Mr. O'NEAL. But you do not have a figure that is exactly comparable with this figure of $27,748 for similar work done heretofore? Mr. CLAPP. No, sir. We have had that work done, but we do not have the exact figure. Mr. BOND. The price now would be $121,626 for the same amount of work that was done in 1929 for $97,000. Mr. O'NEAL. That is the present figure and estimate. Now, what would be the comparable figure when you bought these others? Mr. BOND. The only thing we could compare that with, Mr. Chairman, would be that we finished a deck before for $97,000. Mr. O'NEAL. Have you any figures on equipping two and a half decks with standard shelving for books compared with the present estimate of $234,695? I would like to find out what it cost you before in order to equip two and a half decks with standard shelving for books. Mr. CLAPP. As I understand it, you are interested in the $27,748 figure per deck and you would like to get a comparable prewar figure on that, Mr. Chairman. Mr. O'NEAL. Yes. Mr. CLAPP. I do not think we have that with us, Mr. Chairman. Mr. O'NEAL. Then I would like to have a comparable figure on equipping two and a half decks with standard shelving for books, $234,695, and also a comparable figure for equipping one deck with special map cases, $331,597. Mr. CLAPP. We can supply all of those figures for you, Mr. Chair man. (The matter referred to is as follows:) COMPARATIVE COSTS OF THE ANNEX Bookstack construction for the fiscal years 1942 and 1947 1 3. Cost of finishing and equipping 1 deck for books (item 1 plus item 2). Cost of equipping 1 deck for maps: 4,380 portable map case sections in 3 sizes, total capacity 2,190,000 maps. 6. Cost of finishing and equipping 1 deck for maps (item 1 plus item 5). 49, 168 35, 374. 72 2,000.00 31, 089.90 38, 780.00 2,500 33,430 28,780 1 As the original bookstacks were built as a unit under a definite construction cost, separate cost of each item is not available for the year the annex was completed-1938. 2 Based on applying 2 coats of paint. Based on applying 3 coats of paint. Heretofore no deck in the annex has been equipped for maps. The costs given are based upon the prices of the nonportable map cases hitherto procured, and the portable sectional cases now avaailable. T Mr. O'NEAL. What is emergency for all of this work, requiring it to be done when costs are at the very peak? I would like to find out what is the urgency for it, and why does it have to be done this year rather than later when the work cost may be reduced? Mr. CLAPP. May I explain the difficulty in that connection, Mr. Chairman? Mr. O'NEAL. Yes, sir. Mr. CLAPP. When the annex was completed in the fall of 1939 it had been under construction for the better part of a decade, and the main or original building of the Library of Congress had then been congested for a decade and a half. By congested I mean that our shelves were jammed. We had resorted in many instances to what we call double shelving; i. e., putting one row of books behind another on the same shelf, and we even took our folio shelves and put three shelves of books into a space which was intended to contain only one. In addition we took large groups of books off the shelves and put them in boxes in the cellar. In October 1939 we occupied the annex. The annex at that time had 72 finished decks, with 136 miles of shelving-doubling the available amount of shelf space. But when we took the books that had been double- and triple-shelved and the books that had been in boxes in the cellar and rearranged them on shelves to give service, we soon occupied all of the available shelving in both buildings; and we are now actually cramped for shelves. We have not sufficient room for expansion, so that when we insert a new group of books in one place we have to move everything. In the past 5 years we have moved our collections twice; and to move 7,000,000 books takes a tremendous amount of manpower which should be given to a more productive purpose, but we have done that chiefly because we are cramped for shelf space. EQUIPPING DECK WITH SPECIAL MAP CASES Mr. O'NEAL. Then there is equipping one deck with special map cases, $331,597. Tell us about that, if you will. Mr. CLAPP. The Map Division is at present on the north side of the main floor of the main building. Its collections are larger than it has space for there and we have consequently installed the latest group of map cases which you gave us over in the annex. We propose to move the Map Division over to the annex, where it will have room to grow in one of the stack areas which should be given it for the purpose of storage, while it should be permitted to use the reading room space for its proper function. Its present