We have 3 levels of catalogers in the Subject Cataloging Division; P-2, P-3, and P-4. If they were all P-4, that is, if all the work could be done by people competent to do P-4 work, completely independent work, the per title cost would be less than it would be if all of the catalogers were P-2.

QUALIFICATION OF A P-2

Mr. GRIFFITHS. What is the qualification of a P-2?

Mr. HENKLE. A minimum of 1 year graduate study in some subject field and a knowledge of the Library of Congress classification system and of our subject heading system.

Mr. GRIFFITHS. They should have intelligence enough, if they have a college degree and a year's actual practice.

Mr. HENKLE. It is the equivalent of 2 years on the average, and I think most of them have beyond that, normally beyond the bachelor's degree.

Mr. GRIFFITHS. I was going to say, it is beyond the bachelor's degree?

Mr. HENKLE. That is right. So I think it is an interesting point, because I looked into that rather carefully. It cuts down the amount of revision.

SUBJECT CATALOGING DIVISION

Mr. JOHNSON. Proceed with the next item.

Dr. EVANS. I would like Mr. Henkle to recite on the Subject Cataloging Division, which is set out on page 51.

Mr. HENKLE. There, we are asking for 121 new positions. Of these, 51 are subject to catalogers, shown in the first line, of which 15 are requested to help us carry the present load, the other 36 to work on arrearages.

Mr. JOHNSON. How much would the 15 cost?

Mr. HENKLE. They are two P-5's, two P-4's, four P-3's, and seven P-2's, at a total cost of $65,980. The other 36 positions in that group would be at a cost of $114,000, to work on arrearages.

Mr. JOHNSON. Would their grades be about in the same proportion? Mr. HENKLE. Approoximately the same, with this exception. The two P-5's that we are requesting are to give us better coordination of the subject work. There is serious need in our subject cataloging to have better top level expert supervision, particularly in the area of developing our classification systems and our subject headings.

Mr. JOHNSON. What would be the qualifications of a P-5 employee? Mr. HENKLE. Academically the qualifications would be approximately those I mentioned in answer to Congressman Griffiths. But a person of that caliber-well, the duties of that position would probably call for anywhere from 8 to 10 years' experience, normally, before they could carry that job.

The next item, 58 shelflisters; of those, 21 are requested to help us carry the current loan and the 37 are for arrearages.

Mr. JOHNSON. What would be their classification?

Mr. HENKLE. Three SP-7's, 6 SP-6's, and 12 SP-5's.

Mr. JOHNSON. At what cost?

Mr. HENKLE. $53,655. In this unit, you will note the average level of classification is much lower.

Mr. JOHNSON. What is the next?

Mr. HENKLE. The next is labeling, which is a routine subprofessional operation in the labeling, bookplating of books, adding of labels for the shelves; only one is required to carry the current load, an SP-2 assistant at $1,820.

There is need for an additional messenger in the division. The volume of material flowing through the division at the present time is beyond the capacity of the present messenger, so that one messenger is needed for the present current flow, an SP-3 at $1,954.

COST ACCOUNTING SYSTEM-CATALOGING OPERATIONS

Mr. GRIFFITHS. On what basis do you check your actual work load? Mr. HENKLE. In the late winter of 1942, we invited the General Accounting Office to lend us a CPA who had developed a cost accounting system for us for use in the Card Division, to come over and advise us on setting up some cost-accounting records for cataloging. The General Accounting Office loaned him to us for several months and he worked with myself and with the assistant director, got out on the floor and talked with catalogers, watched their operations, and developed a cost-accounting system which we put into effect in June, 1943, and used experimentally during the summer.

In September, I think the 1st of September, 1943, we put it into effect, full scale, in the Descriptive Cataloging Division. I am not precisely sure of my chronology, but in a month or so we put it into the Subject Cataloging Division and on through the whole of the cataloging operations. We maintained those complete cost accounting records over a period of better than 2 years for all the divisions represented in this estimate. They are, I think, probably the first sound basis for a cataloging estimate that any library has been able to produce. I think it will stand up under the most careful scrutiny.

Dr. EVANS. May I at this point, Mr. Chairman, call your attention to a table that shows the number of minutes it takes for each of these operations? That table is contained on pages 386 and 387 of our annual report.

Mr. JOHNSON. Would you care to put that in the record?

Dr. EVANS. That is, just the table, without the estimate on personnel; just to show the number of minutes.

Mr. GRIFFITHS. Is that a time study table?

Dr. EVANS. That is a time study table. Perhaps you would like to look at it. It results from the system that Mr. Henkle has just described. I think the significant thing for our purpose would be the minutes per operation These figures were for last year and do not correspond with this year's estimates, but that is the statistical base relied upon.

Mr. JOHNSON. If you wish, you may put that in the record at this point.

(The matter referred to is as follows:)

Estimate of man-years required to catalog fully 100,000 foreign-language titles in 1 year1; based on cost-accounting records, 1943-45

QUALIFICATIONS AND DUTIES OF CERTAIN SP PERSONNEL

Mr. JOHNSON. I want to ask another question. What are the qualifications of the SP-2 positions?

