College and Research Libraries


By GEORGE B. BROWN 

Use of Punched Cards 
in Acquisition Work: 
Experience at Illinois 

Mr. Brown is acquisition librarian, Uni-
versity of Illinois Library. 

AFTER SIX MONTHS of study of various 
Ll. punched card systems, the University 
of Illinois Library at Urbana adopted Key-
sort cards for its acquisition records. Now 
that the system has been in operation for 
three months it is possible to make a pre-
liminary survey of its· advantages and dis-
advantages over the previous system. 

This study of procedures was made with 
the hope of finding some solution to prob-
lems caused by necessary increases in sal-
a.ries and the critical shortage of personnel. 
Mechanization of routine . operations as far 
as possible to increase efficiency seemed to 
be the best answer. The adoption of the 
Keysort system was the result, and it is 
giving us the answers we want at greatly 
reduced costs. 

The former procedure may be briefly de-
scribed as follows. After the usual record 
searching and bibliographical identification 
processes were completed, a purchase order 
in triplicate was typed. The original copy 
of the purchase order was sent to the agent, 
the duplicate copy was filed by agent, and 
the triplicate copy was filed by fund. This 
library has over 100 different funds or 
allocations on which books are purchased. 
The list price of the book was typed on 
the carbon copy of the purchase order and 
used as the figure for setting up an encum-
brance against the fund on the ledger. 

JULY~ 1949~ PART I 

Then, as invoices were received and ap-
proved, the actual cost was substituted for 
the estimated cost on the fund copy of the 
purchase order. Encumbrances were lifted 
from the ledger in the usual manner by 
canceling an amount equal to the amount 
of the voucher. Naturally, the actual cost 
rarely equaled the estimated cost exactly 
and therefore, a reconciliation was neces-
sary at intervals. In order to get an 
accurate estimate of outstanding orders, it 
was necessary quarterly to examine the 
carbon copies of all purchase orders to find 
out which items had not yet been received 
and paid for, getting a new outstanding 
order figure on each fund, and effecting the 
necessary reconciliation on the ledger. This 
was a time consuming process and was a 
bottleneck in getting bills paid. 

The main disadvantages to the old system 
were: 

(I) The process of checking off the in-
voices against a copy of the purchase order 
was time consuming and cumbersome. 

( 2) Considerable time was involved in. 
filing the carbon copies of the purchase order 
by fund. 

( 3) It was not possible to have invoices 
paid in t.he usual 30-day period. 

( 4) No effective follow-up system on pur-
chase orders was possible. 

( 5) There was no way to clear the dead-
wood from the outstanding orders ~le. 

( 6) There was no way to bring together 
all the order cards on a particular fund or 
all the order cards for items ordered from 
a particular agent. 

219 



The McBee Company's Keysort cards 
seemed adaptable to procedures which 
would abolish these disadvantages at a 
reasonable cost and without disturbing the 
size of the file. Therefore a Keysort card 
was designed specifically to give us the in-
formation desired. This new order card, 
reproduced at right, is used as follows: 

(I) An order card is made for each title 
to be purchased. · 

( 2) The usual searching and verification 
is done and the fund and agent are stamped 
on the order card. 

( 3) The purchase order is typed and the 
date ordered and the purchase order number 
are stamped on the card. 

( 4) A clerk codes the card by the numeri-
cal code for author, fund, agent and date 
ordered. In addition, if the order is rush, 
the hole marked A is slotted. If the order 
is from a foreign country, the hole marked 
B is slotted. 

( 5) The card is filed in the orders and re-
ceipts file to await receipt of the book. 

( 6) When the book and invoice are re-
ceived the date of bill and cost are entered 
on the card, and the date received is stamped 
by the accession clerk. 

( 7) The field which had previously been 
coded for date ordered is now coded for date 
received. 

(8) The accession clerk also slots the hole 
marked "Part" if the order is only partially 
completed or "Com" if the order is completed. 

( 9) The card is refiled in the orders and 
receipts file and remains there until the book 
is cataloged. 

( IO) When the book has been cataloged 
the order card is pulled and placed in the 
dead file. 

With this new system it is possible at 
any time to pull out the cards ordered on 
a particular fund. For that reason it is no 
longer necessary to go through the process 
of checking off the invoice against the copy 
of· the purchase order. Now, as soon as the 
invoice is approved, it is entered as a dis-
bursement · in the ledger and paid. 

In order to take care of the reconcilia-
tion of actual costs with estimated costs at 

the end of each quarter of the fiscal year, 
all the cards in the orders and receipts file 
are rearranged by fund, the items received 
are eliminated, and the remaining cards 
consist of orders which are still outstanding. 
In order to get the new figure of outstand-
ing orders it is necessary only to add up 
the list prices from th~ cards on each fund 
and correct the ledger accordingly. At the 

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DATIOFPUI , . . . .. ... .. ............ .. VOU . ....................... PIICI . ........ . ........................ . o. 
TOIICMAIIIOTO . ................................................. ... ............. . ................. puiiiO . 

