College and Research Libraries


By B E R N A R D M . F R Y , I. A. W A R H E I T and G . E . R A N D A L L 

The Atomic Energy Commission 
Library System: Its Origin and 
Development 

Mr. Fry is chief librarian, Atomic En-

ergy Commission, Washington, D.C.; Mr. 

Warheit is chief, and Mr. Randall assistant 

chief, Library Section, Technical Informa-

tion Branch, Oak Ridge. 

TH E P R O V I S I O N of library service to the atomic energy program is unusual in 
several respects—in its scope, in its organi-
zation and in the methods of achieving dis-
semination within security controls. In the 
past three years the Atomic Energy Com-
mission has developed a large, unique, de-
centralized library system which includes 

j f c a l l of the libraries of the Atomic Energy 
Commission and its contractors dispersed 
from Long Island to Los Angeles. 

T h e size of the system can be estimated 
£^by the extent of the services the units in 

the system obtained from the central Oak 
«=» Ridge A . E . C . Library. In 1948 the central 
_ library distributed 50,000 research and de-

velopment reports, sent over two million 
catalog cards indexing reports to the 68 
catalogs of the system's libraries, answered 
2500 reference or information requests, and 
issued 50,000 copies of its three biblio-
graphic journals. 

T h e libraries in the Atomic Energy Com-
mission system are not centrally controlled 
and administered. Each library is independ-
ent of the others and is administered by con-
tractors at the various sites. T o comprehend 
this decentralized system, a short resume of 

the A.E.C. organization is desirable. T h e 
A . E . C . maintains its headquarters offices in 
Washington, D . C . Among its basic prin-
ciples is that of contracting with industry 
and educational institutions for the opera-
tion of its production and research activi-
ties. In each area where these activities are 
carried on, the A . E . C . has an operations 
office which supervises and controls the ac-
tivities of the contractors of that area. T h e 
A . E . C . in Washington and its operations 
offices have approximately 4500 employees, 
its contractors have 70,000 employees. Li-
braries are maintained by each contractor as 
well as by A.E.C. at Washington and Oak 
Ridge and certain regional offices. Those 
maintained by the contractor are supervised 
by and responsible to the line organizations 
of the contractor. 

Some of these libraries, notably those 
serving the larger laboratories, Argonne, 
Brookhaven, Los Alamos, O a k Ridge, etc., 
have large, well-organized holdings in 
atomic energy and related fields which are 
being rapidly developed into great scholarly 
collections, unique in their areas. T h e typi-
cal library consists of a comprehensive col-
lection of scientific and technical publica-
tions, plus a separate document file room 
for classified research and development re-
ports. W h i l e each of these libraries is 
primarily interested in giving library serv-
ice to its installation personnel, the service 
frequently exceeds this limitation. All 

5 



libraries give and receive interlibrary loan 
service. Brookhaven is extensively engaged 
in bibliographic work which receives wide 
distribution. Libraries at the production 
plants of O a k Ridge (K-25 and Y-12) and 
H a n f o r d contribute to the A . E . C . catalog-
ing program for reports. Argonne initiated 
an indexing system for the plutonium proj-
ect reports which was expanded by the com-
mission to cover all A . E . C . reports. 

I n spite of this decentralization, the 
libraries, by virtue of the common interest, 
have formed a definite operating system. 
T h e y use the same materials, draw upon 
the same centralized cataloging, reference 
and bibliographic services, and are limited 
in the exchange of documents to authorized 
project personnel. 

T h i s library system has evolved in the 
past three years. D u r i n g the war it was 
necessary to protect the secret of the activi-
ties of the U . S. Army M a n h a t t a n Engi-
neer District (the military predecessor of 
the A . E . C . ) by the most stringent security 
regulations. One of the methods used was 
that of compartmentalization, limiting the 
information available to personnel to that 
actually required for the performance of 
their work. W h i l e this type of restriction 
made the manufacture of the atomic bomb 
the best kept secret in history, it inherently 
caused waste and unnecessary duplication 
of research. In the spring of 1946, the 
M a n h a t t a n District established a system for 
controlled exchange of scientific and tech-
nical information to promote wider author-
ized dissemination within the district and 
the release of certain types of information 
to the public. T o implement this program, 
a declassification unit was established to re-
view and remove the security classification 
from selected reports and thereby make 
them available to the public. A t the same 
time a library unit was also started in the 
research division at Oak Ridge to facilitate 
the exchange of research and development 

reports between the various installations 
engaged in atomic energy work. 

W i t h i n a few months the library at O a k 
Ridge amassed a substantial collection of 
reports. Because of the rigid security regu-
lations, certain types of information on 
nuclear science could not be found in the 
open literature. Project personnel had to 
rely on the reports written by their co-work-
ers in the field which explains the emphasis 
placed on reports by the libraries in the 
system. In the O a k Ridge A . E . C . Library 
there are now over 75,000 copies of 18,000 
different project research and development 
reports. T h i s collection is growing at the 
rate of 250 to 300 report titles per month. 

