Materials Missing At Library Of Congress

The problems with keeping track of materials can't be traced to a single source. The problems start at the front desk, where the public still uses paper call slips, a method the inspector general called "outdated and inefficient." That creates a problem because when the paper request is filled, and the item is off the shelves, it does not show up on the automated system as "charged out." Then when the employee goes to the shelves, it is technically missing.

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The survey found that 42 percent of the requests at the library last year were paper call slips. The remainder come from the library's staff and other libraries.

"Because we still have a paper request slip, the patron does not go to the online public catalogue and press a button. They write down all the information and sometimes the patron doesn't correctly copy all of the information," leading to a errors in the search, Marcum said.

In addition, the shelves are crowded, with books overflowing into carts and onto the floor of the stacks. The people who retrieve items might overlook the requested materials, Marcum said. The library has just built a storage facility off-site that has 1.2 million volumes and has recently opened a second one with the same capacity.

Some books are not on the shelves because they are in preservation workshops or are misplaced in the stacks. Some are also awaiting reshelving; putting materials back on the shelves may take up to four days, according to the inspector general.

The division that handles shelving, retrieving, inspection and updating the shelves is the Collections, Access, Loan and Management Division and is called CALM. Its librarians receive 2,000 retrieval requests every day and handle the requests from seven reading rooms and the staff. They put 2,000 items, including about 1,000 new volumes, on shelves every day.

The CALM staff has been reduced by attrition from 235 employees in fiscal 2000 to 162 in fiscal 2006. That division has hired contractors to complete the inventory and do the shelving in the hope of cutting the time it takes to get a book back in circulation.

Since fiscal 2003, the library has requested $12 million for inventory control and received $6.3 million.