Information Processing : Some Developments in India (Bangalore)(10-13 July 1978)
APPLICATION OF ELECTRONIC DATA PROCESSING EQUIPM£NT FOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL PROCESSING OF INFORMAT10N IN N A.L. LIBRARY
P J RAO, Systems Engineering Division, and M N SEETHARAMAN, Library, National Aeronautical Laboratory, Bangalore-17.
The application of electronic data
processing equipment for circulation control and book ordering at the NAL Library are presented. The various card designs used in the process and the operations on the machine are outlined.
Implementation of these operations on a modern digital computer is outlined.
1 COMPUTER FACILITIES AT NAL
Rao and Seetharaman
processing work for the Library and Information Centre,
since it had only a 4000-word memory.
It was recently replaced by a TDC-316 computer which is also used exclusively for scientific work in the Wind Tunnel Centre of NAL. Two more computers, i.e. a TDC-316
and TDC-312, are being used on real time basis in the Controls Laboratory and Fatigue Testing Laboratory of NAL.
The only other facility available for the library
for its information processing work at present is the
Central EDP service of the Laboratory.
The Central EDP service caters to the data
process-ing needs of the followprocess-ing divisions of NAL.
a) Administration - for pay-roll and related
re-ports. Accounting, Budgeting and Information Retrieval,
Nominal rolls, etc.
b) Stores and purchase,
c) Project monitoring and Evaluation cell.
d) Library.
e) Other assignments of ad-hoc nature.
The central EDP service has the following unit
re-cord equipment:
a) ICL-1004 Data Processing Unit with a summary card punch,
b) ICL-309 sorter,
c) Alphanumeric collator,
d) Automatic card verifier
e) Interpreter, and
f) Card punchers.
In addition to the above, an EC-9002 Key-to-tape unit of Bulgarian make for direct recording of data on magnetic tapes has been purchased and is commissioned recently. This equipment has got all the features of an IBM 029-C22 card punch, i.e. in addition to recording, it can verify recorded data,search for a particular
block of recorded data, automatic programme control under two separate programmes for automatic duplication and skipping and left zero insertion.
A proposal for setting up a Regional Computer Centre
is. under the consideration of the Government of India and it is envisaged that NAL will have a Remote Job Entry and Interactive terminals connected to this computer
centre.
2 DEVELOPMENTS IN BIBLIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION PROCESSING
With the existing and proposed EDP and computer fa-cilities, there is considerable scope for undertaking
computer-based library and information services.
These services may cover the following:
a) Circulation control including circulation
statistics and analysis,
b) Membership records and accounting,
c) Acquisition processes for books, serials, etc.
d) Budget control,
Rao and Seetharaman
e) Cataloguing and indexing,
f) Current and cumulative lists of holdings of
books, reports, films, etc.,
g) Data base of aerospace literature for SDI and retrospective services.
At present, the existing EDP facilities are used for the following house-keeping functions in the library:
a) Circulation control, and
b) Acquisition processes for books.
3 CIRCULATION CONTROL
The library has 750 individual members who are em-ployees of NAL and 40 other local organisations admitted as institutional members. Each individual and corporate member has been issued with borrower cards ranging from 2 to 15, entitling users to borrow one document per card from the library at a time.
The colour scheme for the cards is as under: Green : For books
Red : For reports and journals
Black : For documents issued on long term loan.
•
The loan period for issue of documents is 30 days for books and 90 days for reports and other non-book material. Current and bound volumes of journals and
all reference books are issued on overnight basis onlyf
Fines are imposed for overdue books after the
ex-piry of a grace period of 10 days from the due date.
31 Use of EDP Equipment for Circulation Control
The system involves the following operations:
1 Punching of transaction cards; 2 Punching of return cards;
3 Cumulating and updating the Transaction Card Deck. Sorting and ordering the cumulative transaction card deck;
4 Matching the transaction cards with the return
cards on the collator;
5 Production of overdue notices to the users and master lists of the daily issues and returns; and
6 Statistical information for analysis and information.
32 The Transaction Card
For every document issued by the library against a
borrower card, a transaction card is punched on IBM 80
column punched card.
The card design for the transaction card is as
under:
1-20 cols. Borrower's Name
21-22 cols Division Code
Rao and Seethararnan 60 col 61-64 65-66 67-72 73 74-75 76-80 " Ticket Colour Ticket No. Classification Date of issue
Code for Reservation 'BK' for Book, 'RE' for
Report etc. Accession Number.