Mr. HENKLE. Usually high-school graduation. We try to get highschool graduates.

Mr. JOHNSON. What work do you propose for this SP position that you were just speaking of here?

Mr. HENKLE. That is a labeler. They mount bookplates, and add the Library of Congress ownership marks and shelf labels to the books.

Mr. JOHNSON. Do they have to have unusual qualifications to do this work?

Mr. HENKLE. Ordinarily high-school graduation.

Mr. JOHNSON. Now, what are the qualifications for an SP-3 employee?

Mr. HENKLE. The academic qualifications for most of the subprofessional and clerical grades up to about SP-3 or 4 and CAF-1 and 2 are about the same, as far as academic qualifications are concerned. Mr. JOHNSON. Now, you have listed here a messenger as SP-3, is that right?

Mr. HENKLE. That is on the basis of the civil-service classification. Mr. JOHNSON. Then, under the civil-service classification, a messenger is graded higher than a man who does this labeling and subject work?

Mr. HENKLE. That is right, but this particular

Mr. JOHNSON. You say that an SP-3 employee needs a strong back and strong legs and be willing to work, while an SP-2 apparently has to have something "upstairs"?

Dr. EVANS. Mr. Chairman, a chauffeur, who may not even read or write, can get a higher salary than either one of those.

Mr. HENKLE. I think I can explain this. This particular messenger, SP-3, has a considerable amount of duties in filing of record cards in the division. They have certain working records where they have to file cards. Most of our messengers are CPC-3. "Messenger" here is a misnomer for the job. It is a general subprofessional assistant's job. He does messenger duties, distributes books to the shelf listers, and distributes books to the catalogers on instructions.

Mr. GRIFFITHS. Is the quality of your personnel in those lower grades any better now than it was when you made your classifications in 1943; now that the war is over?

Mr. HENKLE. I think the quality is much better. The turnover is much less rapid, resulting in a great deal of improvement in the quality of the applicants.

Dr. EVANS. I think in general, sir; throughout the Library, the quality of the messengers and deck attendants, subprofessional attendents, is better than it was 3 or 4 years ago.

Mr. HENKLE. We notice it first in just such jobs as these.

CATALOG MAINTENANCE DIVISION

Mr. HENKLE. The next item is the Catalog Maintenance Division, which is presented on page 52. We presently have 28 as a total in the Catalog Maintenance Division and are asking for a total of 91,

or 63 new positions. The Catalog Maintenance Division is a new administrative unit in the Processing Department, established for this purpose

Mr. JOHNSON. Let's get this straight. You show you have 14 presently employed, where?

P Dr. EVANS. No; we have 28. The 14 prepare new cards for the catalogs.

Mr. JOHNSON. This whole unit is new, is it?

Mr. HENKLE. No. The Catalog Maintenance Division is a new division administratively, but it absorbed certain operations from other divisions along with the staff. These 28 people are people who have been on our rolls regularly.

Mr. JOHNSON. Proceed.

Mr. HENKLE. I will say a word first in connection with our request for 2 administrative positions, shown at the bottom of column 8. This division was established because during the last year, and particularly within recent months, numerous complaints have came from the reference staff of the Library that the public catalogs of the Library in many ways are getting into serious condition.

Mr. JOHNSON. Which ways; how do you mean, serious condition? Mr. HENKLE. They are getting very large and need editing. Many of the older cards-thousands of the older catalog cards-have only penciled call numbers on them. Those are being worn off from thumbing, so that one cannot locate the books. Thousands of the cards are very dirty. Over the course of decades there has resulted such a complexity of arrangement in certain places in the catalog that it is difficult to make use of it. There has been an increased amount of clamor ing on the part of reference assistants-and I think entirely justifiedfor better editorial control of our public catalogs, of which we have two open to the public, one in the main reading room in the main. building and one in the annex, and of the large official catalog used by the cataloging staff and the searchers in the Acquisitions Department, in the maintenance of the Library's own operations.

We need a chief and an assistant chief for that operation. It is a high-level technical responsibility, requiring a great amount of skill. At the present time the responsibility there is carried by my technical assistant, and as a result of that I do not have any technical assistance, as I have just detailed him to take care of those duties.

Mr. JOHNSON. What would be the classification of the Chief and the Assistant Chief?

Mr. HENKLE. My estimate is P-6.

Mr. JOHNSON. Both?

Mr. HENKLE. No; P-5 and P-6.

Mr. JOHNSON. What would be their salaries?

Dr. EVANS. $5,905 and $7,102 for P-5 and P-6, respectively.

Mr. JOHNSON. Proceed.

Mr. HENKLE. Of the other positions, beginning on the top line, page 52, card-preparation assistants, 4 of the 28, and then a single position on the line below, are required for current work, a total of 5; there would be one SP-5, 3 SP-4's, and one SP-3, totaling $10,852.84. The other 23 positions are for arrears of work.

Now, as to the filing operation, the current work would require three additional assistants. Actually the work of filing is pretty badly