โ Scribed by Kilgour, Frederick G.
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Fifty years ago as the American Documentation Institute (ADI) was coming into being unbeknownst to me, I read a stimulating article by Ralph H. Parker, then Loan Librarian at the University of Texas Library, Austin [I]. Parker had developed and installed on February 1, 1936, the first library system based on Hollerith punched cards. Like the Harvard College Library, where I was working, the University of Texas Library had had, as Parker put it, "Multifarious files of charges, arranged by date, borrower, and call number . . . ." Parker innovatively combined these files in a single charge card circulation system. Sorting, arranging, and tabulating the cards was done by IBM unit record equipment.
month were reduced to three or even two weeks, the then shelf availability of 57 percent would increase. A study I did in November, 1937, predicted that reduction in the loan period to two weeks would increase availability to 71 percent. With the borrowers record discontinued and acceptance of two-week loans, I designed a McBee card to be filed by call number with holes to be drilled for notching to record date due. Due dates were to be only three days a week instead of every day as formerly. The installation of the new system in June, 1938, [2] was the start of my own experience in library automation as well as Harvard's (31.
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