Betty Cook Rottman:
This was about the time that computers came on the campus here...

Ralph Parker:
That's right.

Betty Cook Rottman:
...in the early 60s. You then linked up with the computer system on the campus.

Parker:
That's right. That's right. We started the system, uh, and operated just as a punched card system for the first, a little over a year. And then the university began to get computers, and we modified it to actually utilize the computer, uh, in May 1966.

Betty Cook Rottman:
And we're talking now in 1974, about 12 years later. What is the way the system works now? You're linked into the main computer for the university? Uh, or do you work independently?

Parker:
Uh, the, uh, uh, system that is used now is essentially the same as it was in 1966. But the university is in the process of, uh, concentrating all of its computer operations in one massive computer. So that the library work is done on this massive computer.

Betty Cook Rottman:
But you do have immediate access to where books are, who has them, and, uh, uh, also you make use of this in some other areas, don't you?

Parker:
Oh, yes, uh, in the circulation records, uh, uh, for instance, uh, all overdue notices are, uh, uh, are sent. Uh, if there are any fines, the billing is done automatically, uh, by the computer. Uh, lists at the end of the year are sent, uh, to members of the faculty and graduate students and others telling them what they have checked out and and, and such. But the system is also used for making all of the catalog cards for the library catalogs are done by the computer.