College and Research Libraries


By RALPH R. SHAW 

Documentation: Complete Cycle 

of Information Service 

DOCUMENTATION IS BEST differentiated from normal library service by the 
extent to which it is concerned with a 
complete-cycle system of providing in-
formation. This cycle involves the identi-
fication, recording, organization, storage, 
recall, conversion into more useful 
forms, synthesis, and dissemination of 
the intellectual content of print and 
other recorded materials. 

General library work tends to con-
centrate in the part of this cycle between 
recording and recall. Documentation 
completes the cycle by also dealing with 
identification, conversion, synthesis, and 
dissemination. 

Documentation is distinguished from 
general library work in two additional 
ways . .It is more intensive-i.e., subject 
analysis is carried further, the range of 
resources accumulated is greater, etc. 
And documentation has the quality of 
special, as distinct from general, library 
service in its relationship to the spe-
cialized needs of particular users and 
uses. 

Thus the differentiation of documen-
tation from general library work and from 
systematic bibliography is primarily a 
matter of degree. These fields are so 
closely interrelated that one person may, 
almost simultaneously, be performing 
functions in all three. Library functions 
(such as acquisition, cataloging, and 

lending, which constitute part, but by 

Dr. Shaw is professor, Graduate 
School of Library Service, Rutgers Uni-
versity. This article is copyrighted, 1957, 
by the Graduate School of Library Serv-
ice, ~utgers University. 

no means all, of library work) are pre-
requisite to documentation. So, too, sys-
tematic bibliography (the listing of liter-
ature) is obviously prerequisite to the 
intensive analysis of intellectual content. 
If the documentalist or information 
officer performs the above functions he 
is, in so doing, acting as a librarian or 
as a bibliographer. The librarian initi-
ates subject analysis in the cataloging 
process, but when he moves on to the in-
tensive handling of the ideas contained 
on every page of every source, he starts 
to function as a documentalist. 

Because of the greater intensity of 
analysis of intellectual content involved 
in documentation (and librarians may 
function as documentalist) greater sub-
ject competence is usually required for 
this field than is required for general 
librarianship, including systematic bib-
liography. 

Since the conversion of information 
into new forms is commonly required, 
and the mass of en tries to be handled 
is normally greater in documentation 
because of the more intensive subject 
analysis, and since transmission of in-
formation is often necessary, the docu-
mentalist must be conversant with more 
detailed indexing schemes, mechanical 
storage and handling devices, methods 
of reproduction, as well as other systems 
for storage, handling, and retrieval of 
information than are requisite for gen-
eral library practice, and he must know 
how to select and blend these tools into 
an effective information system. 

As indicated by the diagram the core 
of information that must serve every 

452 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



Complete Cycle Information Service 

~ 
I ~j} ~ 

I ::-...,.._...~ . 

'-1 
INFORMATION y 
REQUIREMENT 

LOC~NG 
I 

TRANSMISSION AND/OR 

c:e; CONVERSION OF MATERIALS PROBABLE 'Abstracting SOURCES ~THE - Copying 
USER Translating 

with Types of ....__A Lending 
.l!3 preparatory Helisting in usable form CJ 1\.o 
"' Q) work required Report writing !:: § en ..... ( see key below ) >< 

fr ~ .e 
Q) 
c:: 

Card catalogs X 12 3 4 8 
EXAMINATION 

Bibliographies X X 123489 AND 
PRELIMINARY 

Books & Periodicals SELECTION OF MATERIALS 
Reports, etc. X 1 2 3 4 8 

Peekaboo X 124589 

OBTAINING THE MATERIALS 
Addressing plates X 12589 

From the collection 
Tapes, wires, 

X ? X 1 2 4 8 9 10 
Inter-library loan 

drums, etc. Facsimile 
Ultrafax 

Notched cards X ?X X 12456789 Electronic memory 
Photoforms 

Punched cards X 12456789 a. full size 
b. microforms 

Electronic data 
? X 124910 c. 

other 
processors X 

l( Rapid selector X ?X X 1 2 4 6 
Minicard X ?X X 124568910 LOCATING THE MATERIALS 

Filmorex X ? 12456789 In the collections 

Collectanea X X 1234678 In other collections 

II Ir 
Key to the types of preparatory work that may be required 

I. Building the collection 
2. Descriptive and subject cataloging and 

indexing 
3. Compilation 
4. Reproduction and typing 
5. Punching, notching, embossing andj or 

tabbing 

NOVEMBER 1957 

6. Photographing and photo-processing 
7. Clipping and mounting 
8. Manual filing 
9. Machine filing 

10. Preparation of programming instructions 

453 



documentalist and information officer, 
regardless of subject field, includes: 

and other services to help the user to 
reduce the bulk of material he must 
consult in order to get everything perti-
nent to his problem. 

1. The nature and scope of the field. 
2. The users served. 
3. The collection, organization, and 

location of probable sources by the vari-
ous means shown in the diagram on the 

6. The tools for conversion of the 
materials into usable form; including 
reproducing, translating, report writing, 
and relisting, as well as the reproduction 
of reports and lists, etc. 

preceding page. ' 
4. The tools for locating copies of 

mat_erials to be consulted and for ob-
taining them either in originals or by 
various copying devices. 

7. The development and operation of 
balanced full cycle information systems, 
with all parts fitted into each system so 
as to provide the information needed, 
when needed, and in the form in which 
it is needed by proper blending of the 
right combination of mechanical and 
intellectual tools for the particular task 
or tasks to be performed. 

5. The function of evaluation and 
preliminary selection of the materials 
to meet a particular need, from the point 
of view of the particular user, involves a 
first cut in the intellectual work required 
of the user. It may include abstracting · 

The Faculty of Book Buying 

454 

That the faculty of a university should share the responsibility for 
buying books for a university library is a generally accepted principle 
in academic circles. But the realization that book buying is hard intel-
lectual labor comes slowly, if at all, from years of catalog reading. And, 
unfortunately, the prospect of this hard work added to their teaching 
load, frightens many faculty members, even those deeply concerned, in 
the abstract, with strengthening library resources. 

The best faculty book buyers have a good idea of what is already in 
the library, and a broad knowledge of bibliography, ranging far beyond 
their own special fields of teaching and · research. They realize that book 
catalogs are not bargain counters, and that to delay buying a book to-
day in the hope that it will appear at half the price tomorrow is a de-
lusion. At the same time, they know prices and avoid paying for a book-
seller's bad guess. They must know at least as much about books as the 
sellers. 

Such a book buyer was the late Dr. Edward C. A. Lesch, professor of 
English at the University of Oregon. He recognized that a library is 
not a series of unrelated segments, but a growing organic entity. He la-
bored as hard over antiquarian catalogs as over his lectures. His recom-
mendations not only supported his own department and other humanis-
tic fields, but the whole field of cultural history, where the sciences, the 
social sciences, literature, and the arts are seen as varied and mutually 
illuminating aspects of the life of man. He ordered books unknown to the 
ignorant, avoided by the timid, and ignored by the narrow specialist. 
The University of Oregon Library is today immeasurably stronger be-
cause of his knowledge and counsel over twenty-nine years.-The Call 
Number~ University of Oregon Library, Fall, 1957. 

COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES