NEW CAFETERIA-MAIN BUILDING Mr. STEED. What is the situation in regard to the cafeteria? Mr. WELSH. It was completed on the 4th of March, seats 500 persons and is operating successfully. Mr. STEED. As I read this I believe you had about $272,000 revert unused last year. Could you give any comment on that? Mr. HENLOCK. Mr. Chairman, that amount did not revert. You continued this fund available until expended in order to take care of the replacement of the book conveyor system. You provided that the unobligated balance of the appropriation for the fiscal year 1962 be continued available until June 30, 1963. That is at page 87 of the committee print. That was the entire unexpended balance of the appropriation to take care of the book conveyor system. The budget shows that as a saving, even though it is a reappropriation. In all budget setups you have to show it as an unobligated balance lapsing. under the present budget system. We have questioned that procedure too, but we have to show it as a saving and then reflect it in the next year's appropriation. PROBABLE FUTURE MAJOR REPAIRS AND REPLACEMENTS Mr. STEED. I don't know which one of you could answer this sort of a general question but I think the committee has been trying to go along as much as it could in the last several years to bring this whole building up to a modern condition. It involves substantial sums of money. Assuming the works asked for in this budget are approved, what other items are remaining, or could you give us sort of a round rule-of-thumb figure to indicate about what additional items might be involved and what needs to be done over there? Mr. WELSH. I can begin with that answer. I have not discussed it with Architect's office but Dr. Mumford and I were discussing this very thing in the waiting room. There is one large item and that is the general improvement of the illumination in the work areas of the main building and in the annex. But beyond that I don't know of any other large item. There is a continuation of some of these recurrent features and it is necessary to maintain the building once we get it fully restored. Mr. STEED. In the replacement of your heating plant, what is the status of that work? Mr. WELSH. We have begun that. Work is now underway. That job will be completed in 1965. We are doing the north half of the main building now. Part of that will be finished by October 15 when the heating will be available in that half of the building. Mr. STEED. In other words, you are not having to wait until the completion of the entire job to get some benefit out of part of it? Mr. WELSH. That is right. The Architect's office carefully worked out a schedule to inconvenience the staff at the minimum. This is the responsibility of the Architect's office. I am sure Mr. Campioli would like to answer the question about the future of the needs of the Library. Mr. CAMPIOLI. If the plumbing installation of approximately $2 million is approved, that will make possible completion of the major mechanical work. You have already authorized the heating and the air conditioning. The one big item that remains to be attended to is the plumbing and I think Mr. Rubel has shown sufficient evidence that that is an urgent item. It is probably the one that can least be dispensed with. Would you agree with that? Mr. RUBEL. Yes, sir. Mr. STEED. I feel the same way and that is why I made the remark I did about some of the other items. Mr. CAMPIOLI. There is one other item, the lighting in the main reading room, which should be accomplished. That lighting is very inadequate for its purpose and should be improved for the benefit of users of the collection and the Library staff. Mr. MUMFORD. I might add, Mr. Chairman, we do receive a considerable number of complaints about the lighting in the reading room. Mr. STEED. When we were on tour of the building-this is especially true in the old building-the design used in its construction apparently unfortunately invited a type of fire hazard that wouldn't be included in a library design of modern type. Will this fire detection program you have here cope with that situation or is that the best solution you think there is? Mr. CAMPIOLI. We plan to improve the condition. I think you are referring to the condition in the book stacks. Mr. STEED. Yes. Mr. CAMPIOLI. We plan to improve that as part of the air conditioning work which also includes some fire retardation work. At the various floor levels we plan to blank off the openings in the book stack decks. These openings put the entire stack in jeopardy of conflagration should a fire start at the lower levels. Mr. STEED. That is made possible through air conditioning, as I understand it. Mr. CAMPIOLI. Because of the building being air conditioned, it becomes mandatory to isolate the decks to maintain proper conditions. Consequently fire retardation is, in effect, a byproduct of the airconditioning requirements. Mr. STEED. Mr. Langen, have you any questions? SCHEDULING OF MAJOR REPAIR WORK Mr. LANGEN. Can all of this work be done in the period of a year or will