ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries October 1989 / 807 INNOVATIONS Newspaper indexing with Pro-Cite By Michael D. Cramer Science Reference Librarian Virginia Polytechnic In stitu te & State University and Mary J. Markland Science Reference Librarian N orth Dakota State University In an effort to gain b e tte r access and co n tro l of o u r local new spapers th e U niversity L ibraries at Virginia T ech began an innovative indexing m ethod in 1985. T he 3" x 5" card file th at had been used was tim e-consum ing to maintain, had weak subject access, and was never up-to-date. W hen th e decision was m ade to autom ate th e new spaper index th ere w ere two objectives. The first objective was stro n g e r and easier su bject access to o u r local new spapers; th e second objective was an index which could store inform ation com pactly as well as economically. T h e new spapers indexed are: T h e Roanoke Tim es a nd W o rld N ew s— p u b lish e d seven days a w eek in o u r closest large city; th e N ew s M essen­ ger— a com m unity new spaper published five tim es a week; th e Collegiate Times— a tw ice-w eekly stu ­ d e n t publication covering cam pus events; and th e S p e c tru m — a once-a-w eek pu b licatio n covering cam pus events for faculty and staff. A fter exam ining several softw are packages th e decision was m ade to utilize Pro-C ite, p ro d u ced by Personal B ibliographic Softw are. P ro -C ite is d e ­ signed to handle large am ounts of bibliographic in ­ form ation. O ne P ro -C ite w ork form is d esigned specifically for new spapers. Fields w ithin this work form may vary in length. In add itio n P ro -C ite allows for truncation of search term s and is capable o f B oolean searching. It can be ru n on IBM p e r ­ sonal c o m p u te rs and com patibles w hich th e U n i­ versity L ibraries uses. C u rre n tly we are ru n n in g version 1.4, A ugust 1988. T h e software resides on an IBM O S/2 term in a l w hich is a tta c h e d to an Epson EX800 p rin te r and an O m ega B ernoulli box tw o-cartridge system. B ecause th e P ro -C ite softw are m akes possible th e creation ofvarious databases (files), we elected to c re a te 10 databases w hich suit o u r p a rticu la r needs. T hese databases and th e ir nam es rep resen t those b ro ad areas about w hich o u r users, p rin c i­ pally undergraduates and non-university individu­ als, most frequently request inform ation. They a re : th e VA (for Virginia) file, th e RO (for Roanoke) file, th e New R iver (for th e N ew R iver Valley) file , th e M ontCo (for M ontgom ery County) file, th e CB urg (for C h ristianburg) file, th e B lksburg (for Blacksburg) file, th e R adford file, th e VaTech file, th e Sports (VaTech only) file, th e Univ (Virginia colleges and universities) file. C u rren tly th ese ten files total 17,809 records. O u r indexing inform ation makes use o f 6 -8 lines on a P ro-C ite new spaper workform : 1. T itle line (article title) 2. N E W S line (new spaper nam e) 3. DA TE line (new spaper date) 4. LOC line (section an dpage num ber of article) 5. IN D E X line (contains those keywords u n d e r­ lined w ithin th e article) 6. CA LL line (new spaper call num ber) 7. N ote line (used occasionally to note th e p re s ­ ence o f charts, maps, etc. or to indicate th at th e article was p a rt of a series. 8. A uthor line (occasionally used to n o te a sp e ­ cific, im portant author— for example th e Uni- versity p resid e n t). T he indexing process has th e following routine. As each issue o f a p a p e r is received it is logged on a re c e ip t calendar. T h e re fe re n c e librarian re sp o n ­ 808 / C& RL News sible for th e p ro je c t scans th e p a p e r for p e rtin e n t articles. T he file nam e is w ritten by th e title for each selected article and th e keywords are u n derlined. If ad d itional te rm s a re necessary th e s e are w ritte n dow n as well. T h e n u m b e r of keywords varies from article to article b u t we aim for a m axim um o f 3 -6 . As a ru le each a rticle is assigned to on e file. H o w ­ ever, at tim es th e n a tu re o f an article is such th a t it m ay b e in c lu d e d in add itio n al files. A s tu d e n t em ployed 8 -1 0 hours p e r w eek takes th e anno tated new spapers and inputs th e data via P ro-C ite o n to a 3 Vă-inch disk. O nce a w eek th ese files are m erged with th e m aster file on th e