THE INTELLOFAX SYSTEM (THE CIA LIBRARY AND THE MACHINE DIVISION)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP84-00951R000300100007-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 9, 1999
• Sequence Number: 7
• Content Type: REPORT

R Approved For Release 2000/09/03S1Ft{R84-00951 R000300100007-3
A
F
T # 1 THE INTELLOFAX SYSTEM
(The CIA Library and the Machine Division)
I. EARLY DEVELOPMENTAL HISTORY (1947-54)
A. O___tiv_sidlF-'
In providing a central reference service to CIA and
the intelligence comity, the early managers of the
Agency recognized the need to develop a machine capability
for indexing and retrieving a staggering quantity of intelli-
gence documents. The resulting Intelloffax Syatemr-u eh ,,--- -
enj"A_j_ointly by the .Machine Division and they "ls
was unique-4-no other government agency, no university
library and no commercial firm had 25X1 X8
aching of its tTpc
f- CI\ . ~
in operation. The name was coined by DrAridrears in 19
Th~.t ~JJ
to describe the system uMah combined IBM and facsimile
reproduction techniques for intelligence documentation
purposes. La~ter~` a? par-3 tos, tlo- word was used
(w ad yc'c 4-tv
not only as a noun (the Intellofax System and the Intello-
fax files) but also as a verb fora/(intellofaxed and intello-
faxing for the indexing aspects). abecame a ham word
in the intelligence corm unitjr J
The actual authority for establishing the Intellofax
System appeared in Instruction # 31-47, entitled
K
Py ctiona of the Reference Center, dated 15 July 1947.
25X1A9a Assistant Director of ORLNhrged the
25X1X8
Central Index Cher A v Sion and the Intelligence
Documents Division to
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(1) 3ndexp bar business machines procedures, the
subject matter of an available reports, and
other documents of a foreign intelligence nature
and (2) classifiy and catalogue all intelligence
, 25X1 A9 aterials of a foreign intelligence nature to CT3,&
hief of Central Index, was given the responsibility
25X1A9a
25X1A5a1
25X1A5a1
a duplicating mediueyi This wulid answer the problem of preparing
accession lists and lists of abstracts requested.. Management
originally planned for a daily accession list of those intelligence
abstract data typed on
IBM cards onto arV type of paper includ
for organizing and developing the initial essential steps toward
establishing a central indexing and filing system, In conformity
Interdepa'tme tal Uoordinating and Planning Staff
with an earlier, AP )rec emendation in March 1947. It soon
became apparent that /no existing equipment would be capable of
meeting the needs envisaged. Although an IBM punch card offered
great flexibility and speed in the handling of thousands of cards,
each of which would represent a particular document, no card
would awry enough printed data to su ply the res lritle
titles and descriptions of documents. During 19414a 1
his depu set with top management of
to discuss the possibilities of the use of
lidaapfix- kron
standard Telefsx machines and the Cadoptior of these machines
to the documentation problea. A Vice President ^doftab said that
his ccsnpavy would be willing to cooperate with IBM in adapting the
Telefax machine to automatically reproduce bibliographic and subject
'
of which could be abstracted
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downgrading and
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After numerous meetings with and investigation
25X1A5a1 of other companiew, such as the machine
experts opted for Wnd a contract was let in January 1948.
25X1A5a1 By Julgproduced the first of the Library Records
and had completed the final de@igrxfpr the IBM card acanneY.
C071 ~tj J, -t.LV 19,Y6
- it was indeed pt&d thrilling to
see the first phase)this development
aetuaE opt t g and with such fine quality
results.. /it ustrates the all--out
effort taint the peo the Finch Company have
Y
Both awaitedl ._apf r . Experimenting and testing continued.,
and in January 19119 Lear reported favorably on the equipment,
aeos~leiYt3n~'~at
The Intellofax Card: or Faxcard,, was an IBM punch
card of standard shape and dimensions)which bare on its face
been nd are putting into th"db.
Progress reports were prepared periodically throughout
6
the first s&w months of 19491 test rune were made during Juno.,
and the equipment was finally accepted in Ju3T. The Project4
Review Committee on 27 July 1949 approved an amendment to the
-
0'c-original contracts, which had been (n the amount aaj $100,000,
~ncreGtSe +f/
tothe amount of $203,000. j
up to 200 words of printed infarmationA the so-called bibliographic
datas source, country, date# title, possible abstract, pagination
and security classification. The corresponding coded )ate- punched
data appeared at one end of the card. The cards were sorted, selected and
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arranged by standard IBM machines; and the printed inf orma-
tion on the selected cards was transmitted and reproduced
by facsimile process.
