Q/)

76

Mqu

S/ - /g

M U D P

E

n o. 1 5

Museum and University Data, Program and Information Exchange

A TEST OF GYPSY

Harriet Meadow recently summarized, in MUDPIE 13, the GYPSY
program for in formation retrieval. Now a publication is avail-

W. E. Reid.

you

Smithsonian Library could not locate
at the Library of Congress. We borr
loan directly from the University, w
the number qZ/699/.A105/no.2.

a

a

museum-type re

search

su

1 ts of

its use.

The

No

rth Am

erica and

Some

n.

J. L.

Morrison

, and

th

e University of

Okl a-

he

d in 1

969. To

save

t

to loo

k at it,

the

copy in

Washingto

n, even

d

it on

interlibr

ary

e

* j» •

It xs

catalogue

d under

io

n cont

ained in

263

ro

duced

3987 reco

rds .

A demonstration of the computer use was based on the Permian
records, because the authors consider those records complete
in their file. Retrieval consists of citations by author, date,
title, publication, location of hard copy, geography, strati¬
graphy , taxonomy, and floral assemblages. No effort was made
to correct or augment the data in the original papers because
of a fear that errors would be magnified, nor have any of the
original taxonomic identifications been changed. The authors
state (p. 139): "The demonstration was intended to show how

in-depth studies can be made with GIPSY in the field of palyn-
ology. This is shown by the following investigation and exam¬
ination of subset information described in the demonstration:

(1) retrieval of al1 Permian palynological literature from the
data base; (2) separation of the literature into that of North

America and that exclusive of North America; (3) a floristic

analysis of North American Permian palynomorph assemblages;

(4) a search of literature exclusive of North America for dis¬
tribution and biotic associations of the genus Lueckisporites ;

(5) investigate the taxonomic status of species originally
assigned to Lueckisporites or transferred to it; and (6) inves¬
tigate the taxonomic history of a species by search of the trivial
name in literature." Direct computer readouts are published

to show how all these things are recovered.

It was amusing to note that, although the computer invari¬
ably spells "Permian" correctly, the authors spell it wrong in
every table from p. 41 to p. 50. Also, the distribution of the
genus mentioned on p. 51 is not on p. 44, as stated in the note,
but on p. 45.—JAP

<t

#

*

<h

4

*

f

•« -

LIST 1971

As almost anything in the way of names today, the title of
this new book is itself an acronym, standing for "Library and
Information Science Today, 1971. * It has been published by

Science Associates/International, Inc.» 23 East 26th St., New
York, N. Y., 10010. It is based on a compilation made at the
University of Maryland, under the direction of Paul Wasserman.

It is described as an attempt ”to identify and to characterize
the most exciting, interesting and pro totypa1 work underway in
the field" of library and in formation science. They found a
total of 180 projects, with over 1500 participants. Similar
volumes for each year are planned, and the editors a re anxious
to learn of projects not yet included. Any MUDPIE reader who
wishes to get his work listed should write to % Dr. Paul Wasser-
man, LIST Proj ect, School of Library and Information Services,
University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742.

In going over the list of 800 projects, I spotted quite a
few that will be of interest to MUDPIE readers. I am listing
them below with the name of the principal investigator, his
address, the title of the project, and the page in LIST 1971 on
which the summary of the project is printed. If a project is
of interest to you, you should get a copy of the book and read
the paragraph concerning it. My list should be regarded as
highly selective, perhaps representative, but certainly not
exhaustive.--JAP.

Brown, W.H., Coll. of Educ., Moray House, Edinburgh, EH8 8AQ,

U.K. "Botanical Literature in S tandard Classification Schemes
(p. 51) .

Jackson, D.M. , Dept of Computer Sci., Cornell Univ. , Ithaca,

N. Y. 14850. "Study of Classification Techniques" (p. 53).

Jardine, N., King's Coll. Res. Cent., Univ of Cambridge, Eng¬
land . " Use of Computers in Classification and Diagnosis"

(p. 53).

Scheele, M., Postfach 121, D-6407, Schlitz/Hessen, West Germany.

"Documentation of German Journals in Biology" (p. 56).

Kubach, I., Gmelin Inst., Varrentrappstrasse 47, 6000 Frankfurt
am Main 13, West Germany. "Documentation of Mineralogy" (p.
65) .

Bargeski, A. M. , National Oceanographic Data Center, Wash. ,

D. C. 20390. "National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC)"

(p . 7 3 ) .

Ellin, E. , M.C.N., 27 W. 53rd St. , New York, N Y 10019. "Museum

Computer Network" (p. 77).

Ferguson, S. A., Ontario Dept of Mines, Geol. Branch, Toronto,
Ontario. "Processing of Ontario Mineral Deposits Data" (p.

77) .

Hodge, W. T., ESSA, Federal Bldg., Asheville, NC 28801. "ENDEX-
Environmental Data Index" (p. 78).

