A SUGGESTED FIRST STEP TOWARDS AUTOMATION

This paper is probably a little out of place in a general session on Information Retrieval since it deals mainly with the possibility of preparing in advance either for the installation of a computer, or for the provision of time on a computer. I think that nowadays even the smallest library (in a largish parent organization) must recognize the eventual likelihood of being allowed a certain amount of computer time. But even if you consider this to be only the remotest possibility, it is still worth considering since it can give you a new slant on your own organization and methods. Basically, the scheme proposed does nothing more than provide a machine readable record for every library accession, and the subsequent use of this, even without a computer, can confer an element of increased efficiency and greater accuracy, with less routine work. The method of providing such a record, which has been chosen for trial in my own branch of the Ministry of Aviation, is by means of an automatic tape typewriter. The process, as I shall describe it to you, has been tailored to fit the existing manual systems as closely as possible but, as many of you will recognize, it owes a great deal to the original tape typewriter plan proposed by Calvin Mooers.