Automated Circulation Control for the Utah State University Library

Richard M. Montgomery, Utah State University

Abstract

This package of programs is a result of the U.S.U. Library incorporating an automated control on the circulation of their books, which would provide the library with a daily record of all books in circulation, or not available for circu­lation, and send notices when books were overdue.

Because of the long-range program of the Data Processing Department of the University, it was decided to develop the software for this project rather than purchase the hardware.

The then existing hardware included the IBM 1401 computer (4K), 1402 card reader, 1403 on line printer, and a card sorter. The only additional hardware required by the Data Processing Department was the "read punch feed" feature on the card reader.

This report includes information for operating the programs involved in pro­cessing the data. Any information required in setting up the data collection system may be obtained from the U.S. U. Library.

These programs were developed to be compatible with the previously mentioned hardware and were used until the data processing facilities of the University were updated. All programs were written in the SSPS II symbolic language.