College and Research Libraries JOHN GARDNER AND GLADYS ROWE Thinking Small in a Big Way The successful integration of microfiche into the mainstream operations of a large scientific and technical research library over a ten-year period is out- lined. Microfiche collection building, announcement , reading, and copying are discussed with some emphasis on the promotion of microfiche as a viable information source for library patrons. The use of COM for various inter- nal processing functions is described. A recent user-satisfaction survey re- veals that technical reports on microfiche are now accepted within Sandia Laboratories . OvER THE LAST TEN TO FIFTEEN YEARS that 4-by-6-inch piece of photographic film called a microfiche has been , in its library appli- cations, roundly cursed , denigrated, ap- preciated, praised , and probably folded , spindled, and mutilated! The literature on microforms includes any number of basic texts 1 • 2 and discussions of the technical as- pects of production and use, 3 as well as accounts of specific applications in other institutions. 4 - 10 This paper examines the policies and practices developed by the Sandia Laborato- ries Technical Library to acquire, process , announce, and promQte the use of the tech- nical reports literature in microfiche format. We will also discuss a number of other ap- plications of this information medium in the library. Sandia Laboratories is operated by Sandia ·Corporation, a subsidiary of Western Elec- tric, as a service to the U . S. government on a nonprofit, no-fee basis. Sandia serves as a prime contractor to the Department of Energy (DOE) with major responsibilities for the conduct of various national security and energy projects for DOE and several other federal agencies. The Sandia Laboratories Technical Li- brary has a staff of fifty people and functions as two divisions: information services and john Gardner is a library resource analyst, and Gladys Rowe a subject specialist at the Sandia Laboratories Technical Library, Albu- querque , New Mexico. This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. technical processes. Collections include ap- proximately 38,000 books, more than half a million technical reports (of which more than 90 percent are on microfich~), and ap- proximately 1,500 periodical subscriptions. More than 15,000 of our periodical volumes are in 16mm microfilm. The library collections are strong in the areas of aerospace, chemistry, energy con- servation and utilization, materials, mathe- matics, nuclear technology, physics, and weapons research. For the last fiscal year the library's acquisitions budget was more than $310,000. Almost all functions of the technical library are fully computerized. THE MICROFICHE COLLECTION The microfiche acquisition program began in 1969. Since then the library has acquired all technical reports on microfiche issued by the Atomic Energy Commission and sub- sequent related agencies-the Energy Re- search and Development Administration, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Department of Energy. We have also acquired technical reports on microfiche is- sued by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Since 1970 we have received technical reports on microfiche in selected subject categories from the Na- tional Technical Information Service (NTIS). Recently we have acquired the complete microfiche collection of Power Reactor Dock- ets issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission; the complete collection of 533 534 I College & Research Libraries • November 1979 Bureau of Mines publications; and publica- tions of the U.S. Congress on microfiche distributed by the Congressional Informa- tion Service. The total collection now amounts to more than half a million reports in microfiche format. Much of this material is currently stored in three Remington Rand Lektrievers lo- cated close to the library circulation area. The collection expanded so rapidly that it became necessary to move the older mi- crofiche to a nearby vaulted area where they are stored on shelves in cardboard file boxes. Technical reports in microfiche are filed by the alphanumeric report number located in the upper left-hand corner of the mi- crofiche. The only exceptions to this practice are the microfiche for Power Reactor Dock- ets . These are filed primarily by the name of the designated power plant and secondar- ily by the docket number. At the time we began to collect technical reports in microfiche, we established a pol- icy not to catalog or index any of the mate- rial. Consequently, references to microfiche are not included in our computerized re- ports catalogs. Instead we rely on the printed indexes published by DOE , NASA, and NTIS . When the number of the report is known, we refer directly to the mi- crofiche collection. ANNOUNCEMENT AND DISTRIBUTION SERVICES Newly acquired microfiche are announced in the library's semimonthly announcement bulletins. Data on reports acquired from DOE, NASA, and NTIS are extracted from the NTIS bibliographic data file on magnetic tape. This tape extract is reformatted in- house so that reports are grouped under the COSATI subject categories assigned by NTIS. A hard copy listing is then printed by a