THE “TAPE TYPEWRITER PLAN” A MENTHOD FOR COPPERATION IN DOCUMENTION

摘要

The "Tape Typewriter Plan" is a plan for making possible a wide-spread cooperation in documentation between libraries, while at the same time facilitating the internal clerical and cataloging operations at individual libraries. The Plan is based upon the use of a tape-controlled typewriter and the associated use of the full capabilities of modern information pro¬cessing machines (electronic computers and their related devices). Any individual library requires only a tape typewriter in order to enter the Plan and to become a full cooperator. By the exchange of tapes between libraries, the present enormous duplication of bibliographic work at cooperating libraries can be markedly reduced, because keyboard operations performed at one library can be used to make catalog cards at another, vnConformity to any single classification system or to any specific catalog card format is definitely not required by the Plan, since the information processing machines operating on the tapes produced can make new tapes for other formats, and can perform translations from one classification system to another. The information processing machines can also be used for rapid compilation of special indices, lists, selected bibliographies, union catalogs, lists of holdings geographically, etc., for the documentary resources of all the cooperating libraries.nA most important aspect of the Plan is that it will not require setting up a unique large-scale universal documentation center for processing, search, or storage. The Plan does not require conformity in the choice of tape typewriter equipment to be employed. The Plan does not require library ownership of computing equipment, nor does it depend upon any specific choice of com¬puting equipment. The Plan is shown to be self - motivating, with participation at each library following from the library's own assessment of its self interest.nThe Appendix to this report proposes that combinations of non-printing characters be recorded on the tape to indicate to the computer the different items contained in an abstract or other information unit. Then:the computer can recognize and deal with any sequence or format of items. This will eliminate the burdensome requirement of getting a universal agreement on some standard information unit format before a cooperative exchange of machine transcriptions of abstracts or other information can be undertaken.