Bernoulli cartridge. T he m aste r file is th e n copied. As knowledge o f th e database has spread, library p a tro n s o fte n ap p ro ach th e m ain r e fe re n c e desk specifically req u estin g an ew sp ap er search. O thers are id e n tifie d d u rin g th e refe re n c e interview . In e ith e r case a b rie f search req u est form is com pleted and th e p a tro n is asked to re tu rn in 24 hours for th e results. W ith th e datab ase and e q u ip m e n t located two floors above th e re fe re n c e desk we have found th e one-day delay necessary. T h e searcher retains a copy o f th e search for statistics b u t also fre q u e n tly n o tes search te rm s a n d resu lts for possible fu tu re re fe re n c e . W h e n several m em b e rs o f an E nglish class req u e st inform ation on th e sam e topic this last step has b e e n p a rticu la rly useful. T h e p rin to u t received by th e p a tro n contains all th e inform ation in th e P ro -C ite rec o rd . W ith tru n c a tio n and B oolean searc h in g possible on P ro -C ite , o u r suc­ cess ra te has b e e n a ffe c te d m ore by th e c o n te n t o f th e datab ase th a n anything e ls e . Two areas o f difficulty have arisen over th e past fo u r years: d o c u m e n ta tio n a n d term inology. C u r ­ re n t d ocum entation covers th e technical aspects of th e database (record form at, m erging, e tc .). W e are p re p a rin g to w rite form al guidelines for th e index­ ing process itse lf such as th e selection o f keywords, a n d th e inclusion c rite ria for articles. O u r seco n d p ro b le m a re a is also b e in g resolved. B ecause w e rely on keyw ord access to th e index it is im p o rta n t to m ain ta in keyw ord u n iform ity. H ow ever, th e papers have varied th e ir term inology over tim e and th a t is re fle c te d in th e d a ta b a se. An ex cellent ex­ am ple o f this is an im p o rta n t local highway project. At tim es this has b e e n r e fe rre d to as th e R oute 460 bypass, th e R oute 460 corridor, and th e d ire c t link. To resolve th ese variations a list o f keywords will be p ro d u c e d for each file. U niform ity o f term s will be re-established, typographical errors corrected, and a new list o f keyw ords p ro d u c e d . T h e in d ex e r will b e able to re f e r to th e th e sa u ru s w hile selectin g keyw ords to assure consistency. T e rm s will be a d d e d , d e le te d , o r c h a n g e d as necessary. T hose records having term s which are d e le te d or changed will b e e d ite d . O u r new spaper index utilizing Pro-C ite provides tim ely access to local p a p e rs. By giving a u n iq u e twist to P ro -C ite’s capacity to handle large am ounts o f bibliographic inform ation, w e have m e t b o th of th e objectives id e n tifie d four years ago. Students and support staff on the reference desk By Lynn W estbrook CoordinatorforReferen.ee a n d Instruction Undergraduate L ibrary, U niversity o f M ichigan As y et a n o th e r library school dissolves, th e n e e d for quality p rac tic u m op p o rtu n ities for stu d e n ts at th e rem aining institutions grows. As various groups w ith in ALA w re stle w ith th e th o rn y p ro b le m o f rec ru itin g a diverse popu latio n o f g rad u a te library science s tu d e n ts , th e n e e d for m ean in g fu l jobs during graduate school becom es a significant piece o f th e p ro b le m for m any p o te n tia l s tu d e n ts w ho cannot afford to shelve books while g etting a library science d e g re e w h e n th e y co u ld b e doing la b o ra ­ tory w ork w hile g e ttin g a ph arm acy d eg ree. T hese situations share acom m on, if partial, solu­ tion w hich provides m ajor benefits for those lib rar­ ies able to p rac tic e it. By c re a tin g and publicizing a w ell-crafted refe re n c e and/or BI training program , lib raries p rovide fo u r c o n trib u tio n s to th e p ro fe s­ sion: e x c elle n t p rac tic a l e x p e rien c e for stu d e n ts w ho can get c o u rse c re d it for lib rary work; th e o p p o rtu n ity for w orking libraiy science stu d e n ts to gain th e type o f expertise which will give th em a real boost in th e ir first jo b h u n t; th e o p p o rtu n ity for u n d e rg ra d u a te s to e x p e rien c e a n d c o n s id e r th e possibility o f lib ra ry science as a profession; and valuable assistance for th e ir own d e p a rtm e n ts. CoordinatorforReferen.ee