The equipment delivered in May 1950 was the second
prototype resulting from the developmental engineering
begun in January 1948.tShaket4own't tests were still being
conducted in mid-1957- concurrent with actual usage.
25X1 A9 n Office of Communications employee
25X1A5a1 (a ) was cn temporary
duty with OCD and placed in charge of the Faxcard equipment.
25X1A9a
He wrote to chief of the Machine Methods Division since
September 1950) that since the equipment was not standard,
egent-,, additional development was anticipated before
the stability of the equipment coVil.d be placed in a class
with that afforded by existing teletype machines.
A'~5 A time th test runs wererbeir made
on "'\e equ inves.gate d the ~ptential
use anXavai lability of thereto- ers which w oul repro-
duce grin\,ed, `typed or?itten data b ,a heat proses
25X1A5a1 \ s
25X1A5a1
was responsive to OCD urgent need
for this type o\equipment and agreed to b and demonstrat
a prof `or tine Tcii.um -.Y v,,w,,
for the first Intellkax tapes printed continuou.slonto
therinofax papers somewhalsim lar toy though smaller than,
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The Intellofax tape, as it was known throrr~i the entire
Intellofax history,, was originally a 4-inch-wide tape prepared by
the facsimil^ process. The Inte]lofax punched card was fed into
Ttrhich optically scanned the
a traasmitte .se printed informations
A receiver received signals from the transmitter; the printed information
was Impregnated into e chei ically treated tape j which was dried by a
heat process. The- -rei - ng oontinu us role of Xacs m ` "tape
wtxrcat.ye..givell the "~er;~
The early OCL managers had hoped toe lectr-onical3y
+rai it the Intellofax irf ormation to requesters in their orris
'5V transmitters locations. As of 1.5 PT y 1950, transmitters and 12 receivers
W ey~ '21
had been delivered. Ecpe`hiniratation c ontinuedtthroun out the s unmer
months and the first fransmission was strictly loo LA transmitter and
receiver side by side -i a the T`-:chine Division. One receiver was placed
uw K Bldg. in the Branch Libraryo but security considerations and
technical problems of transmission were responsible for not
25X1X8
c-ontinuin ? with what seemed like a :U.topian tran ri ssion .*
e.tiorax system employed race
equipment
throughout its first 10 years in 1 Intellofax documents
, jJ: f orana
lyets. During FY 59.a much faster and list camera
25X1 A9a r deveiloped by automation Developmnt
Group. He received a Certificate of Merit with Distinction and
a $250 award for his contribution.
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downgrading and
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 INTELLOFA
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3.
Miscellaneous Codes
. Security Classification
-% fk e v~ +-- CY
With t he cos letio althoughAcontinual revision
of the ISCnand the adoption of the AMS Area Classification,
thought was also given to other necessary codes to be
punched into the IBM card for complete retrieval.
Dr. Andrews issued a memorandum on 3 January 1949
establishing uniform codes to be used
pn all OCD coding opar. ations. The Procedure Manuals Of the
Intellofax System (1949, 1954, 1959, 1960, 1967) show
the security classifications with various controls whl-eh
e eval..
evolved as more and more non-CIA requesters used the
system Irr 3 spaimi-ty
c~ eedee
with controls such as Controlled DissTmination, Warning Notice-
Sensitive Sourcesi No Dissem Abroad~No Foreign Dissem
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downgrading and
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csr~ e3 s-- _ n sa p'v. QVer
the. mnchinPc elirn ate
cLi 4*- iii 0
thi
21/
In June 19118 the Library issued Library Bulletin No. 1.
Entitled the''Locator System" it explained that the intelligence
document files in the Library had been set up according to
b. Source Locator
'All and AS" -g.tte ft _
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"A" files 'inclined rai
1
despatch4s,as Drell a
'IS" files inci1ude
first number /n the locator wa
attache' repot S and Sta
(0c-Bls and SO's).
