OPTICAL DISC STORAGE High technology promises further advances for the preservation and storage of library materials. I am speaking of the storage of images and print on optical discs. We have begun an investigation of this new technology to ascertain whether printed and pictorial information can be stored and accessed successfully on optical discs using the laser. We are requesting four positions in the Preservation Office and four in the Automated Systems Office to support a major test of the feasibility of this potentially momentous new resource. The discs could make every item more readily available to our readers, would reduce the wear and tear on materials in use, and could revolutionize the operation and the effectiveness of the libraries of our country. CHINESE ACQUISITIONS Of major significance to scholars, government researchers, and Sinologists are our current acquisitions under exchange and purchase arrangements with the People's Republic of China. Our receipt of materials from the People's Republic of China doubled in 1982. There is no doubt of the special need for accurate, up-to-date information on an area likely to become more and more important for our national economy and in world affairs. The Library of Congress is the primary resource in this country and perhaps the best outside of China for knowledge of the Chinese past and present. Without cataloging control, these materials will remain inaccessible. We are, therefore, requesting 15 positions to catalog these materials and 15 positions to input these records as well as Japanese and Korean into our automated data base, using the vernacular. READING ROOMS STAFF REQUESTS The last major reading room to open in the Madison building is the Performing Arts Reading Room. I invite each of you to visit this modern electronically-equipped facility which provides sound, listening, and viewing opportunities for our unequaled collections of music, of motion pictures, and recorded sound. After many years of crowding, we can now in the Madison Building use remote transmissions to serve these materials to our readers, listeners, and viewers. But we need additional staff to operate the sound and viewing stations, as well as to provide reference assistance. We are requesting seven positions for this purpose. For the Prints and Photographs Reading Room we are requesting two additional positions. Two positions are requested for an Information Counter in the Madison Building to provide information and to sell Library publications to an ever-increasing number of visitors, and two positions for editorial and clerical support are requested for the American Folklife Center. Finally, for the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, we are requesting an increase of $2,137,000 and five additional positions. As you know, we have not requested increases for this program over the last two years, but in order to maintain the program at the 1983 level, we need these additional resources. Mr. Gude will speak to the requests for the Congressional Research Service. In conclusion, I would like to recall that in times of economy, we need more than ever to enrich and invigorate our resources of knowledge. The Library of Congress is dedicated to that enrichment and invigoration which has been made possible by the continued and sympathetic support of the Congress. We are here, Mr. Chairman, to answer any questions you may have. PERMANENT BUDGETED POSITIONS Mr. FAZIO. Thank you very much, Dr. Boorstin. I would like to just ask some questions in general on a few issues and then we can proceed to go through the various items. And when I finish, perhaps some of the members who do feel time pressures can ask about some of their concerns, so that we don't have to deprive them of their opportunity. It might lead to a little bit of a disjointed analysis, but hopefully it won't. Could you tell us the number of permanently budgeted positions that are currently authorized and give us just some idea for the record about the size of the collections and the existing physical plant that is currently available Dr. BOORSTIN. I will ask Mr. Curran, The Associate Librarian, to respond. Mr. CURRAN. I think perhaps the best way to reference this is through a table that deals with these numbers of budgeted positions that everyone has. It is table 2 on page 421 of Part 1 of the Hearings.. In any case, the total number of positions in the Library of Congress is 4,815. That is 4,815 total budgeted positions. And we are seeking a net increase of 61 of those, to bring that to 4,876. LOCATION OF EMPLOYEES Mr. HIGHTOWER. Mr. Chairman, may I ask a question? Mr. CURRAN. All but a few. We have three buildings here on Capitol Hill, and that houses most of them. We have another 400 or so located in buildings elsewhere in Washington. And then we have 15 people working in Dayton, Ohio, at a special laboratory for the conversion of nitrate motion picture films, and a scattering of staff in overseas offices, U.S. citizens, probably not more than five or six, in five offices overseas, and some nationals numbering several hundred, working on cataloging in offices overseas. What I am giving you are the total budgeted positions. In addition, we have some additional positions. We have 183 people who work on what we call trust and revolving funds, and a certain number of indefinites. So if you look at the aggregate we are talking about over 5,000, about 5,400. Mr. HIGHTOWER. Are your people