NBS TECHNICAL NOTE 781

A Study of Six University-Based

Information Systems
NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS

The National Bureau of Standards 1 was established by an act of Congress March 3, 1901. The Bureau's overall goal is to strengthen and advance the Nation's science and technology and facilitate their effective application for public benefit. To this end, the Bureau conducts

research and provides: (1) a basis for the Nation's physical measurement system, (2) scientific and technological services for industry and government, (3) a technical basis for equity in trade, and (4) technical services to promote public safety. The Bureau consists of the Institute for Basic Standards, the Institute for Materials Research, the Institute for Applied Technology,

the Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology, and the Office for Information Programs.

THE INSTITUTE FOR BASIC STANDARDS provides the central basis within the United

States of a complete and consistent system of physical measurement; coordinates that system

with measurement systems of other nations; and furnishes essential services leading to accurate and uniform physical measurements throughout the Nation's scientific community, industry, and commerce. The Institute consists of a Center for Radiation Research, an Office of Measurement Services and the following divisions: Applied Mathematics — Electricity — Mechanics — Heat — Optical Physics — Nuclear

Sciences 2 — Applied Radiation 2 — Quantum Electronics * — Electromagnetics 3 — Time

and Frequency 3 — Laboratory Astrophysics 3 — Cryogenics 3. THE INSTITUTE FOR MATERIALS RESEARCH conducts materials research leading to improved methods of measurement, standards, and data on the properties of well-characterized materials needed by industry, commerce, educational institutions, and Government; provides

advisory and research services to other Government agencies; and develops, produces, and

distributes standard reference materials. The Institute consists of the Office of Standard

Reference Materials and the following divisions: Analytical Chemistry — Polymers — Metallurgy — Inorganic Materials — Reactor

Radiation — Physical Chemistry.

THE INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED TECHNOLOGY provides technical services to promote

the use of available technology and to facilitate technological innovation in industry and Government; cooperates with public and private organizations leading to the development of

technological standards (including mandatory safety standards), codes and methods of test; and provides technical advice and services to Government agencies upon request. The Institute consists of a Center for Building Technology and the following divisions and offices: Engineering and Product Standards — Weights and Measures — Invention and Innovation — Product Evaluation Technology — Electronic Technology — Technical Analysis — Measurement Engineering — Structures, Materials, and Life Safety' — Building

Environment * — Technical Evaluation and Application * — Fire Technology.

THE INSTITUTE FOR COMPUTER SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY conducts research and provides technical services designed to aid Government agencies in improving cost effec- tiveness in the conduct of their programs through the selection, acquisition, and effective

utilization of automatic data processing equipment; and serves as the principal focus within

the executive branch for the development of Federal standards for automatic data processing

equipment, techniques, and computer languages. The Center consists of the following offices and divisions: Information Processing Standards — Computer Information — Computer Services —

Systems Development — Information Processing Technology.

THE OFFICE FOR INFORMATION PROGRAMS promotes optimum dissemination and

accessibility of scientific information generated within NBS and other agencies of the Federal Government; promotes the development of the National Standard Reference Data System and

a system of information analysis centers dealing with the broader aspects of the National Measurement System; provides appropriate services to ensure that the NBS staff has optimum

accessibility to the scientific information of the world. The Office consists of the following

organizational units: Office of Standard Reference Data — Office of Technical Information and Publications —

Library — Office of International Relations.

1 Headquarters and Laboratories at Gaithersburg, Maryland, unless otherwise noted; mailing address Washington, D.C. 20234.

3 Part of the Center for Radiation Research.

3 Located at Boulder, Colorado 80302. Part of the Center for Building Technology.
K'V. A Study of Six University-Based

Information Systems

Beatrice Marron, Elizabeth Fong,

Dennis W. Fife, and Kirk Rankin

Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology

-£/', / National Bureau of Standards

Washington, D.C. 20234

Sponsored by

National Science Foundation

18th and G Street, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20550

NBS Technical Notes are designed to supplement the Bureau's regular publications program. They provide a means for making available scientific data that are of

transient or limited interest. Technical Notes may be

listed or referred to in the open literature. *< °F .S

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, Frederick B. Dent, Secretary

NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS, Richard W. Roberts, Director

Issued June 1973
National Bureau of Standards Technical Note 781

Nat. Bur. Stand. (U.S.), Tech. Note 781, 98 pages (June 1973) CODEN: NBTNAE

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402 (Order by SD Catalog No. 03.46:781). Price $1.25 domestic postpaid or $1.00 G.P.O. Bookstore.
CONTENTS

PART I - General

A. Introduction

B

Methodology

C Summary Matrix

D. Observations on 6 Systems

E

Outlook

Appendix 1 Categorical Descriptive Format

Appendix 2 Data Base Suppliers

PART II - Specifics

A. Categorical Description - UCLA

B. Categorical Description - U. of Georgia

C. Categorical Description - Lehigh U.

D. Categorical Description - Ohio State U.

E. Categorical Description - U. of Pittsburgh

F. Categorical Description - Stanford U.

Page

1

2

3

3

6

in
A STUDY OF SIX

UNIVERSITY-BASED INFORMATION SYSTEMS

B. Marron , E. Fong, D. W. Fife and K. Rankin

A methodology for categorically describing

computer-based information systems was developed

and applied to six university-based, NSF-supported

systems. The systems under study all operate as

retail information centers primarily serving campus communities by accessing large commerciallyavailable data bases using 3rd generation computer

configurations. The systems vary in design philosophy, mode of user service, transferability

characteristics, and operational status. A summary matrix is included.

Key words: Computer-based systems; information systems,

university; university computer systems.

IV
UNIVERSITY-BASED, NSF-FUNDED, INFORMATION SYSTEMS

PART I - GENERAL

A. INTRODUCTION ;

In December of 1971 an interagency agreement was established between the National Bureau of Standards and the

National Science Foundation, Office of Science Information Services , whereby the NBS Center for Computer

Sciences and Technology was charged to "assess the present status of automated scientific and technological

information systems". A number of tasks were defined

and studies undertaken to help NSF meet its immediate

decision-making needs and to develop methodologies and

tools for evaluating and comparing science information

activities. This report documents such a study of six

university-based, NSF-supported, information systems.

The NSF university-centered effort involves funding to

6 universities: UCLA, U. of Georgia, Lehigh U. , Ohio

State U., U. of Pittsburgh, and Stanford U. The immediate objectives of NSF support for university-centered

information systems are three-fold: (1) to meet the

information requirements of academic scientists and the

students they are training; (2) to establish "retail"

campus-based terminals to accept the "wholesale" machine-readable tapes from society-based, disciplineoriented systems, as well as mission and problem-oriented products from Federal and private sources; and

(3) to support the development of major nodes for the

emerging national science information system.

This report is organized in two parts.

Part I consists of:

A. this introduction,

B. detail of the methodologies employed,

C. a summary matrix of the systems studied,

1. Interagency Agreement #NSF-CA6 8

1
D. observations about the university-based systems , and

E. outlook, including conclusions, state-of-theart assessment, and recommendations.

Part II consists of 6 separate, free-standing reports

detailing the 6 systems in a common descriptive format.

B. METHODOLOGY

A few generalizations about NSF involvement in these

university systems should be noted. Many of the systems

were already underway before NSF funding was secured.

NSF support was specifically stated as being for development rather than operation of these systems. Funding

extends for 2 to 5 years only, and is reviewable every

year. The systems were pledged to operate beyond the

development period on their own funds. Most of the systems are centered in the university libraries. The

tapes purchased on NSF funds must be science-oriented.

Only initial tapes can be purchased with NSF monies. The

goals of the various systems are not the same, and the

services offered vary in such respects as batch or interactive, retrospective or current awareness service.

One day site vists were made by NBS personnel to each

project. As information was gathered, read, and assimilated, a categorical descriptive format was developed

for organizing the details on the specific information

systems under study. Although developed for the 6

university-based, NSF-supported systems, it is expected

that the format is general enough to be applicable to

other systems being analyzed. Appendix 1 shows the

organization of the categorical description with scope

notes. Appendix 2 is a list of data base suppliers,

some of which provide input to more than one of the

university systems.

Major uses of this study are listed below:

1. General descriptive summary of existing systems

in a common format

2. Comparison of services and systems, primarily

on a macro-level.

3. Identification of user-oriented functions and

capabilities.
*+. Assessment of the potential network relationships of various systems.

5. Evaluation of proposed new systems relative to

the state-of-the-art.

6. Identification of transferable programs and

general methodology.

7. Highlighting of economic factors in selecting

sources for information service.

A draft of this report was sent to the urincipal investigators at the six universities for review and validation

We gratefully acknowledge their cooperation and the

constructive tone of their comments. Where possible we

have included their suggestions as well as updates to

the basic information which was collected in the summer

of 1972.

C. SUMMARY MATRIX :

To assist in an overview of the six systems under studv,

the summary matrix on page 4 was prepared. More detail

can be found in the system reports in Part II.

D. OBSERVATIONS ON THE 6 UNIVERSITY- BASED SYSTEMS : Some common features are:

1. All 6 operate as retail information centers,

providing service to individuals.

2. All primarily serve their campus communities,

although they either do, or plan to, serve

others on a cost-recovery basis.

3. Five of the 6 offer current awareness services;

all 6 offer or plan to offer retrospective

search services in the near future, either

batch or on-line.

4. All use several large commercially available

data bases (although Stanford used only one,

MARC)

5. All use large 3rd generation computer systems.
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6. All, except Stanford, use scientific data bases.

Most started with one of the Chemical Abstract

Services data bases.

7. Four systems are operational. The other 2 have

pilot systems operational.

Some special features worthy of note are:

1. Multidiciplinary data base . Ohio State University has merged 4 large data bases into one and

claims great efficiency.

2. On-Line Profile Negotiation . The University of

Pittsburgh offers on-line profile negotiation

with immediate on-line search of sample data

bases for feedback in redefining the profile.

The University of Georgia, on the other hand,

at present, offers only on-line profile entry

and editing without associated search feedback.

3. Common Internal Format . Most of the systems

convert all their input data bases to some

common internal format so that one set of processing routines services all data bases regardless of contents. Compatibility or convertibility between these formats would enhance networking capabilities.

4

Advanced System Implementation Techniques. The

Stanford SPIRES II system employs a syntax parsing technique together with a list of semantic

processes. A generalized parser recognizes the

user's input commands and executes the commands

by executing the appropriate semantic routines.

Also the parser and the semantic lists are reentrant and therefore may be readily shared by

a number of users. UCLA's system under development employs a modified version of this methodology. These advanced system implementation

techniques permit modular top-down programming.

5. Natural Language Processors . Lehigh's system is

natural-language oriented. The user states his

query in natural English prose, the logical and

syntactic structure of which is analyzed by the

system. The system responds with a list of its

phrases which are the "closest" to the user's

query. The user is thus led on to reformulate

his query (if he is not satisfied with the
system's response) or else is ultimately presented with a list of relevant documents (if he

is satisfied).

Information Specialists , Advances in technology have not diminished the role of the information specialist. Experiences at the Universities of Pittsburgh and Georgia point up the

need for specialist interface between user and

system. The new technology provides better

tools for the information specialist, rather

than replacements for him.

E. OUTLOOK:

Although this report is primarily descriptive and not intended as a comparative evaluation of the six systems,

several broad conclusions are evident regarding the

state-of-the-art and the overall accomplishment reflected

in these systems.

o An apparent benefit of NSF's funding the development of

these university-based systems has been the advancement

of the state-of-the-art in the implementation of information systems and services, and in advanced technology

such as syntax analyzers, automated profile definition,

automatic indexing procedures and thesaurus building.

o Batch-processing system technology (hardware and software) is demonstrably proficient and adequately developed for providing various information services effectively and economically. On-line, interactive technology is

basically established for necessary functions, but rather

less well developed in production effectiveness for accommodating a large and growing user community.

o Since services are provided without direct cost to university users of these systems, it is difficult to project their economic viability in a competitive market.

However, current progress in developing a base of outside paying customers is promising for continued operational evolution of these centers.

o Two contrasting philosophies have arisen regarding the

user interface: one calls for the user to interact with

the system directly; the other calls for an information

specialist as a buffer between the system and the user.

Among the six universities studied, Stanford and Lehigh

are developing systems in line with the first philosophy,

while Ohio State, Georgia, UCLA and Pittsburgh emphasize

more the latter. There is no obvious or simple choice
on this issue, but one can appreciate that a high production environment with a variety of heavily used data

bases puts considerable stress on user training and

assistance through information specialists.

o The technical means of transferring a program or a data

base are still inadequate and irregular. A solution for

achieving greater program transferability involves the

use of higher-level languages that are standardized.

However, the input/output operations that are heavily involved in information system programs are primarily

accomplished by the resident operating system, which introduces machine dependence. Data base transferability

may be enhanced by storing the data definitions along

with the data values. However, the characteristics of

mass storage devices impose various data arrangements,

which limit the effectiveness of this technique as well.

o The close relationships with campus libraries that are

emphasized in most of these systems have established

automated information services as a highly desirable,

perhaps necessary augmentation of traditional library

service. For economy and responsive service, it follows

that each university should have a minimal automated

information system tailored to the needs of its user

community. Such replication of capability among campuses

is not redundant just as the multiplicity of libraries

is not redundant. Techniques need to be worked out,

however, for the equivalent of an inter-library loan

system, i.e., access to data bases and/or services not

available on a home campus. Further study of nationwide cooperative information networking is therefore

indicated.

o Serious criticisms have been raised about the quality of

the data files received by the University centers from

wholesale sources. For example, it was stated by one

center that editing and correcting some data bases costs

as much as the original purchase of the data bases. Data

quality control clearly needs a deeper analysis and perhaps further development at the wholesale level.
Appendix 1

CATEGORICAL DESCRIPTIVE FORMAT

1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION

1.1 Project and Organization Name:

1.2 Brief Statement of Operational Philosophy,

Objectives, System Description, and Services

Offered:

1.3 Historical Background:

1.4 Present Operational Status:

1.5 Future Plans:

2. ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS

2.1 Principal Investigator:

2.2 User Community:

2.3 Documentation:

2.4 Services and Cost:

3. DATA BASES

3.1 Data Base Selection

3.1.1 Requirements and Acquisition Strategy:

3.1.2 Discipline Coverage:

3.2 Data Preparation, Conversion, and Entry (indexing

procedures, data element definition,...):

3.3 Data Base Contents (See also Appendix 2 - DATA BASE

SUPPLIERS)

3.3.1* Data Base (1)* (Brief description including

frequency of issue, size, growth rate,

cost ,...):

4. HARDWARE CONFIGURATION

4 .Main Frame

4.2 Core Size:

4.3 Mass Storage Devices:

4.4 Input Devices:

4.5 Output Devices:

* Repeat this subsection for each data base.

