With the promise of greater economy in handling an ever-increasing volume of material, minimal processing has quickly become a new orthodoxy for the archival profession despite a raft of unintended consequences for service and discovery. Taking a long-term view of the costs and benefits entailed in the process of processing, the three-stage…

Mark Greene and Dennis Meissner published their influential article "More Product, Less Process: Revamping Traditional Archival Processing" five years ago. This study assesses the impact of the methodologies expounded by Greene and Meissner on processing and reference in the archival profession. A broad survey of American archivists conducted in…

Organizing refers to methods of distributing physical and symbolic tasks among multiple agents in order to achieve goals. My dissertation investigates the dynamics of organizing in hybrid information processing systems that incorporate both humans and computers. To explain the behavior of these hybrid systems, I develop and partially test a theory…

A computer graphics method for determining school bus routes. (RA)

This study developed a variation of the DELPHI approach, a polling technique for systematically soliciting opinions from experts, to produce a technological forecast of developments in the information-processing industry. SEER (System for Event Evaluation and Review) combines the more desirable elements of existing techniques: (1) intuitive…

The purpose of this paper is to examine the optimality of the formation of biases and their effect on the optimality of subsequent information processing. (Author/RK)

A cost benefit technique consisting of the following five phases is proposed: (a) specific objectives of the service, (b) measurement of work flow, (c) work costing, (d) charge to users of the information service, and (e) equating demand and cost. In this approach, objectives are best stated by someone not routinely concerned with the individual…

Describes the local off-line data base at North Carolina State University, which is updated from OCLC archive tapes, and reviews the processing required to make this data useful for maintaining the data base and providing some ancillary services. (CWM)

Describes Information Mapping, a methodology for the analysis, organization, sequencing, and presentation of information and explains three major parts of the method: (1) content analysis, (2) project life-cycle synthesis and integration of the content analysis, and (3) sequencing and formatting. Major criticisms of the methodology are addressed.…

Reviews problem areas identified in the processing of OCLC MARC Subscription Service tapes, commonly known as the archive tapes, and explains the Yale University methods for processing these tapes through their editing project and notation system. (CWM)

A methodology for categorically describing computer-based information systems was developed and applied to six university-based, NSF-supported systems. The systems under study all operate as retail information cneters primarily serving campus communities by accessing large commercially-available data bases using 3rd generation computer…

The document reports on an extension of task analysis methodology. The concept of strategic principles or task strategies implicit in the job activities of highly proficient performers is examined with the intent of improving training. The goal is to identify or invent such strategies, as appropriate, and then proceed with training encouraging use…

This report describes the Smithsonian Institution Information Retrieval (SIIR) System, a computerized information management system for natural history museums, as well as computer developments subsequent to SIIR, and the SELGEM system which evolved from SIIR and discusses their application to data processing and collection management in museums.…

This manual has been assembled to enable other Schools of Public Health to survey faculty and alumni to collect information useful in curriculum planning and development. A record system is included. In addition to the "Schedules" on which information concerning study units (i.e. individual faculty or alumni) is recorded, there are…