Originally this central library was the 
primary source used by a field installation 
library to obtain reports from other in-
stallations on subjects of interest to its pa-
trons. In J u n e 1947, however, a system 
of direct distribution of current reports was 
established. Although this system has been 
in operation over a year, the A . E . C . Li-
brary still distributes an average of 4000 
reports a month while it receives approxi-
mately half that number from the automatic 
distribution of current reports. As a result 
the library uses its extra copy file heavily 
and reproduces reports extensively from its 
master file. These figures apply only to 
those reports whose distribution must be 
controlled for security reasons. T h e un-
classified and declassified report distribu-
tion from the library has exceeded 50,000 
reports in a month, but much of this dis-
tribution was to non-A.E.C. recipients. 
T h i s activity of the library will be discussed 
later. 

Originally, under the M a n h a t t a n Dis-
trict, the library was a part of the Oak 
Ridge Research Division. W h e n the 
A . E . C . offices were established in W a s h -
ington, a Public and Technical Informa-
tion Division, composed of public informa-
tion, declassification, and technical infor-

6 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



mation staff offices, was established and the 
library was made a part of the Technical 
Information Branch. In addition to library 
services, the Technical Information Branch 
is concerned with publication activities in-
cluding the editing of National Nuclear 
Energy Series a n d t h e o p e r a t i o n of t h e 
printing plant. A t the time of the estab-
lishment of the Washington office the Oak 
Ridge librarian was transferred to Wash-
ington where he serves in a staff capacity 
as chief librarian of the Technical Informa-
tion Branch. 

Document Control 

T h e care and handling of a large volume 
of classified information imposes many 
unique problems on A . E . C . installation li-
braries. T h i s has required the development 
of special techniques in document control. 
T o meet essential security requirements the 
documents must be carefully housed and 
protected against theft and disclosure to 
persons not authorized to have access to the 
information. It is important to know not 
only what documents are held but to know 
from whence they came, where and when 
they were sent, and the authority for their 
distribution. 

T o assure that this information is avail-
able, an inventory unit of the Oak Ridge 
library must continuously audit the holdings 
and trace down any misplaced documents. 
Originally a multiple copy receipt recorded 
each document transmittal, but because 
many receipts were used to record mass 
rather than individual transmittals and 
many of the individual reports were fre-
quently transmitted and additional copies 
made, the receipt file became bulky, cumber-
some and inefficient to operate. As a first 
step a posting system, involving the use of 
log books and ledger sheets was used. 
Later cardineer cards were used. W h e n 
the number of documents handled became 
very large, this manual operation became 

inefficient and an I . B . M . punched card sys-
tem for inventorying and recording the re-
ceipt and transfer of documents was in-
stituted. 

Document control has been a frequent 
subject of discussion at the semiannual 
A.E.C. library conferences. T h i s problem 
is not unique to the A . E . C . but is perhaps 
receiving more concentrated attention than 
elsewhere. A great many librarians in gov-
ernment and industrial organizations have 
also been faced with this problem of care-
ful accounting for individual documents for 
security reasons. Stringent control of docu-
ments will continue to be a problem as long 
as the international conditions require se-
curity precautions, in accordance with terms 
of the Atomic Energy Act of 1946. 

Cataloging of Reports 

One of the most obvious needs of the 
installation libraries was a central catalog-
ing system which could provide an index to 
the report collections in much the same way 
the Library of Congress provides catalog 
cards to the public and university libraries. 

T h e first requirement was the establish-
ment of a list of subject headings adequate 
to index all A . E . C . research and develop-
ment reports. T h e nucleus of such a serv-
ice for the plutonium project had been de-
veloped during the war at the Metallurgical 
Laboratory of the University of Chicago. 
Fussier and Schram had devised a list of 
subject headings and had cataloged the re-
ports issued at that site. Although their 
list of subject headings was based on a 
relatively large collection of reports, the col-
lection was limited in its subject scope by 
the interest of the Metallurgical Laboratory 
and was not adequate to cover all the activi-
ties of the other M a n h a t t a n District in-
stallations. 

A hurried expansion of the subject head-
ings was made late in 1946 and the Oak 
Ridge library began to catalog reports and 

JANUARY, 1950 7 



distribute the catalog cards. In 1948 there 
were 68 installation catalogs, some of which 
exceeded 80,000 cards, all serviced by 
A . E . C . T h e first expansion of the list of 
subject headings left much to be desired. 
A complete revision would have required 
extensive and basic changes. O n the one 
hand there was the obvious need for a 
definitive list of subject headings on atomic 
energy and on the other was this large num-
ber of rather extensive catalogs all of which 
would have to be revised and reworked. 
W h e n consulted, however, the individual 
librarians agreed that the extensive revision 
of the subject headings was both desirable 
and necessary. T h e revision which utilized 
the competence of many subject specialists 
was started in the spring of 1948, com-
pleted in December and distributed to all 
A . E . C . affiliated libraries. A t present an 
unclassified version of the subject heading 
list is being compiled for general use and 
release to the public. T h i s edition should 
be available soon. U n t i l it appears it is pos-
sible t o use t h e Declassified Documents 
Cumulated Index, covering the first 2023 
declassified documents and the subject index 
of Nuclear Science Abstracts t o e s t a b l i s h 
subject headings for nuclear science topics. 