8
5. SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION

5.1 Operating System:

5.2 Operational Environment (dedicated, partitioned,

job mix, . . . )

5.3 Information System

5.3.1 Name and Brief Description:

5.3.2 Source Language:

5.3.3 Mode (for search, maintenance, profile

definition)

5.3.4 Generalized Packages Used:

5.3.5 Availability:

6. COMPUTER PROCESSING FUNCTIONS

6.1 Data Definition:

6.2 Data Maintenance:

6.3 Data Retrieval:

6.4 Data Output:

6.5 Special (Input editing and validation, Back-up,

Restart and Recovery, Data Security, Tutorial,

Browsing, . . . )

7. USER INTERFACE

7.1 Current Awareness Service Available?:

7.1.1 Profile Definition:

7.1.2 Output Form:

7.1.3 Frequency:

7.1.4 Charges:

7.2 Batch Retrospective Search Available?:

7.2.1 Query Formation:

7.2.2 Response Time:

7.2.3 Charges:

7.3 Interactive Retrospective Search Available?:

7.3.1 Query Language:

7.3.2 Training and/or Assistance:

7.3.3 Response Time:

7.3.4 Charges:

7.4 Document Delivery Service Available?:

7.4.1 Form of Delivery:

7.4.2 Charges:

8. TRANSFERABILITY CHARACTERISTICS AND EXPERIENCES

8.1 Software Transferability:

8.2 Data Base Transferability:

8.3 Methodology Transferability:
Appendix 2 DATA BASE SUPPLIERS

1. American Geological Institute

GEO-REF

2. American Institute of Physics

Searchable Physics Information (SPIN)

3. American Society of Civil Engineers

ASCE journal abstracts

4. American Society for Metals

Metal Abstracts Index on Magnetic Tape (METADEX)

5. BioSciences Information Service

Biological Abstract (BA)

Toxitapes (TOXI)

Biosearch Index (BIORI)

6. Chemical Abstract Service

Chemical Title (CT)

CA - Condensates - odd and even issues (CA-C)

Chemical - Biological Activities (CBAC)

7. CCM Information Sciences, Inc.

PANDEX Current Index to Scientific and Technical

Literature (PANDEX)

8. Engineering Index, INC.,

Computerized Engineering Index (COMPENDEX)

Current Information Tapes for Engineers (CITE)

9. ERIC - Office of Education

Research in Education (RIE)

Current Index to Journals in Education (CUE)

10. Institute for Scientific Information

Institute for Scientific Information source tapes (ISI)

11. Library of Congress

MARC tapes (MARC)

12. National Agricultural Library

Cataloging and Indexing System (CAIN)

10
CATEGORICAL DESCRIPTION OF UCLA INFORMATION SYSTEM

Prepared for: Office of Science Information Services

National Science Foundation

Prepared by: Systems Development Division

Institute for Computer Sciences and

Technology

National Bureau of Standards

January 197 3

CONTENTS

1. General Description UCLA- 1

2

Administrative Details 3

3. Data Bases 4

4

Hardware Configuration 7

5 Software Configuration 7

6. Computer Processing Functions g

7User Interface q

8. Transferability Characteristics £

Experiences 11

CATEGORICAL DESCRIPTION OF UCLA INFORMATION SYSTEM

1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION

1.1 Project and Organization Name:

Center for Information Services (CIS), UCLA

Campus Computing Network, University Library and

Institute of Library Research

1.2 Objectives and Operational Philosophy:

The objectives of CIS were stated on page 1 of

their "Phase III - Continuation of A Proposal for

Development of a Center for Information Services"

and are restated here as follows:

(1) CIS should be operational — designed to meet

the daily needs of the University community,

and not simply be a research system or experiment ;

(2) It should be a general-purpose system — able

to accept a wide variety of both existing and

future data and able to satisfy a wide variety

of requests;

(3) It should be adaptable — able to meet unanticipated needs and able to provide feedback

on its operation;

(4) It should be replicative — designed to be

able to be installed in many places;

(5) It should be easy to use -- designed to encourage receptivity and use;

(6) It should be an extension of the Library —

designed so that library personnel can

integrate it into their operation;

(7) It should be designed as a potential node in

an inter-university network.

1.3 Historical Background:

The project started in July 1966. The development plan is defined as follows:

UCLA-1
Phase

IIA

IIB

III

IV

Dates

July 1966-Dec. 1967

July 1969-Dec. 1970

Jan. 1971-June 1972

July 1972-June 1973

July 1973-June 1974

Title

Feasibility and

preliminary specifications

Requirement specification and basic

design

Detailed design and

prototype development

Prototype operation

and system completion

Implementation and

evaluation of services

Phase I exploratory work has been done by the

Institute of Library Research. NSF/OSIS awarded

Phase IIA of this grant in July 1969 to initiate

development of a "Center for Information Services"

on the UCLA Campus.

Phase IIA goals were to develop specifications for

the Center, programs for the use of multiple data

bases, and experimental experience with mechanized

information services. Results are documented in

the seven-part Phase IIA Final Report. Phase IIA

was performed under the auspices of the Institute

of Library Research with the joint participation

of the Institute, the Campus Computing Network

(CCN), and the University Library.

Phase IIB responsibility was awarded to the Campus

Computing Network, as planned, when task emphasis

changed to detailed program specifications and

design, prototype development, and the offering of

experimental data base services using interim software. Joint participation continues with the

Institute principally concerned with coordination,

documentation, reporting, test and evaluation, and

the user interface. Basic Library concerns include service aspects, development of procedures,

and acquisition of data bases. After Phase III

installation and shakedown, project responsibility

will then be transferred to the University Library

UCLA-2
for system operation, evaluation, and maintenance,

with CCN and Institute support.

l.M- Present Operational Status:

As of January 1973, CIS was in Phase III, prototype

operation and system completion.

1.5 Future Plans:

Future plans consist of the implementation of

Phase III and Phase IV. For Phase III tasks, the

Library and CCN will jointly operate the prototype

Information Processing System (IPS) while the

remainder of the software system is completed, and

procedures for the fully operational CIS are developed. Phase IV begins on July 1, 1973 with the

formal transfer of responsibility for the CIS

project from CCN to the Library. The major task

for this phase will be to accomplish the transition from a developmental project to a smoothrunning operational service. Additional software

services for users will be added based upon users'

experiences and requests, and the IPS will be

tuned as needed to insure an efficient, cost

effective operation.

2. ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS

2.1 Principal Investigator:

William B. Kehl , Director

Campus Computing Network

UCLA, Los Angeles, California

(213) 825-7511

2.2 User Community:

The university community.

2.3 Documentation:

(1) Phase IIA Final Report. Center for Information Services Detailed Systems Design and

Programming. NSF Grant GN-8 27. March 1,

1971. Institute of Library Research, UCLA.

(2) Watson, P. G., and Briggs , R. B. , "Computerized Information Services for the University

Community." In: Information Storage and

Retrieval, Vol. 8, pp. 21-33. Pergamon Press

1972.

UCLA(3) Phase III, Continuation of a Proposal for

Development of a Center for Information

Services, a joint project of the: Campus

Computing Network, University Library and

Institute of Library Research, UCLA.

(4) Guide for Preparing TEXT-PAC Profiles, Center

for Information Services; a joint project of

the Campus Computing Network, University

Library, and Institute of Library Research,

UCLA.

(5) Supplemental Guide: Preparing TEXT-PAC Profiles for the CA-Condensates Pile, Center for

Information Services, a joint project of the

Campus Computing Network, University Library,

and Institute of Library Research, UCLA.

(6) Annual Report, Institute of Library Research

UCLA, July 1970 - June 1971.

2.4 Services and Costs:

At present, CIS is just providing current awareness

services, but retrospective searches will be available by the fall of 1972. Now services are free,

but plans call for charging non-University of

California subscribers, beginning early in 1973.

DATA BASES

3.1 Data Base Selection:

3.1.1 Requirement and Acquisition Strategy:

The data base acquisition problem was

carefully considered during Phase IIA. A

number of user committees were established

not only to provide information, guidance,

and support, but also to participate

actively in data base selection and experimental utilization. The user committees

are discussed on page 24, Part 4 of Phase

IIA, Pinal Report, "Development Scheduling

and Planning" by Robert L. Carmichael,

dated April, 1971.

The requirements were not only to provide

current awareness service to mechanized

data bases, but also to be capable of

processing small private data bases. The

data is not restricted to bibliographies

but includes numerical data such as census

tapes and full text files.

UCLA-4
3.1.2 Discipline Coverage:

The primary data bases cover scientific and

technical disciplines, and include CAIN,

COMPENDEX, CA-Condensates, ERIC files, and

Biological Abstracts. They are considering

acquisition of APA, INSPEC, and maybe MARC

and Food Service and Technology Abstracts.

3.2 Data Preparation, Conversion and Entry:

Data is processed in the format in which it is received; it is not converted to a common format.

Extract routines resolve incompatibilities between

file data formats and program data formats at data

access time.

3.3 Data Base Contents:

The following are the data bases available through

the current awareness services using interim software (IBM's TEXT-PAC).

3.3.1 Data Base (1): CA-Condensates (odd and even

issues). Ca-Condensates is the computer

searchable complement to the printed publication, Chemical Abstracts (CA), which

covers the full range of chemistry, referencing 250,000 articles per year.

CA-Condensates is issued weekly; the content

corresponds to the issue of CA. The tape

version, CA-Condensates, precedes the corresponding printed issue of CA by several

weeks due to the time required to print,

bind, and distribute CA printed issues.

The abstracts in CA and CA-Condensates are

grouped into five categories: Biochemistry,

Organic Chemistry, Macro-molecular Chemistry, Applied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and Physical and Analytical Chemistry. The first two groupings are published as an odd numbered issue one week, and

the last three groupings are published as an

even numbered issue the following week.

The UCLA collection started Jan. 1971.

There are 123 profiles for the even issues

and 20*+ profiles for the odd issues and

currently 149 users are served.

3.3.2 Data Base (2): Cataloging and Indexing

System (CAIN). The Cain file, issued

UCLAmonthly by the National Agricultural Library, contains bibliographic data on

journal articles and monographs encompassing

the broad field of agriculture, including

agricultural economics and rural sociology,

agricultural products, animal industry,

engineering, entomology, food and human

nutrition, forestry, pesticides, plant

science, soils and fertilizers, and other

related subjects, previously included in

the Bibliography of Agriculture, the

National Agricultural Library Monthly

Catalog, and the Pesticides Documentation

Bulletin. All references cited in the

American Bibliography of Agricultural

Economics, a publication issued by the

American Agricultural Economic Association

beginning February 1970, are also included.

The UCLA collection started January 1972

when the University of California at Davis

subscribed to the file and elected to have

the processing done by CIS. There are

currently 110 profiles and 99 users.

3.3.3 Data Base (3): Computerized Engineering

Index (COMPENDEX). COMPENDEX, issued

monthly by Engineering Index, Inc., is the

computer-readable version of the printed

publication, Engineering Index Monthly,

which contains references spanning all

engineering disciplines. These references

are taken from professional and trade

journals, publications of engineering

organizations, papers from conferences and

symposiums, and books and other documents.

The UCLA collection started January 1972

and service started April 1972. There are

currently 43 profiles and 31 users.

3.3.4 Data Base (4): Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC). Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) is a

nation-wide information network for acquiring, selecting, abstracting, indexing,

storing, retrieving, and disseminating the

most significant and timely educational research reports and projects. It is a project of the U. S. Office of Education, and

produces two data bases, RIE (Research in

Education) and CUE (Current Index to

UCLAJournals in Education). RIE and CUE are

produced monthly as printed publications

and quarterly on magnetic tape.

At UCLA back issues of RIE are available

from 1966 and back issues of CUE are

available from 1969. Service started in

April 1972, both having 49 profiles and 40

users.

4. HARDWARE CONFIGURATION

4.1 Main Frame: IBM 360/91

4.2 Core Size: 250-300K partition

4.3 Mass Storage Devices - Tapes

4.4 Input Devices: Tapes, card reader, consoles (CRT,

TTY, 2741), RJS (Remote Job Service) stations

4.5 Output Devices: Tapes, printers, consoles (CRT,

TTY, 2741), RJS Stations.

5. SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION

5.1 Operating System:

IBM OS/360 MVT. (TSO optional)

5.2 Operational Environment:

The UCLA Campus Computing Network's facilities may

be accessed through a number of batch and interactive systems which include APL, ARPA Network

access, RJS (Remote Job Service), Quickrun (primarily for fast turnaround of student jobs), OLMS

(On-line Mathematical System, a version of the

Culler-Fried System), TSO (IBM's time-sharing

option), and URSA (A conversational, CRT display

oriented, job entry system with powerful file and

utility operations). The IPS will operate either

as a batch process or under TSO which allows it to

have interactive capabilities.

5.3 Information System:

5.3.1 Name and Brief Description:

The software system under development is

known as the Information Processing System

(IPS). It is designed to be a multiservice, multi-data base program having

both batch and interactive facilities. It

UCLAconsists of four principal sets of programs: a monitor, an analyzer, a set of

input/output (I/O) routines, and the

services that perform the actual work on

the data base.

The I/O routines form an interface between

the data base and the service programs,

thus allowing the service programs to be

format independent. A particular service

program can operate on any data base provided the appropriate I/O routines have

been selected. This approach allows

additional format-independent service programs to be freely created and added to

the system. A new data base format can be

processed by adding appropriate I/O

routines to the system.

5.3.2 Source Language:

Primarily in assembly code with a little

PL/1

5.3.3 Mode:

The system may be run in either a batch or

interactive mode. When operating in the

interactive mode, an autobatch facility

will automatically queue for batch processing those jobs requiring lengthy computation and/or files not normally kept

on-line to the computer.

5.3.4 Generalized Packages Used:

The IPS is itself a generalized information

processing system. (The interim system

uses IBM's TEXT-PAC).

5.3.5 Availability:

The IPS will be available from UCLA but

arrangements have not been worked out yet.

6. COMPUTER PROCESSING FUNCTIONS

6.1 Data definition:

An I/O package is dynamically configured for a

given file based on tables describing the service

programs' requirements and the format of the

selected data sets. External data definition

consists of preparing these tables and cataloging

them within the system.

UCLA6.2 Data Maintenance:

Maintenance for data bases acquired from suppliers

consists only of adding new records. For locally

developed data bases, maintenance is handled via

an IPS service.

6.3 Data Retrieval:

Data retrieval is handled first by the " Analyzer"

,

which analyzes a user request, determining the

data paths, and then setting up the parameter

lists for the "service" routines and the I/O

package generated.

6.4 Data Output:

The formats for data output are generated in the

same manner as for input (see Section 6.1 above).

6.5 Special:

(1) Own-Code facility will allow a user to write

a PL/1 program to be run under the IPS, e.g.

as a subservice.

(2) Autobatch facility will automatically queue

for batch processing those jobs requiring

lengthy computation and/or files not normally

kept on-line to the computer.

(3) File sharing facility will provide the ability for multiple, independent, IPS services

to operate on the same largescale sequential

data file during a single pass.

