1. Ingrade increases, reallocations, and wage board increases_ For projected increase in salary level for 1962 over 1961 +$175,000 2. Binding pay increase at Government Printing Office- Women binders at the Government Printing Office were granted an 8-cent-an-hour pay increase effective in May 1960. Men bookbinders were granted an 11-cent-an-hour pay increase effective in August 1960. The GPO estimates the annual costs for these pay increases at $3,300 which will be passed on to the Library of Congress in the form of increased bills for binding services. 3. Rental of additional tabulating equipment-- To meet additional workload due to overall increase in Library staff, application of equipment to new projects and increasing complexity of Federal procedures, increases annual equipment rental costs from $34,800 to $47,800. 4. Rental of space- An additional $55,000 required to provide space rental and related costs for 1962 for 12-month period as compared with provision for 9-months for 1961. This amount is offset by $52,000 in nonrecurring costs to be financed from 1961 funds. 5. New positions requested--- To maintain currency in filing in the card catalogs, 2 GS-4 and 2 GS-3_ +3, 300 +13, 000 +3, 000 +193, 100 Contribution to retirement fund. Contribution to health insurance_ Total----- To maintain currency in the recording and control of serial, $15, 642 52 221 16, 932 5. New positions requested-Continued To augment the staff available for organization and cus- 1 GS-11, 1 GS-9, 1 GS-7, 1 GS-5 and 1 GS-2_- Group life insurance. Contribution to health insurance_ $27, 247 276 6 WB-2 Contribution to retirement fund. Group life insurance. Contribution to health insurance_. Total. Total, Administrative Department (8 positions) Office of the Librarian: To develop an information retrieval program : 1 GS-14 and 1 GS-5__ Contribution to retirement fund_ Group life insurance_ Contribution to health insurance_ 18, 470 1, 201 61 332 20, 064 16, 577 Total_ To provide a centralized information service: Contribution to retirement fund. Group life insurance. Contribution to health insurance_ Total_--_- Total, Office of the Librarian (4 positions). Total positions listed above (38)–. Total increases_. 28, 530 55 111 17, 820 10, 732 698 35 110 11, 575 29, 395 193, 100 +387, 400 Mr. STEED. This shows that for 1961 the regular bill totals $7,677,800, with the supplemental of $455,000, bringing that to a 1961 adjusted total of $8,122,800. The budget estimate for 1962 is $8,510,200, making a net increase of $387,400. REALLOCATION AND INGRADE INCREASES You have already discussed at some length the ingrade increases, reallocations, and wage board increases accounting for $175,000 of this increase. Are these reallocations already in effect or are they anticipated to come, or just what is the situation? Mr. MUMFORD. Those for which we are asking money for 1959 and 1960 are already in effect. The others are in progress at the present time, and the additional figure is based upon the estimate of reallocations in progress and for the coming year. Mr. STEED. Is it your estimate then that this $175,000, if approved, would take care of those now in effect and those that you see coming up during this period? Would that put you on a current basis? Mr. ROGERS. The amount we have requested would just take care of us through this fiscal year and should take care of next year's ingrades, but for reallocations we may be low in our estimates for next year as we were in 1959 and 1960, which we now have had a chance to review and have a firm figure to give to the committee. We are looking ahead and know we have some heavy increases coming up, but we are not yet asking for those increases. We know that next year there are some reallocations that are going to cover a great many people in certain classifications. Mr. STEED. In other words, this item deals only with those now in effect? Mr. ROGERS. 1959, 1960, 1961, and what we know so far about 1962. Mr. MUMFORD. Mr. Chairman, would it be inappropriate for me to ask that the statement regarding reallocations, which is on pages 62 to 65, be placed in the record so it will give an integrated picture of this? Mr. STEED. Without objection, we will insert that. (The pages follow :) Increases requested, $175,000 From year to year the general salary level of employees increases from a variety of causes apart from general Government salary increases. These causes include ingrade increases, wage board increases, and reallocations of positions and similar Classification Act actions. During recent years Congress has generously granted requests made by the Library for increases justified on the basis of these causative factors. For example, $64,215 was authorized for fiscal 1959 under this appropriation head, $68,245 for 1960, and $77,244 for 1961. However, an analysis of funds available to finance all the positions authorized by Congress indicates that the amounts requested in recent years to meet the cost of ingrades, wage board increases, and reallocations fall substantially short of meeting actual costs. This is due for the most part to the failure of the Library to recognize the impact of a somewhat accelerated reallocation program which was mandatory for the Library in view of clear findings of existing grade levels very much below levels existing elsewhere and very much below the levels authorized by classification standards. The breakdown of the $175,000 requested for 1962 is as follows: For projected increase in salary level for 1962 over 1961 due to: Ingrade increases. Reallocations_ Wage board increases. Subtotal_-- For reallocations to meet deficiencies resulting from reallocations in fiscal years 1959 and 1960 in excess of amounts appropriated therefor Total requested. $50,000 40, 000 10,000 100, 000 75,000 175,000 Cost of reallocations.