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This article focuses on components of a model permanent file. The components number fourteen, which fall under three main classifications, governing or fundamental documents, audit guides and synopsis or accounts. The whole of the permanent file should be treated as esoteric, thus providing one more instance of the mystery which should properly attach to any professional man performing before his laity. The seven year plan of audit, however, might well be marked "Top Secret-Not to Fall under Clients' Eyes." In case of accidents, it should not be sidescored for more than one year in advance, and this might well he done during the review of the current audit or during the now-busy season. Compared with the hard work represented by the current file of audit working papers, the compilation and bringing up to date of the permanent file will be found to be almost a pastime. The time spent on its initiation, however, will be found to pay dividends, in time saved in the routine work of the current audit, in reviewing the work, particularly, in obtaining a telescopic view of it, in building up goodwill with the client who is apt to regard with favor an assistant, new to the audit, who will not have to ask so many questions, because by referring to his permanent file he can find the answers.

The article presents a list of research papers on design, testing, and evaluation of information systems. "The Evaluation of Automatic Retrieval Procedures: Selected Test Results Using the SMART System" report deals with the evaluation of a variety of automatic indexing and retrieval procedures incorporated into the SMART automatic document retrieval system. The research study "Applications of Serial and Parallel File Structures to Command and Control Systems" was undertaken to determine if the introduction of redundant files can reduce search time when serial outputs are required.

An analysis of the two earliest sets of instruction codes planned for stored program computers, and the earliest extant program for such a computer, gives insight into the thoughts of John yon Neumann, the man who designed the instruction sets and wrote the program, and shows how several important aspects of computing have evolved. The paper is based on previously unpublished documents from the files of Herman H. Goldstine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study ascertains what sort of offense sequence patterns were followed by adult recidivists who began their official criminal histories prior to age eighteen. The literature of juvenile delinquency emphasizes that many adult criminal careers start with juvenile delinquency. This study is concerned with those whose criminal activities continue into the adult years. Pursuant to this objective, a grid charting technique was devised to show just how such criminal sequences develop from initial juvenile offenses, and what sort of offense sequences follow. This paper is an outgrowth of a study made by the writer in 1952 of 319 official criminal histories of recidivists in Indiana prisons. These 319 cases were drawn from inmate files of the Indiana Reformatory and the Indiana State Prison. The information was compiled from U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation records, case summaries, and community reports. Only cases were drawn which showed a prior criminal history, and these were selected on a random sampling basis.

A sampling of past use patterns may be able to provide valid, specific weeding criteria for newspaper picture files. In this study, no photographic cut had been re-used after the 13th year of its first use; nor after the 8th year of its first use, when it hadn't been re-used at all up to that time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes the development of a large-scale longitudinal file at SUNY-Binghamton. Structure of the archive; Ways of categorizing the data; Reliability of the data. INSET: BIOGRAPHY.

The challenges of design of programming systems, file organization and manipulation, and user-oriented query languages have held the spotlight in the development of data processing support to systems for retrieval of scientific literature, At BIOSIS, development of such a system from the pragmatic viewpoint of providing viable self-supporting retrieval service from a data base of more than two million references has resulted in focusing attention on supporting the formulation of the information need into an effective computer search specification. Developed under CPS and now implemented under CICS, the program claims no novelty of structure or technique, but constitutes an innovation in application and goal with primary emphasis on accommodating the behavior of a user not previously knowledgeable about the structure, indexing language, and detailed content of a machine based references file. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article informs that an eight-page pamphlet entitled "A Program for the Microfilming of Newspaper Files; Earlier History and Modern Developments; Reading Equipment, Indexing and Filing of Film" is available for free distribution from the Micro-Photo Service Bureau, Cleveland 3, Ohio.

This article presents information related to a paper which describes the formats of the printouts provided by an IBM 705 computer used by eight departments of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. for their individual indexes to internally generated information and summarizes the search capabilities of the computer program. Five of these departments with smaller files use the computer only to print out inverted files for manual searching.

Files are frequently organized into records, and keys are associated with those records. A directory is a list of key-address pairs, where each pair consists of a key and an address associated with that key. The addresses may be those of records in the file, or of intermediate data, such as inverted lists. A fundamental problem is searching a directory efficiently for known keys, in order to find all addresses associated with those keys. Several problems of finding keys in directories are considered. Methods of searching both ordered and unordered directories are analyzed; directories are classified as they organize unused space: compacted, distributed, or chained. Searching on ranges of key values, rather than exact key matching, is also considered. Finally, design tradeoffs among the classes of directory and searching strategies are developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A serial file is considered in which, after a query is processed, the order in the file is changed by moving the record to which the query referred into the first place in the file. The theory of regular Markov chains is used to demonstrate the existence of E(X) and to show that the law of large numbers holds, where E(X) is the limiting average position of a queried record. A closed-form expression for E(X) is determined. A second method of relocation is proposed, in which the queried record exchanges positions with the record immediately before it in the file. It is conjectured that this method of relocation is at least as good as the first method. It is pointed out that, whichever method of relocation is used, if one only relocated after every Mth query, the limiting average position of a queried record is the same as it is if we relocate after every query. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the issue of Subject Headings and the Theory of Classification. The traditions of cataloguers have been quite different. There is now no complete code of practice which will make clear to subject cataloguers what Merrills Code does for classifiers of books. Perhaps, since both classification and subject cataloguing are usually done by the same person, we need one code for both. Singular nouns could be separated from plural nouns, the names of Indian tribes from other proper names, and a great many facts which otherwise might have gone unnoticed for some time could be revealed. If the notation in classification is meant to symbolize a subject, it can do so only for a time and only under certain conditions, all, or some, of which may change without notice.

The article reports that on July 4, 1967, the Freedom of Information Act became effective, which is designed to make the retrieving of data from the U. S. Government Agency files easier for the public. Recently, the Senate Administrative Practice and Procedure Subcommittee reviewed the usefulness, to date, of the Act. Comment was made by the subcommittee chairman, Senator Edward V. Long expressing surprise that more use has not been made of the law. Especially since it provides injunctive relief in the courts to an individual who is denied access to documents. Of course, the law provides for the safety of those documents involving national security or invasions of privacy. What the subcommittee report does not state is that it is nearly impossible to achieve true implementation of even the letter, let alone the spirit of the law. It is unnecessary for agency officials to take any positive action to block usage of it. In order to acquire a document one must first find the agency, then the division, department and office wherein a document rests.

The article presents information no the reproduction of back files of scientific and technical journals. The rapid development of many American university libraries which had been relatively insignificant prior to the 1930's has posed many grave acquisition problems. With particular reference to the deficiencies of many Southern libraries in their holdings of scientific serials, an informal group of Southern librarians meeting at Miami Beach in October 1949 decided to take some positive steps to acquire some of the titles which they lacked. A number of commercial firms, photographic laboratories, offset printers, and dealers have indicated considerable interest in the project and stated that they wish to be advised of the results. It has also been suggested that the filming be done on a cooperative basis by a number of university libraries which have cameras.