(4) IPS will contain a set of accounting and

stat is tics- gathering capabilities

7. USER INTERFACE

7.1 Current Awareness Service Available? Yes with

interim software. (IBM's TEXT-PAC).

7.1.1 Profile Definition:

For the interim current awareness service,

reference librarians serve as profile

analysts to assist users with preparing

profiles. The profiles are then entered

and updated via an interactive URSA processor. Syntax checking is performed by a

batch program.

For the IPS, interactive profile negotiation with immediate syntax checking will be

available. Text searches against an onUCLA-9
line sample data base are planned for the

future.

7.1.2 Output Form:

Under the interim system, only computer

printouts are available. Entries are

separated by dashed lines. Limited

information on the profile term(s) that

caused the hit is provided.

For the IPS, users can specify the desired

output format and medium, including CRT

display or transmission to a remote site

via an existing network.

7.1.3 Frequency:

Quarterly, monthly, biweekly, or weekly,

depending upon the frequency of issue of

the data base.

7.1.4 Charges:

Free to the university users.

7.2 Batch Retrospective Search Available? Yes. The

retrospective searches were only run occasionally

during Phase IIB and usually only to bring a user

up-to-date on his current awareness searches. A

regularly scheduled retrospective service will

begin early in Phase III.

7.3 Interactive Retrospective Search Available?

Planned for the future.

7.4 Document Delivery Service Available? No. An

experiment on this aspect is planned for Phase

III.

7.4.1 Form of Delivery:

A user will receive, along with the list of

citations, a list of document reference

numbers. He may then check the numbers of

any documents which he wants to see and

return the list to CIS; documents will then

be delivered to him by project staff.

7.4.2 Charges:

Cost of any Xeroxing.

UCLA-10
8. TRANSFERABILITY CHARACTERISTICS AND EXPERIENCE

8.1 Software Transferability:

The interim software is a generalized package

developed by IBM called TEXT-PAC. It consists of

Assembly language programs and could be transferred with little effort to other IBM machines.

The IPS will be transferable to an IBM S/360

Model 50 or above with at least 500K bytes of

storage; or to an IBM S/370 Model 145 or above

with virtual memory. The system will operate

optimally when run under OS MVT with TSO (or

OS/VS2; it will, However, operate batch only,

under OS MFT.

8.2 Data Base Transferability:

The search tapes for the interim system are conveniently usable only at another site running

TEXT-PAC on IBM equipment.

No restrictions on data base transferability will

be present when the IPS is operational because

the tapes will remain in the supplier's format.

8.3 Methodology Transferability:

The format-independent approach to process multiple data bases may turn out to be a noteworthy

addition to the state-of-the-art.

The open-ended design of the IPS by defining service calls and implementing service routines is a

methodology worth noting.

UCLA is experimenting with original document

delivery service. They are facing some administrative problems such as copyright. UCLA is also

performing an analysis of journals cited in comparison to holdings.

UCLA library has a very systematic library acquisition and cataloging procedure for their machinereadable data files. Detail is described on page

12 of "Phase III - Continuation of a Proposal for

Development of a Center for Information Services."

UCLA-11

CATEGORICAL DESCRIPTION OF

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA INFORMATION CENTER

Prepared for: Office of Science Information Services

National Science Foundation

Prepared by: Systems Development Division

Institute for Computer Sciences and

Technology

National Bureau of Standards

January 19 7 3

CONTENTS

1. General Description UGA- 1

2

Administrative Details 2

3. Data Bases 5

4

Hardware Configuration 11

5

Software Configuration 12

6

Computer Processing Functions 14

7. User Interface 15

8. Transferability Characteristics S Experiences .... 17

CATEGORICAL DESCRIPTION OF

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA INFORMATION CENTER

1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION

1.1 Project and Organization Name:

University of Georgia Information Center

1.2 Objectives and Operational Philosophy:

The University of Georgia Information Center is

designed to serve primarily the faculty, research

staff and graduate students in the Georgia University System, although it also provides services, on

a cost-recovery basis, to other academic institutions, government agencies and commercial organizations. It operates within the Computer Center

and is considered by the University administration

as an extension to the traditional library services

normally available. For subject areas in which

bibliographic data bases are available in computerreadable form, the Information Center assists University personnel by performing a computer search

for bibliographic references pertinent to the researcher's interests.

The system has been designed primarily for large

volume search operations. The search segment of

the system is batch-oriented but it provides for

on-line data entry of search profiles. Both current awareness and retrospective searches are

available on all operating data bases.

The Computer Center also provides the personnel and

computer resources necessary to support this program in terms of software development of the necessary computer systems. The Information Center is

service-oriented toward the provision of search

services; applied research and development tasks

are pursued only to the extent that such activities

directly support the extension of service facilities. There is no formal connection between the

Information Center and the University Library; however, there is a close, cooperative working relationship between the staffs of the two organizations. The Library has absorbed the increased workload of supplying original documents which has resulted from the computer search services.

UGA-1
1.3 Historical Background:

Early in 1966 the University of Georgia began a

program to introduce computer-based information

services for the faculty and staff on the campus.

The program was instituted by the Computer Center

with the administrative and financial support of

the office of the Vice President for Research for

the University. Initially, the service was limited to current awareness searches against one data

base in the area of biochemistry, and users of the

search service were asked to do their profile construction. The system has grown from 20 profiles

on one data base in May 196 8, through 300 users

with 2000 profiles on 14 data bases in August 1970,

to some 900 users with 4400 profiles on 18 data

bases in June 1972. Retrospective search capabilities have been added and services have been

extended beyond the University of Georgia campus

to include all 26 schools in the University System

of Georgia, as well as other universities and

colleges, government agencies, and industries

throughout the United States.

1.4 Present Operational Status:

The University of Georgia Information Center is

currently operational. As of June 1972, it was

serving some 900 users, mostly in the UGA System,

with current awareness and retrospective searches

on 18 data bases.

1.5 Future Plans:

a) Expansion of the search services and user

community of the Information Center.

b) Development and evaluation of an experimental

information dissemination network with the

University of Pittsburgh.

c) Developmental work on chemical structure data

bases.

2. ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS

2.1 Principal Investigator:

Dr. James Carmon

Director of Computer Center

University of Georgia

Athens, Georgia 30601

(404) 542-3106

UGA2.2 User Community:

The following statistics on UGA users are from the

1970-71 annual report to NSF referenced in Section

2.5 below.

Classification of Center Users by Type

Type of User FY '71

University System of Georgia 840

Commercial Users 44

Academic Institutions 9

Experimental Users 4

Total: M7

Geographic Location of Users

University System of Georgia

Athens (UGA) 796

Other Georgia Institutions 44

Commercial

Northwest

West and Southwest 3 Central 3

South and Southeast 21

North and Northeast 14

Europe 2 Academic

Northwest

West and Southwest 4

Central 1

South and Southeast 2 North and Northeast 2

2.3 Documentation:

1. Final Report to NSF on Grant GN-851 to Expand

the University of Georgia Information Center,

Oct. 1, 1969 - Sept. 30, 1972.

2. Annual Report to NSF on Grant GN-8 51 to Expand

the University of Georgia Information Center,

Oct. 1, 1970 - Sept. 30, 1971.

3. Annual Report to NSF on Grant GN-851 to Expand

the University of Georgia Information Center,

Oct. 1, 1969 - Sept. 30, 1970.

UGA4. UGA Text Search System, System Description

and Program Documentation.

5. UGA Text Search System, Data Base Description

and Conversion Programs.

6. UGA Text Search System, Operations Manual.

7. Profile coding and management manual for the

University of Georgia Text Search System.

2.4 Services and Costs: (Prices cited are for FY--72.

The pricing structure for outside use is reviewed

annually on a July fiscal year basis.)

Documentation Price - $100.00

Program Price - $4,000

Services free to members of the Georgia University

System. Prices to others are:

Current Awareness Service

Price per profile per issue

Data Base Price

CA- Condensates

odd and even $10.

odd or even only 5.

Chemical Titles 5.

Chemical-Biological Activities 5.

Biological Abstracts

BA 5.

BIORI 5.

Nuclear Science Abstracts 5.

Compendex 5.

Retrospective Search Service

Price per search

Data Base Volume* Price Year

CA- Condensates

odd and even $ 70. $140.

odd or even only 35. 70.

BA-Previews

BA and BIORI 105 105

BA only 70 70

UGABIORI only $ 35. $ 35.

CBAC 35. 70.

CT 70. 70.

Compendex 70. 70.

NSA 70. 70.

RIE (through 1970) 75.

CUE 35. 35.

* Volumes correspond to the publishers' printed

publication volumes.

3. DATA BASES

3.1 Data Base Selection

3.1.1 Requirements and Acquisition Strategy:

New data bases will be added as user groups

large enough to justify services to them are

identified. In order to make the service

useful to the widest segment possible in

the University community, the basic guideline for extension has been to increase the

number and scope of the available search

services to as many subject areas or

disciplines as possible.

3.1.2 Discipline Coverage:

The subject fields covered were initially

heavily oriented towards biology, chemistry,

and biochemistry. Areas added include

engineering, physics, geology, medicine,

agriculture and education. Some interdisciplinary data bases are also included.

3.2 Data Preparation, Conversion and Entry:

All data bases received by the Center are converted

by Computer program to Standard File Format (SFF)

for search with the UGA Text Search System. The

search programs have been written for the SFF file

structure itself and are essentially independent

of any specific data contained in the file. All

programs use a common set of tables for data element identification numbers and their corresponding

characteristics. Any new data base can be added

to the system by converting its format to SFF and

by adding to the data element tables any new types

of data contained in that file. Conversion programs are written for each new data base. An

estimated two weeks is required for writing each

program. No indexing or abstracting is done.

UGAThe data elements are those provided by the data

base supplier.

3.3 Data Base Contents:

The total number of records available in SFF and

being searched routinely by the Center at the end

of FY f 71 was over 2.8 million documents. The

growth rate of records for currently received

data bases (i.e., those used for current awareness)

is approximately 750,000 per year.

The size of the retrospective collection by data

base as of July 1, 1971 is summarized below.

Descriptions of the data bases follow.

Data Base No. SFF Documents

BA 315,656

BIORI 219,999

CA-C 779,675

CAIN 131,761

CBAC 9 0,95 6

CUE 31,639

CITE 18,162

CT 782,075

COMPENDEX 131,067

GEOL 7,321

NSA 2 5 5,892

RIE 44,080

SPIN 22,382

TOXI 6,604

2,837,269

3.3.1 Data Base (1): Chemical-Biological

Activities (CBAC)

CBAC provides up-to-date coverage of published work concerned with the interaction

of organic compounds (drugs, pesticides,

etc.) with biological systems (man and

other plants and animals). Also covered

are metabolism studies and studies of

in-vitro chemical reactions of biochemical

interests. Nearly 700 journals are monitored. CBAC is a consolidated source of

information in the chemical-biological

field, and especially appeals to scientists

involved in biochemical and physiological

research.

The tape version of CBAC corresponds to the

Chemical-Biological Activities hard-copy

UGA-6
version; however, tape issues are usually

available two-four weeks ahead of the

printed copy. Each issue contains 500-600

digests.

3.3.2 Data Base (2): Chemical Titles (CT)

CT , which is issued by Chemical Abstracts

Service, contains journal references to

approximately 4,500 articles per issue

appearing in 650 important U. S. and nonU. S. chemical and chemical engineering

journals. Titles that appear in CT represent over 65% of the total abstracts that

later appear in Chemical Abstracts. Chemical Titles offers journal references to

articles approximately 70 days before their

abstracts are published in Chemical Abstracts. In many cases titles appear in

Chemical Titles before the journal containing the article is published. Thus Chemical

Titles is valuable as an alerting service.

3.3.3 Data Base (3): CA-Condensates (CA-C)

CA-C is the computer searchable complement

to the printed publication, Chemical Abstracts (CA), which covers the full range

of chemistry, referencing 250,000 articles

per year.

CA-Condensates is issued weekly; the content

corresponds to an issue of CA. The tape

version, CA-Condensates, precedes the corresponding printed issue of CA by several

weeks due to the time required to print,

bind, and distribute CA printed issues.

The abstracts in CA and CA-Condensates are

grouped into five categories: Biochemistry,

Organic Chemistry, Macro-moleculer Chemistry, Applied Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and Physical and Analytical Chemistry. The first two groupings are published as an odd numbered issue one week,

and the last three groupings are published

as an even numbered issue the following

week. Searches may be limited to odd or

even numbered issues if desired.

UGA-7
3.3.4 Data Base (4): Nuclear Science Abstracts

(NSA). NSA, published semi-monthly by the

U. S. Atomic Energy Commission, provides

international coverage of the literature on

nuclear science and technology. Publications include the scientific and technical

reports of the USAEC and its contractors,

other government agencies, universities,

industrial and research organizations as

well as patents, books and journal literature on a world-wide basis.

The subject matter coverage of NSA includes

nuclear chemistry, and physics, instrumentation, reactor technology, engineering,

earth science and life science.

3.3.5 Data Base (5): Bioresearch Index (BIORI)

The tape version of Bioresearch Index

(BIORI) corresponds in coverage to the

printed copy of this BioScience Information

Service of Biological Abstracts. BIORI,

published monthly with more than 7,00

titles, includes research reports from

symposia, congresses, conferences, reports,

bulletins, etc. in which biology is the main

emphasis. Biological research papers of a

more applied nature are covered, also, in

BIORI. Coverage is not duplicated in BA.

The tape version of BIORI precedes the

printed issue of BIORI by several weeks due

to the time required to print, bind and

distribute BIORI hard copy.

3.3.6 Data Base (6): Biological Abstracts (BA)

The tape version of Biological Abstracts

(BA) corresponds in coverage to the printed

copy of this BioScience Information Service

(BIOSIS) - more than 7,000 journals per

year producing more than 2 00,000 abstracts

per year. BA issues, containing more than

5,600 titles, are published semi-monthly and

chiefly contain abstracts of research papers

in biology published in monthly periodicals.

Information covered reflects basic research

in biology. The tape version of BA precedes the printed issue of BA by several

weeks due to the time required to print,

bind and distribute BA hard copy.

UGA-8
3.3.7 Data Base (7): Educational Resources

Information Center (ERIC). Educational

Resources Information Center (ERIC) is a

nation-wide information network for acquiring, selecting, abstracting, indexing,

storing, retrieving, and disseminating the

most significant and timely educational

research reports and projects.

The ERIC program has two component parts:

Research in Education (RIE), and Current

Index to Journals in Education (CUE).

RIE is a monthly abstract journal announcing

recently completed research and researchrelated projects in the field of education.

The magnetic tape data base is issued quarterly.

CUE is devoted exclusively to periodical

literature, providing detailed indexing for

articles in over 500 educational journals.

CUE is a companion to RIE. The printed

publication is issued monthly and the computer readable data base quarterly.

