Assumption in the Budget of the United States, Fiscal Year 1999, is also 2.2%. Results of the review are explained in two parts: first, the purchase of books, subscriptions, and overseas field offices; and second, all of the remaining non-personals categories. Historically, inflation rates related to the purchase of Library materials and overseas operations have exceeded CPI rates these cost categories, for fiscal 1999, increase by 7.5% (equating to $1,037,300). For the remaining non-personals cost categories, the overall price level request is 1.5% (equating to $1,581,120) of the fiscal 1998 base. The original OMB published guidance (July 1997) specified a 2.6% increase for non-personals. OMB revised that guidance, in December 1997, to 2.0%. Based upon an examination of economic factors, inflation rates for library materials and overseas activities, and OMB guidance, the review indicates that the Library's non-personals price level increases are reasonable and within the guidelines used by other Federal agencies. NUMBER OF INDEFINITE/TEMPORARY EMPLOYEES Question. Using the format of Table II in your budget justification, provide a breakout of the number of indefinite/temporary employees included in the FTE column on page 3. Response. The tabular material is attached. ARREARAGE Mr. WALSH. How many of the 113 million item holdings have yet to be cataloged into the collections? Dr. BILLINGTON. We have about 20 million holdings not yet cataloged. Mr. WALSH. Twenty million? Dr. BILLINGTON. Yes, having reduced it by 20 million over the last 6 years, since we started this effort with the committee's encouragement and support; we are halfway through clearing the arrearages. Mr. WALSH. How much of this budget goes toward reducing those arrearages, and how much headway do you expect to make this year? Dr. BILLINGTON. Well, you can't disassociate the arrearage effort from the overall cataloging budget because the whole process of cataloging includes cataloging the arrearages. But the total amount is about $52.5 million. All of that is as involved in arrearage clearance, as it is in general cataloging. The exact targets I am not sure of. Winston, what are the exact targets for this year? Mr. TABB. We will be Mr. WALSH. State your name for the record. Mr. TABB. I'm sorry, Winston Tabb, Associate Librarian. We will be having at least 500 of our people working on planning for implementation of the Integrated Library System this year. We are now soliciting volunteers. When we have them, we will determine what impact their ILS planning work will have on the arrearage reduction goals for this year, and we will let the committee know that as part of our plan when we come forward with the request for release of ILS funds. Dr. BILLINGTON. I think there will probably be a slight decrease the numbers for arrearage reduction won't be as great as in recent years simply because many of the same people are required to help structure the ILS implementation, but in the long run, the gains are going to be much greater because the ILS will permit a much more efficient clearing of arrearages. That will be just one of many benefits. But until we have that plan, we can't give you an exact number at this point. We expect progress to continue, but not at as high a level as it was initially, although in the long run there will be a sharp upturn. Mr. WALSH. You don't expect, even though you slow down and clean up those arrearages this year, you don't expect to be further behind next year? Dr. BILLINGTON. We don't expect to get behind. Of course, all of this is net in the sense that we are keeping up with current inflow, which has been quite considerable, as you will note, in recent years. We are making our target, thanks to this committee's support, and Mr. Fazio's strong leadership. He was championing this effort at an early date, before it was generally realized in the Congress how important this was, and of course the clearing of the arrearages has brought a great many materials to light that we didn't know we had-not only to users here in Washington but through 2 the National Digital Library to people throughout the country. So it is really an important project. I might point out that we set a record, an all-time record of cataloging books last year. Nearly 290,000 books were cataloged. We have 20 percent less staff than we had 8 years ago, though we are getting 20 percent more productivity. So the investment in this and also the investment in bibliographic work stations, and cooperative and copy cataloging and a number of things the committee has long been cooperatively working on with us and urging us to do have brought some measurable dividends. Questions from Chairman Walsh and responses follow:] CATALOGING Question. Where are these uncataloged items stored? Are they completely inaccessible if they are not cataloged? Response. Uncataloged items are stored in secured areas in the Jefferson, Adams, and Madison buildings, and at Landover, Maryland. Uncataloged and in-process items are accessible to staff and to Congress. They can also be served to patrons by special arrangement, unless such service would be unduly labor-intensive (i.e., costly) or present an unacceptable security risk. Question. How much is in this budget to do the cataloging and to what extent will this budget reduce the backlog? Response. The Library is requesting no additional funds in the fiscal year 1999 budget for cataloging. The Library's base includes approximately $52.5 million to support cataloging, which is inseparable from the arrearage project. The Library is currently assessing the likely impact of Integrated Library System (ILS) planning and implementation on its ability to reduce the uncataloged backlog in the next two fiscal years and will provide this analysis to the Committee in March, as required in last year's House report on our appropriation. TABULAR MATERIAL Question. For the record, update the customary tabulations on annual cataloging statistics and acquisition/collection data. Response. [The information follows:] |