it go on for more than just this 1 year? Mr. CAMPIOLI. We are necessarily doing it piecemeal in order not to put the Library people out of business. Mr. LANGEN. This is a point about which I was concerned. Obviously, the plumbing system and all of this must cause an interference somewhere along the line and for that reason I inquired whether the whole assignment of all of these projects could be completed during the period of a year. Mr. CAMPIOLI. The work will undoubtedly have to be phased. Mr. RUBEL. It would be physically impossible to complete this work in a year. The design work associated with the rehabilitation of the plumbing system alone will take a year to complete. Then to actually execute the work in the building without disrupting operations in the building excessively and unreasonably we could not hope to complete the work before 1967. In the meantime, the deterioration is going on. So we have 4 more years of borrowed time and we already have been living on borrowed time for an abnormal period. Mr. HENLOCK. In order to incur our obligation for this item we have to ask for the full amount now, even though we may have to come back next year and ask you to continue the balance. Mr. LANGEN. I understand that but I thought it was a point that was worth making, that before the completion of this, there is more time that is going to elapse than just the matter of this fiscal year. Mr. STEED. In that same connection it follows that some of the work that needs to be done is better done in connection with a project of this sort and then there is some work that it is impossible to do because this type of work is going on. I think you take all that into consideration, don't you? Mr. STEED. I remember in connection with some of your electrical installations it developed at that same time you could do some floorwork in connection with it very economically and I think they try to anticipate those type problems as they go along. Mr. WELSH. Mr. Chairman, may I make a point on that, because this is very critical. We plan to close the main reading room down next May and keep it closed for the summer, which I believe is the first time that the reading room has been closed, to enable us to replace the book conveyors for which you have already appropriated money. And we hope to install the message tube system and improve the lighting in the main reading room, to do the air-conditioning work and re-lay the floor tile. So we have tied this into a nice little package which we hope to be able to coordinate with the various jobs involved. Mr. RUBEL. I might expand upon that a bit more. The air-conditioning project which is underway now and for which the money was appropriated previously will not be completed until 1965 for the reasons stated above. Some of the work we contemplate doing under this plumbing rehabilitation ties in very closely with some of the general construction changes that will have to be made for the air conditioning. So there is a possibility by coordinating the two jobs and executing them coincidentally that there will be some economies. Mr. STEED. Also the disruption Mr. RUBEL. It would be extended for another 3 or 4 years, unless these projects are coordinated. 1963 appropriation in annual act_____ DEDUCTIONS $225,000 Visible file cases for Serial Record Division__ 1,000 Calculating machine, Copyright Office_____ 900 Division____ 5,000 Metal bookcases, Legislative Reference Service. 3,600 Miscellaneous office equipment___ 2,900 Microfilm reading machines, Serial Division and Stack and Reader Annual maintenance and repair, office machines and devices-annual allotment increased from $13,000 to $20,000 to meet current require ments... 7,000 Calculating machines for the Budget and Accounting Offices 2,200 4,400 Miscellaneous office equipment___ 3,300 Microfilm reading machines and editing equipment for the Manuscript 7,000 Recording equipment, Music Division___ 8,000 File cabinets, Prints and Photograph Division: 18 cabinets, tabulating card size, each containing 10 double drawers, for stereoscope card collators__ 3,000 Catalog cases, Processing Department: 603 by 5 15-drawer sections for replacements in the Official Catalog, 40 3 by 5 15-drawer sections for expansion of the Shelf List Catalog---- 22,000 Catalog cases, Copyright Office: 125 15-drawer sections for expansion and the replacement of obsolete equipment in the copyright card catalog-.. 11,000 File cabinets, Legislative Reference Service: 70 5-drawer cabinets to replace existing old 4-drawer cabinets____ 4,000 Card file sections, Stack and Reader Division: 93 by 5 15-drawer sections for replacements in central charge file, 63 by 5 15-drawer sections for expansion of the microfilm reading room catalog--------Book racks, Stack and Reader Division: 150 book racks for use on study tables__ 1,500 3,500 Charging desk, Loan Division____. 3,000 Automatic writing equipment, office of the Secretary. 3,200 2,000 Electric document sorter, Copyright Office: Machine to facilitate Carpeting, Legislative Reference Service, headquarters office-- |