-It was not until fiscal 1959 that the cost of reallocations under this appropriation become a significant factor. On the basis of an analysis of all reallocations and similar classification actions, the extent to which annual salaries under this appropriation were increased because of reallocations in fiscal years 1959 and 1960 is indicated as follows: 1959 1960-- $57, 350 74, 603 Total increase in annual salary level 1959 and 1960__ 131, 953 As stated above, it is estimated that only about 40 percent of the amounts requested for the combined purposes of ingrades, reallocations, and wage board increases were for projected reallocations. On this assumption, the extent to which reallocations proved to be in excess of the amounts requested is as follows: Increase in salaries due to reallocations, 1959 and 1960– Allowed for reallocations: 1959: 40 percent times $64,215. 1960: 40 percent times $68,245_. Total__. Cost of reallocations in excess of amounts appropriated.---. $131, 953 25, 686 27, 298 52,984 78, 969 Even sharper evidence of the effect of reallocations on the position structure under this, the main appropriation financing the basic operations of the Library, is furnished by the increasing lapse used to balance the internal budget of the Library. In preparing the detail of personal services schedule for the 1960 estimates, it was necessary to provide a lapse of $55,081, equivalent to 10 positions, in the then current year column (1959) to balance the personal services budget. This lapse has been increased to $225,167, equivalent to 38 positions, in the current year (1961) column of the 1962 estimates. The difference, which constitutes a significant gap in the ability of the Library to finance authorized positions, is due for the most part to the reallocation factor. Grade level at the Library of Congress.-As previously stated the Library has for a long time lagged behind in allocating grades in accordance with Civil Service Commission standards, and has consequently lagged behind other Federal agencies with respect to grade levels. This can be demonstrated, without too much difficulty, by reference to the budget document, "Budget of the United States, 1962." The average general schedule (GS) grade under this appropriation for 1961, that is after the accelerated reallocation program of 1959 and 1960, is 6.6. If this grade level is compared with that of other agencies having a fairly large percentage of professional and technical personnel, it is found that the average grade at the Weather Bureau for 1961 is GS-8.2, at the Patent Office GS-8.3, and at the National Bureau of Standards, GS-8.2. AVERAGE GRADE LEVELS Mr. STEED. According to page 92 of the bill, the average GS grade level went up this year over last but dropped back in 1962 under the proposal made here. Why is that? Mr. MUMFORD. Many of the positions granted last year were clerical positions of lower grade. Mr. STEED. On page 92, next to the last item, it shows that in 1960 the average GS grade was 6.3, it went to 6.6 in 1961, and is now estimated at 6.5 for 1962. It was to clarify that that we asked the question. Mr. MUMFORD. Mr. Chairman, I think the explanation for that is that many of the positions that we are requesting for this year such as labelers and filers, would be relatively low grade. Mr. STEED. In other words, this type worker is not the highest skilled involved last year, on the average? Mr. MUMFORD. No, sir. INCREASE FOR RENTAL OF TABULATING MACHINES Mr. STEED. On page 6 of the justifications, under item 3, rental of additional tabulating equipment, you are asking for an increase of $13,000. Give us a little more information on just what that involves. Mr. MUMFORD. Yes, Mr. Chairman. I would like to ask Mr. Gooch, Director of the Administrative Department, in whose department this activity is carried on, to speak to that. Mr. GooCH. Mr. Chairman, about 20 years ago the Library first installed equipment for use in control of certain statistical and fiscal operations having to do with the card distribution service and some of the operations on the increase of the collections handled by the Order Division. There has been a very gradual increase in the rental of equipment from that date to the present time, and there has been a very great extension of this method from the Card Distribution and Order Division work into other functions of the Library. At the present time the equipment is used for the preparation of all of the Library's payrolls, biweekly, throughout the year, which involves preparation of a number of byproduct documents and statistical runs. It is used in the card billing operation, in the compilation of cataloging statistics for the descriptive and subject cataloging divisions, in the work of the Order Division in the purchasing of materials from around the world, and in a number of smaller operations such as recording charges of books on loan to Government libraries, and the weekly tabulation and running of the study room reservation list. There are still other uses for the equipment. During 1961 we are using 16 pieces of IBM equipment at an annual rental cost of approximately $34,000. We are asking for an increase for 4 new pieces of equipment which would bring the total under rental up to 20. We have also included two machines for replacement of older models, which will increase the versatility of this operation. I might add that a great deal of work is done in keeping control of our time and leave records by the use of punched cards and tabulating and calculating equipment. This equipment has become an indispensable part of the Library's accounting and statistical control, and this increase is a modest one in terms of equipment now becoming available. |