprise the most current and in many fields the most significant contributions to the Library's collections. The Serial Record Division is responsible for recording receipts; assuring routing to appropriate custodial divisions and, when necessary through one or more reference or subject areas prior to custodial divisions; for maintaining a record of the Library's processing decisions for specific titles; for maintaining a record of serials sent for binding and bound; for providing a much used reference service as to the Library's serial holdings and their locations; for providing information on receipt of serials by source in order to assure proper payment or claiming procedures for serials obtained by purchase or otherwise, and, in the course of processing, for separating duplicates and other items not to be added to the Library's collections. There has been an enormous proliferation of serial publications-it is estimated that over 8,000 new titles are appearing each year. The Serial Record Division last received four additional positions in fiscal 1962. Since that time the workload has continued to climb. The Division received 1,618,504 pieces in 1962, 1,688,949 pieces in 1963, and 1,845,527 pieces in 1964. At the end of fiscal 1962, $7,675 pieces were still on hand awaiting accessioning. This figure grew to 98,175 in 1963, and to 238,910 in 1964. The Division's capacity to clear this material has remained fairly constant at about 1,700,000 pieces. As of December 1964, 372,000 pieces were on hand as climbing receipts occasionally outran processing capacity by as much as 9,000 pieces a week. One accessioner can clear about 78.000 pieces a year. Five additional GS-4 accessioners are requested to insure that despite the increase in receipts, the most important currently received serials are not delayed in processing and to make a start in reducing the amount of work on hand. There are two GS-4 serial sorters in the Division. The absence of either one requires detailing help from the Accessioning Unit. Even when both are present, the increased work frequently demands more help. One GS-5 senior serial sorter is requested so that a greater measure of individual responsibility for the control of incoming material may be assigned; this additional serial sorter would be a working supervisor whose efforts would release the time now being spent on sorting by accessioners (roughly the time of one person). The addition of this position would thus also have the salutary effect of increasing recording production by another man-year. An increase in the number of items handled by the Recording Section will materially increase the number of pieces that will be referred for searching and possible forwarding as new serial titles. Between 20,000 and 30,000 extra pieces will have to be processed in the Searching and Reference Section. Since the average number of pieces handled by an individual searcher is about 20,000, one GS-6 searcher is requested. Catalogers determine entries for the serial record and new serial titles. They also receive from the Shelflisting Section preliminary cataloging cards and incorporate call numbers, notes, and other new information contained in these cards into the serial record. In fiscal 1964, 4.5 catalogers (including half time 49-381-654 of assistant section head) cataloged 11,624 titles. It is anticipated that workload for 1965 will be 15,000 titles, requiring two more GS-7 catalogers. This increase will also provide some margin for reducing a work-on-hand figure of 9,000 titles. To apply the class K (law) classification to the U.S. Federal and State holdings of the Law Library Subject Cataloging Division, 10 positions: 1 Since the development of the classification schedules nearly 60 years ago, books in all fields of knowledge except law have received book numbers which assured them a definite location on the shelves from which they may be withdrawn and to which they may be returned readily. Because a classification schedule for the field of law (class K) has only recently approached completion and then only for American law, lawbooks have had no such definite identification number. As a consequence, they have been difficult to find and to return to the shelves. Moreover, the lack of definite identifying numbers has so complicated the charging and discharging of loans as to hamper seriously the work of the Loan Division and to slow down measurably the usefulness of the world's most comprehensive collections both to the readers and the research staff. The lack of such positive identification for each book also increases the chances of duplicate acquisitions. The classification schedule for American law, both Federal and State, is approaching completion. Preliminary work on the section for England and the present and past components of the British Commonwealth of Nations has been done. This, when completed will be followed by similar sections of the schedules for foreign law, and the Roman and Canon and other systems of secular and religious law. With the completion of the class K schedule, and its application to the law collections, the Law Library would then be under the same classification and location scheme as the rest of the classified collections-that is, there would be a direct approach to the material on the shelves by subject and category through a classified arrangement. This is of particular importance for research work with the collections. The holdings of the Law Library in U.S. Federal and State law consist of 63,600 titles representing 327,000 volumes. To bring this collection of U.S. holdings under control will require approximately 3 years, after which the collections of foreign legal materials can be brought under the same kind of control. The two GS-7 classification record assistants will, after the class number is assigned by a subject cataloger, assign a book number which is unique for each title that fits it into its proper alphabetical or chronological sequence within the class. These same staff members will compare the volumes and cards to be certain that they match, note copies and their locations on the shelf list card with which they are working. The resulting shelf list will be the permanent inventory record of the Law Library holdings arranged in the same classified order as the books stand on the shelves. The two GS-4 clerical assistants will, using the book number which has been derived, write the full call number on the verso of the title page of each volume. This operation takes much less time than deriving the book number, but there are an estimated 21⁄2 volumes per title plus long runs of U.S. digests, reports, and session laws for which the call number must be written in each volume. The five GS-2 preparation assistants will select labels preprinted with the letters signifying major chapters of the classification schedule, affix the labels to the spines of the books, and hand-letter in india ink the complete call numbers. The GS-3 reviewer will verify the affixed and lettered labels with the definitive call number as written on the verso of the title paper of each volume. 13 positions in the office of the law librarian are also requested in the 1966 budget: 1 GS-5 project supervisor and 2 GS-4 deck attendants. REFERENCE DEPARTMENT Senator MONRONEY. We now come to the References Department, and I ask that the following information from the justifications be inserted in the record. A total of 14 new positions is requested, in the sum of $90,602, for this Department. Please comment on the necessity for this many new positions. (The justification referred to follows:) REFERENCE DEPARTMENT GENERAL STATEMENT The Reference Department is the major custodial and public service department of the Library covering all fields except law, which is covered by a separate department. Through 17 divisions (13 financed by this appropriation, 1 by the books for the blind appropriation, 2 by funds advanced by the Defense Department, and 1 by funds advanced by the National Science Foundation), it (1) exercises the basic responsibilities of recommending material to assure adequacy of the collections; (2) renders service to the Congress, other Government agencies, and to the general research worker, by telephone, letter, or in person; and (3) engages in special activities designed to make the collections more readily accessible through the preparation of published bibliographies, abstracts, and indexes. Additionally, within two of its regular divisions, it administers the activities provided under the appropriations, "Preservation of motion pictures" and "Organizing and microfilming the papers of the Presidents." Justification of new positions requested to organize material for service to readers New positions requested Manuscript Division: GS-5 preparation assistant (1), Preparation $5,000 Map Division: GS-4 processing assistants (2), Processing Section, at $4,480_. 8, 960 Music Division: GS-9 bibliographer-indexer (1), Reference Section_ 7,220 5,000 Prints and Photographs Division: GS-9 cataloger (1), Processing and 7,220 Mr. MUMFORD. Mr. Chairman, I have referred to various ones of them previously. May I ask Dr. Basler, the Director of the Reference Department, to summarize and give you a general picture of the need for these. Senator MONRONEY. Yes, sir. |