3.3.8 Data Base (8): Cataloging and Indexing

System (CAIN). The CAIN file, issued

monthly by the National Agricultural

Library, contains bibliographic data

encompassing the broad field of agriculture,

including agricultural economics and rural

sociology, agricultural products, animal

industry, engineering, entomology, food and

human nutrition, forestry, pesticides,

plant science, soils and fertilizers, and

other related subjects, previously included

in the Bibliography of Agriculture, the

National Agricultural Library Monthly Catalog, and the Pesticides Documentation Bulletin. All references cited in the American

Bibliography of Agricultural Economics, a

publication issued by the American Agricultural Economic Association beginning February 1970, are also included.

3.3.9 Data Base (9): Computerized Engineering

Index (COMPENDEX). COMPENDEX, issued

monthly by Engineering Index, Inc., is the

computer-readable version of the printed

publication, Engineering Index Monthly,

UGA-9
which contains references spanning all engineering disciplines. These references are

taken from professional and trade journals,

publications of engineering organizations,

papers from conferences and symposiums, and

books and other documents.

3.3.10 Data Base (10): U. S. Gov. R&D Reports

(USGRDR). USGRDR tapes cover the government reports issued by the National Technical Information Service. This data base has

recently been renamed Government Report

Announcements (GRA).

3.3.11 Data Base (11): Searchable Physics Information Notices (SPIN). SPIN tapes are

issued by the American Institute of Physics

and contains bibliographic citations to the

physics literature.

3.3.12 Data Base (12): Toxitapes, (TOXI). The

Toxitapes data base is a machine-readable

file, containing bibliographic data and

index entries for toxicology literature

selected in large part but not exclusively

from that announced in Biological Abstracts

(BA). The items are categorized as

industrial and/or pharmaceutical, with

approximately 2000 document entries for each

of three update tapes, giving a total file

size of 6000 documents.

(The Georgia Information Center entered into

an agreement with BioSciences Information

Service (BIOSIS) in 1971 to participate in

the Toxitapes Experimental Project. Under

this agreement Georgia installed the Toxitapes for search using the UGA Text Search

System and provided a report to BIOSIS on

their use.

)

3.3.13 Data Base (13): GEO

GEO is a bibliographic file of North American Geology from the U. S. Geological

Survey.

3.3.14 Data Base (14): Current Information Tapes

for Engineers (CITE). CITE, issed by Engineering Index, Inc. , covers applications

technology in Plastics and Electrical/

Electronics Engineering from 300 journals.

UGA- 10
The tape records include a searchable segment (index terms) and a display segment

(citation, title, author). Abstracts are

not a part of the tape record, but are

available in hard copy and microfiche.

3.3.15 Data Base (15): Geological Reference File

(GEO-REF). GEO-REF, issued by the American

Geological Institute, covers the earth

sciences, including marine geology, geochemistry, geochronology , geohydrology , geomorphology, etc. There are 1,3 00 journals

reviewed and an average of 7 index terms

assigned each entry. The records include

author, title, journal title, publication

dates, UDC number, and index terms. Tapes

are issued monthly.

3.3.16 Data Base (16): Geophysical Abstracts (GPA)

GPA is being converted to Standard File

Format for search.

3.3.17 Data Base (17): Sociological Abstracts

Although not funded by the NSF grant, the

UGA Information Center is converting

Sociological Abstracts to machine-readable

form in a cooperative project with the publisher of this abstracting and indexing

service.

HARDWARE CONFIGURATION

(The following hardware configuration description contains specifications for the UGA Text Search System

which operates within the UGA installation configuration.

The CDC 6400-coupled system is listed since the UT 200

remote printer operates from this computer; search output is automatically routed to this computer.

The complete installation configurations are available

on request from UGA.

)

4.1 Main Frame:

IBM 360 Model 65

(coupled to CDC 6400)

4.2 Core Size:

Minimum 8 6K high speed core and 10 OK Large

Core Storage (LCS) bulk core (Georgia is running

UGA- 11
with 150-350K high speed and 144K LCS bulk core)

4.3 Mass Storage Devices:

2 9-tr tape drives

1 7-tr tape drive (optional)

2 spindles 2314-equivalent Direct Access Storage

Device (varies with volume)

1 drum (optional)

bulk core as described above

4.4 Input Devices

IBM 2260, Uniscope 100, Datapoint 3300 CRT terminals.

4.5 Output Devices:

Same as input devices; IBM 2780, UT 200, and U

9200 remote printers; on-line printers attached to

both the 360/65 and the 6400; and off-line printers

(IBM 1401s).

SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION

5.1 Operating System:

IBM OS, MVT with HASP

5.2 Operational Environment:

All large production jobs, including all searches

and conversions, are scheduled on the third shift

on the IBM 360/65. Short jobs (less than 5 minutes CPU time) are run in the regular batch job

stream during the first two shifts.

Current awareness searches on single issues of the

various data bases are converted the same day they

are received; the original tape serves as the backup. The search for that issue is run the following

night. Upon completion of the current awareness

search, the issue is concatenated with the previous

issues for that volume, for the retrospective data

base.

Retrospective searches are scheduled over a twoweek period. That is, the first volumes of several

data bases are scheduled for Monday night of the

first week, the next volumes, Tuesday, etc., in

order to distribute the search load evenly over

the two week period. Jobs which must be rerun due

to abends or other problems are scheduled for weekends unless they can be worked into the nightly

schedule.

In FY '71, 557 hours of 360/65 CPU time were

UGA-12
expended on Information Center production work plus

8 hours on research and development work. In

addition, 90 hours per month were logged on 1401

computers which are used routinely to print search

results

5.3 Information System:

5.3.1 The Text Search System developed and installed at the University of Georgia Computer Center was designed as a generalized

free text retrieval system. The heart of

the system is the UGA Text Search retrieval

module, developed in 1970. It operates in

a batch-mode on data in SFF, the Standard

File Format, first developed at the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS). The system

is optimized for the 360, is directoryoriented, table-driven, and operates on

variable length records. It uses many CAS

macros. Tapes are received from CAS in SDF

(Standard Distribution Format) and are converted to SFF on input. Other data bases

are also converted to SFF. At the front

end of Text Search is an on-line profile

creation and maintenance module, OPIUM.

This prepares user profiles for SDI current

awareness searches and retrospective

searches. The total system is a combination

of on-line profile management and batch retrieval.

Capabilities and features of the system

include

On-line profile input and update system

Character-by-character match technique

Left and right term truncation

Threshold weighting

All data elements are searchable

Optional card, paper, or tape output

Uses sequential tape data base files

Generalized file format

Table-driven programs

5.3.2 Source Language:

The major programs are written in 3 60 BAL

with utility and conversion programs written

in PL/1.

UGA- 13
5.3.3 Mode:

Batch retrieval.

On-line profile negotiation and maintenance.

5.3.4 Generalized Packages Used:

The Text-Search System is itself a generalized retrieval system.

5.3.5 Availability:

The program, including data conversion

modules, is available for $4000. The documentation price is $100.

6. COMPUTER PROCESSING FUNCTIONS

6.1 Data Definition:

All bibliographic text data bases received by the

Center are converted to SFF by conversion programs

written for this purpose. Most of the conversion

programs do extensive editing and reformatting of

the data in addition to changing the file format

to SFF. These are individual programs for each

data base, written in PL/1.

There are two types of data elements - Left-anchored elements are those types of data for which

the format and context are precisely defined. The

free text elements are free vocabulary fields in

which the context and format are uncontrolled,

i.e., abstracts, digests, free-vocabularv inHex

terms and article titles.

6.2 Data Maintenance:

As new tapes are received from the data base

suppliers, they are converted by program to SFF.

The original issue is retained until after verification of the conversion results and completion

of the current awareness search. Both the original

tape from the supplier and the converted SFF tape

are then concatenated with previous issues to create retrospective volumes for both the original

and converted files.

6.3 Data Retrieval:

The Search Program is the heart of the system, and

it is designed to operate on Standard File Format

data files. Inputs to the program are the profile

file and the data base file. The Search Program

is table-driven with respect to the data elements,

so it references a direct access file of the data

elements and their acronyms, identification

UGA-14
numbers, and storage modes. This table, stored as

a macro on a private library is recreated or updated as necessary. Output of the Search Program

is a tape file of the profiles and the citations

which satisfied the search logic, a statistics

report on computer time and core utilization for

the run, and diagnostics for any errors detected

in the profiles.

6.4 Data Output:

Version 2 of the Text Search System, which has been

operational since the last quarter of 1971, provides generalized facilities for user-specified

output format, content, and media. Normal output

in the UGA center is 8 1/2 x 11" narrow paper or

4 x 6" card stock or 11 x 14" wide paper. Remote

sites specify their own format. Content can be

any combination and arrangement of any data elements contained in the data base. Media include

printed or magnetic tape or Direct Access Storage

Devices (the latter for remote sites).

6.5 Special:

Profile Management, which is the input portion of

the system, uses an on-line, interactive program

operating from cathode ray tube (CRT) terminals.

Weighting of search terms (cumulative, non-cumulative and threshold) is a system feature.

At least one backup tape is maintained on all data

base tapes.

7. USER INTERFACE

7.1 Current Awareness Service Available?: Yes

7.1.1 Profile Definition:

Information Center staff perform the construction and coding of search profiles

after interviewing the customer. The

search profiles are entered and updated via

an on-line interactive system using CRT

terminals. Syntax editing of the profile

is done immediately by the computer, with

diagnostics returned to the operator of the

terminal. The profiles include identification number, threshold weights, Boolean

expressions and search terms. There is a

maximum of 240 terms per profile. Profile

updates are performed as requested.

UGA- 15
7.1.2 Output Form:

Standard current awareness and retrospective

search output consists of 8 1/2 x 11 paper

or cards. The reference contains the title,

primary bibliographic citation and any index

terms or codes included on the tape. Special output is available on request.

7.1.3 Frequency:

See Table in Section 7.1.4 below.

7.1.4 Charges:

Within the University of Georgia System,

Information Center services are considered

an overhead item, and are therefore free to

university personnel. Searches for others

are priced on a cost-recovery basis.

The prices are established on a per-profile

per-search run basis. For current awareness

searches the price is per-profile per-issue

of the data base. For retrospective searches the prices are set on a per-profile pervolume searched basis. Each data base is

searched separately, so that one profile

searched against two data bases would be

invoiced as the sum of the prices for the

two files. Partially completed volumes

within the current year are billed at the

current awareness price (i.e., the issue

price times the number of issues in the

partial volume).

Commercial and academic users are billed by

itemized statement monthly. Searches may

be entered or discontinued at any time without penalty.

Subscription discounts are available for

organizations who anticipate a large volume

of use. In order to obtain the discount

the organization must guarantee the minimum

subscription. Unused balances are not

refundable. Discounts are 5% for subscriptions in the range $2000-$4999 per year,

10% for $5000-$9999, and 15% for $10,000

and above.

UGA-16
Frequency

of Updates

Price

to

Org

per Profile

Commercial

anizations

semimonthly

monthly

weekly

monthly

biweekly

monthly

$ 7

7

7 10

5 10

quarterly

monthly

semimonthly

quarterly

monthly

semimonthly

57

5

5

55

CURRENT AWARENESS SEARCHES

(July 1971 - June 1972)

Data Base

Biological Abstracts (BA)

BioResearch Index (BIORI)

CA-Condensates (CA)*

CAIN

Chem.-Biol. Act. (CBAC)

Compendex

Current Index to

Journals in Ed. (CUE)

GEO-REF

Nuclear Sci. Absts.

Research in Ed. (RIE)

SPIN

USGRDR

"Odd-numbered or even-numbered issues only may be

specified.

7.2 Batch Retrospective Search Available?: Yes

7.2.1 Query Formation: The language is the same

as for profile definition. Required elements are profile number, threshold weight,

Boolean expressions, and at least one

search term.

7.2.2 Response Time:

Two or three week turn around schedule.

7.2.3 Charges:

See Sections 2.4 and 7.1.4

7.3 Interactive Retrospective Search Available?: No

7.4 Document Delivery Service Available?: No

8. TRANSFERABILITY CHARACTERISTICS AND EXPERIENCE

8.1 Software Transferability:

The University of Georgia Information Center has

experience both as the receiver and donor of software. The Standard File Format (SFF) developed

by Chemical Abstracts Service for use in their

own internal processing system was the file

UGA-17
structure chosen for the UGA system. Several subroutine packages developed at CAS are incorporated

into Text Search. The UGA Information System and

its documentation are available for purchase.

Information on the use of the system at other installations is not available.

Data Base Transferability:

All the data bases used in the Center have been

purchased (transferred) from suppliers and converted to a single uniform file structure, SFF,

which was developed at CAS. These conversion

programs are available as part of the software

system.

Methodology Transferability:

The University of Georgia has conducted 90 presentations and on-line demonstrations of its system

in FY '71, as well as 32 University of Georgia

seminars. Their methodology of converting all

data to one common internal format is well known

and in use in other installations. They have considerable experience and expertise in choosing data

bases, converting data bases and managing a large

service-oriented installation.

UGA-18
CATEGORICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE LEADERMART SYSTEM

LEHIGH UNIVERSITY

Prepared for: Office of Science Information Services

National Science Foundation

Prepared by: Systems Development Division

Institute for Computer Sciences and

Technology

National Bureau of Standards

January 19 7 3

CONTENTS

1. General Description LEH- 1

2

Administrative Details 2

3. Data Bases 3

4Hardware Configuration 4

5 Software Configuration 4

6 Computer Processing Functions 5

7User Interface . . . . 6

8. Transferability Characteristics S Experience ... 7

CATEGORICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE LEADERMART SYSTEM

LEHIGH UNIVERSITY

1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION

1.1 Project and Organization Name:

LEADERMART

Mart Library

Lehigh University

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

1.2 Objectives and Operational Philosophy:

LEADERMART is a bibliographic information system

operated jointly by the Lehigh Center for Information Science and the Mart Science and Engieering Library. The main objective of the effort

is to provide free bibliographic information services to the university community. LEADERMART

serves both on-campus and off-campus users, providing access to six data bases, mostly scienceand engineering-oriented. The major technical

feature is the availability of on-line, conversational access to these data bases.

1.3 Historical Background:

LEADERMART is the product of over 6 man-years of

effort which began with Hillman's initial theoretical contributions in 1962. Once the theoretical

framework for an automated interactive information

retrieval system was established, work began on the

construction of a prototype based on the theory.

The prototype went through several implementations,

and in 196 9 the development of the current version

of LEADERMART began. It became fully operational

in 1971.

1.4 Present Operational Status:

LEADERMART is currently operational and accessible

from approximately 30 computer terminals, on and

off the Lehigh campus.

1.5 Future Plans:

There are two directions for future work. First,

Lehigh expects to continue the creation of specialized data bases. Second, they expect to explore

ways of developing knowledge transfer systems for

research, instruction and decision-making. The

latter effort will feature innovations in information repackaging and the interfacing of data

banks with literature bases.

