Second semester only.

school library.16 The chapter on the Functions of the School Librarian in Preparation for School Library Work was particularly useful.

After careful consideration, the school librarian's duties were subdivided into the following 17 main categories:

1. Reference work

(a) Information and reference service

(b) Compiling lists and bibliographies; making special indexes

2. Instruction and book advisory services

(a) Teaching classes in the use of books and libraries

(b)-(f) Other

3. Circulation work

4. Care of room and collection

5. Acquisition of books, etc. (new titles)

6. Acquisition of books, etc. (duplicates and replacements)

7. Acquisition and care of periodicals

8. Cataloging and classification (new titles)

9. Cataloging and classification (duplicates and replacements)

10. Cataloging and classifying material other than books

11. Administrative duties

12. General office work

13. Public relations

14. School routine

15. Keeping the time record

16. Unproductive time (time for which librarian was paid when she did not work)

17. Special duties

These 17 headings were then further broken down into the separate activities included under each. A brief description of each activity was drawn up in order to clarify them and to make the interpretations of the categories by the various librarians as uniform as possible. These amplifications of the categories were subsequently combined into a Manual of Instruction which was sent with the time sheets to the participating libraries. (See Appendix.)

Time Sheets

The next step was the development of the form for the time sheets to be used in keeping the daily time records of the individual staff members. This sheet (see Appendix) was finally decided upon after a tentative draft had been tried out, together with the manual, in two well-administered high-school libraries. The librarians of these schools submitted criticisms and suggestions for the revision of the time sheet and manual.

16 Fargo, Lucile F. The library in the school. 3d. ed. Chicago, American Library Association, 1939. 552 p.

1936.

Preparation for school library work. New York, Columbia University Press,

190 p.

At the same time that the try-outs were being conducted the sheets and manual were submitted for criticism to a group of consultants. These were chosen because of their special qualifications in the fields of library work to which this study was related. On the basis of their criticisms, the forms were revised and the final draft of the time sheets and manual formulated.

A form for the necessary statistical data was prepared to accompany the time sheets. This included the unit count of activities and the unit count of materials used, together with their cost. As was explained in the discussion of the scope of the study it did not seem feasible to try to include figures for the cost of materials and that part of the report was omitted from the completed study. The statistics sheet was designed to cover the 4 weeks' period during which the study was conducted in each semester.

At the conclusion of the second period of the sampling a supplementary questionnaire was sent to the participating libraries to ascertain miscellaneous information not available in the Eells study 17 or from the previous forms in the unit cost study. The need for these data came to light only as the study progressed; hence the questions were not included in the statistics sheet.

After the final draft of the forms had been prepared they were sent to the participating schools for a preliminary try-out. This try-out was conducted over a period of 2 days and was for the double purpose of detecting flaws in the forms and of checking the different interpretations of the categories made by the various librarians. In one school the try-out was conducted under the supervision of a member of the U. S. Office of Education staff.

The periods selected for the sampling were November 18-December 13 and March 3-28. These periods of 4 weeks each were assumed to be typical of the normal school term. They covered the schools at a time when they were not affected by abnormal situations such as semester examinations, opening or closing of school, or school holidays, with the exception of Thanksgiving.

Miller's study was conducted for 8 weeks, March 9 to May 2, and the study by the Committee for the Study of Cost Accounting in Public Libraries was conducted over a period of 4 months, April, May, October, and November.

Collecting the Data

The study represents an aggregate of 15,460 labor hours reported by 542 staff members. During the 2 periods 6,360 individual time sheets were tabulated.

17 Cooperative study of secondary schools. Op. cit.

421819°-42-3

The sheets were sent to the participating schools with the request that they return them at the end of each week. This procedure was followed in order to detect any misinterpretations as soon as possible. The librarians were urged to discuss problems involved in the record keeping and to ask questions in their letters. In this connection 84 letters and 2 telegrams were received and 209 letters sent to the participating libraries. Among the questions discussed and answered were such ones as where to record time spent in selecting books for book trucks to be sent to classrooms, or time spent in grading pupils' book reports, or what to do about the time of WPA workers who were making pamphlet boxes. Every effort was made in this way to clarify and interpret the definitions of the categories and to keep them uniform.

At the end of each week the time sheets were sent to the Library Service Division where the figures were tabulated and checked for any apparent discrepancies with the figures from previous weeks in the same library.

At the end of the first sampling the percentage distributions of direct labor time were compiled for each participating library and sent with the average percentage distribution to each library.

Unit costs for the first sampling were also computed and in cases where there was great deviation from the average these deviations were discussed with the librarian before the beginning of the second sampling. It was pointed out to the cooperating librarians that the deviations were being mentioned simply to check on possible misinterpretations of instructions and with no thought of suggesting that changes be made in the practices in the various libraries.

The second sampling, March 3-28, was conducted in the same manner as the first and at the end of this period detailed tables were compiled for each participating library.

Method of Computing the Figures

The figures from the daily time sheets were totaled each week and posted according to salary or wage scale. For example, the time in minutes spent by the librarian in each activity was posted and totaled; the time for the assistant librarian was likewise listed and totaled, as was that of WPA and NYA helpers, paid student staff, and volunteer help. Grand totals of the time spent in each activity were then compiled for each school. At the end of each sampling period the weekly totals for each salary group were totaled and grand totals made for each activity.

The unit of direct labor time for each activity was computed by dividing the total number of minutes devoted by the staff to one activity by the unit count of that activity. For example, if the staff of one library spent 7,682 minutes in circulation activities and circu

lated 3,841 books, the unit of direct labor time would be 2 minutes. Salary rates were computed on an actual working day and hour basis; thus a librarian making $2,400 a year in a school which was in session 200 days during the year would earn $12 per day. If she worked 8 hours per day (excluding her lunch period) she would earn $1.50 per hour and 22 cents per minute. Wage rates for assistants being paid by the hour need only be divided by 60 for the rate per minute; thus NYA workers being paid 30 cents per hour earned 1/2 cent per minute. To ascertain the unit cost of an activity the number of minutes spent in each activity by persons in the same salary class was multiplied by the salary rate per minute in that class. For example, if the librarian worked 870 minutes at one activity (reference) and was paid at a rate of 22 cents per minute, the total in that salary range would be $21.75. These totals, in dollars, were then added for each activity and the total divided by the unit count of that activity. For example: The librarian's time in reference service amounted to $21.75; the assistant librarian's, to $10.80; and NYA, to $3.65; making a total of $36.20. If 724 reference questions were answered during this period, the unit cost for answering such a question would be 5 cents.

Percentage distribution was computed by dividing the number of minutes spent in one activity by the total number of minutes spent in all activities, adjusted to three decimals; thus in a school which spent 7,490 minutes in reference service and 57,560 minutes in all the activities listed, the percent of time spent in reference work would be 13.012.

Findings

The completed tabulations of the data collected reveal some significant facts regarding the direct labor time per unit of library activity as well as the direct labor cost. In addition, they show the percentage distribution of direct labor time in each activity and the percentage distribution by class of position.

Unit Costs

Cost accounting, as has been explained above, is "that method of accounting which provides for searching out and recording all the elements of cost incurred to attain a purpose, to carry on an activity, or operation, or to complete a unit of work or a specific job."

The result of cost accounting is, of course, the unit cost. Unit cost is defined as "the cost of a unit of product or service." 18 In library cost accounting, unit costs are always concerned with units of service.

18 Chatters, Carl H. and Tenner, Irving. Municipal and governmental accounting. New York, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1940. p. 547.