College and Research Libraries By BERNARD M. FRY An Introduction to Security .,Classified Libraries for Universities~ Mr. Fry is chief librarian) Technical In- formation Service) Atomic Energy Com- mission) Washington, D.C. T HIS PORTION of the study of technical reports deals solely with problems which face the university library in establishing and servicing a security-classified reports collection. There are notable differences in methods and procedures employed in operating an open, unclassified research library and a security-classified library whose materials and access are rigidly con- trolled in the interests of national defense. The atmosphere of secrecy and security appeared on many university campuses dur- ing the last war, when the government poured immense sums of money into scien- tific research. Under the Office of Scientific Research and Development defense-related research contracts were written with numer- ous universities and research institutions- most of which were carried out in secrecy, with precautions about compartmentaliza- tion of information and clearance of indi- viduals accepted as normal conditions of work. For the most part t~e needs for library service of these secret project groups were met with little difficulty by university libraries and involved mainly a heavy de- mand for journals and translations. No classified technical report collections of any size were then in existence. One of the first security-classified li- braries was set up in I942 on the University of ~hicago campus by the so-called Metal- 1 Paper presented before the meeting of the University Libraries Section, ACRL, Chicago, January 30, 19:;2. JULY) 1952 lurgical Laboratory under the Army's Man- hattan (atomic bomb) Project at the university. It included both journal and book publications from the university li- brary, and a small but rapidly growing classified report collection. The library staff of the Metallurgical Laboratory, headed by Herman H. Fussier, pioneered in developing bibliographic machinery for the dissemination and control of security- classified technical information. A direct descendant of this library flourishes today at the Argonne National Laboratory, a few miles out of Chicago, now operated by the university for the Atomic Energy Com- mrsswn. Other early classified collections were established during the war at Co- lumbia, Harvard, Cornell, Rochester, Cali- fornia and other institutions. Since the end of World War II, we have been engaged in a world-wide conflict which takes on all the aspects of war except the formal declaration and which involves meas- ures depending upon secrecy for their maxi- mum effect. Our government has placed an increasing importance upon the role of scientific research in defense activities. The contract type of research and development operation with universities has been ex- panded enormously in recent years. A substantial percentage of these defense- related research projects are carried out under conditions of security and secrecy. The rapid growth and expansion of re- search during and since the war has brought a flood of documents and the rise in importance of the technical report. Of the estimated I 50,000 or more technical reports 227 being produced annually, perhaps 6o% are under security restrictions, and consequently conventional journals are automatically ruled out as media of publication. Security considerations of compartmentalization have limited the development of analogous classified journals to a few specific, clearly defined areas. In the main, therefore, col- lections of classified materials are composed of separate technical reports. Before proceeding further with discussion of security problems in library handling of technical reports, it is necessary to define terms which may be unfamiliar to many university librarians. First of all, the word "security," as used here, generally means safeguarding and protection of classified documents against unlawful dissemination, duplication, or observation because of their importance to national defense. The terms "classified" and "classification," apart from their meaning in standard libq.ry usage, refer to degrees of secrecy which prevent disclosure to unauthorized persons. Each document is security-classified individually, subject to future change or declassificatio~. The four gradations of classification in descending order of importance to national security are "top secret," "secret," "confi- dential." and "restricted." Definitions of these four categories, together with numer- ous other terms which have specific appli- cation to security-classified information, may be found in the Federal Register under Executive Order 10290, issued on Septem- ber 27, 1951, titled "Minimum Standards for the Classification, Transmission and Handling . . . of Official Information Which Requires Safeguarding in the In- terest of the United States." Two additional terms which have an importance to this discussion are "clear- ance" and "compartmentalization." The granting of "clearance" to an individual simply means it has been determined, by investigating the past history of a person, that he is sufficiently trustworthy to be given access to security-classified informa- tion. "Compartmentalization" is the "need to know," based on the principle that a person should have access to only as much information as may be necessary for his particular job. This principle is a central feature of much classified library adminis- tration and will be expanded upon later in this paper. Government regulations covering the con- trol of security-classified documents are found in the several manuals prepared by the Defense Agencies and the Atomic Energy Commission. These manuals are sometimes issued as unclassified and made publicly available through the Govern- ment Printing Office. For example, you can obtain for 10 cents a copy of the Depart- ment of Defense pamphlet titled "How . to be Cleared for Handling Classified Mili- tary Information Within Industry." Other manuals or regulations which are "re- stricted" can be obtained from the issuing agency only on a basis of authorized or contractual interest. A librarian can in- form himself on most of the basic security requirements of government agencies by reading the Executive Order on "Minimum Standards," referred to above. The participation of the university li- brary in providing library services to a security-classified research project on the campus will, of course, be determined by the type and scope of contract entered into by the university. In the past, librarians have seldom been drawn into the planning and organization of their universities' contract-supported research programs, par- ticularly in classified areas, and have not been able to make their libraries as useful as they might have been. What is needed is for the librarian to impress upon the administrative officers of the university the services that can usefully be provided by libraries as direct parts of the contracts 228 COLLEGE AND RESEARCl-I LIBRARIES themselves, or even under separate con- tracts. This is especially necessary where classified research work is involved, be- cause contracting officials must keep to a minimum the number of people cleared .and authorized access to classified information. Government research projects under- taken by a university may be described administratively under one of the following categories: I. A department of research administration set up to arrange and direct all con- tractual activities of the university. 2. Separate research projects, ranging in scope from an individual scientist to one or more departments. 3. Government-owned facilities, operated and manned by a university or by a group of universities. By familiarizing himself with the scope and content of his institution's contract- supported research program, the librarian can make known to the administration whether the library can make a useful con- tribution to a particular project. If the contribution is expected to be substantial either in terms of staff or services, the library is usually allotted an appropriate part of the over head allowance. Inefficiency in the use of the available technical information, or lack of informa- tion, impairs the effectiveness of an entire research organization. This possibility is inherent in a classified research program because of security restrictions upon the flow and interchange of information. Thus, it becomes doubly important to the scientist on classified work that he enlist the aid of the university library in utilizing all literature resources available to him, par- ticularly in the field of classified technical reports. If properly cleared and oriented into the nature of the project, the librarian can bring to bear upon the scientist's re- search problem the bibliographical expert- ness which is needed to obtain the more JULY~ 1952 elusive laboratory reports, translations , conference minutes and other pertinent technical documents not normally available through routine acquisition channels. The identification and location of technical re- ports is a notoriously difficult job even when a project is serviced by one of the centralized agencies for handling and con- trolling technical reports. Special biblio- graphical jobs will also need to be done locally. . In addition, a positive, aggressive program tor acquisition of documentary materials should be developed to obtain reports useful to the research project, but which might not be supplied by the agency sponsoring the contract. Accession lists, abstract journals, and other guides to re- ports received and produced by other gov- ernment agencies should be regularly scanned for project use. Government agencies which sponsor the majority of contract research projects have established central documentation services which control bibliographically the large part of the technical report literature, both classified and unclassified, produced by defense-related research programs. These documentation centers incl-ude the Navy Research Section of the Library of Congress, the Central Air Documents Office at Wright-Patterson Field, the Division of Research Information of the National Ad- visory Committee for Aeronautics, and the Technical Information Service of the Atomic Energy Commission. (The Navy Research Section and the Central Air Docu- ments Office have recently been integrated under a single Armed Services Technical Information Agency.) These documenta- tion centers provide their own agency laboratories and contractors with technical information services in all security classifi- cations. They collect and distribute re- ports, make and distribute abstracts and catalog cards, and prepare bibliographies for those requesting them. 229 Several universities now operate through their defense-related research projects large, organized collections of classified and un- classified reports. Although such projects are under university contract, they tend to become separate organizations for opera- tional purposes, with separate library service distinct from the university library system. The greatest opportunity for service by the university library lies with the numerous small con tract research projects on the campus. The number o( these may be quite large and may represent several De- fense agencies, e.g., Atomic Energy Com- mission, Office of Naval Research, Bureal!l of Ships, Air Force Research and Develop- ment Command, Army Chemical Corps, Army Ordnance, etc. ·There is need here for central bibliographical assistance and coordination of service which the university library can perform. At present, much duplication may be involved, with each research project receiving separately catalog cards and reports in related fields. With the establishment of the Armed Services Technical Information Agency, it is prob- able that hereafter only one security clear- ance and one set of security regulations will be required for handling classified technical information on behalf of contractors of all agencies of the Defense Department. Sepa- rate clearances are required for classified