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.. Total_____. To provide adequate clerical assistance in Science and Technology and Map Divisions: $27, 247 276 29, 383 1 GS-5 and 1 GS-4_ L.... ין 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__ 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. GooсH. 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 equip ment. 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. INCREASE FOR SPACE RENTAL Mr. STEED. On the matter of the $3,000 increase under item 4 for space, what is the situation now relative to this? That has been superseded by the statement? Mr. MUMFORD. That is correct; that is no longer applicable. The sheet we have submitted replaces that. NEW POSITIONS REQUESTED Mr. STEED. Under the item of $193,100 for your requested new positions, all told how many new positions did you get under this item last year and, if it is available, for the year prior to that? Mr. MUMFORD. Twenty-five last year, Mr. Chairman, for this appropriation. Mr. STEED. To conserve time, would you take up these several items under No. 5 and give us additional information as to why these extra personnel are needed. POSITIONS FOR FILING CARD CATALOGS Mr. MUMFORD. Yes, Mr. Chairman. The first item is concerned with maintaining currency in filing in the card catalogs. We are asking for four positions there. I think it is self-evident that the utilization of the Library's collection rests largely upon the catalogs. In other words, the catalogs are the key to the collections. We have had no increase in this filing staff for many years. We have quite an accumulation of cards waiting to be filed, which means that the books which they represent are not available to people. There are 200,000 cards awaiting filing in the three main catalogs of the Library. As the catalogs become larger, a filer can file fewer because it is spread out to such an extent it takes him longer to find the place in the catalog where the cards go, and so the process becomes slower, and with the same staff we simply have not been able to keep up with the production of the cards for the currents books that are coming in. This is badly needed in order to have the key to make this material readily available. Mr. ROGERS. This affects not only members of the public who come in to use the catalog but affects our staff in the Legislative Reference Service who want new books and have reason to believe they are in the Library but cannot find them in the catalogs; so it is a serious impairment of service. Mr. MUMFORD. Here again, if pages 15 and 16 were placed in the record, I think it tells the complete story, Mr. Chairman. Mr. STEED. We will do that. (The pages follow:) Catalog maintenance division, 4 positions Filing Section: 2 GS-4 filers, at $4,056______ Total (4)---- $8, 112 7, 530 15, 642 Utilization of the collections of the Library rests in large measure on information found in the card catalogs. Consequently, not only must the cataloging process be as rapid as possible, but also the subsequent steps involving the preparation and filing of the catalog cards must be performed expeditiously. The |