overseas in USIA offices? Mr. CURRAN. No, in Library of Congress field offices overseas. They are under the control of the ambassador, and they work in the embassies or nearby, in office buildings-in New Delhi, India; Karachi, Pakistan; Cairo, Egypt; Nairobi, Kenya; and Jakarta, Indonesia. Mr. HIGHTOWER. Are they there as collectors or distributors? Mr. CURRAN. They are there to collect library materials from the local area, to catalog and process them, and send them back to the United States for our collections and, in the case of our foreign currency program, to acquire materials for other participating research libraries around the country. EXPLAIN NET EMPLOYEE INCREASE Mr. FAZIO. I wanted to be more specific about exactly how you get to this net of 61 positions. You have eliminated 20 positions essentially involved in the move. Could you outline a little more specifically than Dr. Boorstin did in his opening statement how we aggregate to 61? Mr. CURRAN. In the appropriation for salaries and expenses for the Library of Congress, we are asking for 57 new positions less 19, for a net of 38, and that is explained in our table of increases. The 38 positions are made up of the following: in Processing Services we are asking for 30 new positions, less a savings of 19, for a net of 11. We are asking for 12 positions in the Research Services Department and the Law Library; Preservation area, 4; Automated Systems Support, 7; and in Folklife Center and the central support, 2 each. That brings us to a net of 38. Mr. FAZIO. As we go through those, we will need to spend more time on each one. I just wanted to get an overview. Mr. CURRAN. The Copyright Office is actually asking for no new positions and is in fact giving up 12. So that is minus 12 for the Copyright Office. Library Service for the Blind is an increase of 5. In what we call Title II, the non-CRS areas, the net increase is 31 jobs. Then we are asking in the Congressional Research Service for a total of 30 new positions, which brings us to a net of 61. In addition, and not included in the net request of 61 position, we are giving up 20 indefinite positions which had been allowed to assist in the move to the Madison Building EXPLAIN CURRENT LEVEL INCREASE Mr. FAZIO. Very good. Thank you. You have described your collections generally and the physical plant. I think that helps. We have an increase of a little over $6 million necessary to maintain service levels at the current rate. Of this increase $2 million is necessary because of the reduced collections from the sale of catalog cards which will be made up by a comparable reduction in other object classes. The balance, however, is something we need to focus on a little. Could you give us some more detail as to how we reach the net of $4 million in addition? Mr. CURRAN. For the growing workload? Mr. FAZIO. Essentially the inflationary increases in existing workload. I would like to get some feel for how you estimated additional costs. What are the problems that you are having to encounter in terms of inflationary increases in the current services budget. Mr. CURRAN. $6 million current services budget; $2.5 million of that is the Congressional Research Service. So that over one-third of it is in the Congressional Research Service. The other part is in the Library of Congress's main appropriation, where we are asking for a total of $1,436,000 increase. That is a little complicated because it nets these increases and decreases. But let me just briefly say that most of that $1.4 million is for what we call mandatory items, in-grades, annualization of pay raises, and that kind of thing, which we can enumerate. Books are up, an increase of $264,000 for the purchase of books. Preservation of Library materials, there is an increase, and central support increase in general. These are the miscellaneous nonpersonnel services kind of things. In any case, for the Library, for its research services, processing activities, for its general administration, we are talking about an increase of $1.4 million. The Copyright Office has none. There is a net decrease actually in the Copyright Office. The current level increases for the Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, a total of $2 million in increases. And that is added to a budget of $33.5 million. That is a 6 percent increase. And almost all of that is for the cost of their program, of their nonpersonal services. Ninety percent of that $33.5 million for the Blind and Physically Handicapped is to buy records and tapes and players and equipment. Furniture and furnishings budget, the current level is $195,700 out of $1.6 million. As I indicated earlier most of the CRS increase is escalating labor costs, and to try to bring their lapse down to about a 4 percent rate. The lapse is the difference between what all their jobs would cost at 100 percent and, recognizing there are a certain number of vacancies at any one time, funding for a lesser percentage of our budgeted positions. per We target funding, about 96 percent of our positions, assuming 4 percent will be vacant at any one time; in the Congressional Research Service funding is currently considerably lower than 96 cent. So we are seeking money to bring them up to a standard. Mr. FAZIO. We will talk to Gil more about that later on. So that we get a good picture of these current level items, update the current level data on pages 350 and 351 of last year's hearings. [The information follows:] |