LEH-1
2. ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS

2.1 Principal Investigator:

Prof. Donald J. Hillman

Director, Center for Information Science

Lehigh University

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania 18015

Phone: (215) 691-7000, x 631

2.2 User Community:

LEADERMART currently serves faculty and students

in 12 interdisciplinary research centers at Lehigh,

seven local colleges, the Environmental Protection

Agency, the National Bureau of Standards, the

Environmental Data Service of NOAA, the Naval Ships

Research and Development Center, and the Naval Air

Development Center. Negotiations are underway with

a number of outside organizations, especially chemical and pharmaceutical companies and member firms

of the New York Stock Exchange.

2.3 Documentation:

(1) Donald J. Hillman, "Negotiation of Inquiries

in an On-line Retrieval System: , Information

Storage and Retrieval , Vol. 4, pp. 219-238,

Pergamon Press, 1968

(2) Donald J. Hillman and Andrew J. Kasarda,

"LEADERMART System and Service," paper

presented at ACM National Conference, August,

1972, available from Lehigh.

(3) "LEADER Information Manual", document dated

November 14, 1972, available from Lehigh.

(4) "The LEADERMART Project", collection of

selected progress reports to NSF, available

from Lehigh.

(5) "Interactive Chemical Information Retrieval

via LEADERMART", paper presented at ACS

National Conference, available from Lehigh.

2.4 Services and Costs:

Service is free to Lehigh users. Use of the online facility costs $55.00 per connect hour to

outside users ($45.00 per connect hour to government users).

LEH-2
3. DATA BASES

3.1 Data Base Selection:

3.1.1 Requirements and Acquisition Strategy:

Currently searchable data bases were

selected (or created) on the basis of

the needs of Lehigh's users.

3.1.2 Discipline Coverage:

Science and engineering subject matters are

currently covered, together with cataloging

information via MARC II.

3.2 Data Preparation, Conversion and Entry:

Tapes from commercial suppliers are converted to

LEADERMART's format. In some cases tapes are

edited and in some cases (where the vocabulary

supplied is not adequate for use by LEADERMART)

tapes are run through a text analyzer for indexing,

3.3 Data Base Contents:

About 300,000 titles and abstracts are accessible

on-line. At least 18 recent months of recurring

data bases (e.g., CA-Condensates ) are held on-line,

The thesaurus of index terms numbers 1.4M terms,

and is growing at 8000 terms per month.

3.3.1 Data Base (1): ASCE Journal Abstracts

(Civil Engineering). These are bibliographic citations extracted from American

Society of Civil Engineering Journals.

3.3.2 Data Base (2): CA-Condensates

CA-Condensates is the computer searchable

complement to the printed publication, Chemical Abstracts (CA), which covers the full

range of chemistry, referencing 250,000

articles per year.

3.3.3 Data Base (3): Engineering Index Abstracts

Compendex. Compendex is the computer-readable version of the printed publication

which contains references spanning all engineering disciplines.

3.3.4 Data Base (4): Tall Structures Abstracts

This is a specialized data base, created

locally. It currently consists of 216,000

references

LEH-3
3.3.5 Data Base (5): MARC II

MARC II, a data base containing bibliographic citations prepared by the Library

of Congress, is accessible via LEADERMART,

which is an on-line, interactive cataloging

system.

3.3.6 Data Base (6): School of Information Science Documents. About 300 documents in full

text form constitute this data base, which

is used only for experimental purposes,

especially in testing the text analyzer.

4. HARDWARE CONFIGURATION

4.1 Main Frame:

CDC 6400

4.2 Core Size:

65K, 60 bit words.

4.3 Mass Storage Devices:

One Billion-character disk.

4.4 Input and Output Devices:

Teletype terminals as well as other terminals of

higher speeds such as 300 and 1200 baud capacity

can be served. By January 1973, 4800 baud

capacity will be available.

5. SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION

5.1 Operating System:

The system operates under the SCOPE 3.3 operating

system and the locally developed INTERCOM 3.0 time

sharing system.

5.2 Operational Environment:

LEADERMART is run on the CDC 6400, which is the

University's only computer, processing a typical

university workload.

5.3 Information System:

5.3.1 Name and Brief Description:

LEADERMART consists of four system components controlled by LEADER, the monitor.

The four components are: (1) information

entry, editing, and text processing, (2)

connectivity, file generation, and

LEH-4
maintenance, (3) retrieval , and (4)

evaluation and feedback.

5.3.2 Source Language:

The programs are primarily in FORTRAN.

5.3.3 Mode:

The predominant use is on-line. For each

LEADERMART user, a 2 5K core partition is

required since the retrieval package is

non-reentrant. The Lehigh computer accepts

about 12-15 concurrent users, hence access

to LEADERMART service is quite limited

during peak computer usage periods.

5.3.4 Generalized Package Used:

None

5.3.5 Availability:

Available, but no cost breakdown has been

worked out yet. Certain disk input-output

routines are considered proprietary.

6. COMPUTER PROCESSING FUNCTIONS

6.1 Data Definition:

There is the possibility of creating specialized

data bases. The "Tall Buildings" data base is an

example. Text entry and file creation is performed as a batch operation.

6.2 Data Maintenance:

There are, in addition to the editing and indexing

previously mentioned, the usual updating activities.

6.3 Data Retrieval:

A search request in natural English prose is

directed to a logico-syntactic analyzer which

determines what the request is about. Connectivity

files then give a statement of the interconnections

among the systems terms and a statement of the

association of terms with documents in the collection. Using a ranking algorithm based on the analysis of the request, the characteristics which are

related to the request are then presented to the

user. After optional re-negotiations, which may

widen or narrow the search, a document list associated with those characteristics is presented.

LEH-5
6.4 Data Output:

Intermediate data is presented via a cathode ray

tube terminal. Final document list is presented

either via CRT terminal or high speed printer.

6.5 Special:

There are extensive browsing and tutorial features.

System can completely monitor and record each

user's interactive dialogue.

7. USER INTERFACE

7.1 Current Awareness Services Available?: Yes

7.1.1 Profile Definition:

Profile definition assistance is available

from information specialists in the MART

Library.

7.1.2 Output Form:

Hard copy is disseminated periodically.

Optionally, the system will update a user's

files automatically as information captured

by the profile comes in.

7.1.3 Frequency:

Monthly

7.1.4 Charges:

$15.00 per month per profile, regardless

of data base.

7.2 Batch Retrospective Search Available:

Yes, but the furthest back any data base goes is

1970 (for CA Condensates).

7.2.1 Query Formation:

User provides a descriptive paragraph (or

alternatively, fills out a form) and lists

special terminology.

7.2.2 Response Time:

Two weeks , maximum.

7.2.3 Charges:

COMPENDEX: $100.00 per profile against

two years

,

CONDENSATES: $200.00 per profile against

two years,

LEH-6
plus $1.00 per document for first 100

documents

,

$0.50 per document for next 400

documents

,

$0.25 per document thereafter.

7.3 Interactive Retrospective Search Available?:

Yes, but covering at most 24 recent months of recurring data bases.

7.3.1 Query Language:

Natural English prose.

7.3.2 Training and Assistance:

Both are available. Furthermore the system

is highly tutorial.

7.3.3 Response Time:

Almost immediate. This currently depends

on how many other users are using LEADERMART.

7.3.4 Charges:

$55.00 per connect hour ($45.00 for government and universities.)

7.4 Document Delivery Service Available?: Yes, on

special request.

7.4.1 Form of Delivery:

Xerox copies are delivered.

7.4.2 Charges:

Charges cover reproduction and postage

costs.

TRANSFERABILITY CHARACTERISTICS AND EXPERIENCES

8.1 Software Transferability:

The software (which is almost completely in FORTRAN) is flexible and hence relatively transferable. Various program modules have been run on a

360/65 and only I/O statements had to be changed.

8."2 Data Base Transferability:

There would be no problem in transferring the data

bases to any machine. The reformatting of commercial data bases is a minor matter.

LEH-7
8.3 Methodology Transferability:

Since the methodology is so heavily natural language oriented and machine-independent, there is

no problem in methodology transfer. It would be

far easier to convert the software than to start

programming from scratch with a view towards

implementing the LEADER methodology.

LEH-8
CATEGORICAL DESCRIPTION OF OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

MECHANIZED INFORMATION SYSTEM

Prepared for: Office of Science Information Services

National Science Foundation

Prepared by: Systems Development Division

Institute for Computer Sciences and

Technology

National Bureau of Standards

January 197 3

CONTENTS

1. General Description OSU- 1

2

Administrative Details 3

3. Data Bases 3

4

Hardware Configuration 7

5 Software Configuration 7

6 Computer Processing Functions 8

7

User Interface 9

8. Transferability Characteristics £ Experiences .. 10

CATEGORICAL DESCRIPTION OF OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

MECHANIZED INFORMATION SYSTEM

1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION

1.1 Project and Organization Name:

The Mechanized Information Center (MIC), Ohio

State University

1.2 Objectives and Operational Philosophy:

The goal of MIC is to provide information services

that make use of machine-readable bibliographic

and other data bases. These services are to be

provided mainly for students and faculty of the

Ohio State University. MIC has set three objectives which will lead to the achievement of its

goal:

(1) To acquire bibliographic data bases

(2) To attempt to maximize the service potential of the data bases

(3) To encourage user-oriented research into

the problems of information centers.

MIC is administratively a part of the Public Services Division of the University Libraries. The

internal organization of MIC consists of three

major functional areas:

(1) The information area, responsible for

developing and maintaining patron profiles ,

(2) The operation area, concerned with the

day-to-day operation of MIC,

(3) The programming area, responsible for

the development and maintenance of the

software.

The unique aspect of MIC is its utilization of an

integrated discipline-crossing data base. Since

October 1971 current awareness service from the

multi-disciplinary data bank have been provided to

1185 patrons on a bi-weekly basis. Retrospective

searches from the multi-disciplinary data bank will

be implemented during the fall of 1972.

OSU-1
1.3 Historical Background:

On February 1, 19 71, MIC received a grant (Gr27458) from the Office of Science Information

Services of the National Science Foundation to

help support MIC activities during the first year

of a four-year developmental period. During the

first year, MIC has recruited a staff of systems

designers, librarians and information scientists

and set up a three-part organization. MIC, although jointly sponsored by the Department of

Computer and Information Science and the University Libraries, is administratively a part of the

Public Services Division of the University Libraries. The Director of MIC reports to the Assistant

Director of Libraries, Public Services, and holds

a joint appointment in the Department of Computer

and Information Science. During the first year

MIC implemented the current awareness service

from the multi-disciplinary data bank, which contains bibliographic information about all journal

articles appearing in 3,200 journals, government

reports and books. The current awareness service

was officially started on October 22, 1971. The

service began with 36 profiles and grew to 285

profiles as of January 31, 1972. Retrospective

searches from the multi-disciplinary data banks

will be implemented in October 1972. There were

5,367 searches made in the period ending January

31, 1972.

1.4 Present Operational Status:

The current awareness service is operational since

October 1971 and currently serves 1185 patrons

(August 1972).

1.5 Future Plans:

Retrospective services from the multi-disciplinary

data bank will be offered during the fall of 1972.

Future plans consist of evaluation and refinement

of Multi-disciplinary Services and testing and

implementation of a discipline-based current

awareness service to provide in-depth coverage in

each of four areas: biological sciences, physical

sciences, engineering, and social sciences. Areas

of research consist of an automatic profiling

system, a systems evaluation system, a systems

evaluation of MIC in terms of user-satisfaction

and relevance of service, a testing and evaluation

of TEXT-PAC, a software package available from IBM,

and the development of a management information

system based on MIC's operation. Another research

OSU-2
project is the marketing program to market the MIC

service.

2. ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS

2.1 Principal Investigator:

Dr. Gerald Lazorick, Associate Professor

Department of Computer S Information Science

The Ohio State University

Columbus, Ohio 4 3 212

(614) 422-3480

2.2 User Community:

Faculty and graduate students of Ohio State University and other organizations such as EPA,

Battelle, General Motors, etc.

2.3 Documentation:

Annual Report of the Mechanized Information

Center, February 1971 through January 1972.

2.4 Services and Costs:

MIC services are free to Ohio University faculty

and graduate students. The charge for current

awareness services on the multi-disciplinary data

base is $300 per profile per year with a minimum of

5 profiles for non-university users. The average

charge for the retrospective search service on

multi-disciplinary data base will probably be $25

for non-university users.

I 3. DATA BASES

3.1 Data Base Selection

3.1.1 Requirements and Acquisition Strategy:

The goal of MIC is to provide information

services that make use of machine-readable

bibliographic and other data bases. These

services are to be provided mainly for the

students and faculty of the Ohio State

University. Data base overlap studies

were conducted to determine what data base

might, or might not, be a valuable addition

as a disciplinary data base. This process

also serves as a justification for the

present multi-disciplinary data base through

step-by-step comparison with smaller, more

easily analyzed data bases. Detail of overlap studies is documented on page 25 of

Annual Report 1971-1972.

OSU-3
3.1.2 Discipline Coverage:

The multi-disciplinary data bank at present is a composite of four individual

data bases merged into one. The coverage

is heaviest in the physical and life

sciences, and in technology. Types of

coverage in the data base include:

(1) Journal literature

(2) Government reports

(3) Monographs

As of January 31, 1972 it contained more

than 90,000 citations.

MIC also will be having discipline-based

data bases in each of four areas: biological sciences, physical sciences, engineering, and social sciences. Possible data

banks for these areas include: ChemicalBiological Activities (CBAC), Computerized

Engineering Index (COMPENDEX), Geological

File (GEO-REF) , and many other specialized

data bases in machine-readable form. MIC

is already offering Chem Title (CT) service

to faculty members who have a specific

interest in chemistry-oriented journals.

3.2 Data Preparation, Conversion and Entry:

MIC uses PANDEX vocabulary as the basic word list.

Tapes are received from the supplier and conversion programs are run to reformat into an internal

format. MIC decided to use PANDEX as the basis

for internal format. The conversion programs read

data tapes and create two output files:

(1) A word record tape containing significant words with article numbers.

(2) A random access article file containing

title, author, and journal information

ordered by article number.

The word record file is then sorted alphabetically

by word, and sequentially by article number. This

sorted record tape is then input to the inverted

file generation program, which creates a random

access inverted file by words and article number.

(See schematic diagram on p. 62 of First Annual

Report)

OSU-4
3.3 Data Base Contents:

The multi-disciplinary data bank consists at

present, of four individual data bases merged

into one with duplicates eliminated. These,

and one discipline-oriented data base, are

described below.

3.3.1 Data Base (1): PANDEX journal

The PANDEX tape contains bibliographic

information on the articles and technical notes appearing in more than

2400 journals. The bibliographic

information includes the title of the

articles, name(s) of the author(s),

name of the journal, Coden abbreviation, issue number, page number, and

subject heading taken from a Pandex

thesaurus. In one year, more than

550,000 citations have been collected

in the MIC multi-disciplinary data

bank. Tapes are issued weekly.

