Dr. Billington asked Congress last month for a budget of $387.6 million, including $30.4 million in authority to use receipts, for fiscal year 1998 (see LC Information Bulletin, Feb. 24).
"Today the Library faces the challenge of carrying out a full transition to new electronic services for Congress and the public, as well as to the more efficient operations made possible by new technology," he said.
"This requires a modest capital investment in technology now. It also requires basic continuing support from Congress, including paying for mandatory pay increases and price-level increases - to sustain our traditional work of cataloging, collections security and access to the collections."
The budget proposed by Dr. Billington represents a $25.7 million (7.1 percent) net increase over the current budget of $361,896,000, which includes the authority to spend $30,138,000 in receipts. LC's authorized receipts come from the Copyright Office and the Cataloging Distribution Service.
Dr. Billington, Deputy Librarian Donald Scott and other senior Library officials appeared for two hours on Feb. 12 before the House Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee, led by Rep. James T. Walsh (R-N.Y.).
"Since last September, when Dr. Billington appointed me," Mr. Scott told the panel, "I have found that the staff at all levels have a strong will to succeed and are receptive to new ideas."
Subcommittee members on hand in addition to Rep. Walsh were Ranking Member José E. Serrano (D-N.Y.) and Reps. Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.), Zach Wamp (R-Tenn.), Tom Latham (R-Iowa) and Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio).
"The Library's services," Dr. Billington said, "are extremely labor-intensive. Some 70 percent of our budget is for payroll costs. Future economies must come primarily from reengineering our major operations and from investing further in automation. Both will improve the productivity of our staff."
The Library has requested a total increase of $27 million in funding, Dr. Billington told the panel, which when coupled with $1.3 million in program reductions ($1 million from a one-time fee associated with the FY 1997 General Accounting Office review and $320,127 from a decrease in nonpersonal expenses at the Cataloging Distribution Service), results in a requested $25.7 million net increase in funding.
More than half of the requested increase, or $14.7 million, is for mandatory increases: $10.7 million to fund mandatory pay and $4 million to fund unavoidable price-level increases in goods and services.
Of the remaining $12.3 million in the requested increase, Dr. Billington said:
- $5.6 million would go to start an Integrated Library System (ILS) at the Library;
- $500,000 would go to support the development of the Global Legal Information System (GLIN) and the Copyright Office Electronic Registration, Recordation and Deposit System (CORDS);
- $2.5 million would go to buy 10,000 talking book machines for LC's National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped;
- $1.9 million would go to initiate a "staff succession program." The money would fund 37 full-time equivalent (FTE) positions in FY 1998.
- $1.3 million would go for improved security and 18 FTEs for additional police officers; and
- $500,000 would go for a temporary personnel increase in the Copyright Office to maintain registration processing on an acceptable schedule.
Regarding the $14.7 million requested for mandatories, Mr. Scott said, "We are keenly aware that |Congress has given the Library very considerate treatment. Despite the committee's best efforts, however, we now have little flexibility left to absorb such costs. During the last five years, we have had a net reduction in our work force of 435 FTEs, many of them highly skilled professionals.
"Without congressional funding for these mandatories in 1998, we would be forced to cut another 178 positions."
Chairman Walsh said, "We all have a deep abiding interest in the Library of Congress. It's a part of this body; it's the most inclusive repository of human knowledge ever assembled. ... We will do what we can in light of the downward pressure on the federal budget. We do not want to be penny-wise and pound-foolish with the Library of Congress."
Following the chair-man's remarks, Rep. Serrano said: "I hope we can be helpful in a difficult time and that the actions we take will in no way hurt the operations of the Library."
Responding to a question from Rep. Kaptur about the Library's progress in reducing its unprocessed arrearages by 48 percent, Dr. Billington said: "I want to pay tribute to our catalogers - there are nearly 1,000 of them. They are providing an annual benefit to the nation's libraries conservatively estimated now at $268 million per year. ... Our catalogers have done an outstanding job in tackling this project."
Some of the members of the panel, including Reps. Cunningham and Latham, asked questions on the proposed "succession planning" program, which would begin in FY 1998 and continue for three years. The Library requested $1.9 million in FY 1998 to begin the program and fund 37 additional positions in two service units of the Library: 25 in the Congressional Research Service and 12 in Library Services. CRS and Library Services have both been hit hard by retirements of key employees, who do research or work with the collections in highly specialized areas, such as law, economics and foreign languages, Dr. Billington explained in his testimony.
Rep. Latham asked: "Is there a historic reason why you will have so many retirements in the next few years?"
Dr. Billington responded: "The Library built up rapidly in the postwar period of the 1950s and 1960s. We have a very low turnover rate - 3.7 percent. In the last five years, we have had level budgets and staff reductions [as] we experienced 'age creep' in our work force. Twenty-five of the 37 billets are in CRS, where, for example, by 2006, nearly 52 percent of CRS's staff will be eligible to retire. This poses a significant threat to CRS's ability to maintain its current analytic and information services unless training of replacement staff can begin soon, under the tutelage of the senior staff who are eligible for retirement."
"The succession plan in CRS," CRS Director Daniel P. Mulhollan said, "calls for hiring 60 additional FTEs over the next three years: 25 in FY 1998, 25 in FY 1999 and 10 in FY 2000. During the subsequent six years, we would reduce the FTEs by 10 each year, so that by the year 2006 we will return to our current service level of 747 FTEs. ... The average tenure of a legislative assistant in the House today is 1.9 years; the average legislative director has been on the job 2.6 years. By contrast, the average CRS analyst and information specialist has been building expertise on issues and how they are addressed within the legislative framework for 18.5 years."
Public Witnesses
During the afternoon session, the panel heard from Robert L. Oakley of Georgetown University Law Library, who spoke on behalf of the American Library Association, the American Association of Law Libraries, the Association of Research Libraries, and the Special Libraries Association.
Mr. Oakley asked the panel to support key Library activities and the proposed integrated library system (ILS). "An ILS can integrate key library functions, including acquisitions, cataloging, inventory control, serials management, circulation, binding, preservation, sear-ching of the library's holdings, management statistics and more. ... [With an ILS] the Yale University Library realized a 70 percent increase in cataloging throughput per FTE over the past 10 years, from 762 to 1,325 titles per FTE per year."
The panel next heard from the Library's three employee union leaders, who supported LC's budget proposal.
Christine Shollenberger, president, AFSCME Local 2910, said, "Our bargaining unit members possess special skills not easily obtained outside the Library, and in order to replenish our ranks with qualified staff, we need your support."
Joel Stern, president of AFSCME Local 2477, said: "There is a tremendous opportunity for career programs at the Library."
Dennis M. Roth, president, Congressional Research Employees Association, favored the proposed CRS succession planning program. "The cushion that we might have had in hiring new people evaporated with the tight budgets of the 1980s and early 1990s."
