ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 260 / C &R L News M a n a g in g a se le c tiv e g o v e r n m e n t d o c u m e n ts d e p o sito r y u sin g m ic r o c o m p u te r te c h n o lo g y By R o n e lle K. H. T h om pson D irector, M ikkelsen L ibrary A ugustana College Automation improves government document access at Augustana College. L i b r a r i e s th a t a re depositories fo r federal docu­ m ents face a n u m b e r of challenges in m an a g in g the m aterials received u n d e r th e p ro g ram . A ugustana College’s Mikkelsen L ib ra ry is a selective federal depository a n d c u rre n tly receives approxim ately 28% of all published docum ents. I n re tu rn these m aterials m u st be o rg a n iz e d , m a in ta in e d , a n d m ade accessible to th e residents of th e com m unity. Most of th e m ate ria ls w e receive becom e p a r t of a separate federal docum ents collection organized by S uperintendent of D ocum ents (SuDoc) n u m ­ ber. Serial p ublications a p p ea rin g in periodical in­ dexes ow ned by o u r lib ra ry a re included in th e p e ri­ odical collection. Titles consulted frequently by staff a nd p a tro n s are cataloged b y L ib ra ry of C on­ gress classification (L C ) a n d ad d ed to th e reference or circulating collections. O u r goal h as b een to have d ocum ents processed and available to the public w ith in fo u r days of their arrival in th e lib ra ry . H ow ever, th is goal w as im ­ possible to achieve using a m an u a l record-keeping system. For th e p a st tw o years w e have used an IBM m ic ro co m p u ter a nd Professional File (previ­ ously PFS File) softw are to m an a g e th e inventory records for ou r docum ents collection. Software design Professional File softw are offers several a d v a n ­ tages for c rea tin g a n d m a in ta in in g a n inventory record system such as th a t n e eded for governm ent docum ents. A m en u -d riv en softw are, Professional File c a n be used by lib ra ry staff m em bers a nd w ork study stu d e n t assistants w ith o u t extensive training. W e use th e softw are on a n IBM personal c om puter w ith a 20 m egabyte h a rd disk. Both th e softw are a n d th e g o v e rn m e n t do c u m e n ts in v e n to ry d a ta have b een loaded on th e h a rd disk. Unlike m any sim ilar program s, th e design fea­ tu re of Professional File allows fields to be desig­ n a te d a n y w h ere on th e screen, n ot just d o w n the left-h an d side. E ach of th e designated fields can th en be searched for retrieval purposes. F ig u re 1 is a n exam ple of th e screen design used a t A ugustana. T he governm ent docum ents screen w as designed w ith the item n um ber (ITEM NO) in th e upper left-hand corner to facilitate ra p id retrieval of indi­ vidual records. T he M ORE field allows a “y” ta g to a le rt staff th a t an item n um ber has m ore th a n one SuDocs classification n um ber a nd th a t th ere are additional screens to consult. A statistics field has been included to expedite th e com pilation process. By assigning a num ber to d iffere n t statistical categories ( i.e ., periodicals) records can be p rin te d in an order th a t groups cate­ gories together. T he SH field indicates any special h a n dling in­ structions, such as periodicals (PER), cataloging (C A T ), or re fe r r in g to d o c u m e n ts su p e rv iso r (D O CSTA FF). T he d e p artm e n t (D E PT ), agency (AG EN CY), a n d series (SERIES) fields allow a m eans to record this inform ation a n d also to re­ trieve records