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DOCLPSENT PLESLI4EED 032 912 LI 001 780

By-Falk. Leslie K.Procurement of Library Materials in the Federal Government; An Orientation Aid Prepared for the FederalLibrary Committee.Federal Library Committee. Washington. D.C.Report No-FLC-1Pub Date 68Note-48p.Available from-Superintendent of Documents. US. Government Printing Office, Washington. D.C. 20402 (LC1.32/2 L6I, S50).Journal Cit -Superintendent of Documents. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington. D.C. 20402 (LC1.32/21_61, $50).EDRS Price ME -S025 HC Not Available from EDRS.Descriptors-Depository Libraries, *Federal Government, *Government Libraries, Government Publications,Guides, *Library Acquisition. Library Materials, Microforms. Patents. *Purchasing

This handbook is designed primarily as a general orientation aid. not anoperation manual. It presents the background (mainly regulatory) of Federalprocurement work, details. devices and tactics found to be successful. and callsattention to special sources of supply. Although planned as an aid for librarians whoare engaged in Federal procurement work, the handbook will also be useful tononlibrarian officials who participate in library procurement. The term librarymaterials covers reading matter in all forms and formats as well as audio discs andtapes. computer tapes. and photos. Covered in the section on procurement bypurchase are: the relationship between the librarian. procurement officer and financeofficer; legal aspects: the nature of the commodity: kinds of libraries: purchase bynegotiation: purchase by formal contract: Federal Supply Schedules: publisher plans:government documents: microforms: and patents. The section on non-purchaseprocurement includes: gifts, exchanges. government documents. depositoryprocurement. and withdrawal of materials. A performance resume is included whichidentifies and arranges in order the actions generally required of librarians engagedin the procurement process. (Author/JB)

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1

,,,,.(#7%,,Es Procurement of

Library Materials

L.I 001 1g0

IN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

An Orientation Aid Prepared for the

Federal Library Committee

by Leslie K. Falk

LS. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE

OFFICE OF EDUCATION

THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE

PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT. POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS

STATED DO MOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCATION

PQSITIOH OR POLICY.

THE FEDERAL LIBRARY COMMITTEE, WASHINGTON, D.C., 1968

L.C. Card 68-62486 1

FLC Publication No. 1

Task Force on Procurement Proceduresin Federal Libraries

The purpose of this Task Force is to review and compile the laws and regulations relatedto procurement and disposal of library materials for Federal libraries; to review existingprocurement practices; to recommend revisions in law. regulations. or practice which willfacilitate the procurement of library materials and contribute to the economy and efficiencyof Federal libraries.

Lazerow. Samuel (Chairman)Serial Record DivisionLibrary of CongressWashington. D. C. 20540c173, x8083 Stop #303

Cowgill. LoganOffice of Water Resources ResearchDepartment of the InteriorInterior BuildingWashington, D.C. 20240

c183, x38435 Stop #43

Henshaw, Francis H.Order DivisionLibrary of CongressWashington, D.C. 20540

c173, x8471 Stop 0303

Hetrick. Mrs. C. R.AFOSR Technical Library1400 Wilson Blvd.Arlington. Virginia 22209

cll. x45751

Hogan. Marvin P.Main LibraryDepartment of JusticeWashington, D.C. 20530

c187. x3148 Stop #219

McGraw. KatherineLibrary Services BranchBureau of Naval PersonnelDepartment of NavyWashington. D.C. 20370

cl 1. x42294 Stop 082

MEMBERS

Moran, Leila P.National Agricultural LibraryDepartment of AgricultureDivision of AcquisitionWashington, D.C. 20250

c111, x2262 Stop #209

Morrow. JohnLibraryDepartment of StateRoom 2442 CWashington, D.C. 20520

c182, x4561 Stop #27

Nolan, Robert A.General Services Administration1734 New York Avenue, N.W.Washington, D.C. 20406

c183, x38205 Stop #218

Sawyers, ElizabethTechnical Services DivisionNational Library of Medicine8600 Rockville PikeBethesda, Maryland 20014

c14, x66133 Stop #216

Seremeta, Jack P. (alternate)Chief Office Supply SectionP.O.D.Federal Supply ServiceGeneral Services Administration30 Church StreetNew York, New York 10007

Area Code: 212 264-2690

FOREWORD

The procurement of library materials is one of the basicfunctions of library work and one of the least understood outsideof the library and book trade communities.

The present work was undertaken in 1966by the Federal LibraryCommittee's Task Force on Procurement. Months were spent indefining the problem and in establishing the scope for a publicationwhich would be manageable within the limited resources of theCommittee and useful to librarians and other officials of the FederalGovernment. In January 1967, Mr. Leslie K. Falk, formerlyAcquisitions Librarian of the National Library of Medicine, wascommissioned to prepare a document according to the Task Force'sspecifications.

The third revision of this document was presented to a workshopof Federal librarians in May 1967. The resulting fourth revision wasthen presented to a small group of dealers, experienced in workingwith the Federal Government, and to officials of the GeneralServices Administration.

These comments, corrections, and suggestions have, insofar aspossible, been incorporated in the present version.

A letter from GSA, which gives its consent to the publicationof the document as an "Orientation Aid for the Federal Librarians,"indicates that further work is desirable to produce as complete andcomprehensive a handbook as possible and suggests that the Federallibrarians using this work should provide comments that can be usedin subsequent editions. "The General Services Administrationaccordingly has no objection to its printing and distribution by theFederal Library Committee directly to the librarians within theFederal Government..."

Suggestions and other comments from users are requested.These should be sent to the Executive Secretary of the FederalLibrary Committee, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540.

We hope that this document will be useful to all Federal librar-ians in procurement matters. To all those who have participatedin developing the work this far, the Federal Library Committeeoffers its grateful thanks.

L. Quincy MumfordChairman, Federal Library Committeeand Librarian of Congress

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CONTENTS

Page

I INTRODUCTION 1

II PROCUREMENT BY PURCHASE

1. The Three Stewards 22. The Law, Statutory and A d m i n i s t r a t i v e 33. Inadequacy and Obsolescence of Law 54. The Nature of the Commodity 65. The Kinds of Libraries 76. Purchase Methods: Negotiation

(a) General remarks 9(b) Small purchases and the competitive

requirement 10(c) Blanket order 11(d) Imprest funds 11

(e) Encumbrance authorizations 11

(f) Procurement via specific requisi-tion 12

(g) Problems of the market place 127. Purchase Methods: The Formal Contract

(a) General remarks 14(b) The Indefinite quantity contract 15(c) Periodical subscriptions 17(d) Determination of competence 19

8. The Federal Supply Schedules 209. Publisher Plans 22

10. Government Documents by Purchase(a) The Superintendent of Documents as

source 22(b) The Clearinghouse as source 23

11. Special Forms

Page

(a) Microforms 23(b) Patents 25

III NON-PURCHASE PROCUREMENT

1. Gifts. 262. Exchanges

(a) Exchange by publishing 26(b) Surplusage exchange 27(c) U.S. Book Exchange 28

3. Government Documents(a) Technical reports 28(b) Other Government documents 29

4. Depository Procurement 295. Withdrawal of Materials 30

IV PERFORMANCE RESUME 32

NOTES 37

INDEX 40

I. Introduction

This brochure has been produced underthe sponsorship of the Federal Library Com-mittee as one of a series of publicationshaving for their purpose the raising of thegeneral level of Federal library performance.Lest the title raise false hopes, it should bepointed out at the start that it is not thepurpose of the Committee to tell people howto do their work. However, there are twothings that the Committee would like to doand that it regards as worthy aims. One isto report the various ways in which Federallibrary work is now done, discussing thesein relation to their purposes, so that all mayshare and profit in some measure from theexperience of others; the other is to set forththe regulatory basis of such practice, so thatall may have sound ideas as to what the lawpermits.

In line with these aims, the present venturein the procurement field is designed pri-marily as a general orientation aid, presentingthe background (mainly regulatory) of Federalprocurement work, detailing devices andtactics found to be successful, and callingattention to special sources of supply. It isnot an operation manual. Such manuals canonly be produced by the agencies in whichlibraries are situated or by the librariesthemselves, since the detailed guidance theyprovide must be in accordance with specialadministrative requirements and local cir-cumstance s.

The person likely to receive the greatestpractical benefit from this handbook may beimagined as one with a library backgroundbut one inexperienced in Federal procure-ment work, who is just entering on duty in anewly established small library where littleor no professional advice is at hand. Forother librarians its usefulness will, in all

probability, vary inversely with length ofpersonal or institutional experience or withproximity and access to such experience.Still, even for the most fortunately situated,it should contribute to a fuller understandingof problems and handicaps in all their varietyand to a more uniform coordinated approachto their solution. It should thus serve as abasis for improvements to be effected by thelibrary community as a whole.

Although this is planned as a librarian'said, it is offered also to nonlibrarian officialswho participate in library procurementwhereby they may gain a better comprehen-sion of the special problems involved in suchprocurement.

Procurement is used here in the sense ofacquisition by any and all methods--purchase,gift solicitation, gift receipt without solicita-tion, exchange, and transfer. As the disposi-tion of books and serials which are no longerneeded is a job that usually falls to theacquisitions librarian--who indeed in somelibraries uses such material for exchangeprocurementdisposition of surplus is alsodiscussed.

The term "library materials" compre-hends reading matter in all its forms andformats--books, serials, manuscripts, "re-port" literature, microtexts, maps, etc.--aswell as records in such forms as audio discsand tapes, computer tapes, and photos. Otherlibrary equipment items (such as cabinets,reading machines, typewriters) are not in-cluded, nor is the procurement of servicessuch as cataloging, literature searching, etc.,through contract.

The selection of library materials, al-though closely allied to procurement,is not within the purview of thishandbook.

II. Procurement by Purchase

1. The Three Stewards

Procurement by purchase in the FederalGovernment must meet four basic sets ofrequirements. These are (1, the budgetaryrequirements, (2) the competitive require-ments, (3) the special statutory requirements,and (4) the performance requirements.

The budgetary group stems from generallegal controls over the handling of moneyand the various administrative regulationsfor carrying out these controls. Thus, moneymust normally be allotted and committedbefore it can be obligated. and obligated beforeit can be disbursed. Allotments are for alimited period of time, and the purpose ofeach must be designated with some degree ofspecificity. There must be bookkeeping tokeep track of what has been allotted, obli-gated, and disbursed. And various reportsare required.

The competitive requirements have fortheir main purpose the obtaining of a speci-fied product at the lowest possibleprice.

The special statutory requirements arethose developed in order to implement agreat variety of public laws enacted to pro-mote or preserve the interests of numerouscitizen groups or of the citizenry as amajority group.

The performance requirement group, im -posed on the supplier, involves such matters(in the case of library materials) as speed ofdelivery, proper packaging and mailing, at-tention to such details as identification ofcontents, satisfactory invoicing, etc., andthoroughness of follow-up services.

These requirements combine to createthe peculiar problems of Federal procure-ment. Here we introduce them briefly toreflect on their relationship to the threeprincipal stewards who are involved in theprocurement of library materials. One ofthese is the librarian, representing what is

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known as the "requiring activity." The othersare the procurement officer, who does thepurchasing, representing the "procuring ac-tivity," and the finance officer, who allotsmoney, processes invoices for payment, andkeeps accounts.

The tripartite relationship results in someconflict of motive as between the librarianand the other two stewards. This is becausethe finance and procurement officers will beconsiderably more impressed with the im-portance of the first three of our requirementgroups than they are with the fourth, whereasto the librarian nothing can compare in im-portance to dealer performance.

The librarian should understand that theother two officials are constantly concernedwith statutory and fiscal controls. Ultimatelythe control is fiscal and is exercised aboveand independently of agency or department.The control begins with the apportionment ofmoney by the Bureau of the Budget and ends(when no discrepancy is found) with the au-diting of accounts by the General AccountingOffice, headed by the Comptroller General,who is responsible solely to the Congress.The surveillance aspect of the GAO functionis brought out in the following quotationsfrom the U.S. Government Organization Man-ual: 1

The primary purpose of audits by theGeneral Accounting Office is to make forthe Congress independent examinations ofthe manner in which Government agenciesare discharging their financial responsi-bilities . . . .

To carry out these functions, theComptroller General or his authorizedrepresentatives are authorized by law tohave access to and examine any books,documents, papers, or records . . . ofany department or establishment.The fact of such surveillance will tend to

put correctness of procedure first in the

minds of the responsible officials who mustsign the documents. Transactions as evi-denced in such documents must be right andthey also must look right. Of course. as ataxpaying and otherwise responsible citizen,the librarian will also understand that con-trols are needed and that certain legislationmust be implemented by the way public pur-chasing is done, but he is inclined to regardmany of the administrative stipulations forcarrying out the controls as of questionablerationality, or even obviously irrational,especially when they have been primarilydesigned for procurement of other kinds ofmaterials. The librarian's job is to builda collection with all possible speed; that ofthe other officers to see that the Government'sbuying follows a prescribed course. Theformer will be impatient with what he regardsas inflexible methods; the latter suspiciousof corner cutting and anything that lookslike a cavalier attitude towards regula-tions.

Still, the situation is a normal and anecessary one. Whatever difference theremay be should be accepted as complementary,not inimical. The only real enemy is igno-rance. An important aim of the present bro-chure is to increase understanding of allrequirements by all three stewards to the endof getting the Government's business doneboth correctly and effectively. Surely allmust accept as an article of faith that it cannever be the purpose of the law to hamperthe Government in acquiring what the Gov-ernment needs, even if that is sometimes theunintentional effect.

The clear tripartite relationship seems tobe the rule, but there a. variants of im-portance to librarians. The finance officemust always be separate from the procure-ment office, since the former serves as acheck on the other. The procurement activity,however, services the requiring activity andis usually separate only because the re-quiring activities are usually multiple al-though with similar requirements. Theprocurement function may be located withinthe library and a librarian can be a procure-ment officer. This can be by delegation or byjob description. Also, as explained under thetopic Negotiation, there are methods of pur-chasing that involve intermediate degrees ofdelegation of authority.

A final word as to terminology. The term"procurement officer" is broadly functionalin meaning, comprehending a variety of re-sponsibilities involved in servicing supplyneeds. The pro cur e m e n t officer is a"purchasing officer" but he is more than that.The term is thus used in the General ServicesAdministration's Procurement Handbook. Inthe regulations more specific functions aredenoted by "contracting officer" or "pur-chasing and contracting officer." The generalgroup of responsibilities is vested in the"head of a procuring activity."

2. The Law, Statutory and AdministrativeRegulatory law may best be considered

as a complicated kind of communication de-veloped to meet the demands of an infinitelycomplicated interpersonal situation. The Fed-eral Government may be considered as avast corporation whose stockholders aredeeply and irrevocably involved in all roles.The rules for the spending of public money(considered now quite apart from decisionsas to what should be bought) are the collab-orative product of administrators intent onthrifty buying who, at the same time, mustcarry out the will of citizens and legislatorshaving interests in the spending that go wellbeyond the primary purpose of procuringgoods needed by Government in order to doits work. The rules emerge as a compromise.Law, serving as a communication mediumamong these elements of Government--citi-zen, legislator, administrator --is what Gov-ernment procurement is mostly about.

The text of the laws and basic regulationsgoverning the operations of the Federal Gov-ernment, including procurement, are setforth in the following publications, all of thempublished uy the Government Printing Office:

A. The United States Code (U.S.C.), 7thed., 1965, 14 vols. and Supplement,Jan. 4, 1965, to Jan. 9, 1966.

Derived from the U.S. Statutes atLarge,2 the Code "contains a consolida-tion and codification of all the general andpermanent laws of the United States inforce on Jan. 3, 1965." It is organizedunder 50 "titles" (3 of them reserved),each treating a general topic (e.g., 1.General Provisions, 2. The Congress, 3.The President, 4. Accounts).

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B. The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)Revised as of Jan. 1, 1966, 104 vols.

The CFR picks up the materialfirst published in the Federal Register,organizing it under titles correspondingto those of the U.S.C. (but with differ-ences). The Federal Procurement Regu-Talon System forms Title 41, Subtitle A,of the CFR, which occupies five volumesand part of a sixth (Subtitle B, "Otherprovisions relating to public contracts,"completes the sixth volume.) The FPRSystem is not made mandatory on the De-partment of Defense; hence there are alsothe Armed Services Procurement Regu-lations (ASPR), forming Title 32, Parts1-39, of the CFR, contained in one vol-ume.

C. The District of Columbia Code (D. C. C.)1961 edition. 3 vols. and Suppl. V,1966, containing laws Jan. 3, 1961to ;ran. 9, 19(56.

The organization does not cor-respond to that ci Items A and B.

D. The Federal Register (F.R.)

This daily publication (Tuesday toSaturday) gives the Executive Orders,Presidential Proclamations, and an-nouncements of riles and regulations ofthe Government which (in the words of thepreface to the first edition of the CFR)"have general applicability and the forceof law."

The Code of Federal Regulations pre-sents administrative law,3 the United StatesCode, statutory law. On the fringes of ad-ministrative law are the rules and regula-tions implementing and interpreting the gen-eral rules in the internal operations of theagencies. Hence the officers of the Govern-ment, particularly procurement officers, areobliged to have their FPR and ASPR in theform of loose-leaf volumes, expanded andbrought up to date by the inclusion of allthese additional issuances.

The text of all sections of these publica-tions that bear directly on library mattershas now been extracted and presented in the

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Guide to Laws and Regulations on FederalLibraries, prepared under the auspices of theFederal Library Committee.

