Computer-Based Library Reference System

摘要

The U.S. Geological Survey National Mapping Division's Office of Research established a reference collection to supplement the Geological Survey Library's reference works in the fields of traditional and automatted cartography, geography and geographic information systems, remote sensing technology, photogrammetry, surveying and map projections. A traditional card catalog was created, using a microcomputer to facilitate the printing of the cards and to provide an automated means for machine searching and printing of bibliographies, accession lists, and other publications. To generate the card catalog, several commercial and public-domai computer programs were tested, but none fully answered the needs of the office. An experiment with dBase II, a general-purpose data base management program, was conducted and proved successful. The file structure and some of the principal command files used to develop the computer-based library reference system are described in the publication.