CIA raw in Ll gence
s,nmar jes, n~bnt Ly or weekly rep
a paricul agency. The rema
the post ?Mr- "A" type do
25X1A2
gv ey for 'IS" type*
ntel.igence, i .telligence
rts, ant, the like 1 The
aj digit\code assi'ned to
) c
n
.
. c
ning ,!? digit wey e the\ country and
id branch a\nd division &
These -designations were also used for indicating the source
of the document on the Intellofax punch card.
By 1 June 19119 it was necessary to issue a second
bulletin because aC niunerous changes in organizational d47isions
of government agencies. In the intervening year, in addition
to the "A" and 9IS" type categories, four more had been added:
"C"4.-correspondence and Executive Registry material, "G9 -basic
intelligence studiess "L"-bibliographies and "P-Press. By
February 1950 these arbitrary t designations were no longer
punched in to the Intellofax card.
Thee digit source locators remained basically unchanged
until May 1954when specific city or post locators for Army,
Navy and Air attache reports were no longer considered necessary
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Cor sotn-ie ra"~ $ By Jrnu2ry 1956 on it the dig t source loc c`1 r
wa,= used :Cor ever rth i a ; except CIA,, foreign o vernnent re nor is and
To , Secret documi.3ntso
01,-> ILir
02-k GZA.
03-. Navy
0i.- State
05- Array
06-- Defense in general
07-11t Other government agencies
15- Executives Legislative and Judicial Branches
16- Non-.Govern nt
11- International Or; anizatio_ns
1 - Foreign Goverme i is
The coding schemes described in the previous papa
provided selectivity in retrieval. Requesters were always urged to
be as specific as possible on subject requests and not to ask for
too general app, ,eat# such as Politics (the entire 100 chapter
5~x d
of the 3BC)-IW The only reason for a digit ISC was
to pinpoint specific subjects,, if possible. Provincial breakdowns
ofASSR and China helped area specialists, Requesters were also
reminded that the date df publication was punched in the IBM card,
Yy auk for all years when only 1950 was needed? Security
classification and source specificity were part of the retrieval
picture, although not requested as often as subject, area and
date ]imitAions. Requ sters ecmetimes thought they knew the
source of a -dc1ent ;and they proved to be wrong wh n a rerun
was fo" all jau .s. The same was--efts true about date.
The following is a typical request using all the
code selectivity:
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France during 1919-50. CIt document (SO) only.
Through Confidential. Original card format
l]1,562
Subject code
(columns 1-.6)
621,
Country code
(colum is 7(10)
49-50
Dates
(colwm s 24-25)
02-OIR0l
source
(columns 13-20)
3 Security classification (7oluron;12)
A referen tool which the classifiers found a need for as
early as January 1 a list of abbreviation of organizations
which appeared in intelligence docu ee S ,A manual file--V4 3" i 5 ds
was, established out of neoesstty- because. 'tF or iat--of
b}lbreviations ~ larticular]y. of a classified natures which met the
a
.,
y
r'VI
eom 1i .ete need for identifteation. A statement of f unctions
of the CIA Library ih September 1950 included t "Maintain and
service a central file of abbreviations and code names for intelli-
gence documents."
- ---- --~ _ - - ~- ` : maw -ate .(u1'
Abbreviation Filesw0()n0 bb also -u5s9ed'b1 refer nee librarians "i h n*
published lists of abbreviations did not answer specific reference
queries. The card contained 41e abbreviation: the areas the title traaslatio
the abbreviati
.the foreign tiles a brief descriptive comments and the source of
'Iffices throughout CIAs particularly FDD, supplied hundreds of
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abbreviations and their identification to this Filer._ A *ot4 appeared in
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the front of the CIA Telephone Directory* tinder services
of the CIA Library encouraging requesters to male
use of the File. In 1954 a publication was distributed
entitled "Abbreviations of U.3.M and International
Organizations of Intelligence Interest n (CD # 3,3, r
T amag er requests were received to publish
had been no attempt to confirm translations or even the correct
Xr/Vl
ford?ign language title !~~~ --- .
'~"~ ' he #/ manua
Abbreviation File was reppaeed in 1960 by the
e& area?1aterest, such as all Russian abbreviations, but t- rs - ,,,
Dictionary. of Organizations adopted with the revised Intellofax
-' rZ ~a:~ ail , m c~ r
System. The actual cards were kept for retrospective dearohing
until 1971.)
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ISO
iden*fifi cati/n could be 4 ombined
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