The University of California Libraries: A Plan for Development (1977)

VIII. Acquisition and Processing 129
percent a year compounded." 18 Staff salaries alone rose at 5.3 percent
per student during this period. On the other hand, the wholesale price
index during the same two decades rose at less than one percent.
The reason for this discrepancy, as many writers have pointed
out, is that in other sectors of the economy the productivity of
workers has risen with salaries; if wages go up five percent but labor
productivity also rises five percent, there is no increase (at
least from this cause) in the price index.
In recent years, however, there have been several developments
which have already begun to increase library productivity. Baumol
and Marcus list four:
• The achievement of a standard format for bibliographic records
in machine-readable form, and the associated production
at the Library of Congress and elsewhere of a sizable data
base of such records.
• A continuing sharp decrease in the costs of certain components
of electronic data processing services.
• Continuing increases in the capacity and reliability of
electronic communications channels with concomitant decreases
in the unit costs of the channels.
• The creation of evolving, modular, computer-based library
systems, which take advantage of the three other changes
just mentioned. 19
The most successful of these systems have been the so-called
"on-line" systems, with a number of terminals connected via a computer
to a large data base of bibliographic records. These systems
allow access to the data in seconds, which speeds up a portion of
the process, and they also allow interaction between the operator
and the system, which improves communication and helps to reduce
the editorial steps required. Because bibliographic information is
complex, the associated editorial and clerical operations are also,
and making these operations more efficient helps improve productivity
significantly.
18 William J. Baumol and Matityahu Marcus, Economics of Academic
Libraries, American Council on Education, 1973, p. 45.
19 Ibid., p. 41.