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jUNIY. 01" ILL. Lie WHEN CATA\.001"0 e lND TO 

I ::::::~·:."c:~~·;::: .... •• ••••• ••.• -• J•"• o<em<O• 

McBee Keysor! Order Card · 

completion of that process the cards are re-
arranged alphabetically by using the author 
code. 

By sorting by date ordered, it is possible 
to follow up orders at any desired interval. 
At the present time we are following up 
rush orders on a 30-day basis, domestic non-
rush orders on a go-day basis and foreign 
orders on a 6-month basis. It is very 
simple to drop out all the orders placed 
during a designated month, eliminate those 
which have been received and write claim 
letters on the remainder. 

The onl_y__ disadvantage to the present 
system, discovered so far, is that it requires 
the disarrangement ~f the orders and re-
ceipts file for approximately two days every 
three months. This 1s not considered 
senous. 

Some figures concerning the time re-
quired in this process may be of inter~st. 
Time records were kept carefully for a 
three-month period. It requires an average 

(Continued on page 257) 

220 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



Williams, Dagny Henriette. College Li-
brary Publications as Media for Public 
Relations. 

Illinois 

Coffin, Georgia Rose. John M acock, a 
Seventeenth Century Printer. 

Hoage, Alethia Annette Lewis. Resigna-
tions in Two University Libraries. 

Knox, Margaret Enid. Publication of Sci-
entific and Technological Research by 
the United States Government. 

Sheppard, Edward Lee. The Radical and 
Labor Periodical Press in Chicago: its 
origin and development to I 8go. 

Winger, Howard Woodrow. A Personnel 
Program for Student Assistants m Uni-
versity Libraries. 

Michigan 

Grondin, Francois-Zavier. Research Ma-
terials in Canadian Constitutional His-
tory and Political Science at the U ni-
versity of Michigan. 

Manheim, Theodore. Book Publishing and 
Reading Interests in Philadelphia in I802. 

Phipps, Barbara. A Study of Reference 
Questions, in Relation to the Effective-
ness of Library Instruction at Emmanuel 
Missionary College. 

Ranz, James. The Map Library; Prob-
, lems in the Development and Organiza-

tion of Map Collections. 
Riesner, Marianna. The Acquisition of 

Map Materials for a College Library. 
Ulrich, John L. Guide to Postwar Wage 

and Salary Statistics. 

Use of Punched Cards 
(Continued from page 220) 

of two hours per day to code the cards 

a~d file them ; I 5 hours ever three months 
to arra~~~nd rearrange 
them by author; one hour per month to 

follow up outstanding orders. A simple 

preliminary time study indicates a saving 

over a year's period of approximately I 8 
weeks or over 700 hours of a clerk's time. 

The saving in salary for a six-month period 

will pay for a two years' supply of these 

cards. 

In this article I have made no attempt at 

a detailed explanation of punched cards as 

such. This question was thoroughly dis-

cussed by Katherine M. Stokes in the Li-
brary J o urn a! in I 94 7 and does not need 
repeating. 

In conclusion, the following advantages 

of this system have become apparent: 

(I) It furnishes considerable assistance in 
the bookkeeping operation and speeds up the 
processing of invoices. 

(2) It offers an efficient follow-up system. 
( 3) After serving its primary function, the 

system is adaptable to various statistical 

JULY~ 1949~ PART I 

studies. For example, at the end of the year 
for annual report purposes it will be possible 
to furnish statistics concerning the number o~ 
titles purchased in each subject field. Also, 
studies concerning the relative costs of books 
by subject will be possible. (It would .be rela-
tively simple to arrange the cards for all items 
purchased during the year by fund which is 
closely correlated with academic subjects, and 
using that figure with the amount of money 
spent on each fund, the average cost of books 
by subject could be obtained.) 

( 4) Filing of cards in the orders and re-
ceipts file and in the dead file becomes almost 
mechanical and is much faster than hand filing. 

( 5) By reading the slots on the cards, errors 
in filing and in punching show up readily. 

( 6) The orders and receipts file may be 
weeded out at regular intervals. 

( 7) One complete step in the processing of 
invoices for payment can be eliminated, thus 
speeding up the entire process. 

(8) It will no longer be necessary to type 
a copy of the purchase order to be filed by fund. 
This will save one sheet of paper for each 
purchase order typed. In addition , each page 
of the purchase order can be filled instead of 
having only two or three titles per page, as a 
separate purchase order . for each fund will 
not be necessary. 

257