3.3.2 Data Base (2): ISI journal

The ISI source tapes are issued weekly

by the Institute for Scientific Information which is a commercial organization in Philadelphia.

The ISI Source tapes are run against a

conversion program to delete those

journals that are already on the Pandex tapes and to change the format of

the items that remain to correspond to

the format of the Pandex tapes.

In addition, the original ISI tapes

contain such peripheral items as reviews, editorials, letters. The MIC

conversion program deletes these.

The information for each article or

note includes: title of the article,

author(s), an abbreviation of the

journal name, volume, issue number, and

page number.

The journal abbreviations are special

11-character sets of letters devised

by ISI; they are not Coden. In addition, there are no subject headings.

OSU-5
The Source index tapes include items

from foreign journals. These titles

are translated into English and preceded by a two-character code to indicate the language of the article, if

not English. Since the service began,

12 tapes have been converted and

searched. After conversion into the

PANDEX format, the tapes yielded more

than 25,000 citations.

3.3.3 Data Base (3): NTIS

NTIS is the National Technical Information Service of the U. S. Department

of Commerce. It consists of unclassified government reports resulting from

government-sponsored research. The

reports are compiled in a publication

now called Government Reports Announce - ments (GRA). GRA is available in machine readable form from the Department of Commerce. However, MIC receives the tapes through CCM Information Corporation, which reformats

the original tapes into standard Pandex format. In one year, 4 0,00 to

50,000 reports are indexed by NTIS and

appear as part of GRA. The information

is in 22 fields, mainly science, engineering and mathematics', but also includes reports on behavioral and social

sciences. More than 20,000 citations

are already in the MIC Data Bank.

The tapes contain standard bibliographic information such as author and title, as well as abstracts, descriptor

terms, and information on how to order

copies. Tapes are received and searched twice a month by MIC. So far, six

tapes, which contain 20,000 citations

have been searched.

3.3.4 Data Base (4): MARC

Later this year, MIC expects to add

MARC tapes to its data bank. These

tapes contain bibliographic material

on more than 100,000 books cataloged

by the Library of Congress. The fields

covered are the hard sciences, social

sciences and technology.

OSU-6
MIC expects to obtain these tapes

through the Ohio College Library

Center (OCLC), which is on the OSU

campus. Preliminary discussions are

now underway between MIC and OCLC.

3.3.5 Data Base (5): Chemical Titles

This is not merged into the multidisciplinary data bank. It is a

discipline-oriented data base containing papers from approximately 7 30

journals in the field of chemistry and

chemical engineering. Chemical Titles

(CT) presents the titles of papers

published in journals before an abstract of the article appears in Chemical Abstracts. The information on

each CT paper includes title, author,

and complete citation of paper, and is

in machine-readable form on magnetic

tape. The tapes are issued bi-weekly

and furnish approximately 130,000

citations in one year.

4. HARDWARE CONFIGURATION

4.1 Main Frame: IBM 37 0/14 5

4.2 Core Size: The System requires a 512K machine to

run. The nucleus software called MIC SEARCH occupies 160 to 180K of core.

4.3 Mass Storage Devices: Minimum of six 3330 disk

drives (3 for OS and 2 for MIC SEARCH), and 3 tape

drives.

4.4 Input Devices: Card reader, tape units

4.5 Output Devices: Printer

5. SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION

5.1 Operating System:

IBM OS with MVT and HASP.

5.2 Operational Environment:

The execution of MIC SEARCH requires the total machine because of the disc pack requirements.

OSU-7
5.3 Information System

5.3.1 Name and Brief Description:

The current MIC current awareness system

was built around programs obtained from the

Technical Information Dissemination Bureau

(TIDB), SUNY at Buffalo. The system consists of ten application programs written

in-house and three programs supplied by IBM,

Inputs to the system are profiles that reflect the user's areas of interests and the

MIC data bank. The primary output of the

system is a set of notifications containing

descriptions of those articles, reports,

and papers likely to be of interest to each

user of the system.

5.3.2 Source Language:

The Search program is written in PL/1 with

some assembler language subroutines. The

print program is written in COBOL.

5.3.3 Mode of Operation:

Batch for search, maintenance and profile

definition.

5.3.4 Generalized Packages Used:

MIC SEARCH is operable as a package on any

IBM 360 or 370 (OS) computer. Input and

output formats are fixed but can be modified.

5.3.5 Availability:

The MIC SEARCH software is available, but

MIC does not have a price or policy for distribution. They have furnished the CCM Information Corporation with the software in

exchange for the ERIC tapes (RIE and CUE).

6. COMPUTER PROCESSING FUNCTIONS

6.1 Data Definition:

There is no data definition capability. Conversion programs were written to reformat the input

data record into an internal format. MIC decided

to use the PANDEX format as the internal one for

all data banks. The PANDEX format is described

on page 111 Appendix B of the same Annual Report.

6.2 Data Maintenance:

Data Maintenance consists only of adding new

OSU-8
records. No modification can be made to the

existing files except those changes that are reflected in the suppliers tapes. The mode of operation is batch and there are weekly runs for PANDEX and ISI, and MARC, and twice a month for NTIS.

6.3 Data Retrieval:

Data searching is done on the inverted files. The

inverted files are organized for direct access

with word list followed by list of article numbers

which translates into relative address for the

master record. The search terms or profiles consist of a series of words or groups of words with

a term weight that reflects the probability that a

user would be interested in a citation that has

that word or word group in its title. Each title

that contains words that match with one or more

profile terms, yields a total significance value.

When the total significance value of an article is

equal to, or greater than, a particular threshold

value for the user profile, a notification describing the citation is generated. The search

logic is described on page 38 of the Annual Report

6.4 Data Output:

There are no facilities for user-specified output

form. The output of the current awareness search

is a set of notification cards. The cards contain citation information on the left and a stub

on the right containing an indication of the location of the journal in a campus library. The

stub also becomes the order form for copy service. The outputs are mailed out every other

Friday.

6.5 Special:

There are no special functions such as input editing, input validation, data security feature, etc.

There is no restart and recovery procedure, but

75 tapes are maintained of the backup system programs decks and profiles. There is a profile

maintenance program.

USER INTERFACE

7.1 Current Awareness Service Available?: Yes

7.1.1 Profile Definition:

The profiles are defined by the user with

the assistance of an information specialist

of MIC. They are then coded, keypunched

OSU-9
and kept on the profile tape. The initial

output of a current awareness search is

screened for monitoring purposes. After 2

or 3 months, the user is recontacted for an

update of the profile.

7.1.2 Output Form:

The output consists of 3 x 5 notification

cards which are two-part units, the left

side containing citation information and

the right side containing reference location information for the user.

7.1.3 Frequency:

Current Awareness Searches are run every

two weeks.

7.1.4 Charges:

Services are free to the university user,

but there is a charge to non-university

user of $300 per profile per year.

7.2 Batch Retrospective Search Available?: Not yet,

but the service will be available as soon as software is completed.

7.3 Interactive Retrospective Search Available?: No.

7.4 Document Delivery Service Available?: Yes.

7.4.1 Form of Delivery:

MIC is offering optionally a first page

copy service which would usually contain an

abstract of an article.

7.4.2 Charges:

At present the charge is IOC for each first

page.

8. TRANSFERABILITY CHARACTERISTICS AND EXPERIENCES

8.1 Software Transferability:

The MIC SEARCH software was transferred from State

University of New York at Buffalo. Modifications

and extensions were made and the software was made

operational in a relatively short time (3 months

with 2 programmers and 1 programming manager).

The software also includes 3 utility-programs

supplied by IBM which presumably are generalized.

MIC staff says that MIC software has been distributed to the CCM Information Corporation, but no

OSU-10
further elaboration was given.

8.2 Data Base Transferability:

The disciplined data base (Chemical Titles) is

kept in the supplier's format and is therefore

transferable with CT format software.

The multi-disciplinary data base under OS consists of a series of logical records written on a

physically sequential medium. The logical records are unblocked and varying length but are

not in IBM Variable format. Therefore, they must

be read in IBM undefined format.

8.3 Methodology Transferability:

MIC has conducted a data base overlap study. A

survey of major mechanized data bases and the

discipline as well as each journal covered were

analyzed. The study is documented in Section 2.3,

page 25 of the Annual Report 19 71-19 72. The survey of data bases appears in Appendix 1, page 203

of the same Annual Report.

The search logic and inverted file structuring of

TIDB software is straight forward and the methodology is already well known.

MIC has done some work in data inputting costs.

The methodology is described in Appendix F, page

136 of the Annual Report. Some marketing effectiveness questionnaires are being used.

OSU-11
CATEGORICAL DESCRIPTION OF CAMPUS-BASED INFORMATION SYSTEM

UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

Prepared for: Office of Science Information Services

National Science Foundation

Prepared by: Systems Development Division

Institute for Computer Sciences and

Technology

National Bureau of Standards

January 19 7 3

CONTENTS

1

General Description PITT- 1

2. Administrative Details 2

3. Data Bases 3

4

Hardware Configuration 6

5 Software Configuration 7

6. Computer Processing Functions 8

7. User Interface 9

8. Transferability Characteristics S

Experiences 10

Exhibit I - Fee Schedule 11
CATEGORICAL DESCRIPTION OF CAMPUS-BASED INFORMATION SYSTEM

UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION

1.1 Project and Organization Name:

Campus-Based Information System (CBIS)

University of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

1.2 Objectives and Philosophy:

Discipline or problem-oriented information services representative of advanced computer technology are being introduced and related to the

University Library system. Services are obtained

commercially from Government, professional societies or other universities. The intent is to

develop a "one-stop" service providing an individual user with one entry point to all data bases

and specialized services relevant to his interest.

Batch-oriented and interactive computer searching

would be available, but users are expected to rely

heavily on comprehensive assistance from information specialists. Research efforts emphasize

the analysis of information needs, usage patterns,

and distribution patterns among user populations,

presenting a further role for information specialists .

1.3 Historical Background:

Pittsburgh has actively pursued the development of

"knowledge availability systems" since the early

1960's. Noteworthy antecedents of the CBIS project are the NSF-funded Pittsburgh Chemical Information Center (1967-70) and the NASA/industry

funded Knowledge Availability Systems Center

(KASC) which has served operationally as a NASA

Regional Dissemination Center since 1964. KASC

provides "batch" searches for industry and other

users of NASA research bibliographic files.

1.4 Present Operational Status:

As of August 1972, a new search software package

(PIRATES - Pittsburgh Information Retrieval and

Text SearchT has become operationaT on Digital

Equipment Corporation PDP-10 computers at the

Pittsburgh Computer Center. This is now used for

batch service through KASC, or can be operated at

PITT-1
a remote terminal for interactive searching,

which is presently limited to small files, e.g.,

one month's issue of the American Society of

Metals METADEX file.

An Information Utilization Laboratory (IUL) has

been operated in the Engineering Library since

October 1971, including an interactive computer

terminal. In September 1972, an IUL in Social

Science will be initiated. (Two additional IUL's

in Humanities and Medicine are planned for 1972,

not involving NSF funds).

A computer terminal to the New York Times data

bank is expected to become operational in

September 1972, to function in conjunction with

the Social Science and Humanities IUL's, or

perhaps to become the central facility of a new

IUL.

1.5 Future Plans:

The period of NSF support is considered the conceptual phase of CBIS development, addressing

feasibility studies and initial system design.

During 1972-3, the interface between users and

information specialists will be extended by establishment of more discipline-oriented Information

Utilization Laboratories, the "one-stop" service

centers. Computer-based capabilities at Pittsburgh are being expanded with additional data

bases, improved search software, and special

facilities such as computer-output microfilm.

Resource-sharing arrangements of a broad variety

are being pursued, within the Pittsburgh vicinity

and nationally. A Central Analysis Unit will be

initiated in September 1972 to undertake collective studies of information utilization patterns

as documented in the several operating IUL's.

2. ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS

2.1 Principal Investigator:

Professor Allen Kent

Director, Office of Communications Programs

Library and Information Science Building

135 North Bellefield

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213

Telephone: (412) 621-3500, extension 6352

2.2 User Community:

The CBIS research is primarily focused on

PITT-2
Pittsburgh faculty at the present time, through

the new Engineering and Social Science IUL's.

However, the concept addresses all segments of the

intellectual community, so research and service

among students for example, may expand in the near

future. The KASC provides current awareness

search service to 104 clients on an annual contractual basis, with over 500 individual profiles.

2.3 Documentation:

(1) I Annual Report (in lieu of IV Quarterly

Report) February 1, 19 71 to January 31, 1972.

University of Pittsburgh Campus-Based Information System to National Science Foundation,

Grant No. G-27537.

(2) Quarterly Progress Report V, February 1 to

April 30, 1972. University of Pittsburgh

Campus-Based Information System to National

Science Foundation, Grant No. G-27537.

(3) Quarterly Progress Report VI, May 1 to

July 30, 1972. University of Pittsburgh

Campus-Based Information System to National

Science Foundation, Grant No. G-27537.

(4) "A Campus-Based Information System at the

University of Pittsburgh", Office of Communications Programs, University of Pittsburgh,

June 1, 1970.

(5) "PIRATES and the ASM File", Unpublished

draft available from Office of Communications

Programs, University of Pittsburgh.

2.4 Services and Costs:

See attached Fee Schedule, KASC Information Services, May 30, 1972, pertinent to industrial

clients.

Services are provided without direct charge to

Pittsburgh faculty and students.

3. PATA BASES

3.1 Data Base Selection:

3.1.1 Requirements and Acquisition Strategy:

Machine-readable data bases are obtained

from not-for-profit and profit-oriented

commercial sources. Selection decisions

PITT-3
reflect assessment of costs in relation

to the potential marketability among campus

users and industrial clients of KASC, but

also include consideration of maximum

effectiveness for users in information

seeking. For example, two commercial data

bases are being acquired from the Institute

for Scientific Information for user comparison with the specialized data bases already available. ERIC files are being

strongly considered for acquisition.

3.1.2 Discipline Coverage:

Discipline coverage for CBIS is intended to

be comprehensive, through locally held data

bases or by remote access to such services

as the New York Times data bank, MEDLINE

and MEDLARS. KASC provides service on certain data bases, e.g., COMPENDEX, through

other universities participating in the

NASA dissemination project.

3.2 Data Preparation, Conversion and Entry:

Pittsburgh search software (PIRATES) utilizes one

common input format, and all acquired data bases

must be converted. Conversion delays have caused

temporary interruptions to standard services , such

as retrospective search on NASA files.

Two conversion steps are involved. Since most

data files are received in an IBM-oriented format

(e.g., EBCIDIC code), they are first converted to

a standard text tape format according to DEC

PDP-10 conventions. The second step converts

these tape files into the PIRATES standard search

format, which involves a linked-list organization

of all words in a text record, suitable for a

binary search against a set of user profile terms.

3.3 Data Base Contents:

The KASC fee schedule indicates the available data

bases, described more fully below. Regarding CACondensates , Pittsburgh has found the five major

subject categories particularly suited to its user

population. Profile studies have shown that one

subject category will provide 75% of the relevant

citations in the entire file, while two selected

categories can provide 90% of relevant documents.