Based on the laws and regulations thereare also interpretative guides. Two are out-standing. The General Services Administra-tion issued its Procurement Handbook in1959, a book of 271 pages which is "intendedto provide nonregulatory guidance"and which"deals with general principles rather thandetailed procedures." A considerable amountof the data in this handbook is, of course,dated and obsolete by now. The other is theArmed Services' Defense Procurement Hand-book 4 issued most recently under date ofJuly 1, 1965, a document of over 600 pages.Like the GSA guide it carries the Precau-tionary Statement that "it is not a regulationor directive, but it does explain the basicprocurement regulations and directives--to-gether with DOD practices for implementingthem." Other departments and agencies haveless elaborate publications serving the samegeneral purpose of explaining as simply aspossible the procurement processes in re-lation to legal requirements.

Every Federal librarian will want to cul-tivate an acquaintance with these sources asopportunity and occasion arise, and learn torecognize them in citation. Most of them willbe found only in legal libraries or in thelargest of other libraries. Fortunately thevolumes needed for a general introductionto procurement are available at modest costfrom the Superintendent of Documents. TheProcurement Handbook of the General Serv-ices Administration is sold for $1.50, paper-bound. For the regulatory law there are thefirst six volumes of Title 41 of CFR, con-taining Chapters 1-100 (paperbound $8.85)and, for the Department of Defense, thevolume containing Part 1 to 39 of Title 32($ 2.75). All of these are revised as of Jan-uary 1, 1967. For the librarian not in DODthe first volume of the six cited (Title 41,Ch. 1), together with the volume that givesthe regulations adapted to the librarian'sparticular agency, may suffice. (For theorganization of the volumes see Note 5.) Thelist of topics that precedes the text in eachvolume quickly directs the reader to the partsof special interest.

It should be pointed out that the Admin-istrative Procedure Act setting up the Federal

Register System is so phrased6 as to allowconsiderable latitude on the Art of agenciesin implementing the rules published in theF.R. and the CFR. The exception "any matterrelating solely to the internal managementof an agency" is obviously subject to avariety of interpretations. "Any matter" inmost cases will be an administrative pro-cedure; in other cases there may be abearing on basic policy. In the nature of thecase the effect on operational policy will beon the restrictive side. That is to say, thetexts just mentioned do not instruct in every-thing that is, or is not, permitted. They do,however, present the basic principles as wellas actual methods of purchasing and theywill give the librarian better insight into themain problems and concerns of procurementpeople. They are recommended for generalorientation 7 and for reference thereafter asneeded. On June 5, 1967, the Congress,through PL 90-23, modified the Admin-istrative Procedures Act to require explicitrevelation of its regulations, procedures andpolicies both through publication in theFederal Register and by making them avail-able for public inspection. In the long run,this may result in more uniformity in bothregulation and practice.

3. Inadequacy and Obsolescence of Law

Unfortunately, as the experienced acquisi-tion librarian will testify, few are the ques-tions on the legitimacy of specific libraryprocurement practices that find a ready andsatisfactory answer in this huge corpus ofdirective and advice. One reason for theelusiveness may be found in the sheerbigness of the Federal procurement programand its dynamic expansiveness, leaving nu-merous areas of operation with but scantlegal attention, or attention only by a tenuousinference. The U.S. Government, biggestspender in the world's history, now commitsand disburses annually scores of billions ofdollars to individuals and corporations forsupplies, equipment, and services. Thecitizen demand behind this spending con-stantly changes in nature and (with growingaffluence) in its dim,nsions. The body of lawand regulations required to sanction and, atthe same time, control this developmentgrows sporadically and by accretion. For

example, the law laid down at one time as asafeguard against a certain abuse may proveintolerably restrictive in its application toother unforeseen or disregarded situations.It may then be remedied by an amending lawthat simply makes an exception in the appli-cation of the original law. That is, laws aremade in response to specific situations ofpolitical pressure or administrative crisis.All are generated in such numbers as tomake the work of consistent codificationalmost humanly impossible.8

Since the dollar value of library materialsin relation to all expenditures is not suchas to command respect, it is somewhatunderstandable that the peculiar difficultiesin operating and stocking libraries shouldfind but little explicit recognition within thebody of regulation, concerned as the latter iswith the spending of billions. Ironically, it isthe very fact of relatively low commercialvalue which should permit and facilitatesimplification of procurement method (mainlyby instituting exceptions) and indeed it wouldif only library materials were accorded theattention due them because of their role inGovernment. The real source of our troublemight then be sought in a basic unawareness,an obsolescence of attitude towards the ma-te rials.

A retrospective look is called for at thispoint. For this obsolescence of attitude couldbe partly founded in an absolescence of someof the legislation of the past--legislationthat was expressly designed to assist li-braries.

In a poorer. less dynamic, more parsi-monious era than ours the reading of booksand periodicals ("magazines") by publicservants on Government time was viewedwith suspicion.9 A professional enteringGovernment was supposed to have his educa-tion behind him, to carry his expertise in hishead. Of course if he wanted to "betterhimself," well and good: he could buy hisown books and read them at night. TheLibrary of Congress and the Army MedicalLibrary (the "National" Libraries) wereindeed respected as places for seriousresearch--research to be carried on mainlyby the public. It was also understood that afew Government agencies were establishedfor research by Government workers, muchof it with an incidental need for published

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material. In fact the participation of thepublic servant in research that requiredsuch materials was from time to timesanctioned by law. That the sanctioning wasfor specific situations 10 reflects the under-lying attitude of caution, and of courseindicates a specific effort to override it byappeal to the Congress. Elsewhere through-out the Government during the same periodthe imperative need for library materials(and their organization in libraries) couldnot, or at least did not, wait on legislativedebate, but was met by administrative action.The difference is well expressed by Straussin his Guide to Laws and Regulations in apassage worth quoting here (emphases sup-plied):

It is a basic rule of administrativelaw that no Government agency may under-take any activity on appropriated funds- -such as setting up and operating alibrarywithout authorization by theCongress. Such authorization may becontained in a special act setting up thelibrary or authorizaing an agency tooperate a library program, or it may befound in a general functional OY opera-tional authorization that is interpreted torequire or permit establishment and op-eration of a library, or, an annual neces-sity in any event, appropriation of fundsfor the purpose.

This background of mixed statutory and ad-ministrative authorization - -the latter insome cases a sanctioning almost by in-advertence or afterthought--leaves the roleof the smaller Government library in a some-what uncertain and ambiguous position.

In relation to the needs of the people,some of the institutionally directed legisla-tion was marked with obsolescence at thetime of its enactment. In the light of ourpresent-day acceptance of research theobsolescence stands out conspicuously. Fortimes have indeed changed. Research hasgained the highest respectability. Knowledgeis recognized as a thing subject to dynamicdevelopment, constantly renewing itself.Formal schooling is viewed as but a learninghow to learn. Research in the physical andbiological sciences is carried on as a multi-billion dollar Government program. Nu-merous other fields of activity, such as

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management, public welfare, public relations,etc., which only yesterday attained profes-sional stature, are rapidly taking on thecharacteristics of scientific disciplines. Inconsequence of this knowledge revolution,the essentiality of libraries, of library ma-terials, and of high-quality library serviceis taken for granted by the professionalgroups involved, and it is not seriouslyquestioned by the general public who pro-vides the money. In Government administra-tion, however, we find wide variations inattitude, resulting in a participation inlibrary maintenance that ranges from fulland enthusiastic downwards to obstructive.A more explicit recognition by the law ofthe library's role and of its special operatingrequirements regardless of hierarchicalposition would being about more uniformsupport.

Still, it must be observed that the presentbody of law is by no means anti-library.Library procurement need not suffer seri-ously from the law as we find it if what thelaw already provides is well used in thelibrary's interest. Much improvement cancome through a better understanding, es-pecially by nonlibrarians, of the importanceof library materials and their peculiar char-acteristics as market items.

This is true even though ultimately it isundesirable that a necessary procedure ormode of doing business should be supportedonly by local administrative interpretation.Changes in administrative personnel carriesthe perpetual risk of new, unfavorable inter-pretation. The law falls short in its role ofcommunication insofar as it fails to giveexplict recognition to an important and welldefined segment of procurement goods.

4. The Nature of the Commodity

As a commodity to be procured by pur-chase, library materials are different in anumber of ways from most items of supplyand equipment. For one thing--to mentionfirst what is probably the lone favorablecharacteristic--there is little need for ma-terial specifications. On occasion a libra-rian may have to decide as to binding types(e.g., "deluxe" vs regular), or between thebound or unbound condition, or between paperor microfilm, but, generally, one copy of a

book or serial is as acceptable as any othercopy. This slight need for material specifi-cations should do much to simplify thelibrarian's problems with the regulations,since vast reaches of the latter are almostentirely taken up with matters of qualitycontrol--inspection by experts, monitoring ofmanufacture, testing, etc.--all of which areirrelevant to published material.

There is, however, a burdensome re-quirement of item identification. Most li-braries will acquire but one copy, or fewcopies, of a given title, whereas the numberof different titles will range, in the courseof a year's procurement activity, from sev-eral hundred in a small library to manythousands in a large library. Moreover, foradequate identification of each of these itemsin a requisition, an order, or an invitationto bid, many words must be used. Almostevery book citation must include author,title, and imprint, and frequently other ele-ments. The authorship is often corporate,not personal, and hence usually wordy andcomplicated; Also in many libraries foreignlanguage material will be needed, and thisputs an additional skill requirement on bothclerical and professional staff. Identificationalso calls for examination on the part of thelibrary staff prior to the requisition phase,at the point when the citation must be pickedup from the bibliographical source and thensearched against the library's records.

These two characteristics both derivefrom what may be termed item uniqueness;A librarian does not order "a book" or "ahundred books"; he orders specific publica-tions. A publication is not intrinsically aphysical thing; it is an intellectual or spirit-ual thing dispensed in a material container.Item uniqueness makes each book virtually apublisher's monopoly. These must be pro-cured out of a total annual book productionin the United States of more than 30,000titles and an unknown world book productionrunning into more than a hundred thousandtitles, the number depending upon definitionsof "book" which vary from country to country.These totals are supplemented by older titlesremaining in print and by a stock out-of-printand second hand titles which greatly increasesthe size of the store from which librariesbuy, Price becomes of less importance as afactor in competition than in the case of

most other goods, whereas vendor servicebecomes of greater importance.

This brings us to what is probably themost important peculiarity of published ma-terial in procurement: a heavy and inex-tricable involvement with service, an involve-ment that up to now has seemed essentiallyintractable as a subject of specification. Thatis to say, the various ways in which acompetent vendor gives wholly adequate serv-ice have not been successfully specified ininvitations for bids. And there are numerousways in which an ill-equipped and conscience-less dealer can fall short of adequate servicewithout being subject to a categorical chargeof default. Then too, gross default can escapenotice while irreparable harm is being done.This is true in the case of subscriptions whereservice is over a period of time. Monthsmay elapse before dealer delinquency comesto light. Also the involvement with servicemust take into consideration choice of pur-chase method, as the wrong method by con-fusing the dealer or increasing his workcan result in delay or failure in delivery.The importance of vendor service is suchthat the librarian must regard the selectionof vendor, or participation in such selection,as a natural requirement of his job, resistingany interpretation of law or regulation thatresults in throwing the business of the libraryinto untried and irresponsible hands. As forthe method of procurement, it should gen-erally be the simplest and most directmethod that the law allows.

5. The Kinds of Libraries

To make clear the important points ofdifference among libraries--important, thatis, as they affect procurement--let us startby considering two extremes. One extremeis represented by an outstanding researchlibrary that has been newly recognized by anact of Congress. The act does not found thelibrary, which is already large, accustomedto a generous budget, and universally acceptedby the country's professional community forits high social purpose. The act of Congressofficially declares its national stature and itsindependent status. Although it is attached toan Executive Department, it has no "parentorganization" in that sense. Its mission is

national, even international. We will refer tothis as Library A.

At the other extreme, within a Governmentpost organized mainly for administration butwith a small professional staff to conducttechnological training, there is a relativelysmall accretion of books, pamphlets, andperiodicals. This collection proves to be ofconsiderable use to the professional staff and,as far as the status of the newly appointedlibrarian is concerned, it is agreed that thereshould be a knowledgeable person to arrangethe books for ready retrieval, keep track ofthem as they circulate or tend to stray,issue requisitions for new material (much ofit recommended by the staff), and maintain"accountability," the nuisance detail thatplays no small part in complicating life inGovernment. This is Library B.

Our attempt to name the essential pointsof difference between the two situations wouldsurely start with size: Library A is big, theother is small. Related to size (but with itsown distinctive attributes) is prestige. Li-brary A is widely acclaimed for its missionand has the special blessing of the highestauthorities in the land; Library B is obscurewith but a local and somewhat ambiguousmission. Directly derived from both size andprestige, by way of C 'ngressional statute, isindependence, which Library A has to a ratherhigh degree and the other almost totally lacks.These three seem to be the essential dif-ferences.

The effect on procurement problems takesmany forms. The business of Library A isworth much more than that of Library B;vendors have little economic incentive to seekout the latter; whereas they desire the busi-ness of Library A as much for its prestigevalue as for its profit; the chief acquisitionlibrarian of Library A has the responsibilitiesof procurement officer, selects the dealersfor negotiation buying, is free to travel totheir places of business; in Library B it isthe procurement officer who alone has theauthority for selecting the vendors of librarymaterials and who processes the requisitionsfor library materials submitted by the li-brarian together with requisitions for numer-ous and generally more costly items outsidethe library field. Also because Library A isan old one, personnel engaged in procurementhave, or can refer to, a wealth of experience,

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and some of the most reliable vendors willhave established effective relationships withthe library over the years.

These are the extremes. In between thereare combinations of these differences as greatin number as the number of existing libraries.There are libraries that are big because theirparent is big, and that have prestige byvirtue of the parental prestige. Some, thoughlarge, are new, and handicapped to somedegree by their newness. With some theprestige arises from the prestige of theirresearch missions. Those concerned withrunning the nation's workaday affairs maytake a secondary position on this basis. Insome cases, impending departmental reor-ganization will have a temporary becloudinginfluence. And so on.

Allied to some of the more inherent dif-ferences just touched on is physical location- -location, that is, in relation to sources ofsupply. Despite the advent of easy electroniccommunication and of jet transportation,distance still exacts its cost in money andin time. The cost in money will almostcertainly bear most heavily and constitutea handicap in the case of the library alreadydisadvantaged in the other respects men-tioned. The telephone and transport bills willbe most easily assumed by the library thathas the favorable attributes of size or ofmission prestige.

The situational elements arise from acombination of legal, political, and economicfactors. Though the legal and political factorsseem at first glance to predominate, theirimportance must not be exaggerated. In factmuch of their force derives from a bugabooquality. It is often well within the power of aninstallation administrator--one at a higherhierarchical level than librarian and procure-ment officer--to do much to simplify and stepup the effectiveness of the smallest oflibraries, long plagued with procurementdifficulties, and still remain comfortablywithin the law. And, conceivably, the admin-istrator of a large and fortunately situatedlibrary can do much to shackle his ownoperations unnecessarily by wrong interpre-tation or ignorance of regulation.

Also to be considered are a number ofleveling influences. Large libraries havebroad collecting responsibilities, involvingnumerous small and obscure publications

difficult to locate and to buy. In a few insti-tutional instances foreign material predomi-nates. Then too large-scale buying almostalways means more recourse to the cumber-some, time-costly. and sometimes hazardousrequirement of the formal contract.

Ultimately, of the differences among li-braries that result in varying degrees ofhardship, ready accessibility of sources ofsupply may prove the most intractable. Prob-ably the greatest problem for most libraries,regardless of size, is the lack of suchaccessibility, but for the small and remotelibrary this handicap bears with specialseverity. The organizational answer is cen-tralized procurement, and this accounts foranother group of library types, or moree x a c t l y, library-materials-procurementtypes. Procurement can be combined withselection at a national or regional centerwhich serves numerous libraries lackingprofessional librarians or operating under aprogram requiring considerable uniformityof holdings. Schools, hospital-patient andarmed services personnel libraries, U.S.Information Agency libraries, constitute mostof the activities served. These are known aslibrary "systems." There are other procure-ment centers that perform only procurement,filling requisitions that flow in from stationlibraries where selection is carried on bothby the librarian and the local professionalstaff using the library. These station li-braries are usually attached to researchinstallations such as laboratories or schoolsof university leve1.11

There can also be centralized procure-ment of library materials carried on bynonlibrary personnel for nonlibrary destina-tions. The material is for office and labora-tory use of scientists and technits, whoinitiate all the requests.12

The small library served by the procure-ment center is not necessarily relievedthereby of the problems posed by slow andunreliable delivery. The procurement centerswill of course have the advantages of big-ness: buying library materials in quantitythey will be staffed by professionals highlyexperienced in the ways of such procurement,costly devices for automatic processing willbe justified, and this business will attractvendors. On the other hand the operationalcosts of formal contracting are also theirs,

and in some cases, like the locally servicedsmall library, they are required to operatethrough procurement offices that are mainlyconcerned with other types of materials.Distance also hampers the operation of asystem. Requisitions, and all communica-tions concerning them, have farther to travel.When the procurement is for a system ofschool libraries, the centralized procurementis highly advantageous as the purchasing canbe done well in advance of the beginning ofthe school year and individual titles areprocured in large number.