projects sponsored by the Atomic Energy Commission. A possible way for the university library to provide technical report service to re- search contracts, both security-classified and unclassified, would be to establish a classi- fied report collection with facilities and staff personnel cleared to handle military security classifications of "restricted" and "confi- dential." It would not be feasible under present security regulations for a university classified reports library to provide multi- agency service on "secret" and "top secret" reports. It is known that the majority of basic research contracts are classified no higher than "confidential." Within the limits of "restricted" and "confidential" classifications, it could be demonstrated that participation of the university library would advance research and at the same time pro- vide for classified reports stronger security protection than the individual scientist op- erating by himself can give. The librarian is oriented, trained, and experienced in record keeping and bibliographical control, which uniquely qualify him for the exacting job of safeguarding classified documents. The experience of most agencies and in- stitutions operating classified report libraries has evolved two successful methods for the administration and housing of a complete library service. One plan is to set up two physically separate library collections, one containing classified reports, the other un- classified reports, books and periodicals. Each is independently staffed and served by separate catalogs and bibliographical tools. The advantages of this type of organization are that it permits access to the open litera- ture section by uncleared personnel and presents fewer security problems in terms of staffing and physical protection. It has the disadvantages of lack of integration of reference service across classification lines and some duplication in processing and serv- ice functions. The other type of approach to the prob- lem of housing and servicing a classified collection is to combine the two collections physically and administratively, to provide an integrated reference service. In both cases separate catalogs are usually maintained because interfiling of subject headings for books and reports is not pos- sible without extensive re-working. Also, it is necessary in both cases to observe such rules of compartmentalization as may apply, usually on the basis of a subject category access authorization. "Need to know" is a meaningful criterion only when classified 230 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES reports can be furnished in terms of definite control factors: ( r) Specific reports ( 2) Series or categories of reports ( 3) Contract source ( 4) Sponsoring agency ( 5) Classifi- cation ( 6) Physical areas or degrees of security clearance. Requirements for safe storage of classified documents may be found described in detail in the Executive Order on Minimum Stand- ards, referred to above, and need not be considered here. Cataloging, filing and . arrangement of classified reports ordinarily present no unique security problems and likewise are not discussed in this paper. The maintenance of adequate records and control procedures on security-classified reports is an operational problem of the greatest importance. Lax security handling involving compromise of classified informa- tion can have serious consequences. Good security can be maintained by means of simple, effective procedures, plus constant vigilance. The basic control record is a permanent accession record identifying and showing the ultimate disposition of all classified reports received and distributed. It is essential this record give evidence of internal completeness. In addition to the accession or "log" record, a 2-3-4-copy . receipt is used to show transfer of account- ability when a classified report changes hands. Receipts are usually optional for the "restricted" and "confidential" classifi- cations, but are mandatory for "secret" and "top secret." For internal circulation, some classified report libraries use the standard 3" x 5" library book card to record the temporary holder of the document. At some time or other most classified report libraries are required to take an inventory or to make a spot check of their holdings in order to determine whether any reports are missing, to assess security deficiencies, and also to evaluate the adequacy of their record controls. For the sake of brevity and simplicity it has been necessary in several instances to make statements which for complete accuracy would require much greater quali- fication and elaboration than there is time to give them. In addition, there are many problems deserving m9re attention and fuller treatment. The need to reconcile maximum dissemination with adequate se- curity control has required the development of many new procedures and the applica- tion of library principles and techniques to new and highly specialized material. Periodical Binding Schedules (Continued from page 226) bination of both. Eighty-three per cent of libraries reporting either had no campus bindery available or could not have all binding done on the campus. Those li- braries following binding schedules based on reader service, as well as those with no organized plan had access to campus facili- ties in the same proportion as the total reporting. Analysis indicated that the loca- tion of the bindery is not a factor in the formulation of binding schedules based on reader demand. Also in the opinion of the majority of libraries reporting, the location JULY, 1952 of the bindery could not of itself contribute to the effectiveness of a schedule aimed at improved reader service. Conclusion This paper suggests specific procedures for developing serials binding schedules to minimize disruption in service to readers. Ideally such scheduling should be controlled by those who have first-hand knowledge of reader demand. Adoption of these or other specific techniques can be expected to im- prove reader service generally. 231