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 !.. ... I! !1 ! ... ~ e, • · • · • · e, !:..!· e,, e , e.e. • · lrlltUaHUIDICAT1DATIWA.TtO . . ....................... . .. . . .. ...................... ~ -· ;."::::.·.·;; .. ~;;···· ···· ·· · · · · ·- ········ · ···· · ··· ········ · ..... .. ...... .. ....... . ""'·· · ·· ··· · · · · ·· · · · ·······-~- - -·· · ·· · ···· · · · ·· · ·· · ···· · · · ······ :. .• IDITIOM ..... .. .... .. ............... . PLAti ...... ,.., . ....... ,..,,.., ., .. PUiliSMII . .. .,., • .,., .... .. ,. ........ , . . i:........ DATIOFPUI , . . . .. ... .. ............ .. VOU . ....................... PIICI . ........ . ........................ . o. TOIICMAIIIOTO . ................................................. ... ............. . ................. puiiiO . ................................................................. ... . • 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