Mechanicsburg, Washington, D.C. (Suitland, Md.), Atlanta (East Point, Ga.), Chicago, Dayton, Kansas City, Fort Worth, Denver, San Francisco (San Bruno, Calif.), Los Angeles (Bell, Calif.), Seattle. NARS also operates the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Mo., where the records of most former military personnel and Federal civilian employees are maintained. Since the cost of storing records in center space averages only $0.35 per cubic foot annually, and microfilming costs at least $80 per cubic foot, few, if any, of the records transferred to records centers would qualify for filming (merely on the basis of reducing their bulk) from a cost-benefits viewpoint. COMPUTER TAPES Mr. ROBISON. Along the same lines, if you will turn now to III-19, we are told how the National Archives has begun to deal with permanently valuable information on computer tapes. Please discuss this process further, explaining its value and outlining whatever problems you have encountered in accelerating recourse to this method. Dr. RHOADS. During fiscal year 1973 a general records schedule was developed in the machine-readable archives branch and published by GSA. This regulation provides agencies with guidelines to appraise magnetic tapes and to determine their proper retention period. Through its proper use, a typical ADP installation can reduce its magnetic tape holdings by approximately 20 percent. Estimated costs of storing magnetic tape reels in computer tape libraries are approximately $6 per reel per year. Savings in tape storage alone by applying the schedule could amount to $6 million annually. One problem we are now beginning to solve is to see that agencies use proper techniques for the preservation of magnetic tape. Surveys indicate that expenditures for preservation vary from 10 cents per reel per year to $10. We have developed a handbook (in draft form) for the preservation of magnetic tape. It gives agencies the guidelines needed to preserve permanently valuable magnetic tapes at less than $2 per reel per year. We estimate that 1,000 reels per month of permanently valuable magnetic tape records are currently being created. These must be inventoried, documented, and preserved soon after their creation. If not there is a high probability that permanently valuable information will be lost. JOHNSON LIBRARY Mr. ROBISON. On III-19, I note that the cost of the Johnson Presidential Library is the highest for all such items-$590,000, as compared to $382,000 for the Eisenhower Library, even though Mr. Eisenhower was in office a full 8 years and Mr. Johnson a substantially shorter time. Is there an explanation for this? And also for the fact that the Johnson Library has more employees? Dr. RHOADS. The Lyndon Baines Johnson Library is the largest of GSA-NARS Presidential Libraries. Of the 100 million manuscript pages in the 6 libraries, 31 million are in the Johnson Library. This collection is comparable to the manuscript collections of the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, and almost twice as large as the collection in the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library. In addition, the Johnson Library has more visitors to its museum than any of the other libraries, accounting for almost half of the 1.5 million visitors to Presidential libraries in fiscal year 1972. A larger staff is thus required to handle the Johnson Library workload. Since the State of Texas requires free admission to the Johnson Library's museum, fewer employees can be paid from trust fund receipts than is the case in the other Presidential libraries. NATIONAL HISTORIC PUBLICATIONS GRANTS Mr. ROBISON. I note, from III-25, that the budget request for the national historical publications grant program is still at the $500,000 level even though recent legislation increased the authorized amount to $2 million annually. The justification language indicates an attitude that much more needs to be done under this program. What is the actual demand for funds under this program? At what approximate level have they been running, and how much more than the request do you feel you could responsibly use-and, in asking this question, I have in mind, as you must, too, the fiscal constraints under which we are all operating. Dr. RHOADS. The present level of $500,000 for the grant program of the National Historical Publications Commission is sufficient to carry on support for those projects which are already funded by the Commission. No new projects, however, can be undertaken. The Commission has received proposals for new projects totaling $483,136. These are worthy projects for which no funds are available. REIMBURSABLE WORK Mr. STEED. What about work performed for other agencies; do you do any work for which you are reimbursed? Dr. RHOADS. Yes, sir. Mr. STEED. Supply a review of that for the record. [The information follows:] Reimbursable work performed for other agencies in 1973 will total about $1.6 million, broken down as follows: Records management assistance to other agencies, $900,000. Centralized microfilming by records centers, $300,000. Special reference services by records centers, $320,000. Services performed by the National Archives (records rehabilitation and reproduction), $80,000. Mr. MYERS. Would you yield? What happens to those funds reimbursed? Dr. RHOADS. They are used to pay the people who do the work. MAGNITUDE OF REIMBURSEMENTS Mr. MYERS. I don't see that in your budget. Mr. ROBERTSON. We are talking about the operating expenses approɔriation and not the reimbursables. The impact of the reimbursables For the current year is about 59 positions and $1.7 million. It is estinated that next year there will be a slight decrease. The positions will e decreased to about 56 full-time positions and the funding to about 31.4 million. That is a separate part of the budget. Mr. BUTTS. Mr. Myers, it would not be in that estimates volume. That is the direct appropriation request. It is on the schedule for advances and reimbursements and appears in the committee print. Mr. MYERS. Thank you. TRUST FUND Mr. STEED. In addition to that, do you receive services or resources which you do not pay for, from private or from Government sources? Dr. RHOADS. In our trust fund accounts, we anticipate we will receive and spend just under $5 million in 1974. Mr. STEED. What does this involve? Dr. RHOADS. That involves a number of things. A larger part of it is payment that we receive from the public for making copies of records, including income tax returns. Included also are admission fees to the museum rooms of the various Presidential libraries and fees for the sale, loan, and rental of motion picture films by the National Audiovisual Center. Mr. STEED. Do you have any of your work force detailed to other agencies? Dr. RHOADS. There are none at the present time. Mr. STEED. Mr. Myers? Mr. MYERS. I have no questions at this time. Mr. STEED. Thank you very much, gentlemen. Dr. RHOADS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Justification of the Budget Estimates NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS SERVICE FUNCTIONS PERFORMED BY THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS SERVICE The National Archives and Records Service promotes improved records management and disposal practices in Federal agencies, operates a nationwide system of 15 Federal records centers, and selects, preserves, and services the permanently valuable historical records of the Federal Government. It also publishes the slip laws, the U.S. Statutes at Large, Constitutional amendments, Presidential documents, and administrative regulations having general applicability and legal effect; preserves, publishes, and administers the historical materials in Presidential libraries operated by GSA; and administers the National Historical Publications Commission Grant program. The Archivist of the United States chairs the National Historical Publications Commission, the Administrative Committee of the Federal Register, and provides leadership to the Federal Records Council. He also chairs the National Archives Trust Fund Board which receives and administers donations for the benefit of the National Archives, and through the National Archives Trust Fund, furnishes for a fee, copies of records in the custody of the National Archives and Records Service. 94-174 073 pt. 4 -- 42 |