Libraries also vary in their procurementproblems according to the special natureof their missions. Some require historicaldocumentation, for example, such as rep-resented by manuscripts, letters, old andrare books, and photographic reproductionsof such material possessed by other libraries.The various fields of learning have theirpeculiar procurement demands, such as thatinvolved in law books as contrasted toeconomic statistics. There will be differencesin urgency of demand for the new, based sayon historical versus scientific emphasis. Itis safe to say that the larger a librarybecomes, the more it is likely to embraceall such mission differences to some extentwithin its own walls.

Finally it should be noted that many of thedifferences among libraries insofar as theirprocurement practices are concerned arenot well related to their differences inkind--that is, their difference in mission,specialty, size, prestige, independence,etc.--but more to less logical and accidentalfactors of a personal or historical-personalorigin. Such factors are too numerous fordiscussion in a handbook such as this, andthe discussion could result in little usefulgeneralization.

6. Purchase Methods: Negotiation

(a) General remarks

Two main methods of purchase procure-ment are recognized by the Federal Govern-ment. One is by means of formal advertising,the other is without formal advertising. Thelatter is known as procurement by negotia-tion.

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Procurement by formal advertising, in-volving the use of the formal contract, isdesigned to give all citizens the greatestpossible opportunity to serve as vendors tothe Government on the best possible basisof fair and impartial treatment. Posting ofadvertisements in public places, and otherpublicizing measures, are followed by themost impersonal and carefully specifiedprocedures for making awards. In short.it is the most nearly perfect way of meetingthe competitive requirements mentionedearlier. However, since it meets these re-quirements at a high cost in preparatorywork and in time lag, and is too rigid inits terms for some types of contracting,the Government recognizes a great numberof situations where less formal and moreflexible methods are permitted or required.

In the procurement regulations all suchinformal methods are considered under"negotiation" for the sake of convenience,although some small transactions (such as byimprest funds) may be no more complicatedthan that of buying a newspaper. Most trans-actions correspond well to the commonmeaning. That is, a purchasing officer entersinto communication with a selected vendor,with whom he discusses needs, facilities,terms of supply, etc., to the end of reachingan agreement, which, if it involves futureaction, is documented.

There are numerous situations permittingnegotiation.13 Only two are of practical in-terest to the acquisition librarian; viz.(1) when the amount in any one case doesnot exceed $2,500 and (2) when obtainingcompetition is impracticable. The principalcircumstance for the second exception isthe existence of but one source of supply. Fail-ure to get response after advertising is alsoof possible library interest. A commoninstance of sole source is furnished by thesecond-hand dealer who has available out-of-print books, not known to be availableanywhere else, needed by the library; anotheris the publisher (e.g., National Geographic)who does not distribute through dealers.14However, careful attention must be paid tothe need for documentation required, such assupporting such negotiations with properdeterminations and findings justifying use ofthis authority. (See FPR 1-3.210); 41 U.S.C.252(C)10.)

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The GSA and DOD regulations agree intreating purchases under $2,500 as "smallpurchases" and prescribe for these simplifiedpurchase methods.

(b) Small purchases and the competitive re-quirement

In regard to the competitive requirement.the DOD regulations (32 CFR Sec. 3.604)distinguish between purchases not in excessof $250 and those in excess of $250 but notin excess of $2,500. The former "may beaccomplished without securing competitivequotations where the prices are consideredto be reasonable, but such purchases shall bedistributed equitably among qualified sup-pliers," but in the case of the latter "reas-onable solicitation of quotations from qualifiedsources of supply shall be made to assurethat the procurement is to the advantageof the Government, price and other factorsconsidered, including the administrative costof the purchase." The regulation goes on toadvise that solicitations shall be limited tothree suppliers, one quotation being enoughif two of the sources do not bid, that quota-tions shall generally be solicited orally unless"(a) the suppliers are located outside thelocal area; (b) special specifications areinvolved, (c) a large number of items areincluded in a single proposed procurement,or (d) obtaining oral quotations is not con-sidered economical," and that "reasonable-ness of proposed prices may be establishedby comparison with previous purchases,current price lists, catalogs, advertisements,or by any other appropriate methods." Otherstipulations are added as to type of writtenrecords, notification to unsuccessful sup-pliers, and justification for soliciting but onesource when such is the case.

The GSA regulations (41 CFR 1-3.6) uponwhich DOD regulations and much of the follow-ing discussion are based, do not recognizethe $250 limitation, but otherwise are muchlike those of DOD for the $250$2,500bracket. The note in regard to oral solicita-tions states "informal records should beestablished which will reflect clearly thepropriety of placing the order at the pricepaid with the supplier concerned." A specialpoint is made in regard to new sources.The belief is expressed that reasonable

competition can ordinarily be obtained withinthe local trade area but "new supply sourcesdisclosed through trade journals or othermedia shall be continuously reviewed and,when appropriate, added to the list of avail-able sources." There is standard form (SF 44),Purchase-Order-Invoice-Voucher which maybe quite useful in small purchases as pro-vided in FPR 1-3,605-1.

(c) Blanket orders

These are orders with dealers who agreeto furnish on a "charge account" basiscertain materials as required. The generalcircumstances permitting and favoring theuse of blanket orders and instructions as tohow they are set up and managed are setforth in 32 CFR 3.605 and 41 CFR 1-3.606.

In general the device has the purpose ofavoiding numerous purchase orders andmaking it possible to procure items requiredon short notice, usually from local sources.A monetary limitation may be set rangingfrom a few hundred to several thousanddollars, but no individual call may exceed$2,500. Blanket orders with several firms atthe same time are permitted and recom-mended in order to maintain price competi-tion. From the librarian's point of view theaccess to a variety of bookstore stocksachieved by the method is of greater im-portance. Regulations require no particulardocumentation in making calls against theorders, but it may be an administrativerequirement within the agency. A standardpurchase order may be required by the vendorfor administrative or tax exemption purposes.Convenient for conveying accurate citationsto the dealer and providing records withinthe library and elsewhere is the 3x5 vari-colored, multicopy "snap out" form. This isprinted for filling in of order number,request number, date of request, citation ofpublication (as fully as needed), price, dis-count, number of copies, and name of request-ing library. Invoicing by the dealer is usuallydone monthly.

A blanket order, like any contract, caninclude whatever terms are advantageous tothe library and acceptable to the vendor as todelivery-period limitation or discount. Theremust be a statement that the library isobligated only to the extent of authorized

calls. If consignments are small, as theynormally are, and delivered by the dealerby mail or messenger, the handling cost perpublication will usually be too high to permitmuch of any discount. And if out-of-the-waypublications are ordered in any amount, theextra service involved is worth more.

Unless the librarian is also the procure-ment officer (for library materials), hisparticipation in setting up blanket orders willusually consist in his requesting them in thefirst place, recommending vendors, and ad-vising as to necessary terms. The librarianshould expect to be named as the individual,or one of the individuals, authorized to makecalls l' under each such agreement involvinglibrary materials.

(d) Imprest funds

An imprest fund is a petty cash fund onwhich authorized employees may draw foruse in making small purchases, the vendor'sreceipt usually serving as evidence of thetransaction in the voucher file. A full defini-tion and approved application are given in41 CFR, Sec. 1-3.604 (or 32 CFRSec. 3.607).Purchases may not exceed $100 for any onetransaction, except for emergencies whenthis amount may be increased to $250.

The obvious advantage of the device isthe great flexibility permitted in choice ofvendor, for example, in buying single issuesof periodicals from newsstands, or payingparcel-post charges, local delivery charges,etc. No purchase order is needed unlessrequired by the vendor to grant Governmentdiscounts.

A local imprest fund cashier is requiredto whom the authorized employee applies witha purchase request. This cashier makes thedisbursements and keeps the accounts, whichare subject to audit at any time. The require-ment in bonded personnel and detail of aninspecting officer are somewhat burdensomeand no doubt tend to limit the setting up ofsuch accounts.

(e) Encumbrance authorization

Not included in the CFR di9cussion ofsmall purchase devices since it needs noseparate legal sanction, the one called "en-cumbrance authorization" is used in at least

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one executive department. The librarian isgiven an authorization in small amounts (suchas $25) against which invoices of $3 or lessmay be submitted for payment. This is usefulwhen an obviously low-cost item is availableonly by mail and is then ordered by requestingthe publisher to send with bill.

(f) Procurement via specific requisition

In many small libraries which are notpart of a system all requests for specificpublications must be transmitted to a localprocurement officer in the form of a requisi-tion prepared by the librarian. As was indi-cated earlier, under the topic of The ThreeStewards, the relationship--with its conse-quent channeling--is a basic one in Govern-ment for procurement generally. In theprocurement of library materials, however,the role of the procurement officer is not aswell defined as in the case of other materials.This is probably because library materialsare neither (1) routine in the sense of es-sentially identical items repeatedly required,or (2) nonroutine in the sense of unusualitems infrequently required. In the case ofthe former (e.g., paper clips, desks, manualtypewriters) the expertise of such officerswill be in matters of supply sources andmaintenance of proper stock levels; in thecase of the latter (e.g., a new duplicatingdevice) the procurement activity serves asthe meeting place where special knowledge isresolved. Expertise based on knowledge ofnew needs will be supplied by the requiringoffice; expertise based on what a particularpiece of equipment can do will be supplied bythe manufacturer's representative and/or byother sources of information.

Library materials do not fit either ofthese situations. Although they are nonroutine(that is, each item is unique as explainedunder the topic The Nature of the Commodity),they are required in great numbers; and thereis no question of suitability or need for suchitems involving the procurement officer. Theprocurement expertise required consistsalmost entirely in knowledge of sources ofsupply--which are numerous and various --and the terms of supply.

Hence, for the requisition method to workfor library materials, either (1) the procure-ment officer must acquire the librarian's

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special knowledge of sources and terms andbe equipped with the requisite bibliographicaltools and catalogs, or (2) each item on arequisition must be accompanied by datagiving sources and terms. Cowgill,'6 in hiscritique of the requisition method, points outhow the procurement officer's lack of exper-tise and necessary data leads to frustrationand "tend to keep library requisitions at thebottom of his action pile," competing as theydo with requisitions for desks, chairs, ortypewriters, commodities with which theofficer is entirely familiar. Cowgill also citesthe waste in paperwork and the delay causedby transcribing items from requisition topurchase order and the routing for the con-tracting officer's review and signature, coststhat would be present even if the librarianselected the vendor. The paperwork will ofcourse be increased by the transmittal ofsource and terms data. Typically a requisi-tion will include items to be ordered fromdifferent sources. Presenting such data re-quires two or three times the number of linesrequired for the citation alone.

If full cooperation between librarian andprocurement officer is in effect, a reductionof paperwork and speedier service can berealized by the librarian's locating the sourceof supply, and then preparing the purchaseorder, but leaving to the procurement officerthe filling in of identifying symbols for fund,etc.

Direct purchasing by the librarian underthe blanket and imprest fund methods provesmore satisfactory from the point of view ofboth librarian and procurement officer,simply be cause it permits a direct applicationof special knowledge. There is almost surelya greater delay involved in the requisitionmethod and even under favorable circum-stances much duplication of effort.

(g) Problems of the market place

The direct-purchasing devices just de-scribed involve delegation of authority, adelegation limited in various ways and tovarious degree. As mentioned earlier, thelibrarian can be given purchasing authorityentirely apart from such purchase methods.This authority can be by delegation madeby the head of the agency's procuring activity,or it can be by the addition of such duties

and responsibilities to the librarian's job. Ineither case library materials will be speci-fied, and the delegation will normally includea monetary limitation of $2,500 for eachtransaction.

With such authority the librarian of coursehas as much freedom of action as he couldhope for in selecting vendors and tactics ofoperation. At the same time the market itselfand how to deal with it within the frameworkof law becomes his problem. He must findand engage competent suppliers whose pricesare reasonably competitive. The competitiverequirement, as mentioned before, is basicand is stated clearly in the Code: "All pur-chases and contracts, whether by formaladvertising or by negotiation, shall be madeon a competitive basis to the maximumpracticable extent" (41 CFR 1-1.301-1). Buteven if there were no law, it would beirresponsible not to take the requirementfor granted. Some discussion of just whatconstitutes competition in the case of librarymaterials is called for here, and will be ofinterest to all acquisition librarians, whetheror not they have the authority to procure.

Earlier in these pages considerable at-tention was given to what seems to be awidespread misunderstanding of the im-portance of library materials and what es-pecially characterizes them as procurementitems. The most important point made wasthe inextricable involvement with service,which procurement officers, almost whollyconcerned with other types of material, areunlikely to regard as a problem. The librarianacting as procurement officer seeking to ob-tain materials in substantial quantities isbound to consider service and price as ofroughly equal importance. Negotiation willnot ordinarily be carried on for particularitems, but with the purpose of establishinga continuing dependable relationship. Stillthere is no reason why a series of smallpurchases could not serve as a test of com-petence. A blanket order might provide thisexperience, and this could be carried on withmore than one vendor at a time. If purchasesare large negotiation outside the area willprobably be necessary. Visits to the dealer'splace of business are desirable to gain ageneral idea of capacity, e.g., the sub-ject emphasis and extent of stock, andto discuss what he is willing and able

to undertake in providing service and grant-ing discounts.

Prominent among service requirementsare (a) speed of delivery, (b) prompt report- -solicited and unsolicited--on items not deliv-ered, (c) correct and clear invoicing withfull identification of items in relation to theorder, (d) faithful follow-up action on itemsreporting for later delivery, (e) adequatepackaging and identification in relation toorder, (f) prompt correction of errors, and(g) a liberal and workable returns policy.(Some actual specifications used for theserequirements are given later under thesubject of the formal contract.)

What is reasonable in regard to deliveryspeed can be established on the basis ofgeneral experience in the library world. Theexperience, unfortunately, is that of widevariation. One contracting office dealing witha large wholesaler stipulates an outside limitof 60 days, and an average of 25 days for halfof the material. The Federal Supply Schedule(FSS) Group 76, Part III (General Works)specifies 10-45 days for medical books, 45days for others. Publishers vary greatly intheir shipping efffciency. If the dealer canship from his own stock, delivery within 20days should not be considered an unreasonableexpectation. It is transshipment that must beaccepted as a cause of delay. Here a word isneeded as to the "drop shipment," i.e., theshipment direct from publisher to the order-ing office on instruction from the jobber.The device is generally frowned on forcommercial books because of the loss of con-trol by the dealer, resulting in the invoicingfor materials not received. Consignmentsmay easily go astray because of poor com-munication and a consequent choice by pub-lisher of a wrong library address. There isno harm attached to its use for small ma-terials that the dealer discovers to beavailable without cost.

This raises the question: Why not dealdirectly with publishers? One obvious answeris the multiplicity of orders, shipments, andinvoices required. Another answer, lessclearcut, comes from the other party to thecontract. The publisher has a relative lackof interest in small Government orders. Thehigh handling and shipping cost per item, thesomewhat formidable Government purchaseorder, and the deferred payment, do not

13

combine to encourage ready service and highdiscounts. The problem hinges on quantity.

At Purdue University, Veenstra and Mai 17unreservedly favor the buying of scientificand technical books from publishers insteadof from a jobber, and pre sent their experiencein the form of a chart showing that it resultsin discounts much greater and delivery timemuch shorter. As far as multiplicity of papersis concerned, they point out that it is easierto correct and process a smaller invoice.The university order form, free from thelegal "boilerplate" of the Government docu-ment, no doubt favors them with the pub-lisher. That their buying is heavy is indicatedin their statement that their saving with onepublisher alone "in a year's time will be over$600." They continue to buy current populartitles through a jobber.

In general large-scale buying is rewardedwith generous discounts. The whole discountsituation is not a happy one for the librarian,who must weigh these conspicuous pricefactors against service factors in providingmaterial for highly paid professionals, andproviding it fully and speedily. The problemis not the lack of competent wholesalers;it is that of excluding the incompetent andimproving and maintaining the performanceof the competent. This requires carefullystipulated agreements as well as a sharpen-ing of the application of the regulatoryapparatus. D iscussion of both performanceand discounts is resumed under the subjectof the formal contract,

7. Purchase Methods: The Formal Contract

(a) General remarks

Since the costs of library materials aremoderate, they can generally be acquired byinformal purchasing methods. The use of theformal contract will usually be limited toprocurement of periodical subscriptions inlarge libraries, and procurement of periodi-cals and books in large quantities by procure-ment centers serving libraries in a system,or serving branch libraries of an executivedepartment or other large agency.

The formal contract is discussed in greatdetail in Chapter 1 of 41 CFR, mainly inPart 2, in the other five volumes of Title 41previously cited, and in Subchapter A of

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Title 32, again mainly in Part 2. There aresix technicalpreparatory actions; viz., (1) In-vitations for bids are prepared in sufficientcopies, (2) Invitations for bids are maileddirectly to dealers considered most likelyto be interested and qualified, and posted inpublic places (e.g., office bulletin board andpost offices), (3) Bids are received, stampedwith date of receipt and stored, (4) Bids areopened at the time and place designated inthe invitation, (5) Bids are abstracted, i.e.,consolidated for purposes of comparison,and (6) Awards are made to qualified bidderor bidders on basis of lowest prices.

All the instructions, warnings, and rec-ommendations considered necessary for gen-eral procurement are given and the standardforms displayed in the sources cited. Thediscussion here will be limited to variants incontract types required for library materials,the corresponding bidding techniques anddiscount systems, and performance provi-sions required by law and those required tomeet the needs of the service.