lacation is inefficient. Mr. O'NEAL. Have you ever thought of doing this on a 10-year plan or something of that sort so that you can reduce these costs a little? You can build a pretty good building for $691,000. We could almost go over here some place and build you a whole building for $691,000 and probably do a better job all the way through. Mr. CLAPP. May we ask you to do that, Mr. Chairman? Mr. O'NEAL. If you can save a little money by it and bring in a little more logical request I certainly wish you would ask for it. Mr. CLAPP. The next time we make a request we are going to ask for simple, satisfactory construction. Mr. O'NEAL. To the average layman, and I am a very average one, to spend $691,000, two-thirds of a million dollars, for equipping some bookstacks and equipping decks it requires a pretty strong justification. Mr. CLAPP. I agree with you, sir. Mr. O'NEAL. It does seem to me that something more practical could be done about it. Of course, I do not know what may come in next year, but when I see items like $691,000 for completing just one part of the Library, and I think there are seven or eight decks altogether, costing 691,000, it is rather hard for the average layman to understand. Mr. CLAPP. Those are very large bookstacks, as I tried to explain. Mr. O'NEAL. What causes them to cost so much? Mr. CLAPP. The deck roofing or ceiling is structural steel. The weight in the annex stacks suspends from the roof, and does not stand on the floor. That device is to avoid the buckling of the steel supports which hold the shelves themselves. Where the supports are under compression they tend to buckle, but where they are under tension they hang straight, so the decks are steel with structural members from which depend these metal castings on which rest the shelves. Mr. O'NEAL. Who does this type of work for you when it is done? Mr. CLAPP. I believe the Snead Co. did the last work. Mr. BOND. The Snead Co. of Orange, Va., who are regular bookstack manufacturers. Mr. O'NEAL. You buy the stacks already made, and they are put together in the Library? Mr. BOND. We buy they and they install them. It is just a matter of hanging them in place. After they are put in they are painted and then the shelves are put in. Mr. O'NEAL. Do you have competitive bids on things of that sort? Mr. BOND. Oh, yes; it is all done on competitive bidding. Mr. CLAPP. I do want to point out to you, Mr. Chairman, that this increase in shelving which is needed is not an emergency which has come up in the past few months, but as I have tried to explain, we have not had since the construction of the annex the freedom of movement that the completion of that building might have been supposed to have given us. Mr. TIBBOTT. Would it be possible to carry out this work over a period of a few years? Mr. CLAPP. Yes, sir; it certainly would. We could have one stack completed a year, but that would mean that we would be moving great quantities of books around all the time. As each stack is completed we could expand into first this space and then expand again into that space. It would be much more efficient to have it all done at once so that we could make an arrangement by which we might let the books stay in one place for 20 years and not have to move them again; but, of course, we will be most grateful for whatever additional shelving the committee is willing to give us. Mr. O'NEAL. The next item is "Steel shelving for structurally completed bookstacks," $47,800. What is that? Mr. LYNN. The stacks are already in place and the Library has to have these shelves to put books on; is not that correct, Mr. Clapp? Mr. CLAPP. The deck levels themselves have been completed, but they were not equipped with sufficient shelves. RESTORING AND EQUIPPING SPACE VACATED BY MAPS DIVISION Mr. O'NEAL. The next item is "Restoring and equipping space vacated by Maps Division," $35,950. What is that? Mr. CLAPP. That is to provide us with additional office space in the main building where space is very badly needed. Mr. O'NEAL. Your office space is badly overcrowded at this time? Mr. CLAPP. We have two or three to five people in each office. Mr. O'NEAL. What are you going to do there, restore it and equip it and spend $35,950 on it? Mr. CLAPP. We will remove the present steel structure used for housing the present map collection, replaster the walls where necessary, paint, install an underfloor duct, and lay a composition floor, install partitions, and so forth. Mr. O'NEAL. How big a space is that, Mr. Clapp? Mr. CLAPP. It is probably about 200 by 35 feet. Mr. BOND. Here is a little sketch of it, Mr. Chairman. Mr. LYNN. This item is contingent upon approval by the committee of the item of $331,597 for