CENTRAL REFERENCE FACILITIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP51-00036A000100010007-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 33
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 26, 2004
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: November 1, 1949
• Content Type: REPORT

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CENTRAL REFERENCE FACILITIES
STATUS
(1 November, 1949)
OBJECTIVES
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE A G E N C Y
Doctgeent No.
f DEcL r
Apr 77
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CENTRAL REFERENCE FACILITIES
Page
SUMMARY .................................. 1
GLOSSARY 0000 .... ......................... 5
MAGNITUDE OF THE PROBLEM 8
Volume of Paper Flow 8
Cables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Volume of Intelligence Reports ..... 10
Nature of the Reference Problem .... 10
Volume of Reference Requests ....... 12
Attack on the Problem 12
CLASSIFICATION SCHEME 13
Present Status 15
Objectives 15
INTELLOFAX SYSTEM 15
Present Status ..................... 17
Objectives 17
INDEX FILES 18
Sample: Index Faxcards ............. 18
Graph: Growth of the Files ......... 19
Graph: Present Status of the Files . 20
Objectives . . . . . . . . . 0.00000 . . . . 000.0 21
ABSTRACT FILES 21
Sample: OCD Abstract Faxcard ....... 23
Sample: ORE & OSI Abstract Faxcards. 25
Graph: Growth of the Files ......... 26
Present Status 27
Objectives ......................... 27
Nays and Means 28
Typing by the Production Offices ... 28
Typing by a Central Unit ........... 29
HIGHLY SPECIALIZED REFERENCE PROBLEMS .... 29
The Technical Specialist's Problem . 30
The Mass Data Problem ........O*008P 31
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S U M M A R Y
1. Neither production nor collection of intelli-
gence can be effective without a means by which all
available intelligence materials bearing upon a
given subject or geographic area may rapidly be
listed, and rapidly provided for the analyst or
collector. If the analyst does not receive such
a service he must devote much time and effort,
which might otherwise be applied to actual analy-
sis and production, to searching out and bringing
together. the source materials which he needs. If
the collector does not have such a service there'
is likelihood that a large part of his collection
effort may duplicate collection effort already
expended by others.
To provide such a central reference service
is the over-riding objective of OCD. There is
reason now to believe that we are on the track
of a far more effective solution to the problem
than has ever, anywhere, been achieved before.
It is the object of this paper to describe the
problem, to state what has been accomplished,
and to define as nearly as may be the objective
toward which we are working.
2. The best encyclopedia would be of scant value
if its articles were scattered through umpteen
volumes without any alphabetic arrangement, and
without any index or table of contents. Similarly,
the CIA Library would be of little use, even though
it contained all the intelligence reports avail-
able to the nation, if it had no index system by
which it could rapidly list and locate all the
reports dealing with a particular subject or area.
The volume of documents to be dealt with is
immense. Excluding cables, 15,000 intelligence
reports were added to the files in October, 1949,
bringing the total to about 420,000. All are ticketed and made accessible by means of simple c,l r-,
finder files (see page 10), but these do not give SI' ck;-_1 114_:
any useful indication of the content of the ""
reports.
by each report,, were commenced in
True index files (see page 18), giving coded, , 1{ yr
information as to the subjects and areas covered 1:5
ndexing system is now eep ng abreast of_the
reasonably anticipate success in its endeavor to
develop an adequate machine system for the handl.
in and reproduction of such files. The Library
pril, 1948,
when it became apparent that the Agency m
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