Buying by negotiation provides ample op-portunity to discuss the possibilities of themarket, and the capacity of the vendor'sfacilities, in relation to the needs of thelibrary or libraries. A librarian, or procure-ment officer, learns by negotiation. In thecase of the formal contract, the invitation forbids is normally issued with no expectationof change; the invitation /mist set forth allthe terms constituting the ultimate agreement.All the factors required must be determinableby the bidder when he prepares his bid. 18

Hence, in drafting the invitation, the procure-ment officer must have clear ideas as towhat service features are needed and whatconstitutes reasonable requirements from thepoint of view of highly qualified suppliers.The requiring activity, which is the libraryor, in the case of some systems, the librarymaterials procurement center, must be thesource of these ideas. If they are not reason-able even the best qualified vendor mustwithdraw; if not fully and carefully stated,low bids may be submitted by vendors notequipped to provide the service, or not ableto provide it at the prices bid. A bidders'conference during the solicitationperiod maybe held by the contracting officer for thepurpose of supplying more detail where neededand to provide opportunity for questions. A

notice of this must either be in the solicita-tion or, if need for the meeting becomes ap-parent later, must be sent to each name onthe bidders' list.

Contracts can be for (1) specific titles,for (2) nonspecified publications of a par-ticular publisher, or (3) nonspecified publi-cations falling in specified categories ac-cording to discount brackets. All periodicalsand other regular series items (e.g., law-reporting systems) are well adapted to spe-cific-title contract buying because such pub-lications though not yet published, can still benamed and the quantities of copies neededwill remain generally constant during theterm of the contract. All contract book buyingcannot be for specific titles, because to con-tract anew for books published during ayear's time or for books needed in unexpectedquantities would result in intolerable delayand multiply the cost of the contract process.

(b) The indefinite quantity contract

The "indefinite-quantity contract"19 takescare of this continuing need for newly pub-lished books or the changing quantitativedemands for older books. A typical contractwill be with a large jobber, or with a pub-lisher for any books by a certain publisher.It will specify a maximum amount (say$20,000) naming the product wanted by givingthe publishers' names and the categories ofbooks by discount brackets, giving variousdelivery points (when such are required), anda number of other special service provisionsas agreed to in the bid. GSA Standard Form 33,July 1966, may be used for invitation, bid,and award. See Federal Procurement Regu-lation (41 CFR) 1-16.101. It is to be notedthat the SF 33 provides for the General Pro-visions, SF 32 is for attachment to the SF 33or, more generally, it is incorporated in theSF 33 by reference.

Based on this contract, delivery orderswill then be issued during the term of oneyear, each order specifying the books wanted,number of copies, list price, appropriate dis-count, the contract number, the order num-ber, order date, accounting and appropriationdata, and delivery instructions as needed.

Indefinite quantity contracts while imply-ing certain advantages to the Government,nevertheless do bind the Government to the

successful contractor over a period of timefor those needs outlined in the contract.It must, therefore, provide for certain con-tingencies such as that the Government will,except in emergencies, or in some otherlimiting exceptions, be obligated to use thecontract to purchase all of its recurring needsof the categories of library materials enu-merated within the contract for the periodspecified.

Certain basic provisions are printed onthe contract forms originally. These will befound as "Bidding Instructions, terms, andconditions" and as "General provisions ofpurchase order." Most of the clauses" havethe purpose of insuring compliance with avariety of general laws made to protect theinterests of certain citizen groups, to preventcorruption, to institute and ensure humanepractices. etc. Other provisions stipulatingvendor conduct and technical procedure arealso among those printed in on the form. Stillothers are then added by the procuring agencyto define and sharpen the service require-ments in connection with the specific type ofmaterials to be supplied.

Among clauses in the contract to ensurecompliance with statutory laws are two thatneed mentioning. One is in reference to theBuy American Act. 21 Library materials fromabroad are clearly exempt from the terms ofthe former according to 41 CFR, par. 1- 6.103-2, Non-availability in the United States. In 32CFR 6.105, the exception is specified underBooks, etc.22

Closely related to the Buy American Actare certain balance-of-payment restrictionsobserved by the Department of Defense. It isthe policy of DOD to reduce overseas dollarexpenditure for supplies required for useoutside the United States. There are nineexceptions cited in the Defense ProcurementHandbook (at IIIC5c, where a statement ofthe policy appears). Of these exceptions,several are applicable to library materialsaccording to varying circumstances; viz., (ii)small purchases (not to exceed $500 in foreigncost), (v) items determined to be otherwiseunavailable, (vii) purchases permitting use ofexcess foreign currencies of certain specifiedcountries, (viii) items for use in Canada, and(ix) those in which a domestic preferencewould result in the payment of unreasonablecost.

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of the date of delivery. The contractor willbe required to notify the ordering office when-ever a new edition of a book on order is inthe process of being published.

Time of delivery. Completion of deliveriesis needed and bidder agrees that he willnormally accomplish the same within 30calendar days after receipt of an order.(Variant instructions may cover lapse of timepermitted for reporting expected shortages,and, in the case of announced books not yetpublished, lapse of time between date ofpublisher's release and date of delivery.)

Delivery. All shipments shall be fromthe contractor's place of business. Ship-ments bearing contractor's labels and madedirect from a publisher's plant will not beacceptable.

Identification of incoming books in rela-tion to order, it should be mentioned, is ofmuch more vital importance in the case oflarge-scale procurement than it is in thatof procurement for a small library. Thework involved in checking off individual titlesprobably increases geometrically with in-crease in size of order when numerical itemidentification is lacking, and the probabilityof error is further magnified by multicopybuying for multiple destinations. As a safe-guard, one large procurement office, underits indefinite-quantity contract, sends twocopies of a delivery order for each publica-tion to the vendor with instructions (incor-porated in the contract agreement) to insertone of the copies in the book to be shipped.

The origin and makeup of the deliveryorder in this case is of interest as a dataprocessing device. The requiring-requisi-tioning activities are the offices or labora-tories of scientific researchers. Each ofthese is asked to order, in quantities asneeded, an order form known as "bookrequisition and purchase order," each unitconsisting of seven carbon-interleafed copies("7-part snap out"). The requiring-requisi-tioning office is asked to cite one publicationonly in the space provided by title, author,series, volume, editor, publication date, andpublisher), and to give his room number,telephone, and name with signature in spacesindicated. He is also instructed not to putanything in three spaces heavily bordered inblack. These are for the use of the procuringoffice in citing date of order, order number,

contract number, name and address of ven-dor, official signature. This unit is thenprocessed to become a purchasing document.One of the copies sent to the vendor carriesthe printed instructions: "to insure paymentreturn this copy with publication." All booksare shipped to the procuring activity andthere checked off and forwarded to therequiring-requisitioning offices. This systemis publicized by the use of a printed memo-randum hi two sheets giving detailed instruc-tions. It should also be noted that the open-end contract with the vendor carries a strictrequirement as to the insertion of the ordercopies in all books supplied.

(d) Periodical subscriptions

Periodical subscriptions constitute themost troublesome and hazardous type ofmaterial for procurement on contract, andrequire certain controls that are not neededfor book procurement. For one thing, anoverly optimistic subscription dealer mightplan to operate entirely on money paid bythe procurement office by postponing hisorders to the publishers until after he hadreceived payment. Since many journals con-tinue to come after expiration, unrenewedsubscriptions may easily escape notice.Under the contract method, prompt declara-tion of default and reprocurement fromanother source is virtually impossible. Also,the most responsible of agents loses controlto a considerable extent if only because thematerial is mailed by publisher directly tolibrary. The correct (meaning exact andfull) address of the library may fail to betransmitted. The difficulty is of course com-pounded by the shifting of subscriptions fromone agent to another who bids more success-fully.

Libraries with a 3 elc.77.vely small list ofjournals avoid the whole problem by orderingdirectly from the publisher under the small-purchase exceptions. In large operationsdirect ordering is quite impracticable andagents must be used. Controls developed andfound to be effective will be reported here,

For the very large operations mechanizeddata processing is essential as an economicmeasure. One procurement office responsiblefor placing and renewing some 8,000 sub-scriptions involving 2,000 titles for delivery

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to numerous offices and laboratories pre-pares the punched cards - one for eachsubscription - and follows a strict schedule,checking with addressees for confirmationof continuing need, getting a definitive listinto the hands of the agent by the end ofAugust, the agent in turn placing all sub-scriptions by October, and the agent thennotifying each addressee that the subscrip-tion has been ordered. Amounts paid (aswell as the fact of payment) are subject tomonitoring by sample check. This is re-quired because the contract (which is ne-gotiated) is based on a fee for service addedto actual payments made by the contractorto the publishers.

Another large procurement agency re-sponsible for subscriptions (numbering some32,000) for delivery to numerous foreignposts emphasizes frequent monitoring of theservice itself. The pertinent clause readsin the open-end contract in part:

In view of the comprehensive require-ments and attendant volume of admin-istrative detail inherent in a project ofthis size and nature, the Agency deemsit necessary to maintain day-to-day com-munication with the Contractor to co-ordinate fully satisfactory service. TheAuthorized Representative of the Con-tracting Officer located in the Agency'smain ordering office . . shall schedulefrequent visits to the Contractor's head-quarters . during the course of thecontract term for purposes of contractadministration, to verify and examineContractor's Records and files pertainingto this contract, including verification ofprompt placement of order, publishers'rate changes . . . etc., etc.

The operation served by this contract iscomplicated by the fact that the agency mustsubmit many thousand additions to the listof subscriptions during the year. Codedpunched cards for the entire list are sent tothe contractor by the agency once a year.These are used by the contractor in proc-essing orders to publishers and in preparingfor the agency a printed record of ordersactually placed. The bid in this case consistsof a flat discount from prices shown in abidder's price list accompanying the bid.

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The operations briefly described here areof course "big time" and are presentedmainly to show the type of precautions thatare considered essential where special serv-ice demands and a huge investment by theGovernment is involved. Such tight controlswill be too custly and not essential forsmaller and simpler procurement activities.It will be obvious that only dealers withhighly developed and well organized facili-ties can hope to perform successfully in theface of these rigorous demands. Performancerequirements generally applicable will bediscussed below under the subject Determi-nation of Competence, While we are on thesubject of periodical procurement, a state-ment is needed as to the regulatory basis ofthe right to place multiyear subscriptionsand, in general, to pay in advance for librarymaterials.

The statutory prohibition23 against theadvance of public money unless authorizedby the appropriation, which originated earlyin the 19th century, was modified by an actof 1909 authorizing the Secretary of Agri-culture to pay for subscriptions in advanceand by another act of 1930 permitting allagencies to make advance payment for "pe-riodicals, magazines, and newspapers." In1961, Public Law 87-91, par. 1, extended theprivilege in the following clause: "Subscrip-tions or other charges for newspapers,magazines, periodicals and other publica-tions for official use of any office under theGovernment of the United States or themunicipal Government of the District ofColumbia may be paid in advance from ap-propriations available therefor." 26

Guidance as to the legitimacy of multiyearsubscriptions will be found in the GSA Pro-curement Handbook, p. 127,27 where twofavorable decisions of the Comptroller Gen-eral are quoted. One of these states that theacts of 1909 and 1930, "do not specificallylimit advance payment for ,ubscriptions toa one-year period, and, therefore, where itis advantageous for the purpose of economyor otherwise to subscribe to newspapers,magazines, or other periodicals for longerperiods payment therefor may be made fromcurrent appropriations otherwise availablefor such purpose,"

Procurement of Multiyear Subscriptions.While it is recognized that funds for

subscriptions to periodicals and newspapersare allotted on an annual basis which nor-mally results in subscriptions for periodsof one year, there is no prohibition againstprocuring periodicals and newspapers onmultiyear subscriptions. In furtherance ofthe recommendations contained in the GAOAudit Report cited above, multiyear sub-scriptions should be used when it is knownin advance that the requirement for periodi-cals and newspapers will be of a continuingnature and that an advantage can be derivedfrom entering a subscription for a period inexcess of the remaining portion of the cur-rent fiscal year (as in the case of reducedrates for three-year subscriptions). Paymentcovering issues to be delivered during theentire subscription period may be made inadvance from currently available appropria-tions (31 U.S.C. 530a).

In view of the above, agencies are re-quested to review their present methods ofsubscribing to periodicals and newspapers.Consideration should be given to revising thesubscription method to provide for multiyearsubscriptions where material savings areavailable. In addition, where various bureausor offices in the same agem,y are subscribingto the same periodical or newspaper, con-sideration should be given to the consolida-tion of such requirements on an agency-widebasis to the extent practical, and on amultiyear basis.

(d) Determination of Competence

The material under this heading delvesinto areas of responsibility of bidders; avery complex subject. The brief treatmentgiven here may be misleading unless it isrecognized as being merely introductory.

The Government is not at all bound toaccept any bidder on faith and assume thathe can perform satisfactorily. General stand-ards of competence are discussed in 41 CFR1-1.310-5, and in 32 CFR, Sec. 1-903. Theformer reads "In order to qualify as re-sponsible, a prospective contractor must,in the opinion of the contracting officer, meetthe following standards as they relate to theparticular procurement under considera-tion." There follow statements in regard to(1) financial requirements, (2) experience,organization, technical qualifications, (3)

ability to comply with the proposed or re-quired time of delivery or performanceschedule. (4) satisfactory record of integrity.(5) ability to conform to the requirements ofthe Equal Opportunity Clause, and (6) quali-fications and eligibility to receive an award"under applicable laws and regulations" (inreference to the Walsh-Healey Public Con-tracts Act, for contracts exceeding $10,000).

The section in Title S2 specifies the samerequirements except that the second group(with the addition of "operational controls")is put under "Additional Standards," whichare those "for firoduction, maintenance, con-struction and research and development con-tracts" (32 CFR 1-903-2 (a) (1)). That is,the DOD regulations omit reference to or-ganization, experience, and technical skillsas specific requirements for supplyingmaterials. Such an omission should seemstrange to the officers responsible for thelarge-scale book and periodical supply op-erations just described.

A determination of a bidder's responsi-bility is required of the contracting officerbefore awarding a contract (41 CFR 1-1.310-6and 32 CFR 1.904), although this determina-tion need not be in writing for purchases of$10,000 or less. As noted above, the SmallBusiness Administration may be useful indetermining "capacity and credit" throughcertification of Small Business bidders. Thedetermination may be made on the basis ofthe representations of the bidder himself,information on file regarding past perform-ance, or gained from credit ratings, tradeand financial journals. etc. As to the bidder'sown representation the GSA ProcurementHandbook points out (p. 59-60) that the in-vitation for bids may include "a requirementthat bidders must furnish information on thesize of their organizations, the capacity andlocation of service facilities, the extent ofstocks maintained, and like data which mayhave a direct bearing on their ability toperform" or, in lieu of this, a notice thatbefore a bid is considered for award "theGovernment may require the bidder to submita statement of facts in detail as to the pre-vious experience of the bidder in performingsimilar or comparable work, and of thebusiness and technical organization and fi-nancial resources and available plant facili-ties, which will be used in performing the

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contemplated work" and that the Governmentreser ees the right to reject bids on the basisof such facts.

The most adverse information on file willbe inclusion of a bidder's name on a "debarred,suspended, or ineligible" list. Both sets ofregulations treat at length the policies andprocedures governing the establishment andmaintenance of records of such ineligibility.(See 32 CFR Subpart F of Ch. 1 and 41 CFR,Subpart 1-1.6.) Each executive agency andeach department of DOD is required to main-tain such lists, giving names, basis of author-ity in each case, extent of restrictions im-posed, and the termination date for eachdebarred listing. Causes for debarmentare numerous. Prominent among these are:(1) fraud incident to obtaining or attemptingto obtain a public contract, (2) commission ofcrime indicating lack of business integrity,and (3) violation of contract provisions in-cluding "willful failure to perform" or a his-tory or record of failure to perform in ac-cordance with the terms of one or morecontracts. Such determinations have inter-agency or interdepartmental acceptability.(See 32 CFR 1.604-1 (d) or 41 CFR 1-1.604(a) (5).)

Even if a bidder is clear of record ofineligibility there of course may still remaindoubt as to his ability to perform. In sucha case a contracting officer may requesta pre-award survey. This may or may notinclude an on-site evaluation, that is, an in-spection of facilities and equipment withwhich a prospective contractor proposes toperform a contract, including interviews withcontractor and plant personnel. If such a touris planned the inclusion of a library officialon the team should be considered desirable.Certainly the librarian should offer his serv-ices.

Pre-award surveys are discussed in 32CFR 1.905-4, in 32 CFR 1.907, in 32 C FR 30.7(Appendix K, where procedures are detailed),and pre-award on-site evaluations in 41CFR1-1.310-9.

In applying the regulatory standards tolibrary materials, special criteria for booksuppliers may be considered under the maintopics of (1) financial resources and standing,(2) warehouse facilities, (3) book stocks,(4) operating procedures in effect, (5) staff,and (6) past performance.

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Adequacy of financial resources would bedetermined on the basis of actual capital (inrelation to current commitments), financialratings, bank credit, and credit with pub-lishers. Warehouse facilities would includeadequacy of shelving, space and facilities forassembly, packing, and shipping. Book stockwould have to be appraised in relation to thespecific contract or contracts contemplated,with attention to publishers represented,number of titles and quantity of stock, pro-portions of trade books, technical books, etc.,or juvenile and adult. Operating proceduresinvolve efficiency of systems set up formeeting terms of delivery and reporting,as well as the adequacy of accounting andbilling systems. Staff must be judged as to ex-perience, technical knowledge, and number- -all in relation to special contract require-ments. The past performance to be appraisedis that having to do with contracts for similarmaterials in about the same amounts andwith similar servicing requirements.8. Federal Supply Schedules and General

Stores Stock Catalog

The Federal Property and AdministrativeServices Act of 1949, established the GeneralServices Administration, transferring to itvarious functions and responsibilities for-merly assigned to several other agencies,including the Treasury Department's Pro-curement Agency. Among the functions arethe procurement and distribution of suppliesand the issuing of the Federal ProcurementRegulations (i.e., CFR Title 41) governing theprocurement activities of other agencies withthe exception of Department of Defense.