Gralewska, A., Mining Dept., Univ. of London, Prince Consort Rd.,
London, S W 7, England. "Rock Mechanics Information Retrieval
System" (p. 89).

Gschneidner, K.A. , Inst for Atomic Res., Iowa St Univ. , Ames,

IA 50010. “Rare-Earth Information Center" (p. 89).

Perron, J.-M., Centre de Documentation, Universite Laval, Quebec,
10, Canada. M Documentation System for Entomological Docu¬
ments ” (p. 92) .

Van Gelder, R. G., Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. , Cent. Park W at 79th,
New York, NY 10024. "Citation Retrieval Service-Recent
Literature of Mammalogy” (p. 95).

Parkins, P. V., Biol. Abstr., 2100 Arch St., Philadelphia, PA

19103. "Establishment of Mutual Project for Preparation of
Bibliography of Ichthyology" (p. 113).

Atz, J. W«, Aiaer. Mus. Nat. Hist., Cent. Park W at 79th, New
York, NY 10024. "Establishment of an Annual Index and A
Bibliographic Service Covering the Ichthyological Literature
of the World (Dean Bibliography of Fishes” {p. 128).

Bryan, E. H., Bishop Mus., P.O.Box 60 3 7 , Honolulu, Hawaii 96818.

81 Directory of Vertebrate Animals in the Pacific Area” (p. 129)

Ledley, R. S,, NBRF, 11200 Lockwood Dr., Silver Spring, MD 20901.

“FIDACSYS (FIDAC System)” (p. 148). A system of analysis of

chromosome karyograms.

Yerke, T. B., U.S.D.A., P.O.Box 245, Berkeley, CA 94701.

"FAMULUS: A Computer-Based System for Augmenting Personal
Documentation Efforts" (p. 175).

INFORMATION SYSTEMS SURVEY
INDEX TO PLANT CHROMOSOME NUMBERS

The Plant Chromosome Numbers pro j ect is designed to keep
track of publication of new counts of chromosome numbers in
the world's botanical literature and to bring them together
into a consolidated annual listing. Journals are monitored by
a group of about 15 volunteer botanists from the United States,
Canada, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Japan and Denmark. Each
covers a specific list of journals.

When the botanist monitoring a journal finds chromosome
number data, he extracts the data and submits it with a bibli¬
ographic reference for editing, collation and typing. The data
include the identification of the species and the chromosome
count.

After all data for one year have been edited, organized and
formatted, they are typed for publication by the Department of
Agriculture in Ottawa, Canada, using a terminal linked via tele¬
phone line to a general purpose, time-sharing computer. The
system being used at present for data capture is the IBM Datatext
This method of data conversion provides both a machine readable
file and print-outs in final form ready for publication. The
print-outs are sent to Utrecht for publication by the Inter¬
national Bureau for Plant Taxonomy and Nomenclature of the
International Association for Plant Taxonomy. It is hoped
that data for successive years can be merged by computer
to produce cumulative indexes.--Harriet R. Meadow.

A

4

INFORMATION HANDLING

IN THE LIFE

SCIENCES

The Council on Biological
ion of Biology and Agriculture
lished a booklet with the titl
copies of it are available on
from MUDPIE (Division of Repti
of Natural History, Wash., D.

Sciences Informa
, National Resear
e above in Februa
a first come firs
les and Amphibian
C. 20560).

tio

n

of

the

Divis-

ch

Counc

il.

pub-

ry,

1970

•

A few

t s

e

rved

basis

s,

N

a tio

nal

Museum

DIRECTORY OF COMPUTER PROGRAMS

Science Associates/International, Inc., 2 3 East 2 6 th St.,

New York NY 10010, has announced the first issue of their new
"COMPUTER PROGRAMS IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (CPST)", which will
appear in the first quarter of 1971. It is designed to "provide
a much-needed bridge between the computer specialist and the
scientist seeking a computer solution to a problem." The cost
of the publication is going to make that bridge a tough one to
cross, however. The annual subscription for four issues is
$95.00 (reduced to $65.00 if you submitted a program for inclu¬
sion ). I wi11 try to obtain an early copy and see how much there
is of interest to MUDPIEJAP.

NOTE CONCERNING ENCLOSED REPRINTS

I am enclosing with this issue of MUDPIE two recent publi¬
cations on computer use in museum work. Please either pass them
on to someone who can use them or send them back to me if you do
not want them yourself. The paper on a generalized data format
is a beginning, we hope, of a way for all of us to share taxonom¬
ic information through common storage. Programs in both BASIC
and Fortran have been prepared to permit the use of this standard
matrix by taxonomists. The one in BASIC is available from me,
and Larry Morse, Dept. of Biology, Harvard, can provide the one
in Fortran. MUDPIE no 9, p. 3, gives a progr am package set up
for use with this matrix. We would all be glad to give any help
we can to interested people.