equipping one of the bookstack decks with special map cases. Mr. O'NEAL. In the event the other item is allowed, then this will be necessary? Mr. LYNN. Yes, sir. Mr. O'NEAL. What sort of partitions are in there? Mr. BOND. Steel partitions. Mr. O'NEAL. Steel partitions? Mr. BOND. Yes, sir. Mr. O'NEAL. And they are permanent? Mr. BOND. They are nearly 20 feet high. Mr. O'NEAL. And probably the finest construction you could get? Mr. BOND. They are commercial partitions. PNEUMATIC TUBE SYSTEM, MAIN BUILDING Mr. O'NEAL. The next item is "Replacement of pneumatic-tube system, main building," $30,000. Who will speak on that? Mr. CLAPP. I will be glad to introduce Mr. Bond to speak on that, merely by saying that I worked with this old pneumatic tube system, which is now nearly 50 years old, and it certainly should be replaced. Mr. O'NEAL. Does it break down in its operation? Mr. CLAPP. Yes, sir, continuously. Mr. O'NEAL. It does? Mr. CLAPP. Yes, sir. Mr. Bond can demonstrate to you the virtues of the old and new system, showing you why it breaks down so continuously. Mr. BOND. This is a section of the old single-way tubing that is in use in the old Library Building, where we use an open-end leather cartridge like this [indicating] in which to carry the requests for books which are sent from the reading rooms to the different stack levels. The requests, on 3-inch by 5-inch slips of paper, are coiled and put in this carrier and blown through the tube, with the result, of course, that sometimes the messages blow out, so that you have to take a paper clip, or something like that to hold them in." In the annex building we installed a modern two-way vacuum system, using a larger tube, and this system uses a closed transparent-wall cartridge to send requests for books. These requests are marked with the number of the desk, so that when it reaches the exchange point, the attendant simply looks at that number through the transparent wall and can dispatch it instantly to the deck wherever the book is. This number on the bottom of the cartridge indicates it came from deck 21. At the present time if they want a book from the annex in the main building of the Library, they have to put a request for it in this tube, and it goes down to the exchange point below the reading room. There has to be an attendant there to take it out, and to put it in another tube to send it over to the annex; then they in turn have to redirect it to whatever deck it is going to. What we are trying to do is to get a duplication of the same system in both buildings, so that we can send a tube directly from one building to the other. Mr. CLAPP. With the old single-way system, if at opposite ends messages are introduced at the same time they jam up and you have to send for a mechanic to undo them. With the new two-way system, one tube coming, and one tube going, there is no jamming up and there is no such mechanical service required. Mr. LYNN. This item has been considered before, but has not been resubmitted since 1942, due to the war. This is an item that I feel should be done next year. The equipment has reached the point of obsolescence where replacement parts can no longer be procured, and it is exceedingly difficult to keep the system in satisfactory operation. ACOUSTICAL TILE CEILINGS Mr. O'NEAL. The next item is "Acoustical Tile Ceilings," both buildings, for which $28,000 is requested. What is that? Mr. CLAPP. These are very important, sir. The annex is finished completely with hard gypsum plaster, and the acoustics are very bad indeed over there. Although we have been able to acoustically tile several of the small private offices, yet the staff generally has to work in spaces where, if an adding machine is being operated at one end of the room, you cannot hear over the telephone at the other end of the room. I have had that experience myself a number of times. Mr. O'NEAL. That is in the annex? Mr. CLAPP. Yes, sir; principally in the annex, but it is also true to some degree in the main building. NEW DELIVERY ENTRANCE, ANNEX Mr. O'NEAL. The next item is "new delivery entrance, annex,' $17,200. What is that Mr. CLAPP. Simply stated the present building ramp is too narrow for modern vans and delivery trucks and, consequently, all deliveries have to be made in the street. That means, in addition to separate transportation from the street and rehauling of the material down the ramp, that the materials are sometimes delivered out in the rain; and it also means additional cost from demurrage charges on the part of the transportation companies, who refuse to unload their goods there. Mr. LYNN. This is another item which I very much recommend for next year. It is a permanent improvement. |