The Department of Defense is governed bythe Armed Services Procurement Regulations(ASPR) whereas Civilian Agencies are gov-erned by the Federal Procurement Regu-lations (FPR). DOD activities, however, havebeen closely linked to many services providedby other activities of the Government, prin-cipally in the area of DOD-GSA Supply Sup-port Agreements, which are arrangementsmutually agreed upon that certain classes ofitems will be mandatory for procurement byDOD through the facilities of GSA.

Federal Supply Schedules under the notice,and instructions to ordering activities con-tained in each Schedule, provide the essentialimplementing instructions to DOD activities

as well as all other activities of the FederalGovernment.

The GSA explores sources and purchaseson contract vast quantities of common usesupplies and equipment, maintaining stores ofthese at regional outlets to be issued to Fed-eral procurement officers on requisitionfrom the GSA Stores Stock Catalog. Includedare reference books and sets in most demand.These may be requisitioned in accordancewith instructions in the "GSA Guide to Sourcesof Supply" which is readily available uponapplication to the nearest GSA Regional Officeserving the geographical area of agency loca-tion. Other detailed requisitioning and order-ing procedures are covered in the FederalSupply Schedules as issued. In addition GSAenters into indefinite-quantity contracts withfirms for "certain goods and services com-monly used by a number of agencies, andwhich do not lend themselves to definitequantity consolidated purchasing, or to dis-tribution through the GSA stores facilities."These contracts are made available to allFederal agencies, who consult Federal Sup-ply Schedules (FSS) for items needed andorder directly from the contractors, citing onthe order form appropriate FSS symbolswhich identify the contract.

The placement of an order by ary activityunder a Federal Supply Schedule contractrelieves the buyer of problems of respon-sibility since such responsibility determi-nations have been made by the ContractingOfficer of the Schedule Contract. Further-more, the concern with obtaining competitionto fill a requirement is obviated by the use ofthe Schedule since the Comptroller Generalhas recognized that this factor need not beconsidered when Schedule procurement ismade (21C.G.105). For example, among thecontracts there are many for published ma-terial. These are set forth in FSC Group 76,which is in three parts. Parts I and II aremandatory for use by all Federal departmentsand independent agencies, except that no or-dering office needs to place nor any con-tractor needs to accept orders in the amountof $50 or less. Part I is for "books, diction-aries and other publications." The issuancefor the period Feb. 1, 1966, through Jan. 31,1967, lists some 180 titles with prices, timeof delivery, and contractor from whom avail-able. At the end of the 23-page pamphlet are

listed the full names of the contractors withaddresses, and with time discounts whenoffered. This list includes a great variety ofitems, such as dictionaries, directories, at-lases, reference texts (e.g., medical text-books), and all popular encyclopedias. Theschedule might well be titled ReferenceWorks. Discounts (which are not shown assuch) are probably more satisfactory thancan be obtained elsewhere for small ship-ments. Time of delivery varies widely, fromtwo to 30 days. The largest category is 30days, but more items fall in the categoriesbetween two and 10 days. Shorter deliverytimes for emergency requirements may binegotiated. Blanket orders are accepted.There are of course other provisions, suchas for prompt reporting of unavailable itemsby vendor and shorts by recipient.

Part II of FSC Group 76 covers "LawBooks and Tax and Other Regulatory Report-ing Periodicals," the current issuance abooklet of 135 pages to be used throughJune 30, 1967. This includes all the great andcostly law reporting systems (e.g., South-eastern Digest, 56 weeks, $325.71), togetherwith other legal aids. The $50 minimum orderlimitation applies. Most are subscriptionitems. As the distribution system of all theseservices is efficiently organized, promptdelivery of the successive parts may usuallybe assured.

Part III of FSC Group 76, titles "Books -General Works" to be used through Sept. 30,1967, is based on four indefinite-quantitycontracts with four firms. No titles are speci-fied, only categories. There are six typecategories; viz., (1) medical books, discount20%; (2) technical books, 24%; (3) text books,13%; (4) trade books, 33-37% (depending onquantity); (5) paperbound books, 8-20%;(6) miscellaneous publications (pamphlets,brochures of nonprofit associations listed inthe Publishers Trade List Annual, 12-15%.In addition there are two categories by bind-ing and processing; viz., (1) "Library bound"juveniles, and (2) technical text and tradebooks listed in PTLA (to be processed forloan service in libraries and accompanied bycomplete sets of printed catalog cards).

Recently GSA has contracted for a newtype of book service known as the LendingLibrary Service (Industrial Group 823, Indus-trial Class 8231). Under the terms of this

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contract the contractor agrees to supply alibrary with a basic group of books ranging innumber of items from 100 to 5,000, referredto as the "permanent inventory," and afterthat, at monthly intervals, over a period ofsix months to a year, supply the library withadditional selections of books about to bepublished to sustain the basic collection,from which the librarian concurrently with-draws "inactive books." The librarian makesselections for the initial permanent inventoryfrom a checklist provided by the contractor;the "sustaining monthly selections" are thoseof the contractor, although the librarian isallowed some substitutions. Books suppliedare limited to "current fiction and non-fictionpublished within one year of date of initialpurchase order; have broad popular appealdirected to a varied audience and meet thehighest public standards." Excluded are "text-books, technical books, multiple volume sets,definitive biographies, poetry, drama, andhow-to-do-it books." The service includesfor each book an attached book pocket andcard for circulating purposes, and a completeset of catalog cards.

In buying the service the librarian hasa choice among 33 different quantity "items,"according to the size of the permanent inven-tory. Pricing is then a matter of monthlycharges for each such item according to turn-over period ranging from six to twelvemonths. From the monthly costs shown,which are based on list prices, a discount of7% is granted. Six months after their date ofpublication books may be purchased by theordering activity at a discount of 75% fromlist price. The books bear indication of monthof publication.

9. Publisher Plans

Some publishers have instituted specialservice plans permitting libraries to placestanding orders whereby all books falling inselected categories are sent on approval assoon as they are published. At least threesuch arrangements are in use by Federallibraries; viz.; the Library Standing OrderPlan offered by Academic Press, 111 FifthAve., New York, N.Y., 10003; the University,College & Special Library Selective OrderPlan offered by Pergamon Press, Inc., 44-0121st Street, Long Island City, N.Y., 11101;

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and the Collier Macmillan Library Service,866 Third Ave., New York, N.Y., 11101.Some dealers also offer blanket service planswhich have tile advantage of providing mate-rials from a variety of publishers. Theseplans seem well designed for libraries col-lecting comprehensively in particular cate-gories. Although there are no restrictions onthe proportion of books returned, the cost ofthe return shipments is borne by the libraryand may cancel out the advantages of earlyreceipt and the inspection privilege unlessa fairly high proportion is selected.

10. Government Documents by Purchase

(a) The Superintendent of Documents assource

Most of the publications printed at theGovernment Printing Office are for sale.Orders are directed to the Superintendent ofDocuments, Government Pr i n t i n g Office,Washington, D.C. 20402. Purchasing may bedone in person at four Government bookstoresin Washington, including the one in the mainGPO building, and at another in Chicago.Procurement by Federal agencies does notdiffer from purchasing by anyone outside theGovernment. For small, successive pur-chases coupons of 50 denomination sold insets of 20 are convenient. For more substan-tial purchases a deposit account, minimumamount $25, may be established, againstwhich orders are placed when needed. Bothcoupons or deposits may be procured ona regular purchase order, or the latter maybe used for an immediate transaction. Pay-ments for material may also be made in cashfrom imprest funds. Government publicationsare also sold by some bookdealers, as theyare permitted to purchase them at lower thanlist price for the purpose of resale. A dis-count of 25% is allowed to any purchaser ofa hundred copies of an item, but some pub-lications are excepted from this offer.

Federal agencies may also procure fromthe Superintendent of Documents by the spe-cial administrative device known as "ridingthe jacket." If Agency A learns that AgencyB is issuing a certain publication as a job tobe printed at the GPO it may put in a re-quest for an increase in the number of copiesto be printed in order to supply its own needs.

T

[

It does this by first clearing with Agency Band then instructing the Superintendent ofDocuments. The purchase is made by trans-fer of funds on Standard Form 1080. The term"Jacket" is used in reference to the particularfile folder at GPO, the number of whichidentifies the publication needed. These pre-publication requests are advantageous to theGovernment in reducing the production costper copy. The jacket-rider notices are sentto the heads of agencies. The librarian willneed to arrange within the agency to have suchnotices forwarded to the library.

The Monthly Catalog of U.S. Publicationsis the principal source of information re-garding the currently published output of theGovernment Printing Office. 28 Prices aregiven for items available by purchase, andfor those that can be obtained without chargethe accepted channels are indicated by sym-bols. The list captioned "Previews" at thebeginning of each issue should not be over-looked. Here are noted publications in theprocess of being printed for which advanceorders may be placed. The Superintendent ofDocuments also has available at no costpricelists,29 each presenting publications in aspecial field of interest.

(b) The Clearinghouse as source

The C1Pnringhnimp of Federal Scientificand Technical Information is operated by theInstitute of Applied Technology, NationalBureau of Standards of the Department ofCommerce. It took over the functions of theolder Office of Technical Services, whichwere transferred from the Office of the Sec-retary of Commerce to NBS in January 1964,when the Clearinghouse name was adopted.

The primary function of the Clearinghouseis to make known what technical literatureexists. To accomplish this purpose it pub-lishes the U.S. Government Research andDevelopment Reports (including, as Section I,the Technical Abstract Bulletin, and, asSection II, Other Research Reports andRelated Literature), the Government-wideIndex to Federal Research and DevelopmentReports, Research Reviews, and selectivebibliographies on particular topics.

The ResearchReviews and the bibliogra-phies are distributed free by the Clearing-house. Most of the technical report literature

listed in the other sources cited is alsoavailable without cost to Federal libraries onapplication to the issuing agencies or to dis-tributing centers, such as the Defense Docu-mentation Center. These channels are ex-plained below in the section Non-PurchaseProcurement,. Reports not available from thefree sources may be purchased from theClearinghouse, as its address, Springfield,Virginia 22151. Currently the price fora report in full size format is $3.00; for amicrofiche 65. The Monthly Catalog of U.S.Publications includes Clearinghouse items aswell as the GPO imprints, indicating thesource by a special symbol (the farad).

In the Monthly Catalog the reader willnotice the extensive listing of translationsunder the Joint Publications Research Serv-ice (JPRS). The Service, a component of theClearinghouse, "was established in 1957 totranslate under contract, for all Federalagencies, foreign documents and journals inall fields of science." The quoted portion isfrom Technical Translations (Dec. 1966), aClearinghouse publication listing all suchtranslations, which include material not onlyin the physical science and technology butalso in the social sciences. The greater partof the translations are from Russian journals.Besides the Clearinghouse, the Special Li-braries Translation Center (SLA), and theEuropean Translations Center (ETC) aregiven as procurement sources.

In this connection it should be mentionedthat the Bibliography of Medical Translations,published by the National Library of Medicine,ceased publication with Vol. 3, no. 24, Dec. 30,1966, as all such citations are listed in Tech-nical Translations,

11. Special Forms(a) Microforms

As a method of circulating journal arti-cles, microduplication is all but universal inthe library world. It readily becomes a methodof procurement when applied to entire vol-umes and sets of noncurrent journals, or toold and rare books, and is commonly used bylibraries, especially those with historicalresponsibilities, to round out their collectionsby sharing resources or by buying fromvendors. Copyright inter ests prevent its ap-plication to current material for acquisition

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purposes, but in any case the costs are toogreat and the product too unattractive to thereader to make it competitive. Some materialis now produced originally in microform anda considerable amount is produced in thisform concurrently with the paper copy. Tech-nical reports in microfiche were mentionedearlier. Still, by far the greater part of themicroform offered for sale is copy fromnoncurrent paper publications.

A basic bibliographical source of com-mercial offerings is the annual catalog calledGuide to Microforms in Print, edited byAlbert J. Diaz, and published by MicrocardEditions, 901 26th Street, NM., Washington,D.C. The current issue sells for $4.00. Thereis also a Subject Guide available separatelyat the same price. This catalog presents theofferings of more than fifty firms. The par-ticular microform in which a publication isavailable is of course specified by type andmake and the dimensions are given. Disser-tations are not included.

Procurement in microform is entirelyapplicable to dissertations, which are usuallyproduced in few copies and lack market-ability. University Microfilms, Inc., 313 N.First Street, Ann Arbor, Mich. 48103 (nowa subsidiary of Xerox Corporation), sup-plies American dissertations on microfilm at1-1/4¢ a page (minimum charge $3.00) andxerographic prints at 4-1/2¢ or 6-1/2¢ a pageaccording to size. Its publication DissertationAbstracts is now in two parts; viz., humani-ties (A) and sciences (B). They can be sub-scribed to singly or together.

The University of Chicago has its ownmicrocopy service for the materials in itscollection, including the University's disser-tations. Special lists of the latter are issuedperiodically. Address: Department of Photo-duplication, The University of Chicago Li-brary, Swift Hall, Chicago, Ill. 60637.

Microcopy of Ude foreign material in trans-lation known as the JPRS reports is offeredfor sale by two firms. Technical Translations,at the beginning of each issue, describes theservices of Research and Microfilm Publi-cations, P.O. Box 267, Annapolis, Md. 21404,and the Readex Mier op r int Corporation,5 Union Square, New York, N.Y. 10003.

Microfilm service on Federal records isavailable through the facilities of GSA, Na-tional Archives and Records Service. See

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Federal Property and Administration Serv-ices Act, Section 505(d) and Federal PropertyManagement Regulation, FPMR 101-11.5.

Each of the three national libraries pro-vides microfilming or photoduplication serv-ice for materials in its own collection. Thatof the Library of Congress is the most exten-sive and is described as follows in Libraryand Reference Facilities in the Area of theDistrict of Columbia, seventh edition, Wash-ington, GPO, 1966.

The Photoduplication Service was organ-ized in 1938 as a result of a grant by theRockefeller Foundation establishing a revolv-ing fund. Its responsibilities include supply-ing photoreproductions of materials in theLibrary's collections to Congress, otherGovernment agencies, individuals and insti-tutions, subject to copyright and certain othernecessary restrictions.

The Photoduplication Laboratory producesphotostats, electrostatic prints, photographs,microfilm, enlargement prints, color trans-parencies, and slides (black and white orcolor), blueprints, ozalid prints, etc. Pricelists and order forms are available on re-quest. Orders may be placed in person at theBusiness Office, which is located on the groundfloor of the Annex (Room G-1009), or throughthe mail. The Special Services Section of thePhotoduplication Service maintains a refer-ence and searching staff to investigate theavailability of requested material, preparecost estimates, and secure materials from thecollections for the laboratory. It also acts ascustodian for and supplies photoduplicates ofover 160,000 scientific and technical reportsreleased through the Publication Board of theDepartment of Commerce, Office of TechnicalServices, prior to June 1, 1961, These reportswere either never printed in quantity or arenow out-of-print. Orders for photocopies re-quested under the American DocumentationInstitute Auxiliary Publications Program arealso processed in this section.

In addition, the Photoduplication Serviceis the custodian of the Library's MasterNegative Microfilm Collection totaling morethan 90,000 reels. Of particular interest arethe microfilms of the Presidential Papers,the manuscript collections in the libraries atMt. Sinai, and the Greek and Armenian Patri-archiates in Jerusalem, Early State Recordsof the United States, Official Papers in the

Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, andboth current and retrospective files of morethan 800 domestic and foreign newspapersand other serials. Detailed information aboutthe material in these and other special col-lections, as well as cooperative microfilmingprojects, is available from the Photodupli-cation Service, or may be consulted in theMicrofilm Clearing House Bulletin, News-papers on Microfilm, and the National Regis-ter of Microform Masters.

;to) Patents

All United States patents and trademarkscurrently issued appear in the veekly OfficialGazette of the United States Patent Office,available at $50 per year ($12 additional forforeign mailing) and single issues at $1.25.The Gazette contains also sections on (1) de-cisions in patent and trademark cases,(2) patent suits, (3) designs, and a list ofpatentees. The decision leaflets and thetrademark section may also be subscribed to

separately, the first at $6 and the second at$12.

Printed copies of separate United Statespatents (or photographic copy for those ofolder date) are available at 54 each, exceptfor plant patents (in color) which are sold for$1.00 each and design patents at 204. Trade-mark registrations are also priced at 24.Orders should be addressed to the Commis-sioner of Patents, Washington, D.C. 20231.

Also available from the Commissionerare copies of foreign patents at the rate of314 per page on regular order, which takesabout eight or ten days. Immediate deliveryorders are charged for at double this rate.As the holdings of foreign patents is incom-plete at the Patent Office, many, especiallyamong the older ones, are unavailable fromthis source.30

Payment for patents, designs, and trade-marks is facilitated by the use of coupons forsale by the Commissioner. These come inpads of ten for $5, and 50 for $25 (for patents),or ten for $2, and 50 for $10 (for designs andtrademarks).