The second paper, in the Smithsonian Contributions to
Zoology, is designed to make an introduction into time-shared
computing practically painless for the complete novice--which
seems to be the characteristic nature of museum people in general.
I f one has become accustomed to using S impson e_t al ♦ in his
work the little collection of programs should facilitate his
adapting to the computer in the immediate future. I would be
most interested in any responses you might note concerning this
collection.--JAP.

.

-5-

\->

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION INFORMATION SYSTEMS INNOVATIONS

Under the above title, the Information Systems Division of
the Smithsonian Institution has begun to publish an irregular
series of papers on the use of computers in museums. The fol¬
lowing statement appears on the cover page:

"These bulletins are distributed by the Smithsonian Insti¬
tution to acquaint the reader with programs specifically designed
to solve the problems of museums and herbaria. If these bulle¬
tins prevent duplicate developments to solve similar problems,
they will have accomplished their purpose. To this end, muse¬
ologists are invited to use these bulletins to publicize their
computer techniques. For additional copies and to submit mater¬
ial for publication, write: The Director, Information Systems
Division, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. , 20560."

Five numbers have been issued to date in this new series.
They are as follows s

Vol. 1, no. 1: The Smithsonian Institution Information

Retrieval (SIIR) System for Biological and Petrological
Data, by Reginald Creighton and Richard King.

Vol. 1, no. 2: Automation of the Catalogue of American

Portraits, by V. C. Purdy and J. J. Crockett.

Vol. 1, no. 3; Recent Advances in Source Data Automation,

by N. J. Suszynski.

Vo1. 2, no. 1: An Approach to the Geography Problem in

Museums, by D. Piacesi and R. A. Creighton.

Vol. 2 , no. 2: Cluster Analysis for the Biological and Social

Sciences, by H. D. Roth.

RECENT LITERATURE

Anderson, S. &R. G. Van Gelder. The history and status of the
literature of mammalogy. Bioscience , 20 , 1970: 949-957.

Cole, A. J. An iterative approach to the fitting of trend
surfaces. Computer Contribution 37, State Geological
Survey, University of Kansas, 1969: 1-27.

Gateley, W. Y. & G. C. Bitter. BASIC for beginners. McGraw-

Hill, New York, 1970, xv + 152. CAn attempt to improve on

the give-away manuals for BAS IC provided by time-share
computer firms. 11 is not successful.]

Jahoda, G. Information storage and retrieval systems for

individual researchers. Wiley-Interscience, New York,

1970: xiii + 135. (This is an exhaustive look at all kinds
of desk-top techniques for keeping track of your research
literature. Details and examples are given for convention¬
al indexes, coordinate indexes, KWIC indexes, citation
indexes, punch-cards, peek-a-boo cards, Termatrex, edge-
notched cards, etc.)

Kazmie r, L. J. S A. S. Phi1ippakis. Fund amentals of EDP and
FORTRAN — a self-instructional manual. McGraw-Hill, New
York, 1970, xii + ]60. [The novice will be introduced to

FORTRAN programming but is unlikely to develop any compe¬
tence in it using the "self-instruction" style of this
book. Although self-instruction manuals such as Honeywe 11's
"FORTRAN IV Programmed Text" are valuable teaching aids,
Kazmier and Phi1ippakis dilute the value by over-writing
the questions and preventing the reader from thinking and
working.--GZ]

Lee, P. J. Fortran IV programs for canonical correlation and
canonical trend-surface analysis. Computer Contribution
32, State Geological Survey, University of Kansas, 1969:

1-46.

Manning, W, A. & R. S. Garnero. A FORTRAN IV problem solver.

McGraw-Hi11, New York, 1970, viii + 167. [A programming

primer aimed primarily at business management. The approach
is extreme ly elementary. The reader is halfway through
the section on instruction before he is required to write
a simple program. The novice programmer will have diffi¬
culties returning to the text discussion to correct his
programming errors.--GZ]

Merriam, D. F.., Editor. Symposium on computer applications in
petroleum exploration. Computer Contribution 40, State
Geological Survey, University of Kansas , 1969 : 1-41.

Mullin, J. K. COQAB: a computer optimized question asker for
bacteriological specimen identification. Mathematical
Biosciences, 6, 1970: 55-66.

Namkoong, G. & J. Graham. A machine storage and retrieval system
for personal files of scientific literature. Bioscience,

20 , 1970: 994.

Slack, W. Computer-based interviewing system dealing with
nonverba1 behavior as we 11 as keyboard response.

Science, 171, 1970: 84-87.

Vance, D. Museum Data Banks. Information S torage and Re trieva1,
vo1. 5, 1970: 203-211.

April, 1971

Division of Reptiles and Amphibians
National Museum of Natural History
Washington, D. C. 20560

**