Bibliographic Services 

A f t e r the bombs were dropped, compart-
mentalization restrictions were relaxed in 
1946 to permit wider dissemination of in-
formation within the project. As a result, 
reports were received at a rate which made 
it physically impossible to keep up with all 
the current information, without some of 
the usual bibliographic aids. A biblio-
graphic unit was organized by the central 
library to meet this need in September 1946. 
T h e first three assignments w e r e : A com-
pilation of title lists of M a n h a t t a n District 
declassified reports as they were issued; a 
publication entitled Atomic Energy in For-
eign Countries; and a semimonthly abstract 

journal entitled Guide to Published Re-
search on Atomic Energy. 

T h e title list of declassified documents 
evolved i n t o Abstracts of Declassified Docu-
ments. Atomic Energy in Foreign Coun-

tries was merged in 1947 with the Guide to 
Published Research on Ato?nic Energy. I n 
J u l y 1948 the two were combined into Nu-
clear Science Abstracts w h i c h is p u b l i s h e d 
semimonthly. T h e bibliographic unit also 
provides a title list and an abstract journal 
covering the classified research and develop-
ment reports. 

Distribution and utilization of Nuclear 
Science Abstracts is not limited to A . E . C . 
affiliated libraries. It is available to the 
public by subscription and is sent free of 
charge to government document depository 
libraries and research institutions and 
agencies. In addition it is made available 
on an exchange basis to all learned societies, 
institutions and other organizations issuing 
scientific and technical publications. By 
means of the exchange program many 
worthwhile publications not otherwise ob-
tainable are added to the library resources 
of t h e A . E . C . Nuclear Science Abstracts is 
not limited in coverage t o : A . E . C . docu-
ments but abstracts and indexes all avail-
able literature of interest to personnel en-
gaged in nuclear research. Late in 1948, 
the John Crerar Library was given a con-
tract to assist in the compilation of this 
journal. T h e first volume of 12 issues 
indicates it will run about 1000 pages and 
include about 5000 abstracts per year, 
roughly equivalent to Physics Abstracts. 

Central Reference Service 

T h e first service which the A . E . C . Li-
brary provided was the finding of reports to 
fill the many requests from the scattered 
collections. Before the card catalog was 
completely organized and in the days when 
reports were not all formalized, a request 
often required an extensive search before it 

8 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



could be filled. T h e standard distribution 
of current reports has decreased the simple 
individual requests, but 800 requests per 
month are still received by the central li-
brary for reports and technical information. 
W h i l e some of these are still easily an-
swered, more and more of the requests are 
on a subject basis, many of them for specific 
information or bibliographies. T h e unit 
originally organized to find reports is now 
providing the central reference service re-
quired to meet these new requests for infor-
mation and is often called upon to procure 
information which can only be obtained 
from scientists before it is written up in the 
report literature. In addition to subject 
requests the unit also makes extensive bibli-
ographic searches. 

Public Distribution 

As the A . E . C . declassified documents 
were released they were made available to 
the public through journal publication and 
through the Office of Technical Services. 
It soon became apparent, however, that only 
about a third of the released material could 
reach the public through these channels. 
T h e requests for documents became so in-
sistent that it was decided either to sell them 
through the Superintendent of Documents 
or, as it proved more feasible, to sell them 
from O a k Ridge as a sales agent for the 
Superintendent of Documents. 

T h i s sales activity became a part of 
the library function in July 1948. Since its 
inception the Document Sales Agency has 
issued 11 monthly price lists which list 1064 

documents. T h i s represents well over one 
third of the available 2500 released titles. 

Reports which are to be published in the 
open literature are not offered for sale. A t 
present about 11,000 documents are sold 
each month. T o this must be added the 
40,000 monthly "official distribution" which 
goes to other government agencies, deposi-
tory libraries and research institutions. 

Conclusion 

These activities of the A . E . C . Central Li-
brary have required a staff of approxi-
mately 80, including five professional li-
brarians, 13 subject specialists, nine sub-
professionals and the remainder clerical 
assistants. T h i s large staff is due in part 
to the enormous amount of detailed work 
required in the handling of classified ma-
terials. However by work simplification, 
on-the-job training and mechanization, effi-
ciencies have been progressively achieved in 
the past year. For example, in J a n u a r y 
1948, 8432 cards were processed and dis-
tributed per member of the cataloging and 
card distribution unit. By December this 
figure was raised to 21,857 cards per em-
ployee. T h e maximum number of classi-
fied documents the section could handle 
used to be 5000 per m o n t h ; now with 
I . B . M . equipment well over 9000 in a 
month have been processed without reach-
ing capacity. T h i s has been a fascinating 
and unusual experience for the librarians 
concerned in developing procedures and in 
applying library principles and techniques to 
new and highly specialized material. 

JANUARY, 1950 9