From lpsmail@access.digex.netMon Jan 22 09:44:12 1996 Date: Sat, 20 Jan 1996 13:08:55 -0800 From: Shipment Reply to: Discussion of Government Document Issues To: Multiple recipients of list GOVDOC-L Subject: ADNOTES: READERS EXCHANGE: SCANNING SHIPPING LISTS THE MESSAGE BELOW IS FROM ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES, VOL. 17, #02 (Jan. 15, 1996). READERS EXCHANGE SCANNING SHIPPING LISTS When the Acquisitions Department at the State University of New York at Buffalo took over documents processing for our General Libraries' depository program, our main consideration was to get bibliographic records for all documents into our online catalog upon receipt. We soon discovered, however, that the actual physical processing of the documents afforded some challenges as well. We needed to check the shipping lists against our exclusion list, as all depositories do, but we also needed to determine the final location for each document, as we have a number of areas here that house documents. In addition, we wanted to replace the traditional hand-written SuDocs number at the top of the document with a label of some sort. We were an 88% selective depository at the time, so quantity was an issue. We loaded our exclusions into a dBASE III program, making them instantly searchable, and we put our locations into a searchable QuickBasic program. Another QuickBasic program produced Orator-font type on thin adhesive labels. We still had to key in the item numbers, the SuDocs stems, and the full SuDocs numbers, respectively, but it saved a lot of time. Happily, our current methodology renders even these innovations obsolete! We now scan each shipping list on a Hewlett-Packard ScanJet 3p and, using the accompanying HP WordScan software, save the item number/SuDocs number portion of the shipping list as ASCII text. The operator then calls up a batch program which does the following: * A QuickBasic program left-justifies the item/SuDocs text block, then the DOS edit function is called up. This allows the operator to check item numbers to be sure they have been scanned correctly. Scanning quality has been remarkably accurate. * When the operator saves the file, the program matches the item numbers against our exclusion file, replacing the scanned SuDocs number with the word "EXCLUDED" on the scanned file. Then, the file again comes up in the edit function, so the SuDocs numbers can be checked for accuracy and edited if necessary. The SuDocs that have been replaced with "EXCLUDED" are now noted on the shipping list and deleted from the file. * When the operator saves the file again, the program matches the SuDocs with the location file, and SuDocs labels are automatically produced, preceded by "US", "SEL US", "HSL US", and so forth. * The entire process takes less than 15 minutes for the average shipping list, and eliminates virtually all keystrokes. Our scanning procedure gives the operator more time to be involved in the bibliographic processing of the documents, thereby significantly improving our efficiency. It is important to note that we are not programming wizards here; the QuickBasic programs we have written are relatively simple, and they have surpassed our expectations. For more information, contact me at 716-645-2305 (e-mail: dnuzzo@.acsu.buffalo.edu). David J. Nuzzo, Head Acquisitions Department University at Buffalo