33 The Return Card
For every document returned to library, a return
card is punched. The card design for the 'Return Card'
is as follows:
Name of the user who reserves
the book Designation Division Name Ticket Colour Ticket Number Classification Date of Return
Code for Reservation
'BK' for Books, 'RE' for Reports
and so on
76-80 " Accession Number
The transaction cards and return cards punched daily constitute two separate 'unordered decks' as they are in a random sequence of Accession Numbers, in which the trans-action cards and return cards are created.
1-25 26-35 36-59 60 61-64 65-66 67-72
34 Operations on Sorter and Collator
The two unordered card decks are sorted separately by accession number so that after sorting, transaction cards and return cards are in the ascending order of the Accession Numbers. The ordered transaction cards are then merged with the ordered main transaction file created earlier which is the main loans file for the circulation system. Thus, the main transaction file is updated daily with the new transaction cards.
The main transaction file can be sorted in different
*
ways. If the sorting is done by borrower's number or name, a list of documents on loan to each person can be produced. If the file is sorted by date of issue the items which are overdue can be printed out.
The two separate card decks sorted by accession number, i.e.. Main Transaction Card file and Return Card Deck are fed as two separate inputs to the collator.
The collator matches the Return cards with the respective issue cards of the Main Transaction Card file. ' The
collator compares the following fields while matching a Return Card with a transaction card.
i) Accession Number;
ii) Borrower's order number or name; and iii) Borrower's Ticket Number.
Rao and Seetharaman
If it exists, it is stacked separately but it indi-cates that the Main transaction card file is not properly
updated or maintained.
From the matched card deck, Return Cards of books, which are reserved are selected on the collator and this becomes necessary input for generating Information slips on ICL-1004 Data Processor to let the users know that the books reserved by users have been received and are avail-able for issue to them.
For the returned books, the corresponding issue.
cards in the Main Transaction Card file are deleted daily. At the end of the month, the transection card file is
sorted on the following fields in the same order as they are mentioned below:
1 Date of Issue
2 Borrowers Order Number or Name 3 Division Code or Name
35 Operations on ICL-1004 Data Processor
The sorted Main Transaction Card file is the input for a program on ICL-1004 Data Processor for generating the monthly statements showing all documents on loan to each member of the library as on last day of the month. (See the list given in Appendix-A).
Documents that are uncer issue but reserved, b., other
users are indicated by a symbol ' + ' in all printouts of
monthly statements.
Monthly statements are also prepared in respect of
all documents sent to various organisations outside Bangalore under inter-library loan facility.
The Main Transaction Card file is preserved for the next month when the process is repeated- This file contains information regarding all documents that were issued but not returned to date.
The "Ordered Main Transaction Card File", thus, lies at the heart of the system and is the main source for providing various kinds of information for
circu-lation control.
It is obvious tnat the matched card deck is of no use except to the extent that the returned cards of
the reserved documents can be used for the preparation of information slips to be sent to the users.
From the Main Transaction and Return Card decks, the following statistics can be made available to the
librarians which gives an overall picture of
i) How readers are using the library. ii) How library is serving its readers.
36 Statistics
Rao and Seetharaman
3 Total reservations each day, week and month.
4 Total reservation by class of borrower.
5 Total loans divided by class of borrower.
4 ORDERING AND ACQUISITION
All libraries send an order form of some kind to
a bookseller, expect to. receive the book in return and
pay for it afterwards.
*
NAL Library sends orders to about 100 vendors to
purchase books, journals and reports, etc. The automa-tion of this area of library activity performs the
following functions:
a) It prepares orders to be sent to booksellers or vendors and keeps a record of all current
outstanding orders;
b) Where there is any undue delay on the part of
the bookseller in supplying a book, the system prepares a reminder note or chaser to the
vendors; and
c) When books are received in the library, the com-puter can handle the various associated
account-ing procedures and the state of the library's budget of books to be reported frequently to the librarian.
At present, the existing EDP facilities at NAL
are used for sending orders and reminders to booksellers by using 80-column punched cards.
41 Use of EDP Equipment for Ordering and Acquisition
1 The names and addresses of all vendors are
punched on 80-column cards. The 'vendor card deck' con-sists of details of vendros from whom the library pur-chases books and other documents.
2 The 'order card deck' consists of 80-column punched cards containing the details of orders for various books and documents.
3 Cumulating and updating of vendor card deck if the library wants to place orders to new vendors.
4 Sorting and ordering of the vendor card deck* and order card deck separately on a sorter. Matching the vendor address cards with the order cards on a collator.