The Library of Congress MARC file is being used

experimentally in conjunction with computer-output

PITT-4
microfilm equipment. The CBIS project foresees

this as a means to economically provide specialized card catalogs on microfilm for IUL's and

special library centers.

3.3.1 Data Base (1): CA-Condensates (CA-C)

CA-C is the computer searchable complement

to the printed publication, Chemical Abstracts (CA), which covers the full range

of chemistry, referencing 250,000 articles

per year.

CA-Condensates is issued weekly; the content corresponds to an issue of CA. The

tape version, CA-Condensates, precedes

the corresponding printed issue of CA by

several weeks due to the time required to

print, bind, and distribute CA printed

issues

The abstracts in CA and CA-Condensates are

grouped into five categories: Biochemistry, Organic Chemistry, Macro-molecular

Chemistry, Applied Chemistry and Chemical

Engineering, and Physical and Analytical

Chemistry. The first two groupings are

published as an odd numbered issue one

week, and the last three groupings are

published as an even numbered issue the

following week. Searches mav.be limited

to odd or even numbered issues if desired.

Pittsburgh has available seven volumes,

beginning July 1968.

3.3.2 Data Base (2): Chemical Titles (CT)

CT, which is issued by Chemical Abstracts

Service, contains journal references to

approximately 4,500 articles per issue

appearing in 6 50 important U. S. and nonU. S. chemical and chemical engineering

journals. Titles that appear in CT represent over 65% of the total abstracts that

later appear in Chemical Abstracts. Chemical Titles offers journal references to

articles approximately 70 days before their

abstracts are published in Chemical Abstracts. In many cases titles appear in

PITT-5
Chemical Titles before the journal containing the article is published. Thus Chemical Titles is valuable as an alerting

service.

3.3.3 Data Base (3): Computerized Engineering

Index (COMPENDEX). COMPENDEX, issued

monthly by Engineering Index, Inc., is

the computer-readable version of the

printed publication, Engineering Index

Monthly, which contains references spanning

all engineering disciplines. These references are taken from professional and trade

journals, publications of engineering

organizations, papers from conferences and

symposiums, and books and other documents.

This data base is made available at Pittsburgh through Indiana University (batch

service only)

3.3.4 Data Base (4): GRA

Government Reports Announcements is available in machine readable form from the

Department of Commerce. It consists of

unclassified government reports resulting

from government-sponsored research.

3.3.5 Data Base (5): NASA File

The NASA File consists of the STAR and IAA

documents. Tapes are received monthly

containing approximately 4,500 documents.

3.3.6 Data Base (6): ASM/IM

The American Society of Metals' METADEX

file issued every month contains approximately 1,600 entries.

This data base is made available at

Pittsburgh through the University of

Connecticut, an associate center in the

NASA regional dissemination activity.

4. HARDWARE CONFIGURATION

4.1 Main Frame:

Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-10 dual processor (KI-10) configuration.

PITT-6
4.2 Core Size:

256K words per processor

4.3 Mass Storage Devices:

15 RP03 magnetic disk drives, 51M char. each.

4.4 Input-Output Devices:

Data terminals must be ASR-33 teletype compatible.

5. SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION

5.1 Operating System:

Standard time-shared operating system for PDP-10

dual processor offered by DEC.

5.2 Operational Environment:

Multiprogrammed, with foreground time-sharing and

background batch processing.

5.3 Information System

5.3.1 Name and Brief Description:

PIRATES is a full text search system developed at Pittsburgh, based upon original

design concepts and aimed at effectively

utilizing the particular capabilities of

the PDP-10, including interactive timesharing. Users may specify search terms

of 24 characters maximum length, embedded

blanks being prohibited. Left and/or right

truncation may be used to construct a stem.

Boolean AND, OR, NOT logic may be used to

combine terms in a profile, and a connector

operator is provided to concatenate single

terms into multiple word phrases. The types

of data to be searched for a match (e.g.

title, author, journal citation, keywords)

may be selected in various combinations.

The profile specification statements have a card-oriented format (e.g. columns 73-80 a

are not used, and all statements must begin

with a proper character, not a blank, in

column 1) whether entered from a console or

via a card deck. The software gives minimal guidance and cues to the console user

who is asked to answer a few questions to

select various options (e.g. DO YOU WISH

DOCUMENTS DISPLAYED?) and is given the

PITT-7
several possible acceptable answers, (e.g.

ANSWER "YES", "NO", "HEAD", OR "LEVELS".)

After examining potential retrievals from

on-line searching of a small file, the console user may restart the profile entry

sequence to refine his profile definition.

5.3.2 Source Language:

PIRATES is implemented in PDP-10 assembly

language, using available macros of the

operating system.

5.3.3 Mode

The basic search strategy is to serially

pass all document records in a file against

the collected set of profiles, looking for

a match with any of them. The system operates using about 10K words of core memory

during the search.

5.3.4 Generalized Packages Used:

Exclusing operating system macros and

utility routines, the system uses no major

generalized software packages. PIRATES is

modularized into a basic search package and

a "co-routine controller" which governs

input-output and the order of functions

performed.

5.3.5 Availability:

Although partially developed with University funds as well as NASA and NSF funds,

PIRATES is available with minimal charge

for reproduction of tapes, decks, and

existing documentation.

6. COMPUTER PROCESSING FUNCTIONS

Development and improvement of PIRATES is continuing,

and documentation on its design has not been completed.

Certain design attributes are reported from conversation with the principal designer, Professor Dale

Isner.

6.1 Data Definition:

Searchable files are created by one program,

CONVERT. The program accepts input text on-line

from a data terminal. Alternatively, a text file

may be created on-line using the PDP-10 system

PITT-8
text editor, and then passed as input to CONVERT.

6.2 Data Maintenance:

Two already converted files may be concatenated by

a system program, and this is the usual procedure

for adding new documents to a data base. Corrections would be made in the original text files.

6.3 Data Retrieval:

The basic retrieval strategy is a serial search

of the subject data base.

6.4 Data Output:

Complete document information or selected portions

may be printed on-line or may be set up for offline printing.

6.5 Special Functions:

Data security, recovery procedures, editing, and

utility functions are largely determined by PDP-10

operating system capabilities.

USER INTERFACE

7.1 Current Awareness Service Available? Yes

7.1.1 Profile Definition: On-line by user or

through KASC assistance for off-line input.

7.1.2 Output Form: Printed listing

7.1.3 Frequency: Monthly to weekly, depending

upon data base.

7.1.4 Charges: See fee schedule, Exhibit 1

7.2 Batch Retrospective Search Available? Yes

7.2.1 Query Formation. On-line or through KASC

assistance.

7.2.2 Response Time: As rapidly as manual

handling and machine availability permit.

7.2.3 Charges: See fee schedule.

7.3 Interactive Retrospective Search Available?

Yes, for sufficiently small data bases permitting

adequate response time and efficient machine

utilization.

PITT-9
7.3.1 Query Language: Profile definition

language of PIRATES.

7.3.2 Training and/or Assistance: Through IUL

staff and user-oriented documentation, at

present.

7.3.3 Response Time: Not observed.

7.3.4 Charges:

No direct charge to University users; not

known for external users.

7.4 Document Delivery Service Available? Yes.

7.4.1 Form of Delivery: Abstract of CA-Condensates delivered by mail from KASC. Other

documents may be provided by IUL personnel

7.4.2 Charges: 15C each for CA abstracts.

TRANSFERABILITY CHARACTERISTICS AND EXPERIENCES

8.1 Software Transferability:

PIRATES would be directly transferable to a

single processor PDP-10 with similar peripheral

devices. Being completely machine dependent,

software is not transferable to other computers.

8.2 Data Base Transferability:

Limited by PDP-10 dependence and unique search

software.

8.3 Methodology Transferability:

Undetermined pending design documentation availability.

PITT-10
Exhibit I

May 30, 1972

THE KNOWLEDGE AVAILABILITY SYSTEMS CENTER

UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA 15213

PHONE 621-3500

FEE SCHEDULE

KASC INFORMATION SERVICES

The KASC data base now includes over a million items and is

growing at a rate of more than 4 3,000 items each month.

The following is a list of the component files, the search

services available from each, and the fee schedules.

NASA FILE

o Custom Profiles

o Current Awareness Service (12 consecutive

months

)

o With Engineering Review $180

o Without Review $ 8 5

o Retrospective Search Service (1962 to

date)

o With Engineering Review $185

o Without Review $ 90

o Retrospective and Current Awareness

o With Engineering Review $275

o Without Review $135

o Standard Interest Profiles

o Current Awareness Service (12

consecutive months) $ 96

CHEMICAL ABSTRACTS SERVICE FILES

Custom profiles for current awareness service are

available from the following:

o CAS CONDENSATES

o CAS CHEMICAL TITLES

The fee for either service is $50 to enter a profile,

PITT-11
plus $5 per search per profile. The entry fee includes a review of the results of the first three

searches and client liaison in order to optimize the

search strategy. Client-requested strategy changes

after the first three searches are assessed at $10

additional.

Retrospective searching of CAS CONDENSATES for custom

profiles is available at $50 to enter a profile, plus

$5 per volume per section. Currently there are seven

volumes available beginning with July, 1968, Volumes

69 through 75, and each volume consists of five

sections corresponding to the five major subject

groupings of the Chemical Abstracts journal. The $50

fee is assessed only once per profile regardless of

the type of service provided: current awareness,

retrospective, or a combination of both.

ASM/IM METALS ABSTRACTS

o Custom Profiles

o Current Awareness Service (12

consecutive months) $215

o Retrospective Service (1966 to date) $185

o Retrospective and Current Awareness $365

Fees include all start-up costs and a review of the

results of the first three searches and client liaison

in order to optimize the search strategy. Clientrequested strategy changes after the first three

searches are made at no charge to the client.

GOVERNMENT REPORTS ANNOUNCEMENTS -

o Custom Profiles

o Current Awareness Service (12

consecutive months)

o With Engineering Review $180

o Without Review $ 85

*Formerly United States Government Research and Development Reports (USGRDR). Retrospective service on

this file for the period August 1964 to September

1970 covers only the unclassified portion of the

Defense Documentation Center File. Beginning in

September 1970 the unclassified DDC file was incorporated into USGRDR and continues to be included

with Government Reports Announcements . PITT-12
o Retrospective Search Service (August

1964 to date)

o With Engineering Review $185

o Without Review $ 90

o Retrospective and Current Awareness

o With Engineering Review $275

o Without Review $135

ENGINEERING INDEX COMPENDEX

o Custom Profiles

o Current Awareness Service (12

consecutive months)

o With Engineering Review $250

o Without Review $200

o Retrospective Search Service (1968"

to date)

o With Engineering Review $200

o Without Review $150

o Retrospective and Current Awareness

o With Engineering Review $400

o Without Review $300

*For profiles not relevant to the subject fields of plastics or electrical engineering retrospective search service will cover the period 1970 to date.

COSMIC

Documented computer programs developed by or for the

National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the

Department of Defense which have been offered for sale

through the Computer Software Management and Information Center (COSMIC) are available through the

KASC. These computer programs are available in tape

or card form, and their related documentations are available separately. Program descriptions on request from KASC.

PITT- 13
DOCUMENT SERVICES

Full copy of most documents announced by KASC search

services are available through the KASC at the

following rates:

o Hard copy reproduced by KASC - $0.05/page

of original document

o Duplicate microfiche - $0.50/per sheet

o Hard copy or microfiche

obtained outside KASC - At Cost

A $0. 50/document handling charge and postage costs are

in addition to the fees determined by the above rates.

PITT- 14
CATEGORICAL DESCRIPTION OF

STANFORD UNIVERSITY INFORMATION SYSTEM

Prepared for: Office of Science Information Services

National Science Foundation

Prepared by: Systems Development Division

Institute for Computer Sciences and

Technology

National Bureau of Standards

January 19 7 3

CONTENTS

1

General Description STAN- 1

2

Administrative Details 3

3. Data Bases 4

4Hardware Configuration 6

5 Software Configuration 7

6Computer Processing Functions 9

7User Interface 10

8. Transferability Characteristics £ Experiences. 11

CATEGORICAL DESCRIPTION OF

STANFORD UNIVERSITY INFORMATION SYSTEM

1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION

1.1 Project and Organization Name:

Stanford Public Information Retrieval System

(SPIRES)

Institute for Communication Research

Stanford University

Stanford, California

1.2 Objectives and Operational Philosophy:

SPIRES has two long-range goals. The first is to

provide a user-oriented, interactive, production

on-line information storage and retrieval system

for a variety of research groups in the Stanford

community. The second is to support the automation efforts of University libraries (Project

BALLOTS) by contributing to common software

development. An immediate short-range goal has

been to provide an on-line bibliographic information service for Stanford physicists, particularly for high-energy physicists.

1.3 Historical Background:

In 1967, a comprehensive user study was conducted

on a target population of physicists. This study

established information needs and priorities' as a

basis for system design. In late 1967, a small,

one-terminal demonstration system was installed

on the 360 model 75 computer at the Stanford

Linear Accelerator Center using an IBM 2250 display terminal. Following the demonstration of

the pilot system, most of 1968 was spent in

creating the software necessary for a multipleuser on-line system. This included the development of an on-line supervisor program, and of

search, retrieval, and update programs. By early

196 9, SPIRES I had been tested and was ready for

service; in late February operation began for an

hour and a half a day, five days a week. This

service schedule continued through the summer of

1969. After several months of operational experience, the last quarter of 1969 was spent in evaluating the SPIRES I system. The experience with

SPIRES I was the basis for a six-phase development

cycle defined for a SPIRES II production system.

SPIRES I has continued in operational service at

STAN-1
SLAC since 1970. The first phase of the SPIRES

II system development process was completed during

the first quarter of 1970. This first phase of

preliminary analysis characterized the users and

the user environment and summarized the limitation of SPIRES I. It then went on to outline a

long-range scope of retrieval and file management

capabilities as well as the first implementation

of SPIRES II. The second phase was well underway

in July 1970. System requirements were established and approved by project staff and system

users. A variety of technical tasks were carried

out: the evaluation of existing programming languages and software, system simulation, the

writing of an on-line command language, the designing of an analyzer to parse the language.

1.4 Present Operational Status:

SPIRES I is self-supporting and has been in operational service at SLAC since 1970. It is accessible on the IBM 360/91 from any SLAC terminal

and from terminals on campus and elsewhere that

have telephone dialup and entree to a SLAC

account. The data base consists of 18,000 high

energy physics preprints. Preprints in Particles

and Fields , a publication based on the weekly input to the preprint file, has 600 subscribers, not

including those at SLAC. A DESY high energy physics file is being built; it now contains approximately 45,000 entries.

SPIRES II basic software is coded and tested. The

system was formally released to the public on

October 19, 1972.