based on any of these fields. T he YEAR field is set to the c u rre n t calen d ar year. T he SUDOCS field represents only th e stem of th e Su­ perin ten d e n t of D ocum ents num ber. T he rem ain ­ der of the num ber is placed in the SD field at a title- specific level. T he NO TES field allows for messages specific to individual item num bers; for exam ple, it m ight re­ lay th e message t h a t a n item is received via direct m ail. W hen an item is processed, only th ree fields need to be com pleted: SD, for th e rem a in d e r of th e Su- Does num ber; T , for th e title; a n d R, for the d ate received. Processing procedures As g o v e rn m e n t d o c u m e n t m a te ria ls a re r e ­ ceived, the shipping list is checked against th e List of Item Selections (LIS) to insure th a t each item re­ ceived has indeed been selected by th e A ugustana L ibrary. T he c om puter inventory is th en searched to find th e ap p ro p ria te record via item num ber. All item num bers have been entered to provide a four­ digit num ber/lette r/tw o -d ig it n u m b er sequence. F o r exam ple, Item 42 A 1 has been entered, 0042- A-01. W hen the record w ith th e requested item n u m ­ ber is located, th e SuDocs stem is checked. If the SuDocs n u m b er does not m atc h , the next form is retrieved. W h en both item a n d SuDocs num bers m atch, th a t p o rtio n of th e SuDocs n um ber follow­ ing th e colon is typed in th e SD field. An a bbrevi­ a ted title is a dded to th e T field, enough to distin­ guish th e item b eing processed from o ther issues or pub lic a tio n s in th e series. T h e d a te received is added to th e R field. T he com puter record is coded to indicate if spe­ cial h a n d lin g is re q u ire d a nd w h a t type, w ith spe­ cific instructions included in th e n o te field. F o r ex­ am ple, an item th a t is cataloged, such as Statistical A bstracts o f the U nited States, w o uld have th e LC call n um ber included in the note field. For item s th a t are on m icrofiche, an “equals” sign is used a fte r the d a te follow ed by the num ber of pieces of fiche, to facilitate th e n um ber gather­ in g fo r s t a ti s t i c a l t a b u l a ti o n s . F o r e x a m p le , IT E M N O : O 5 7 7 - A - O O M O R E : S H : p e r S T A T : 3 S U P E R : D E P T : N a t i o n a l A r c h i v e s A G E N C Y : F e d e r a l R e g i s t e r S E R I E S : W e e k l y C o m p i l a t i o n o f P r e s i d e n t i a l D Y E A R : 1 9 8 8 S U D O C S : AE 2 . 1 0 9 : M F : N O T E S : A r r i v e s d i r e c t m a i l SD 2 3 / 5 0 T : D e c e m b e r 2 1 , p p . 1 5 1 9 - 1 5 4 1 R 1 / 1 4 SD 2 3 / 5 1 T : D e c e m b e r 2 8 , p p . 1 5 4 3 - 1 5 5 9 R 1 / 2 1 SD 2 4 / 1 T : J a n u a r y 1 1 , p p . 1 - 1 4 R 2 / 1 SD 2 3 / I n d e x T : F o u r t h Q u a r t e r I n d e x , O c t - D e c R 2 / 8 SD 2 4 / 2 T : J a n u a r y 1 8 , p p . 1 5 - 4 6 R 2 / 8 SD 2 4 / 3 T : J a n u a r y 2 5 , p p . 4 7 - 7 9 R 2 / 1 5 SD 2 4 / 4 T : F e b r u a r y 1 , p p . 8 1 - 1 5 2 R 2 / 1 7 SD T : R SD T : R SD T : R SD T : R SD T : R SD T : R SD T : R F I G U R E 1 262 / C &R L News NEW FROM Scarecrow ADVENTURERS AFLOAT-- A NAUTICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY: A Comprehensive Guide to Books in English Ernest W. Toy, Jr. 1193 pp. 2 vol. 1988 88-31209 ISBN 0-8108-2189-3 $89.50 ILLUSTRATION INDEX VI: 1982-1986 Marsha C. Appel 541 pp. 1988 88-18207 ISBN 0-8108-2146-X $42.50 MAPS CONTAINED IN THE PUBLICATIONS OF THE AMERICAN BIBLIOGRAPHY, 1639- 1819: An Index and Checklist Jim Walsh 383 