5 Production of the order forms and reminder to the vendors on ICL-1004 data processor.
The card design of a vendor card is aj follows: 1-4 cols Numeric code for each vendor
5 col Serial number of card for each vendor
6-80 cols Name and address of the vendor For each vendor one or more cards are punched. These cards give such details as name and address of the vendors.
The order card deck consists of the following cards :
Rao and Seetharaman
i) Order card ii) Detail cards
iii) Sentinel card or last card
•
411 The_Card Design of Order Card
Order Number 1-10 cols.
Blank in 11 col. Date of order 12-21 cols
Blank 22 col. Vendor code 23-26 cols Blank 27 col
Class of card '0' in column 80
On a particular order number there may be orders for more than one book.
412 The Card Design of a Detail Card
Order Number 1-10 cols.
Blank 11 col. Serial Number 12 " Blank 13 " Author 14-32 cols. Title 33-54 '
Blank 55 col. Publisher 56-70 cols.
Quantity 71-72 Blank 73 col.
Price 74-79 cols.
Class of card 1 or 2 ...6 in Col 80
Then may be one to eight detail cards for a book or document. In the additional detail cards, the name of author, title and publisher may be continued in the same columns as that of first detail card, i.e., in columns 14-32, 33-54 and 56-70 respectively. First detail card must have '1' in column 80 and subsequent detail cards
should have 2, 3 and so on upto 8.
413 Card Design of a Sentinel or Last Card
Order Lumber 1-10 cols Blank 11 col Lame of Indentor 12-75 cols Blank 76 col Division name 77-79 cols Class of Card 9 in column 80
42 Operations on a Sorter
Before processing order forms, the two input
files, i.e. ,
1 Vendor Card Deck (VCD) 2 Order Card Deck (OCD)
must be sorted according to the vendor number and then the two sorted card decks are matched on a collator.
421 Ordered Files of the VCD and the OCD
Rao and Seetharaman
•
The OCD is sorted according to column 80 and then
according to order number. After complete sorting, the
OCD will be in the ascending order of order number. (
422 Operations of the Collator
The two ordered files VCD and OCD are given as separate inputs to a collator.
The collator matches the order cards with the res-pective vendor address cards of the vendor card file by-comparing vendor code.
The arrangement of cards in the matched card/deck will be as follows:
a) All the address cards of a particular vendor from the vendor card deck, i.e., the name and details of the vendor;
b) The order card;
c) All the detail cards of different documents for the order card in item (b);
d) Sentine] or last card;
e) All the address cards of the next vendor; f) Next order card;
g) All the detail cards of different documents lor the order card in item (e); and
h) Sentinel or last card and so on.
This matched card deck is the input for a program on ICL-1004 data processor to generate order forms to be sent to various vendors (See Appendix-B).
It is clear from the above that there should not be any unmatched order, detail and sentinel cards. If they exist, they indicate that the vendor card deck is not properly updated or a flaw in the merging procedure.
Further, the unit record equipment at NAL ie being used for the following purposes:
a) To place orders for books, journals, etc and update them;
b) Maintenance of vendor card deck;
c) To prepare reports according to author, title and so on; and
d) To provide information regarding ordering and acquisition of documents to the indentor.
For each book received from the bookseller, the following information is punched on a card;
1-10 cols Order Number
11 col Blank
12 " Serial Number within the Order Number
This particular deck is sorted on serial number and order number and is matched with cards in sorted order deck. The matched order deck is stacked separate-ly and order cards for the books received are deleted from the order card deck. The unmatched cards are stacked separately and becomes the input for a program on ICL-1004 data processor to generate reminders or chasers to be sent to the vendors.
Rao and Seetharaman
The matched cards are stacked separately. A list-ing of the matched card deck goes along with the new books received into the cataloguing process.
5 CONCLUSION
Most of the above procedures can be implemented on a modern digital computer to provide fast services to the users and the library. The modern computer has all the attended advantages of programming and huge . backing store in the form of magnetic tapes and discs.
A key-to-magnetic tape unit is added to NAL Library very recently. This can record programs and input
data directly on magnetic tape without punching cards. Programs can be developed in suitable languages like COBOL and PL/1 for processing the information recorded on magnetic tapes.
By changing over to a modern computer system, the
library can extend information processing work to the following items and serve to users and the library more efficiently:
1 Accession Register Control 2 Accounts and Budget Control 3 Desiderata File
h Book-cards
5 Processing Slips 6 Catalogue Record
7 Statistics Regarding Ordering and Acquisition.
