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*The figures represent full-time professional and clerical staff. They do not include the interns who work from six to ten weeks during the summer months.

binders assigned to the Senate Library. I have enclosed a letter from Senator Mathias complimenting them on the development of uniform binding standards for the Congress which should both improve the quality of binding and reduce the cost of this type of work.

The Bookbinders undertake a number of other projects and the following table recaps some of their activities during the last year:

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The third person is a printer who works with the Enrolling Clerk. This change has given us an experienced individual on our staff who serves as the Assistant Enrolling Clerk.

While the transfer of these three individuals has increased our salary costs, it has reduced the overall government cost, because we are no longer paying overtime and a surcharge for these individuals.

MERIT PROGRAM

The Merit Program was established by your Committee in 1979. At that time, it was the only mechanism available to us to reward outstanding employees who were limited by existing NTE rates. The program has been useful and we have made 20 awards since the program began. However, the program is not as beneficial as originally conceived. With the approval of the lump sum authority for the office, it is no longer necessary to have a special merit program with separate funding. Therefore, I have included in my budget the $38,000 we now expend on the program, and request the elimination of the program as it now exists. The Senate is already spending this money, so while it is an increase to my budget, it is actually a transfer from the appropriation account "Agency Contributions, Longevity Compensation and Merit Compensation" to "Salaries, Officers and Employees."

We have discussed the termination of this program with the Sergeant at Arms, whose staff also comes under the Merit Program, and he concurs in this

request.

STATIONERY ROOM

The Stationery Room completed fiscal year 1981 with gross sales of $1,980,104, an increase of $289,802 from fiscal year 1980. Total combined cash and charge sale tickets issued during the year amounted to 73,189.

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The Stationery Room added several items to the current inventory this year for two main reasons to provide the various offices with a wider range of office supplies and also to alleviate the many delays experienced with the receipt of special orders.

In an effort to obtain dated merchandise (diaries, etc.) in a more timely fashion, the contract period for the Schedule of Stationery was changed from the fiscal year to an operating period of September 1, 1981 through August 31, 1982. This year we plan to change it permanently to an operating period of July 1 through June 30.

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Those problems stated in fiscal years 1978, 1979, and 1980 still exist. Space remains decentralized making larger and more economical purchases impossible. There also will be a need in the very near future for an upgraded computer system with additional hardware and software modifications. necessary to expand the operation to handle the extra sales and stock items when we relocate in a consolidated facility in the Hart Building. This must take place before any thought can be given to taking over those items stocked by the Sergeant at Arms' Service Department, i.e., file folders and related filing supplies, batteries, mag tapes, etc.

We estimate that the cost of new hardware (disk drive, high-speed printers, terminals, bar code readers, etc.) for the expansion of the existing computer system will be $60,000, and that the modifications to the software will run about $13,500. Our current system has been in place since 1979 and has performed fairly well. Attached at the end of my statement is a more detailed listing of the hardware and software modifications we believe are necessary to make the automated system more responsive to our needs.

SENATE LIBRARY

Bill Status Service

The four people in the Bill Status Unit answered over 61,500 inquiries from Senate offices about the status of legislation. This is the second highest total of transactions recorded since the service was initiated in 1975.

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The chart below reflects the pattern of growth of this service. be seen that the second session of a Congress is typically busier than the Another evident trend is the increase shown when comparing a session of one Congress to the same session of the previous Congress.

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*Terminals were installed in the Library in April 1975

Percentage of Change
From Same Session of
Previous Congress

N/A

N/A

N/A

+73%

+20%

+40%

+32%

In November an automatic call sequencer was installed to control incoming calls when all terminal operators were busy; the service answers callers with a recorded message and places them on hold automatically. This has resulted in better service for our users, who no longer encounter a busy signal, and greater efficiency for our terminal operators, who can conduct their transactions without interruption.

New computer terminals and a new high-speed printer were installed in April. The terminals double the number of lines of data on the screen over those previously in use and permit the operators to scan more information at a time. The printer operates at 400 lines a minute, five times faster than the one it replaced.

Several long-standing requests for programming improvements in LEGIS were implemented by the Computer Center in July.

Reference Services

The staff responded to over 12,000 reference requests, almost keeping pace with the record-breaking totals recorded in fiscal year 1980.

The chart below reflects the growth in reference requests from year to year and from session to corresponding session of the previous Congress.

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*Recording of reference statistics began in August 1976.

Reference capabilities were improved by additional services offered by

commercial data base vendors:

(1) Mead Data Central added a number of new publications to NEXIS including the Federal Register and the Congressional Quarterly; and

(2) New York Times Information Service made available the New York Times Online, providing the full text of the Times since June 1980, and the capability of free text searching.

A significant advance was achieved when the Rules Committee authorized the Library to acquire a legal information retrieval system, a goal of the

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