pp. 1988 88-31916 ISBN 0-8108-2193-1 $37.50 U.S. AND CANADIAN BUSINESSES, 1955 TO 1987: A Bibliography Priscilla C. Ceahigan 601 pp. 1988 88-30538 ISBN 0-8108-2186-9 $52.50 WE SHALL BE HEARD: An Index to Speeches by American Women, 1978-1985 Beverley Manning 626 pp. 1988 88-6644 ISBN 0-8108-2122-2 $62.50 8/10 = 3 w o u ld in d ic a te th a t th e item w as received on A ugust 10 a n d w as a three -p ie c e m icrofiche set. T h ere a re fo u rtee n lines availab le for ad d in g n e w titles on e ac h screen. W h e n all are filled, the form is p rin te d , th e item s in cluded o n th e form are c o u n te d for statistical purposes, a n d th e form is filed in a p e rm a n e n t shelflist, a rra n g e d by SuDoes n u m b er. T h e titles a re th e n d e leted so th e record c a n c o ntinue to b e used. Form s are c reated in th e d a ta file w h e n n e w classes are a d d e d o r w h e n n ew item s a re selected. W h e n notified t h a t an item has b een d iscontinued, a n o tatio n is m a d e of th e effec­ tive d a te a n d a p a p e r copy of th e record is p rin te d a n d filed in th e p e rm a n e n t shelflist. T he reco rd is th e n deleted from th e c o m p u te r file. Reports T w ice each y ear a com plete p rin to u t is gener­ a te d of docum ents received. W h e n th e p rin to u ts have been m a d e th e corresponding sh ipping lists a re discarded a n d th e p rin te d form s are ad d ed to th e p e rm a n e n t shelflist. V arious lists c a n b e p roduced from th e records, in cluding all d o cum ents cataloged in th e L C col­ lec tio n , d o c u m e n ts re q u irin g special h a n d lin g , docum ents p u b lished by a specific governm ental d e p artm e n t/a g e n cy , or d o cum ents published on m icrofiche. W e do n o t use th e p ro g ram to provide an index to o u r docum ents collection as som e de­ positories do. R a th e r, w e use th e co m p u te r fo r in­ ventory control of docum ents as th ey are received. W e c u rre n tly h a v e over 3,100 records in o u r d ocu­ m ents da ta b ase. Summary T h e c hange from a m an u a l in v en to ry system to a c o m puterized m eth o d has h a d a d ra m a tic im p a c t on o u r a b ility to m an a g e our governm ent d ocu­ m en ts collection in a tim ely a n d efficient m an n e r. O u r goal of four days from th e tim e o f a rrival u n til docum ents are availab le for use is ro utinely sur­ passed. D o c u m en ts re q u irin g special processing a re re ad ily id entified a n d ro u ted to th e a p p ro p ria te persons, im proving o u r collection c ontrol as w ell. T h e ease of use of th e system has been d em on­ stra te d on several occasions as w e have m ad e t r a n ­ sitions in staff w ith in th e governm ent docum ents area. W e are convinced th a t th e im provem ents w e h a v e m a d e in m a n a g in g o u r g o v e rn m e n t d o c u ­ m ents collections could n o t h a v e been m ad e a p a rt from c o m p uterization. W e do not, h ow ever, view this as o u r final level of a u to m a tio n fo r docum ents. W e are in th e p ro ­ cess of installing an in te g rate d a u to m a tio n system in o u r lib ra ry using th e PALS so ftw a re a n d Unisys eq u ip m e n t. A fter th e in itial m odules—p u b lic ac­ cess, circ u la tio n , a n d in te rlib ra ry lo a n —h ave been installed, w e w ill e v alu ate ho w best to inco rp o ra te th e records for o u r depository m a te ria ls in th e d a ta ­ base to allow a fully in te g rate d a p p ro a c h to th e en­ tire lib ra ry collection. ■ ■