1.5 Future Plans:

SPIRES staff expects to complete work in seven

areas

"(1) File definition processor

"(2) The processing rules

*(3) The On-Line Semantic Modules

**(4) Documentation

&**(5) Software Optimization

***(6) Statistics Gathering

"(7) Policy and Procedures for Operating

the System

* Reported complete on 10/20/72

** Due for completion 12/31/72

&*.* Continuing tasks dependent on a

period of operational services.

STANADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS

2.1 Principal Investigator:

David Phillips

Director, Campus Facility of Stanford Computation

Center

Cypress Hall, Stanford University

Stanford, California 94305

(415) 321-2300, Ext. 2755

2.2 User Community:

The primary user groups of SPIRES I are physicists

and the library staff at SLAC.

The largest user group of SPIRES II is the Stanford library. An 18,0 00 record MARC file is

operational for their use (and for searching by

anyone in the Stanford community). Two graduate

classes are using SPIRES for course notes, papers,

and bibliographies.

2.3 Documentation:

(1) SPIRES (Stanford Public Information Retrieval

System) 1970-1971. Annual Report to NSF,

OSIS, December 1971.

(2) Design of the Stanford Public Information

Retrieval System, July 1971.

(3) Draft copy of Volume I "Introduction to the

SPIRES System."

(4) Draft copy of Volume II "How to Select and

Search a File."

(5) Draft copy of Volume III "How to Build or

Modify a File."

(6) Annual Report of Research in Progress,

Institute for Communication Research, Stanford University, February 1972.

(7) SPIRES (Stanford Public Information Retrieval

System) 1968. Annual Report to NSF, OSIS - January 196 9.

(8) Campus Computer Facility, Services and System

Overview, Stanford University, April 1972.

2.4 Services and Costs:

Type of services and costs are still in the process of being defined. Some cost analysis studies

STANshow cost as consisting of three components:

(1) Storage Cost

(2) Build Cost

(3) Search Cost

'D Storage Costs - Stanford Computation

Center is presently charging disk rate

with two plans:

Plan (A) rent a disk pack for $800 per

spindle per month.

Plan (B) rent storage on a block (2048

byte) for $.0 07 per day.

Storage cost is the biggest cost to the

user. By the end of the year, dismountable disk packs capable of load/

unload to tapes, should be available,

and these should reduce storage costs.

(2) Build Cost - This cost is a function of

the number of indexed terms per record.

(For example, for the MARC file, it is

currently costing 15 to 20 cents per

data record; for PLANTBIO, it is costing

approximately 7 cents per data record;

for the PROSTATE file, it is costing

50 cents per data record.) These costs

include overhead and consulting, but

not system development.

(3) Search Cost - Search cost is independent

of file size but is dependent on the

complexity of the search command. For a

typical command which takes 6 3 ms. processing time, search cost is less than 3

cents. The average search cost is

approximately $12 per hour.

3. DATA BASES

3.1 Data Base Selection

3,1.1 Requirements and Acquisition Strategy:

Stanford is interested both in serving

individuals with small private files and

in providing access to the large commercially available data bases. With the

STANlibrary as the first major large user (the

MARC file), and a number of users of "personal files," they feel they have both the

dollar volume and variety of user support

to keep the system viable. On-line disk

storage costs constitute the chief problem

for operational service with large files.

Operational on-line systems have different

cost problems than batch SDI systems. They

may need to develop a networking capability

to generate a sufficient number of users to

amortize high storage costs for large

files

3.1.2 Discipline Coverage

Stanford does not have any specific discipline coverage. The PREPRINTS file on

SPIRES I was carried over. There is a

student file containing registration

record information and there are several

files being built in the area of medical

application such as records on cancer

patients and transplant data, etc.

3.2 Data Preparation, Conversion and Entry:

The user first establishes his file structure by

interacting with the SPIRES II file definition

mode. The user defines the types of records

that will be in a file and also provides the rules

which dictate how the elements of the file are to

be processed and how they relate to each other.

Data are then entered on-line as SPIRES "ADD"

command. Two modes are available: the first

technique involves adding new records on-line

followed by the physical file updating overnight;

the second method allows the addition of many

records at one time during a batch run.

SPIRES allows flexible record structure ranging

from singular, fixed occurence, fixed length format to multiple-variable length format. (See

Volume IV of "How to Build or Modify a File" for

detail on system commands.)

3.3 Data Base Contents

3.3.1 Data Base (1): MARC File

This is the first module of BALLOTS

(Bibliographic Automation of Large Libraries Using a Time Sharing System)

data base. It presently consists of 18,000

STANrecords and is expected to grow to 4 OK or

50K. Data entry is via tapes from the

Library of Congress. It is searchable on

author, title, LC number, etc.

3.3.2 Data Base (2): STUDENT

This is the registration record file for

the College of Notre-Dame in California.

It now has 300 records. All 25 data fields

are inverted and are all searchable. It

has a capability of 10K records, but access

would be very slow with that large a data

base.

3.3.3 Data Base (3): PREPRINT

This is a subset of the PREPRINTS file

accessible through SPIRES I. It has 300

records

3.3.4 Data Base (4): PROSTATE

This is the file of 64 elements of codified

and numeric data on cancer patients. It

also has 300 records.

3.3.5 Data Base (5): TRANSPLANT (Planned data

base). Similar to PROSTATE containing data

on transplants from Dr. Schumway's research.

3.3.6 Data Base (6): PLANTBIO (Planned data

base). It consists of bibliographic data

on photosynthesis. Size will be approximately 4K. This file is now in the process of being built.

3.3.7 Data Base (7): NUCLEAR POWER (Planned data

base). It consists of environmental data

for the Sloan Eoundation. Size will be

approximately 4K.

4. HARDWARE CONFIGURATION

4.1 Main Frame:

IBM 360/67 with PDP-11 "front end."

4.2 Core Size:

SPIRES II executes under ORVYL (Stanford TimeSharing Monitor). The Monitor resides in 120,000

bytes of the partition. The remainder is divided

into thirty-five 4,096-byte pages. SPIRES

STANexecutes as a subprocessor in the virtual memory.

Total core size is 28 million bytes.

4.3 Mass Storage Devices:

Control Data double density disks.

4.4 Input Devices

Up to 90 typewriter (IBM 2741 or Datel type) and

teletype terminals can be supported concurrently

in addition to the CRT terminals supported via

the PDP-11 "front-end" machine.

4.5 Output Devices:

Same as input plus 1403 printer, 2540P punch.

5. SOFTWARE CONFIGURATION

5.1 Operating System:

SPIRES II executes under ORVYL, the Stanford

Time-sharing submonitor under OS/ 360 MFT-II.

5.2 Operation Environment:

The Stanford campus computing facility has an

IBM 360/67 with OS/360 MFT-II. Some of the

major partitions are: High-speed Batch consists

of ALGOL W language processor; Large Batch consists of language processors such as FORTRAN,

LISP, PL/1, PL360, COBOL, etc; ORVYL, the timesharing submonitor which SPIRES II will execute ; WYLBUR which is a text editor; MILTEN which is

the terminal communications processor, and HASP

which provides spooling of the unit record input

and output to and from the batch partitions.

ORVYL utilizes the time-sharing hardware peculiar

to the model 67 called "dynamic address translation". ORVYL also has its own macro-like service code for doing input and output. SPIRES II

executes as a subprocessor and is re-entrant. A

user attached to SPIRES may enter WYLBUR text

editor and hence edit and update his file with

WYLBUR commands.

5.3 Information System:

5.3.1 Name and Brief Description:

Stanford Public Information Retrieval

System (SPIRES) is a generalized data

management system capable of handling

both bibliographic data and numeric and

structured data.

STANSpires II is heavily embedded in ORVYL. It

consists of four components:

(1) On-line Module containing functions

such as search, update, tutorial

preparation and text-editing.

(2) Batch Update Module containing functions such as add data, delete data

and change data in the batch mode.

(3) Utility Processor containing a master

terminal language processor, statisical analysis routines, communication

to peripherals and subprocessors.

(4-) File definition Compiler containing

syntax parser for data definition and

capable of accepting data on-line.

The architecture of all four modules is the

same consisting of approximately 72K of reentrant code. About 3% of total code is

supervisor interface. The rest consists of

a parser, a set of action lists, a set of

semantic interpretation rules and file

service routines containing SPIRES virtual

access method.

5.3.2 Source Language:

90% PL/1 for SPIRES I.

100% PL360 for SPIRES II. (PL360 is a language with machine-level functions with

ALGOL-like features.)

5.3.3 Mode:

Mode for searches is on-line or batch.

Mode for file updates is pseudo on-line.

The updates are entered via a terminal but

placed in a deferred queue and updated

overnight.

5.3.4 Generalized Packages Used:

SPIRES II can communicate to WYLBUR which

is a text editor.

The structure of SPIRES II itself is tabledriven and hence consists of a generalized

parse program.

STAN5.3.5 Availability:

No administrative procedure has been worked

out for software distribution.

6. COMPUTER PROCESSING FUNCTIONS

6.1 Data Definition:

There is a generalized data definition facility

whereby a user may define his record structure

interactively. Detailed instructions on how to

define a file will be documented in Vol. IV of

"Design of the SPIRES II".

6.2 Data Maintenance:

Data Maintenance can be performed both as batch

update or as on-line entry followed by physical

file writing overnight. The Maintenance language

is very flexible, and a user may enter from SPIRES

to a working data set in WYLBUR and hence modify

any data using standard WYLBUR text editing

commands. The detailed instructions on how to

modify a file are documented in Vol. Ill of

"Design of the SPIRES II".

6.3 Data Retrieval:

A record in SPIRES must contain the following

three components: The key data element, the point

group, and values of data elements. These records

physically reside in the blocks which are 2,048

bytes in length. The records in the data set are

logically arranged in either a series of simple,

fixed-length slots or in a tree structure. Retrieval for the fixed-length slot structure is

straight forward and quick. An algorithm for

searching records organized in a tree-structure is

explained on p. 4-3 of "SPIRES 1970-1971 Annual

Report to NSF".

The search that a user of the SPIRES performs

involves an iterative process which starts with a basic criterion and is then restricted or enlarged

by the introduction of additional criteria. The

logical operators allowed are "AND", "AND NOT"

"OR" and "NOT". The qualifier operators consist

of words such as "BEFORE", "AFTER", "WITH",

"STRING", "BETWEEN", "MASK", etc.. The search

language is user-oriented and explained in Vol.

Ill of "Design of SPIRES II".

STAN6.4 Data Output:

The system is not geared to massive output. The

output consists of response to queries. The user

also may put the data to be output in a WYLBUR

working set and thus use WYLBUR commands to either

print out complete records or list certain desired

segments of the goal records. There exists a PAGE

and SCROLL command to be used when CRT video

terminals are operational.

6.5 Special:

(1) SPIRES has THESAURUS and SYNONYM capability

built in if thesauri and synonyms have been

defined and constructed for a file.

(2) Some disgnostic features have been built in

SPIRES with commands called EXPLAIN and HELP.

If during the search process the user becomes

confused or misdirected, he may type "HELP"

and the system will provide information about

possible commands that may be applicable at

that particular point.

(3) There is a BACKUP command allowing the user

to see the search result from the previous

iteration.

(4) There are class privileges for users in

accessing and updating certain files.

(5) The SPIRES II file design has provision for

quick recovery and programmatic validation

by redundant storage of critical control

information.

7. USER INTERFACE

7.1 Current Awareness Service Available? No.

7.2 Batch Retrospective Search Available? No.

7.3 Interactive Retrospective Search Available? Yes.

7.3.1 Query Language:

The query language consists of two main

commands: SELECT and FIND. SELECT

designates the files the searcher is interested in, and FIND, followed by the appropriate search term causes the system to

gather a list of records that conform to

the criteria stated as part of the command.

STAN-10
By applying logical and qualifier operators, the user can cause the FIND command

to perform complex functions. The query

language is described in Vol. II of

"Design of SPIRES II."

7.3.2 Training and Assistance:

Formal classes are offered by the User

Services Group of the Stanford Computation

Center. First classes began in October

1972.

7.3.3 Response Time:

No calculations on a typical response time

is quoted. We were told that the search

time is independent of file size but is

dependent on the complexity of the search

command. A typical search command may take

63 msec processing time.

7.3.4 Charges:

See Section 2.4

8. TRANSFERABILITY CHARACTERISTICS AND EXPERIENCES

8.1 Software Transferability:

The SPIRES II software is heavily embedded in

ORVYL monitor and SPIRES II is coded in PL360.

Hence transferring SPIRES involves transferring

a PL360 translator and the ORVYL time-sharing

monitor.

8.2 Data Base Transferability:

The major files in SPIRES II are private files.

8.3 Methodology Transferability:

The implementation of SPIRES employs advanced

concepts in language parsing techniques. The

SPIRES II command language is defined in Action

BNF and there is a generalized parser which performs the action guided by the BNF definition with

the execution of the semantics routine. The concept is generalized enough that one can build a

language processor or data management access package with the same parsing routine.

The tree-balancing algorithm to permit fast access

to the search processing is a methodology worth

noting. The algorithm is described on p. 4-5 of

"SPIRES 1970-1971 Annual Report to NSF."

* U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1973—511-326/270 STAN-11
form NBS-114A (I-7D

1. PUBLICATION OR REPORT NO. NBS TN-781

2. Gov't Accession No.

U.S. DEPT. OF COMM. BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA

SHEET

3. Recipient's Accession No.

4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE

A Study of Six University-Based Information Systems

5. Publication Date June 1973

6. Performing Organization Code

7. AUTHOR(S)

B. Marron, E. Fong, D. W. Fife and K. Rankin

8. Performing Organization

10. Project/Task/Work Unit No. 640-4404

9. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME AND ADDRESS

NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20234

11. Contract/Grant No. Interagency Agreement

#NSF - CA68

12. Sponsoring Organization Name and Address National Science Foundation

18th £ G. St. N.W.

Washington, D. C. 20550

13. Type of Report & Period Covered Interim

14. Sponsoring Agency Code

15. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES

16. ABSTRACT (A 200-word or less factual summary of most significant information. If document includes a significant bibliography or literature survey, mention it here.) A methodology for categorically describing computer-based information systems was developed and applied to six university-based, NSF-supported , systems. The

Systems under study all operate as retail information centers primarily serving

campus communities by accessing large commercially-available data bases using 3rd

generation computer configurations. The systems vary in design philosophy, mode

of user service, transferability characteristics, and operational status. A

summary matrix is included.

17. KEY WORDS (Alphabetical order, separated by semicolons)

Computer-based systems; information systems, university; university computer systems,

18. AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

Ixl UNLIMITED.

I I FOR OFFICIAL DISTRIBUTION. DO NOT RELEASE

TO NTIS.

19. SECURITY CLASS

(THIS REPORT)

UNCLASSIFIED

20. SECURITY CLASS

(THIS PAGE)

UNCLASSIFIED

21. NO. OF PAGES

98

22. Price

$1.25 Domestic Postpaid; $1.00 G.O.P.

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