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III. Non-Purchase Procurement

1. Gifts

"Gift" is used here in the sense of adonation of actual material, not money.31Gifts may be considered in two generalcategories: (1) donations of individuals, and(2) material, mostly serial and pamphlet,generated by corporations, societies, andassociations expressly for free distributionor with little thought of sales. The importanceof the first type to libraries varies greatlyaccording to the degree of retrospectivecollecting responsibility. A large historicallibrary, such as repres nted by any of thenational libraries, or the Presidential li-braries, among others, will be perpetuallyinterested in filling lacunae in its holdingsof old and rare books, or in its journal sets,and will constantly be on the lookout for atticcaches of significant letters and other manu-script material as they come to light. Withinfairly strict budgetary limitations (the poten-tial outlay has no discernible ceiling), it willbuy such materials, usually at rather highcost. At the same time donations are grate-fully received.

A prospective donor, if the gift is of anyapparent value, will be interested in thepossible income tax deduction allowed. Dona-tions to a Government agency are deductiblewithin the limit of 30% of the donor's adjustedgross income. The evaluation of old and rarebooks for this purpose is a complicatedproblem, but in most libraries it is con-sidered the donor's problem. Beyond help-fulness in regard to indicating sources ofprices, such as the various auction catalogs,dealers' catalogs if on hand, or compilationsof such listings, 32 the librarian usually hasno official responsibility. In large historicallibraries, valuation appraisals may be ac-cepted as a normal responsibility and regu-larly attached to some job in the organization.

In the smaller Federal library with littleor no historical responsibility gifts of indi-

26

viduals will as a rule have only occasionalinterest and value. The second type of gift- -including the free subscriptions, pamphlets,books prepared by associations for freedistribution--is of unquestionable importanceto libraries regardless of size. A nominalcharge for each such item might not proveoppressive, if payment could be made out ofimprest funds, or encumbrance authoriza-tions, or made to a dealer from whom othermaterial was regularly purchased. The costof preparing purchase orders and procesingaccounts for such items singly, however, isprohibitively great. For this reason alonereceipt of small materials direct from donoris always welcome.

Strauss in his Guide to Laws anclRegula-tions mentions that some prominent librarieshave been given the statutory right to acceptgifts. This can hardly be taken to mean thatothers not so singled out are denied theprivilege of writing "beg letters" for itemsunobtainable in any other way. The localagency administration may of course haveits own rules regarding the phrasing of suchletters and the signature they must carry.

2. Exchanges

(a) Exchange by publishing

Williams in his report of a survey of theU.S. Book Exchange33 points out that thereare "two distinct species of library exchange."He calls them "surplusage exchange" and"publishing exchange." The former utilizesthe library's disposable materialduplicatesand items outside its collecting scope--ascurrency in obtaining from other librariesbooks and serials it needs; the latter consistsof using an agency's own publications, usuallyserial, for the same purpose.

To treat the latter first, publishing ex-change is available to a relatively smallgroup of libraries. Among them are the

national libraries, all of them actively en-gaged in producing indexes, bibliographies,and other services providing keys to theircollections, and libraries attached to thedepartments who generally have availablenumerous reports and periodicals put ou' bythe parent organization.

The most used material is serial, eachtitle sent out in exchange for a title comingin. Best for the purpose are those of moderates'alue, to avoid the awkward inequity of ex-changing, say a $25-a-year publication forone with a price tag of $5. It must be stressed,however, that such exchanges cannot beoperated, or are not worth operating, on astrict valuation basis. Apart from the factthat accurate pairing of values is unfeasible,the economics of such direct exchange, whenwell established, go far beyond considera-tions of price tags. The real saving moreoften than not consists in the purclrise orderthat need not be prepared, the correspondencewith dealers that need not be written, or theinvoices that need not be processed. Probablythe point of greatest importance is that manyperiodicals- -especially foreign periodicals-are simply unpurchasable. Remoteness ofsome editorial houses, language hurdles, in-significant profit margin for dealers, theeditorial satisfaction found in dealing directlywith an institution of distinction--all theseundoubtedly favor exchange as a procurementmethod in many foreign lands.

(b) Surplusage Exchange

Exchange of surplus materials directlywith other institutions is, like that of agency-publications exchange, an activity mostlyconfined to large libraries , and rarried onwith foreign partners. It is a costly activityin staff time and packing materials but a con-siderable proportion of the books publishedabroad, both old and new, will be obtained inno other way. The current items will includemany hors commerce publications of insti-tutions.

The Smithsonian Institution is the officialagency of the United States for the interna-tional exchange of official United Statesscientific and literary publications. The In-stitution's International Exchange Servicewill "accept addressed packages of publica-tions in the United States for transmissionto similar organizations in foreign countries,

and in return receives addressed publicationsfrom foreign sources for distribution in theUnited States."

The United Nations Educational, Scien-tific & Cultural Organization (UNESCO) pro-motes international exchanges as part of itsmission. Its Handbook on the InternationalExchange of Publications, 3d ed., 1964, editedby Gisela von Busse, is an important ref-erence work for librarian participants. Thisis supplemented by a section at the end ofeach issue of the Unesco Bulletinfor Librar-ies.

Within our own country the exchange ofsurplus materials among libraries is, for themost part, carried on by way of professionalassociations or through the U.S. Book Ex-change. In the Washington metropolitan areathe Exchange and Gift Division of the Libraryof Congress serves as a center where sub-stantial consignments of surplus publica-tions are received on transfer from otherFederal libraries and where selections arealso made by librarians.

Associations active in carrying on ex-change include the American Association ofLaw Libraries, the Association of Collegeand Research Libraries (Duplicate ExchangeUnion), the American Theological LibraryAssociation, the Medical Library Associa-tion, and several divisions and chapters ofthe Special Libraries ,.ssociation. The pro-cedure varies. In the case of the MLA andthe SLA Metals Division, lists of offers aresolicited from members, consolidated listsare then prepared at a headquarters officeand circulated for selection. The ACRLDuplicate Exchange Union requires eachmember to circulate its own lists.

Some libraries receiving duplicatejournals and other publications--mostly un-solicited giftsin substantial amounts andsurplus to their needs establish arrange-ments with second-hand dealers who agreeto accept any or all issues of certain titlesand years, giving the library credit againstfuture order for issues and volumes neededto complete the library's files. Theselibraries, or their legal counsel, have foundthat disposal of surplus materials for creditis legally supportable. The following cita-tions are applicable: 41 USC 481(c), 41 CFR101-46, 41 CFR 405, 41 CFR 407, and 41 CG227.

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The Small Business Act, 23 which has forits purpose the placing of a fair proportionof Government purchasing with small busi-ness concerns, does have a bearing, at leastpotential. The Small Business Administra-tion "has statutory authority to certify thecompetency of any small business concernas to capacity and credit." Hence interagencyreferral may be required in certain cases ofdeterminations by the contracting officer thata bidding firm is not responsible. A contrac-tual clause is required specifying the con-tracting firm's responsibility to utilizesubcontractors who qualify under the SBAprogram; and a notice to prospective bidderscovering the SBA "set-aside" provision. 24

The performance clauses will be con-sidered in a moment, after a discussion ofthe bid. Since the indefinite-quantity contractconsidered here does not cite specific publi-cations, bids must be calculated by thedealer in terms of his markup from thepublisher's price to him. The actual bid willbe expressed not in dollars but as a percent-age discount from the list prices pertainingto a class or category. Publishers' discountswill vary according to quantity and accordingto type categories. Seven such categoriesare fairly well defined among Americanpublishers; viz,, (1) "trade books," whichare the more popular of those published inhard covers, (2) "textbooks," i.e.. thosedesignated by the publisher as educational,including college and high-school textbooks,(3) "technical or scientific books" sold at alimited discount (exclusive of some booksactually of a scientific or technical contentwhich will be classed as trade if marketabilityjustifies), (4) "short discount" books otherthan technical or scientific, (5) medical books,(6) law books, and (7) society and other non-trade publications on which no discount isnormally expected.

Publishers assign their books amongthese categories for the retail trade, furnish-ing the information on percentage discountsallowed according to category and number ofcopies purchased to the American Book Pub-lishers Council, which assembles it in theBook Buyer's Handbook for the use of the re-tailers. For example, one copy of a tradebook may sell at a discount of 20% whereasfor 25 copies 40% might be granted. TheBook Buyer's Handbook is distributed only

16

within the association. Information on dis-counts, especially important in large-scaleprocurement, may be obtained from the pub-lisher. Sometimes publishers discount scalesappear in Publishers Weekly. However, atpresent there is no effectve and economicalway for the librarian a^ procurement officerto audit the discounts actually received onsuch a sliding scale against the books actuallyreceived. Hence, the discounts must be takenlargely on faith and the vendor's integritybecomes of great importance.

Specifications as to performance will varyaccording to the requirements, The following,given here in condensed form, are fromactual large-scale book procurement con-tracts involving shipment to multiple desti-nations.

Condition of books. All books to be fur-nished hereunder must be new, clean, and notshopworn when delivered or shipped direct.Defective, mutilated, or otherwise unaccept-able publications will be returned, trans-portation collect, to the contractor, who willpromptly replace them at no additional costto the Government.

Packaging. All books will be packaged,packed and marked in accordance with thebest commercial practices to insure safe andundamaged arrival at destination. (There fol-low specifications as to weight and dimensionlimitations for each shipping unit, sealing ofcartons, and strength of carton material.)

Marking. Shipments will be marked andaddressed as specified in each individualorder. Container labels must give the con-tract number, number and date of order, ad-dressee, and the name and address of thecontractor, and shall be securely affixed onthe package with water resistant label ad-hesive. Improperly marked parcels willbe returned unopened. "RUSH" and/or "UR-GENT" shipments will be so marked in redletters one or more inches high. (Variantinstructions require statement of number ofcartons in a shipment on the label, i.e.,Box #1 of 10, etc., and state that an extracopy of the contractor's invoice or a packinglist shall accompany each shipment, this alsoto give the quantities of books shipped andthe number of cartons in the shipment.)

Latest editions. All books to be furnishedby the contractor, unless otherwise specifiedin the order, will be of the latest edition as

(c) The United States Book Exchange

The USBE was incorporated February 26,1948. and started operation in January 1949,inheriting the residual collection of theAmerican Book Center for War DevastatedLibraries. During its first decade it washoused in the Library of Congress; since1958 it has occupied a large warehouse at3335 V Street, N.E., Washington, D.C.. 20018,which is the present address. Miss AliceDulany Ball is the Executive Director. TheUSBE is a nonprofit operation established bylibrarians for the library utilization of librarysurplus. All three parts of the name aresomewhat misleading. It has no official con-nection with the Federal Golernment, althoughFederal librarians participated in its foundingand in its management over years, con-tinuing to serve as officers and board mem-bers. Of the materials handleu 95% are serial,only 5% books. And it differs from the usualexchange arrangement in that charges aremade for materials obtained in order tomeet the costs of the central operation. Thereare 1,264 library members in the UnitedStates, and 300 in other countries, of which60 are in Canada. In recent years it hasdistributed annually to its members well overa half million publications and in the year1963 over two-thirds of a million.

The following quotation from an informa-tion sheet gives the basic terms of service:

Any established library may enter intoUSBE's cooperative membership by a)paying a $12.00 annual membership fee,b) paying the handling fees and shippingcosts on each publication requested andreceived from USBE and c) undertakingto send to USBE the duplicates of valuewhich it does not otherwise require in itsown collection or for other uses. A li-brary begins to participate as soon as thelibrarian fills in and signs a one-pagemembership agreement form and paysthe membership fee.

For periodicals there is a charge of $1.00for the first issue supplied of each title re-quested and 60c for each subsequent issue ofthe same title if ordered at the same time,except that the $1.00 charge applies to anyissue published within 12 months of the date

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of request. Other publications, includingbooks, annuals, monographs, monographicsupplements to serials, etc., bear a chargeof $2.00 each. In addition there is a specialrush searching charge; i.e., for search within48 hours on requests marked "Rush" ortelephoned in there is an extra charge pertitle of $1.00 whether or not any items aresupplied.

The USBE issues lists of its offerings atmonthly intervals. Book and specific-issuelists are sent out in duplicate, the librarianthen transmitting selections by returning onecopy with marginal checks. Lists offeringserial runs have a simple form attached onwhich librarians can note volumes wanted.Among the older publications there are a fewwith the price tag increased to $3.00. Inaddition to the service via listings, there is a"special request" service. On 3x5 -inch orderforms members may send in requests forserials--single issues, broken runs, longruns - -which are needed but have not beenencountered on the lists. These orders maybe on a one-time search basis or the requestmay be to keep them on back order up to 18months.

Member librarians may also visit USBEand select books from among material thathas not yet been listed.

Federal librarians may order member-ships by purchase order. To pay the chargesfor the publications, blanket purchase ordersand imprest funds may also be used.

It should be stressed that the USBE man-agement fully recognizes the fact that somelibraries will have much to contribute to thestock, whereas others will have very little.Though a record is kept of material sent in,this is primarily for statistical purposes. Nolisting need be made by the contributinglibrary. Federal libraries in the District ofColumbia area have the advantage of a specialarrangement whereby the Library of Congress(which supplies about 10% of USBE's re-ceipts) serves as a deposit agency for otherlocal libraries and its deposits with USBEare on behalf of all these libraries.

3. Government Publications(a) Technical Reports

The Clearinghouse of Federal Scientificand Technical Information as a source of

technical reports by purchase has beenmen-tioned and also the fact that most documentsof this kind can be obtained without charge.A summary of the main sources and channelsfollows:

Items in Technical Abstract Bulletin(TAB) may be requisitioned by librariesserving qualified users from the DefenseDocumentation Center, Cameron Station,Alexandria, Virginia 22314. National Aero-nautical and Space Administration (NASA)publishes the semi-monthly Scientific andTechnical Aerospace Reports (STAR), an ab-stracting and indexing journal reporting liter-ature from worldwide sources in this field.The address for distribution of the reportslisted is P.O. Box 33, College Park, Mary-land 20740. The Atomic Energy Commissionpublishes Nuclear Science Abstracts , a semi-monthly publication providing worldwide cov-erage of unclassified literature in this field.These reports are available from the Divisionof Technical Information Extension, U.S.Atomic Energy Commission, Oak Ridge,Tenn. 37831. All these distributing agenciesprovide libraries with special card formsfor requesting publications.

Most Federal libraries serving technicalinstallations will have the problem of reportswith a security classification. Such publica-tions are acquired and serviced under specialregulations and procedures involving degreeof classification, physical facilities, clear-ance of employees and readers, and need toknow.

(b) Other Government publications

In the Monthly Catalog citations for un-priced items are signalized by one or theother of two symbols: the single dagger orthe double dagger. The explanatory note forthe single dagger items is: "Distributionmade by issuing office. Not definitely avail-able if not accompanied by price." For thedouble dagger item it is: "Printed for officialuse (not available for distribution)." Thelibrarian finds the first note reassuring andeasy to act on, the "not definitely available"merely suggesting limited supply and theneed to act promptly. The second note isunclear as to intent, but can usually be takento mean that there were administrativereasons for not pricing and for not assuming

the costs entailed by general free distribution.All are "open" items and it is evident froman examination of the titles that the dif-ference in treatment bears no consistentrelationship to subject matter or to apparentusefulness outside the agency. (A rare ex-ception would be the serial bulletin, like theSmithsonian Torch, published only for circu-lation among personnel.) In general the Fed-eral librarian should assume that the doubledagger items are available and that they maybe requested from the agencies that issuethem.

Most Congressional documents and re-ports are obtainable from the House or theSenate Document Room, as indicated in theMonthly Catalog. Committee prints may beobtained from the respective committees onapplication to the clerk in each case.

Many of the priced Government publica-tions, especially those of modest cost, arealso available from the issuing agency orthese other sources on request.

4. Depository ProcurementThe system of depository libraries was

established by a law of 1695 (28 Stat. 624) toensure the availability of certain Governmentdocuments throughout the country by dis-tributing them free of cost to these institu-tions. The conditions stipulated in this enact-ment for the establishment of the systemand for its expansion need not be set forthhere. Sufficient for our purpose is mention ofthe revised system provided for in the De-pository Library Act of 1962 (76 Stat. 355)and a quotation from the clause giving theconditions for the inclusion of Federal li-braries.

The libraries of the executive depart-ments of the United States Military Acad-emy, of the United States Air ForceAcademy, of the United States CoastGuard Academy, and of the United StatesMerchant Marine are constituted desig-nated depositories of Government publi-cations. A depository library within eachindependent agency may be designatedupon certification of need by the head ofthe independent agency to the Superin-tendent of Documents. Additional de-pository libraries within executive de-partments and independent agencies may

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be designated to receive Governmentpublications to the extent that the numberso designated shall not exceed the numberof major bureaus or divisions of suchdepartments and independent agencies.These designations shall be made onlyafter certification by the head of eachexecutive department or independentagency to the Superintendent of Documentsas to the justifiable need for additionaldepository libraries. Depository librarieswithin executive departments and inde-pendent agencies are authorized to dis-pose of unwanted Government publicationsafter first offering them to the Libraryof Congress and the National Ar-chives.

The list of depository libraries given inthe September 1966 issue of the MonthlyCatalog of U.S. Government Publications(p. 158) studied with reference to the Gov-ernment Organization Manual makes clearthat of the whole number of Federal depositorylibraries permitted by the new law only avery small proportion are now within thesystem.