computer. The announcement bulletin, SCAN: Sandia Corporation Accession News, is prepared from this camera-ready copy by the Sandia printing services group (see figure 1) . SCAN has a circulation of 370 copies . An order form is included at the back of each issue. SCAN subscribers may order reports by annotating the accompanying order form with the report numbers they require and sending the form to the library circulation group. Circulation personnel then send master copies of the requested microfiche to the Sandia micrographics group, where du- plicates are produced; the master copy and requested duplicates are returned to the li- brary; and the library, in turn , sends the duplicate to the requester. No circulation record is kept of microfiche sent out in this manner. The requester retains the copy as long as needed. We make no attempt to check the quality of either newly received or duplicated mi- crofiche . However, personnel in the mi- crographics group are responsible for re- viewing the material being copied. When they find microfiche of poor quality, they are responsible for indicating that the fiche is of such poor quality that it should not be copied or that certain pages are of inferior quality and the best available copy is being sent. In these instances circulation personnel send the microfiche to the requester with one or the other of two special library forms developed to convey this information. When hard copy is specifically requested in order to get clearer images, the library's reports acquisitions personnel often contact the original publisher of the report because the distributing agency has probably already sent the best copy it can produce. We have found that microfiche of poor quality is usually created when the original report was probably never intended for conversion to microfilm format. This occurs most often when the originals are transla- tions, conference papers, periodical articles, work typed on colored paper, or pages con- sisting of equations, photographs, charts, maps, diagrams, or reduced computer out- put. In other instances the subcontractor re- sponsible for preparation of the microfiche has done a poor job either in the prepara- tion of the master or in the preparation of the second generation microfiche for multi- ple copy distribution . When this occurs, we request that the distributing agency look into the question of quality control with its subcontractor. USING THE MICROFICHE COLLECTION When we began our microfiche acquisi- •••A&RICUL TUAE NTIS MICROFICHE ANHOUNCEMF:NTS VOL, 79 ISS. 13 PA~E :52 USE OF GEOTHERMAL HEAT FOR CROP DRYING AND RELATED AGRICULTURAL APPLICATIONS, FINAL AF:POAT • 60ftonN, T • J', WRIGHT, T • c. FEIN• Eo MUNSON• T• A, IUCHMOND• A• C• FUTURES GROUP• GLASTONBURY• tT.•DEPAATNENT OF' ENF.RGY, II'IR 78, 262P, ID0-1628•11 33 GREEN FACTORIES FOR LIQUID FUEL• CALVIN• Go J. CALVINr Mo CALIFORNIA UNIVor BERKELEY• LAWRENCE BERKELEY LAB,•DEPAATMENT OF ENER,Y, APR 78, 19P, LBL•75811 :5 .. PETROLEUM PLANTATIONS. CALVINr Me CALIFORNIA UNJV,, BERKELEY, LAWRENCE BERKELEY LAB,•DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY\ APR '78, 111P, LBL•8236 ;55 PRODUCTION OF SUGARCANE AND TROPICAL GRASSES AS A RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCE, THIRD QUARTERLY REPORT, DECEMBER 1r 1977•-FEBRUARY 28r 1978, CENTER FOR ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT RESEAACHr RIO PIEDRAS• PA,•DEPARTMENT ~ ENEA8Yo 1~.,8·, SSP • OR0•51122•3 ;56 ANALYSIS TO DEVELOP A PROGRAM FOR ENERGY CONSERVATION IN IRRIGATED AGIItCULTUREe c·oNF:, 8, W, BRIX• V• Le P'AKINo 1"1, E, LAUGHLIN• Be 14, BATTELLE PACIFIC NORTHWEST LABS,' RICHLANOr WA,•DEPAitTMENT C# EN£R6Y, SEP 78, 95P, PNL•2691J 37 SOLAR ENERGY SYSTEM PERFORMANCE EVALUATION SCATTERGOOD SCHOOL RECREATION CENTERr WEST ftRANCH, IOwa, SEP'Tf:MIIER l9'n••MIY 1978, INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP,, HUNTSVILLE• AL,•DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY. JUt.. 78, 6'7P, SOLIR/21103•78/IIJ ;58 TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT OF METHODS FOR DIRECT CONVERSION OF AGRICULTURAL RESIDU! TO USAPLE ENERSY, FINAL RP'PnATo BAILIE• Re Co BATTELLE PACIFIC NORT-HWEST LABS, • RICHLAND• WA,•DI!:PAATNENT OF rNERGY, 20 OCT "'6, 136P, "10•211552 ;59 SEMIANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT FOR THE IDAHO GEOTHERMAL PR06AAM• APRIL 1••SEPTEMBER 30• 1978. BLAKE• 6, L, IDAHO NATIONAL ENGINEERING LAB·• IDAHO FALLS,•DEPAATMENT OF ENERGY, NOV 78, 99P, TREE•U95 110 USI!:S OF WARMED WATER IN AGRICULTURE• FINAL REPORT, GARRETT, A, Eo CALIFORNIA tiNIV,, DAVIS, DEPT, OF AIIIJCIILTURAL ENGINEERIN6e•DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY, NOV 78, 59Po UCRL•139:50 •••ASTRONOMY ANO ASTROPHYSICS lt1 SOME COSMOLOGICAL CONSEIJUENCE OF HADRON MATTEA PHASE TRANSITION AT HIGH TEMPERATURE, BUGRII• A• I, TAUSHEVSKtlo U A, AKAOEMIYA NAUK URSA KIEV• INST• TEOAETICHESKOI FIZIKI• 1976, 18P, ITP•76•36-E IJ2 REVIEW AND INTERPRETATION OF RECENT COSMIC RAY BERYLLIUM ISOTOPE MEASUREMENTS. RUFF'tNGTON• Ao eALIFORNU IJNIVo • BERKELEY, LAWRENCE BERKELEY LAB.•oEPARTMENT OF ENERGY, 26 APR 78, 29P, LBL•7923 IJ3 STEADY STATE MODELS FOR FILAMENTARY PLASMA STRUCTURES ASSOCIATED WITH FORCE FREE ll!A6Nf'TJC I'IELDS. MARI