The rules governing the designation ofdepository documents, the methods of distri-bution, and the rules for disposition imposeno great burden on the recipient library.Documents are not limited to those publishedby the Government Printing Office but desig-nation is still selective. The law requiresthat "each component of the Govern-ment shall furnish the Superintendentof Documents with a list of its ownpublications not printed at the GPO"exclusive of "those required for officialuse only or those required for strictlya d m i n istrative or operational purposewhich have no public interest or edu-cational purpose" as well as those witha security classification.

Distribution is preceded by submission of3x5" cards to the library, each citing the titleof a series publication. The cards are sentin duplicate and ordering is accomplished byreturning one copy of a card for each publi-cation desired, whereupon the library is puton the mailing list to receive all subsequentlyissued members of the series. There is noretention responsibility. The last sentencein the foregoing quotation from the act seems

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to be generally observed by simply shippingto the Library of Congress publications nolonger needed.

In the Monthly Catalog the items destinedfor the depository system are indicated by adot at the left-hand margin. Since numerousitems are not so marked, it is probable thatselection officers will still need to selectfrom the catalog in order to fulfill theirmission responsibilities.

5. Withdrawal of Materials

Much of the material coming into a librarywill be unsolicited. The items rejected asnot needed by the library among such con-signments require no withdrawal action asthey have never joined the collection. Dis-position will be made according to apparentvalue. Worn and unserviceable materials maybe discarded. Books and periodicals of anyvalue can be put into the exchange channelsdiscussed earlier.

Items that have officially become a partof the library's collection and then found tobe unsuitable or unserviceable must be with-drawn according to the agency's rules. Inthe national libraries and the departmentallibraries adjusting the records representedby the public catalog and the shelflist aregenerally considered sufficient as withdrawalaction. In smaller libraries and in the ArmedForces a document is normally required forany withdrawal action in order to relieve theaccountable officer of his responsibility,Army Regulation 735-17, subject PropertyAccountability, Library Books, sets forththe requirements in that department.

It should be mentioned also that in librar-ies operating under strict accountabilityregulations a distinction between "equipment"and "supplies" is observed; that is, equipmententers into accountability, supplies are "ex-pendable" (e.g., pencils and stationery). Ap-plication to published material may vary.The distinction seems to have started byclassing books with equipment, unbound seri-als with supplies. The advent of the Americanpaperback as a fairly normal library itemtends to make the distinction as one of boundversus unbound. Unfortunately the distinctioncan complicate purchase procurement, assupplies and equipment will take different

fund numbers. The librarian will need to seekfull agreement with finance and procurementofficers on this matter.

The withdrawal of open technical reportliterature should involve no special pro-

cedural requirements if the amounts aremoderate and of fairly recent date. The De-fense Documentation Center may be in-terested in inspecting a major collection forpossible needs among items of early date.

1

IV. Performance Resume

In our introduction it was pointed out thatthis is not designed to be an operationsmanual, since only administrators are au-thorized to issue directives and since suchdirectives and accompanying advice must beadapted to local and special circumstances,all varying rather widely from library tolibrary. Still, although a universal how-to-do-it book is out of the question, we maymake an attempt to identify and arrange insome order the actions, or details of per-formance, generally required of librariansengaged in the procurement process; andthen comment on each of these with refer-ence to points made and issues raised in theprevious sections.

There are probably nineteen items ofperformance worth singling out. At the man-agement level acquisition librarians must:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)(7)

(8)

(9)

Determine the hierarchical positionand area of authority of the libraryand the librarian;Comprehend the mission of the li-brary;Determine resources and the systemof allocation;Determine needs in relation to mis-sion and resources;Explore market resources and fa-cilities;Select suppliers;Choose and develop procurementmethods;Establish supplier s' performancestandards;Communicate performance stand-ards;

(10) Organize activities involved in dataprocessing and materials handling;

Acquisition librarians or personnel work-ing under their direction will also:

(11) Identify and price bibliographicalitems;

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(12) Set up bibliographical items forprocessing;

(13) Prepare orders and establish obliga-tions;

(14) Prepare requisitions;(15) Solicit publications;(16) Exchange publications;(17) Receive publications;(18) Receive invoices and process them

for payment;(19) Withdraw material.

As their purpose is mainly to achieve astate of understanding, the first three itemson the list are not work activities in theusual sense and would not appear as "duties"in a job description. They are included hereto stress the need for over-all preliminaryorientation and to direct attention to im-portant areas of orientation. The fourthitem, involving the librarian as planner,would be the first of the recognized jobduties in the procurement process. The nextfive are of most importance in the actualexecution of the program up to the dataprocessing phase. The tenth establishes thebasis for the following nine, which comprisethe more routine activities involved in thepreparation and manipulation of the biblio-graphical-data-processing devices, normallycards and forms, and in the handling of thematerial procured.

Let us now consider each item in turn.

(1) Determining the hierarchical positionand area of authority of library andlibrarian.

In a well thought out, carefully developedorganization, this requires little "doing." Itwill all be there, fully and clearly set forth,in the statement and chart of organizationand in the librarian's job description. Suchperfection, however, is probably a rarity.Usually numerous matters of authority,questions of who does what? or who decides

what? will be left unclear. In such cases thelibrarian will need to seek clarification byway of conference with the administrativeofficer as well as with officers at a collaterallevel. Probably of most practical importancein the small library is the relation of theduties of the librarian to those of the pro-curement officer, a matter that was broachedin the discussion of The Three Stewards(II, 1) and again in discussing procurementvia specific requisition (II, 6, f). Even if thehierarchical position of the library cannotbe raised to provide for more freedom ofaction, improvement of operation may beachieved through special agreements as tolibrary participation.

(2) Comprehending the Mission of theLibrary.

As in the case of the first item, the con-cept of library mission will vary greatly inclarity. The mission of some libraries willbe the subject of explicit legal mandate, thatof others a matter left in a state of ambiguity.In the discussion of the kinds of libraries(II, 5) the importance of mission was seenas related to size and prestige. Change canalso bring new demands and stimulate activ-ity and growth. The librarian must seekanswers not only to the questions What pur-pose does the library serve? or Whom doesit serve? but also What purposes should itserve by right of organizational position andlocation?

(3) Determining Resources and the Systemof Allocation.

Under present conditions of accelerateddevelopment, budgeting systems vary greatly.The library may be singled out for attentionwith a special budgetary item for publishedmaterial, or these costs may be budgeted inwith other materials and activities. In thelatter case the librarian will have to deter-mine the expected pattern of expenditureand come to an understanding regardinglimitations. The system or schedule of allo-cation is important in view of the probabilityof "humps" in obligating needs. Periodicalsubscriptions are of special importance whenthe costs of a large list must be met earlyin the fiscal year.

(4) Determining Needs in Relation to Mis-sion and Resources.

"Needs" here is used in the special senseof what best fulfills the mission within thebounds of available financial resources. Ourconcern is not with the selection of specificpublications, but with types of publicationssuch as periodical vs. books, scientific vs.popular, etc. This is of course inevitablyinvolved with the selection program and thedeterminations will be made in part fromselection sources.

(5) Exploring Market Resources and Fa-cilities.

In the foregoing sections the problem ofmarket resources has been discussed inseveral connections. In describing the kindsof libraries (II, 5) it was pointed out thatlarge, independent libraries possess a widerand more effective reach over markets thando small local libraries, and that centralizedprocurement finds one of its justifications inits ability to bring this advantage to the smalllibrary. In the section Procurement viaspecific requisition (II, 6, f) the need of spe-cial knowledge of library materials wasstressed. In the section Problems of themarket place (II, 6, g) it was suggested thatthe blanket order could serve as an explora-tory device and various service require-ments were discussed. The special demandsthat large-scale procurement must exert onfacilities were examined in the section onthe formal contract.

These concerns of course merge withthose of the next four performance items.Item No. 5 serves to fix attention on a recon-naissance requirement preliminary to selec-tion of long-term supply sources.

(6) Selecting Suppliers.

There are library situations where theacquisition librarian has neither the author-ity nor any voice in vendor selection. Thismust be recognized as an administrativefault, since a basic principle of administra-tion is to utilize expert and special knowl-edge, and the librarian is in the best positionto acquire such knowledge. On the other hand,the librarian who is given the responsibilityhas the obligation to live up to it by not

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leaving selection of vendors to one or twochance encounters with the trade. Awardingof contracts may be made after formal de-termination of competence.

(7) Choosing and Developing ProcurementMethods.

In the small library the latitude for choiceof methods is narrow. Books and periodicalsmust normally be purchased, small pamphletsmust normally be solicited. Purchases (for-tunately) will be "small" in the meaning ofthe regulations (II, 6, b), but here the librar-ian may be in the position to choose betweenthe blanket order or the imprest fund in agiven transaction. Procurement by solicita-tion may be developed to include numerouslarge pamphlets or even books that dealersfind it difficult or profitless to supply.

(8) Establishing Suppliers' PerformanceStandards.

In the section on Problems of the marketplace (II, 6, g) some basic performancestandards were enumerated and experiencein regard to delivery time was reported.Under the subject of the formal contract(II, 7, b, c) some unusual performancestandards were discussed. There it wasstressed that reasonable requirements shouldbe defined in terms of what highly qualifiedsuppliers can do at reasonable cost.

Standards can only be established on thebasis of experience or the observation ofexperience. They are essential whetherprocurement is by formal contract or ne-gotiated small-purchase buying. The chiefdifference is that the latter allows for aconsiderable degree of trial and error, oftesting of both the standards and the vendors'capabilities.

(9) Communicating Performance Stand-ards.

The section on the formal contract (II, 7)emphasized standards as clauses since "allfactors required must be determinable bythe bidder when he prepares his bid." Inaddition, a bidders' conference during thesolicitation period was mentioned as a deviceto ensure communication.

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The communication requirement is alsopresent in the case of small-purchase ne-gotiated buying, although in less exactingdegree. A supplier, eager to get himselfestablished, may perform excellently in ex-ecuting the first orders of a library evenif there has been little or no preliminarydiscussion; the maintenance of performancewill be best assured by clear agreementsas to library requirements and the vendor'scapacity. Of course it is essential thatunusual requirements be discussed in ad-vance.

(10) Organizing_ Activities Involved in DataProcessing and Materials Handling.

This, which is a field in itself, is men-tioned only in order to recognize its essentialnature and its importance. The details ofmanagement--including (under organizing)planning of layout, allocation and gradationof duties, systems analysis, adoption andadaptation of data processing aids, workflow, and (under supervising) the maintainingof operations according to plan and thenumerous "short-fuse" decisions commonlyknown as "trouble shooting"--are not theconcern of the present manual. It may not betrue that the field cannot be usefully dis-cussed with general application to Federalprocurement (that is, even despite the di-versity of situations encountered in Govern-ment), but in any case the field is too bigand extra-library orientation is a sufficientgoal for this first effort. Performance itemshaving to do with internal operations areenumerated and briefly discussed here onlyto tie in some points made earlier with theactivities common to all Federal librariesthat are required to complete the procure-ment process.

(11) Identifying and Pricing Bibliographi-cal Items.

Since we are not concerned with selection,bibliographical sources are of interest hereessentially as verification and citation-com-pletion tools. Actually, in the use of suchtools, selection is often accomplished at thesame time as the other tasks. We are hereconsidering only what is necessary to makethe selected item correct and complete foreffective procurement processing.

Authorship, title, edition, imprint (con-sisting of city, publisher, and year), over-all paging (e.g., 137 p.), series relationship.and price are generally recognized as stand-ard items. Fullness of authorship may varyin practice but inclusion of first names, andcertainly at least initials, is generally ac-cepted as sound ecc,nomy. Corporate author-ship must be established in some standardform. In large libraries fullness of author-ship must be geared to the fullness of au-thorship in the public catalog to avoid mishapsin the searching process. Edition if otherthan the first must be stated. City is ofquestionable necessity in the case of prom-inent publishers, but only then. Year is es-sential. Inclusion of paging is to be rec-ommended on basis of (1) low cost, and (2)identifying and evaluating use throughout theprocess that follows. Reference to a num-bered series will be included. Price isessential.

(12) Setting up Bibliographical Items forProcessing.

The card, one for each item, whetherplain, punched for machine processing, or ina multiple-copy unit, is standard as the unitto be manipulated in alphabetizing, searchingagainst library records, serving as the basiswhen transcribing to lists, and serving whenfiled as the record of orders outstanding ororders received. The order of elements onthe card will normally be standardized to ac-cord with cataloging practices. The conven-tional order is given in the comments forItem 11.

The item is then cleared against orderand catalog records.

(13) Preparing Orders and EstablishingObligations.

The forms used in ordering are usuallyprescribed by the department or agency inwhich the library is situated. Bibliographicalitems will be_ typed in the fullness as givenon the card, unless there are circumstances(such as an agreement with a vendor) topermit omission of some elements. Alpha-betical order and numbering are both de-sirable for quick reference purposes. Theobligation will be on the basis of an estimate.

(14) Preparing Requisitions.

As mentioned earlier (II, 6, f), in manylibraries materials needed must be requisi-tioned from a procurement officer, who thenprepares and issues orders to suppliers.Items on such a list must appear with allelements required for easy identification bythe dealer. No checking by the procurementofficer should be necessary.

(15) Soliciting Publications.

Under the topic Gifts (III, 1) it was in-dicated that active solicitation will be gen-erally limited to pamphlets and other asso-ciation and corporation publications preparedfor free distribution. Form letters, some-times designed for several different situa-tions, are generally used. A few largeinstitutions use copies of the original cardto convey the request.

(16) Exchanging Publications.

An important difference between foreignand domestic exchange 'was noted earlier(III, 2). Exchange with foreign partners isgenerally limited to large libraries of com-prehensive collecting scope. The smallerlibrary will also generate the currency ofexchange in the form of unneeded duplicatesand out-of-scope material, but will find itmore practicable to operate with otherpartners in this country through profes-sional library associations, or through theU.S. Book Exchange. The methods of op-erating are indicated in II, 2, b & c.

(17) Receiving Publications.

Some aspects of receipts processing havebeen discussed under the topic Indefinite-quantity contract (II, 7, b). In the case ofsmall-purchase procurement the hazardsof erroneous clearance are not great, butstill a normal service expected and requiredof the dealer is identification by order num-ber of all items within shipments and aslisted on invoices. Clearance will consist ofverification of each item as fulfilling theorder, the receipting of the order cards, andtheir transfer from an orders-outstandingto an orders-received file.

35

(18) Receiving Invoices and ProcessingThem for Payment.

Prompt and satisfactory invoicing must berecognized as a service requirement, andshould have been made a matter of agree-ment between librarian and vendor underPerformance, item 9. The ideal invoice isone that is easy to clear because all itemsthereon are (1) clearly identified in relationto order, (2) correctly priced, and (3) re-ceived.

(19) Withdrawing Material.

This subject was treated, probably toobriefly, in II. 5. Beyond mentioning the twomain approved methods for meeting the ac-countability requirement: (1) by removingcatalog cards and appropriately stamping theshelf-list cards, or (2) by (in addition) pre-paring a document listing such items to besigned by the officer designated in the regu-lations, there seems to be little that can be

said of general application. As for the dif-ferential definition, there seems to be generalagreement that what is bound is accountableproperty, but there is less agreement as tothe status of the unbound but bindable item(e.g., the paperback book). The older dis-tinction as between books and volumes onone hand, as accountable, and unbound peri-odical issues on the other, as nonaccountable,is probably fairly easy to live with. It mustbe kept in mind that accountability representsthe effort to maintain an official record ofas great a proportion of Government propertyas can be done at reasonable cost. What isnonaccountable is still property and the of-ficer in charge is responsible for it.

In regard to processing for withdrawal,cancellation stamping of ownership marksis a sensible precaution for both bound andunbound materials, as it protects both thelibrary and succeeding handlers. A simple"withdrawn" rubber stamp serves the pur-pose in some installations; in others theindication of library in brief form is added.

Notes

-Umted States Government Organization Manual,1966/67. Washington, D.C., Office of the FederalRegister, General Services Administration. p. 35.

This is an essential tool for the Federal librarian,and is widely distributed through official channels.The issue cited is sold by the Superintendent ofDocuments for $2.00, paperbound. The basic au-thority of GAO appears in 31 U.S.C. 74.

'The Statutes at Large contain the laws and con-current resolutions and are published for eachCongressional session. Volume 79, published in1966, contains the enactments of the 89th Congress.Citations are by volume and page number (e.g.,30 Stat. 316). The laws first appear separately as"slip laws."

3"Administrative law" is here used with the mean-ing "administratively-generated law." Two quota-tions will help clarify the relationship to statutorylaw:

"Rule making. - The enforcement of almost allthe laws by Congress depends upon the rules whichsome administrative body has to make. This rule-making process is commonly referred to as'filling in legislative details', but the 'details' arean integral part of the statute and are enforceableas such in courts of law. These rules may imple-ment statutes carrying out the political,proprietary, fiscal, benefactory, and police func-tions of the Government or they may relate to theregulation of such diverse interests as publicutilities, banking, insurance, finance, industry,the professions, and the public health and morals." -Rinehart, John Swenson, in Federal Administra-tive Law (New York, Ronald Press, 1952) p. 60-61.

Administrative law' is based upon the com-monsense recognition of the fact that business hasto be transacted with reasonable expedition. Andin the enormously complicated affairs of theGovernment this can only be done by the delega-tion by Congress of some authority to the agenciesand people who actually must transact business." -Price, Miles Oscar, Effective LegalResearch(NewYork, Prentice Hall, 1953), p. 134.

It should be mentioned that in the law textbooks"administrative law" is generally limited in mean-ing to powers and procedures of administrativeagencies and judicial review and does not includesubstantive law produced by the agencies. But thisleaves us with no satisfactory term in referring tothe latter.

4The Defense Procurement Handbook is not avail-able for public distribution, but should be accessibleat all DOD posts.

5 The contents and prices of the six volumes con-taining Title 41, Subtitle A of the CFR are asfollows: (1) ch. 1, of general scope, 652 p., $2.00;(2) ch. 2-4, FAA, HEW, Agriculture, 320p., $1.00;(3) ch. 5-5D, GSA, 183 p., 60C; (4) ch. 6-17, State,AID, VA, AEC, Treasury, Coast Guard, Com-merce, Interior, 670 p., $2.00; (5) ch. 18, NASA,685 p., $2.00; (6) ch. 19-100, USIA, 0E0, PostOffice, 176 p., $1,25. Prices are for the revisionas of January 1, 1967, in paperbound volumes forsale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S.Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.2(.402. Also for sale by the Superintendent is Title32, Parts 1 to 39, containing the ASPR. This, alsorevis?d as of January 1, 1967, is a volume of 993 p.,priced at $2.75, paperbound.

The Army Procurement Procedure (APP), whichcontains the administrative deviations from ASPRfor the Department of the Army, is published asSubchapter G of Chapter V (Parts 590-699) ofTitle 32, Subtitle A. The Air Force ProcurementInstruction (AFPI) contains the deviations for thatdepartment and is published as Subchapter W ofChapter VII (Parts 1000-1099) of Title 32, SubtitleA.

6 See 5 U.S.C., par. 1002.

7 For a fuller orientation in the publishing of Federallaw, the librarian will find the following booksespecially useful: (1) Effective Legal Researchby Miles 0. Price and Harry Bitner (cited in Note 3,later published in a student edition by Little,Brown) and (2) Government Publications and TheirUse by Laurence F. Schmeckebier and Roy B.Eastin, published by the Brookings Institution in1961.

8The following, from the preface to the 1964 editionof the U.S. Code indicates the problem: "Inasmuchas many of the general and permanent laws whichare required to be incorporated in the Code areinconsistent, redundant, and obsolete, the Com-mittee on the Judiciary is engaged in a compre-hensive project of revising and enacting the Codeinto law, title by title."

9The following from the Appropriations Act of 1898suggests the somewhat phobic attitude. The para-graph was repealed in 1946.

"That hereafter law books, books of reference, andperiodicals for use of any Executive Department,or other Government establishment not under anExecutive Department, at the seat of Government,shall not be purchased or paid for from any appro-priation made for contingent expenses or for any

37

specific or general purpose unless such purchaseis authorized and payment therefor specificallyprovided for in the law granting the appropria-tion." - 30 Stat. 316, Sec. 3.

to iTypical is the act of 1902 (43 U.S.C.A. 1928, par.36) authorizing the purchase of books for "scien-tific divisions" of the Geological Survey. Thereare only a few such enactments hi regard tolibrary service or library materials.

11Bureau of Naval Personnel has such a centralizedoperation.

12The Supply Management Branch of tile NationalInstitutes of Health performs such a function.

13 In 41 U.S.C. par. 252 (c), 15 are cited; in 10 U.S.C.par. 2304 (a) (for Department of Defense) 17 arecited. These are fully explained in 41 CFR Subpart1-3.2 and in 32 CFR Subpart B (Sec. 3.2).

"See 41 CFR 1-3.203, or 32 CFR 3-203 for the$2,500 limitation, and 41 CFR 1-3.210 or 32 CFR3.210 for the competition-impracticable exception.

15 In the Army Procurement Procedure such au-thorized persons (for both blanket order calls andimprest fund buying) are called "ordering offi-cers". See 32 CFR 591.403 and 591.452. Limitson their authority and limits on number appointedare stated in 591.452 (4).

16Evans, Luther H. and others. Federal departmentallibraries. Washington, D.C., The Brookings Insti-tution, ch. 8, Acquisitions, by Logan 0. Cowgill,p. 58-59.

17-Veenstra, John and Mai, Lois. When do you use ajobber? College & Research Libraries, vol. 23,p. 522-524, Nov. 1962.

18The GSA Procurement Handbook (p. 42) cites andquotes from a Comptroller General's decision(36 CG 380) bearing on this requirement.

19For a general description and application see 41CFR 1-3.409 (c) or 32 CFR 3.409-3.

20,increasing the formidable aspect of the contractdocument, clauses required by the ASPR are"incorporated by reference," that is, only theclauses' short titles, their references in theASPR, and their dates are given. The reader isreferred to 32 CFR, ch. 1, part 7 (p. 385-393,Jan. 1967 rev.) for a full display.

2141 U.S.C., par. 10, a-d.2241 CFR 1-6.103-2 reads: "Nonavailability in the

United States. The Buy American Act does not38

apply to articles, materials, or supplies of a classor kind which the Government has determined arenot mined, produced, or manufactured in the UnitedStates in sufficient and reasonably available com-mercial quantities and of a satisfactory quality."

It is qualified by: 1-6.105 "Excepted articles,materials and supplies. Determinations under par.1-6.103-2 that certain articles, materials, andsupplies are not mined, produced, or manu-factured in the United States in sufficient andreasonably available commercial quantities andof a satisfactory quality shall be made by eachagency in accordance with agency procedures."

32 CFR 6.105 has in the List of exceptedarticles,materials, and supplies the following item:"Books, trade, text, technical or scientific; news-papers; magazines; periodicals; printed briefsand films; not printed in the United States and forwhich domestic editions are not available."

2315 U.S.C., ch. 14a (beg. par. 631).

24 For the former see 32 CFR 1.707-3 (a) and 41CFR par. 1-1.710-3; and for the latter 32 CFR1.706-5 and 41 CFR 1-1.706-5. In Title 41 the set-aside requirement is qualified thus: "The entireamount of an individual procurement or class ofprocurements shall be set aside for exclusivesmall business participation where there is areasonable expectation that bids or proposals willbe obtained from a sufficient number of reT onsi-ble small business concerns so that awards willbe made at reasonable prices." There are alsopartial set-asides, discussed in par. 1.706-6 ofTitle 32, and in par. 1-1.706-6 of Title 41.

2531 U.S.C., par. 529.26 31 U.S.C., par. 530a.

27In the same place in the GSA Procurement Hand-book, beginning page 126 will be found referenceto the unpublished Comptroller General's opinionthat indicates approval of "till forbid" subscrip-tions. ("Dealer has adequately organized staff tofollow up issues as published, so that no gapsoccur in these files of periodicals, newspapers orother serials.")

28Unfortunately the Monthly Catalog is a late source.For prompt information on legislativepublications(and on the status of legislation) there are: (1) theDigest of Public General Bills and Resolutions, acumulative subscription service put out by theLegislative Reference Service of the Library ofCongress and for sale by the Superintendent ofDocuments, and (2) the Congressional Index, pub-lished by the Commerce Clearing House, Inc.,420 Lexington Ave., New York 10017.

The public laws are sold on a subscription basisby the Superintendent of Documents at $12.00 asession. Individual slip laws are also sold sep-aratel at varying prices, but for the latter thelibrarian will prefer to use the free sourcesmentioned on p. 81.

29 Among the price lists, PL36, Government Peri-odicals and Subscription Services (126th ed., May1967) probably best supplements the Monthly Cata-log for most librarians. Procurement librarianswill want to request also PL10, Laws, Rules andRegulations (52d ed., April 1967). Among those ofmore special interest are: Census Publicatiohs(PL70), Commerce (PL62), and Scientific Tests,Standards (PL64). There are 46 in all, and the fulllist appears in most of them, near the end.

30 Foreign patents may also be ordered from foreignpatent offices. A list of names will be found inCheinicalAbstracts near its Numerical Patent In-dex.

31See Federal Property Management RegulationsFPMR 101-43.313-4.

32-The following are useful as records of cab, logprices: McGrath, Daniel F. Bookmants price index,an annual guide to the value of rare and other out-of-print books and sets of periodicals. Detroit,Gale Research Co., Book Tower, c1964. 1,997p.

Mandeville, Mildred S., comp. The used book priceguide, an aid in ascertaining current prices.Kenmore, Wash., Price Guide Publishers, 526Kenmore Station, 1966. (z. 98028) In 3 parts.

33Williams, Edwin E. A serviceable reservoir.Washington, The United States Book Exchange,1959. p. 7-8.

34 Federal Library Committee. The Federal LibraryMission: A Statement of Principlesand Guidelines.Wash., D.C. The Comm. 1966 Contains discussionon developing mission statements.

39

Index

Academic Press, 22Accountability, 30, 36Administrative law, 3, 4, Note 3Administrative Procedure Act, 4, 5Advance payment for library materials. 18Air Force Procurement Instruction, Note 5American Association of Law Library, 27American Book Publishers Council, 16American Theological Library Association, 27Army Medical Library, 5Army Procurement Procedure, Note 5, Note 15Association of College & Research Libraries, 27Atomic Energy Commission, 29

Balance of payment restrictions, 15Ball, Alice Dulany, 28Biographical items, identifying and pricing, 34

setting up for processing, 35Bibliography of medical translations, 23Bid, flat discount, 18Bidders' conference, 14. 15Bidders' responsibility, 19, 23Bidding instructions, 15Bids for indefinite-quantity contracts, 15-17Bitner, Harry, Note 7Blanket orders, 11, 13, 21Book buyer's handbook, 16Book categories, GSA schedules. 21Book stock of book suppliers, 20Bookman's price index, Note 31Books, condition of, as performance requirement. 16Budgetary requirements, 2Bureau of Naval Personnel, Note 11Busse, Gisela von, 27Buy-American Act, Note 21, Note 22. 15

Calls against blank orders, 11Categories of books for bidding, 16Centralized procurement, 9Charge account, 11Clauses incorporated by reference, Note 20Clearinghouse of Federal Scientific and Technical

Information 23, 28, 29Code of Federal Regulations, Note 5 4College & Research Libraries, Note 17 27Collier Macmillan Library Service, 22Competition impracticable, 10Competition, what constitutes. 13Competitive requirements, 2, 13Comptroller General, Note 27 2, 18Condition of books, 16Container labels. 16Contract, formal, 14, 15Contract provisions, 15Copyright interests, 23, 24Coupons for GPO publications, 22Coupons for patents, 25Cowgill, Logan 0., Note 16 12Criteria for book suppliers, 20

40

Data processing. mechanized. 17, 18Debarred, suspended, or ineligible bidders list. 20Defense Documentation Center, 23, 29, 31Defense procurement handbook, Note 4 4, 15Delegation of procurement authority, 3, 12, 13Delivery orders, as packing slips, 15, 17Delivery speed. 13. 14Delivery time, for GSA contracts, 21Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

Note 5Department of State, Note 5Deposit account for GPO publications, 22Depository libraries, 29, 30Depository Library Act, 29, 30Depository procurement, 29, 30Determination of competence, 19, 20Diaz, Albert J., 24Discounts, 13-16, 21, 22Dissertation abstracts, 24Dissertations, 24Distance as a handicap, 8, 9District of Columbia Code, 4Donors, 26Drop shipments, 13

Eastin, Roy B., Note 7Edition, latest, as requirement, 16, 17Encumbrance authorization, 11, 12European Translations Center, 23Evaluation of old and rare books, 26Evans, Luther H., Note 16Equipment and supplies, accountability for, 30, 31Exchange by publishing, 26, 27Exchange of surplusage, 26, 27Exchanging publications, 35

Federal Aviation Administration, Note 5Federal Library Committee, 1, 4Federal procurement regulation system, 4Federal Register, 4Federal Register System, 4, 5Federal Supply Schedules, 13, 20-22Finance office, 3Finance officer, 2Financial resources of book suppliers, 20Formal advertising as a procurement method, 9, 10

General Accounting Office, 2Geological Survey, Note 10Gifts, 26Gifts, right to accept, 26Government documents, 22, 29, 30Government Organization Manual, Note 1 2, 30Government Printing Office, 9, 22Guide to Laws and Regulations Affecting Federal

Libraries, 4, 6, 26Guide to microforms, 23, 24

Handbook on the international exchange of publica-tions, 27

Handling costs, 11Hierarchical position of library, 32, 33Identification of incoming books, 17Imprest funds, Note 15; for Government publications,

11, 22Income tax deduction for gifts, 26Indefinite-quantity contract, with GSA, 15-17; 21Independence as a library characteristic. 8Institute of Applied Technology, 23International Exchange Service, 27Invitatitm for bids. 14, 15Invoices, processing of, 36Invoicing as service requirement, 13Involvement with service, 7, 13Item identification, 7, 17Item uniqueness, 7

Joint Publications Research Service, 23

Law, administrative, Note 3 6Law as communication, 3, 6Law hooks as category, 21Law, obsolescence of, 5Law, regulatory, 3Laws, text of, where found, Note 7 3, 4Legislation, obsolescence of, 5

Lending Library Service, 21, 22Libraries, kinds of, 7-9Library materials, specified,Library of Congress, Exchange and Gift Division, 28;

25Local trade area. 11Location in relation to sources of supply, 8

McGrath, Daniel F., Note 31Mai, Lois, Note 17 14Mandeville, Mildred S., Note 31Market place, problems of, 12-14Market resources and facilities, 33Marking of shipments, 16Material specification, need of, for library ma-

terials, 6, 7Medical books as category, 16, 21Medical Library Association, 27Microcard Editions, 24Microforms, 23-25Mission differences among libraries, 9Mission of library, 33Monitoring of subscription services, 18Monthly catalog of U.S. Government publications,

23, 29, 30 Note 28Multiyear subscriptions, 18, 19

National Aeronautical and Space Agency, 29National Bureau of Standards, 23National Institutes of Health, Supply Management

Branch, Note 12National Library of Medicine, 23

Needs, determining. 33Negotiation as a procurement method. 9, 10Negotiation. circumstances permitting.10Nonavailability in the United States. Note 22, 15Non-librarian officials. 1Non-purchase procurement. 26-31Non-specified publications. 15Non-trade publications. as category, 16Nuclear science abgtracts. 29

Official Gazette, U.S. Patent Office, 25Operating procedures of book suppliers. 19, 20Ordering officers. Note 15Orders, preparing. 35Organizing activities, 34

Packaging as performance requirement, 16Packing list accompanying shipment, 16Paperbound books. 21, 22Past performance of books suppliers, 19, 20Patents. foreign, Note 30 25; 25Performance, details of, required of librarian, 32-36Performance requirements. 2, 16, 17Performance specifications. 16, 17Performance standards for vendors, 34Pergamon Press, 22Periodical subscriptions, 17-19Petty cash fund, 17Pre-award surveys, 20Prestige as a library characteristic, 8Price, Miles 0., Note 3, Note 7Price as a factor in competition, 7Price 11:As. GPO, Note 29 23Procurement activity, 2, 3Procurement by purchase. requirements basic

to. 2-25; 2Procurement Center, 9Procurement handbook. GSA. Note 18 4. 10, 15, 19, 20Procurement methods. choosing and develop-

ing. 34Procurement officer. 2, 3, 12-14Procurement officer. librarian delegated as, 3, 12Procurement, sense in which used, 1Procurement via requisition, 12Publisher plans. 22Publishers, direct dealing with, 13, 14Publishers trade list annual, 21Publishers Weekly, 16Publishing exchange. 26, 27Purchases, equitable distribution of. 10Purdue University, 14

Qualified sources of supply. 10Quotations, oral, solicitation of, 10; 10

Readex Microprint Corporation, 24Receiving publications. 35Report on items not delivered as service re-

quirement, 13, 21Requiring activity. 2, 3

41

Requisition method. 12Research as a Government program, 6Resources. determining. 33"Riding the jacket", 22, 23Rinehart, John S.. Note 3

Schmeckebier, Laurence F., Note 7Scientific and technical aerospace reports. 29,Serial exchange, advantages of, 27Service requirements. 13, 14Shipments, origin of, 16, 17"Short discount books" as category, 16Simplified purchase methods. 10Size as a library characteristic, 8Small Business Act, Note 23 16Small purchases, and the competitive require-

Ment, 10; 10, 11Smithsonian Lnstitution, 27Society publications as a category,18Sources of supply, accessibility of,Special Libraries Association, 27Specific-title buying,14, 15Staff of book suppliers, 20Statutes at large, Note 2 3Statutory law, Note 3 3Strauss, William, 6. 26Subscriptions. multiyear, 18, 19Superintendent of Documents, 4, 22, 23Suppliers, selecting, 33, 34Surplusage exchange, 27

42

Technical Abstract Bulletin, 23, 29"7"..clulical books". 21"Technical or scientific books" as category. 16Technical reports. 28, 29Technical translations. 23. 24"Textbooks" as category. 16Time of delivery. 17"Trade books" as category. 16Trademarks. 25Translations, JPRS, 23

Unesco bulletin for libraries. 27United Nations Educational. Scientific & Cultural

Organization. 27U.S. Government Organization Manual, Note 1 2. 30U.S. Government research and development

reports. 23United States Book Exchange. Note 33 26-28United States Code. Note 8 3United States Statutes at Large Note 2 3University Microfilms. Inc.. 24University of Chicago. 24

Veenstra. John. Note 17 14Vendor, selection of, 7, 33, 34Vendor service as a factor in competition, 7

Warehouse facilities of book suppliers. 20Withdrawal of materials. 30, 31, 36Williams, Edwin E.. Note 32 26

Xerox Corporation, 24

S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 19613 0 - 313-669