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RECOMMENDED STATE LAND SURVEY AUTHORITY REPOSITORY PROGRAM
The responsibility to provide a storage facility and a retrieval system for all land survey information in the State of Missouri has been given to the State Land Survey Authority by the legislature. The documents to be stored in this repository include the records from the Secretary of State's land vault in Jefferson City, the survey plat records and county surveyor records recorded in each of the respective county recorder's office, and such other information that will benefit the land surveying system in the State of Missouri. The stations established for the basic control of the Missouri State Coordinate System and its accessories are also to be included in the repository. Many other documents will be received from private sureyors and they will also be stored in this facility. It is estimated that at this time the library would contain approximately 400,000 documents. These documents should be readily available for use by the surveying profession in the State of Missouri. Other documents, approximately 50,000, would be stored by the repository, but would not be in general use. These documents would include such things as the original land patents and the various instructions given to the original surveyors.
A repository containing 400,000 useful and readily available documents requires a great deal of planning and organization to be effectively used. One system of display is to be designed for all documentation. This unitized system will alow the most efficient use of all equipment for the repository. The documents today, in their original form, are in various sizes, shapes, and forms. It is obvious that this type of original documentation must be converted to one unitized system in order that an effective system can be designed. The use of microfilm seems to be the only way that this could be attained economically. Therefore, we recommend the use of microfilming as the basic system for the State Land Survey Authority repository.
Today we have three different formats in microfilming information available. First we have roll microfilm. The term, roll microfilm, is used here to mean micro images or photographic negative prints on film at a reduced scale attached together so they may be stored in roll form. The two widths most commonly used are 16mm. and 35mm. Roll film has been in use for many years. Consequently there is much equipment available for preparing, viewing, and making enlarged prints of it, and many people are familiar with its use.
The second format is that of the aperture card. An aperture card is the mounting of a single micro image on a Hollerith card. The card is a standard computer card with a small window in it. There is only one frame or one image mounted on each card.
The third format is that of microfiche or jackets. Here we use the microfiche to mean a relatively large number of micro images assembled in a two dimensional aray [sic] on a 4" x 6" standard card size. The jacket is the format of the original film. In this jacket either 16mm. or 35mm. film is cut into strips and placed into the jacket which holds either 60, 16mm. frames or 6, 35mm. frames. Each one of these jackets has a tab at the top for typing information for retrieval of the jacket itself. The microfiche document is a film copy of the microfiche jacket. It is the basic format used by many of the agencies today. The clearing house for scientific and technical information of the National Bureau of Standards uses the microfiche for storage and retrieval of all the Federal Government scientific information.
It is important that we list the advantages and disadvatages of each one of these modes or formats. The roll film concept has the basic advantage that the greatest number of documents can be stored in this manner in the least amount of space. The roll film system also provides a greater file integrity than any of the other systems. In other words, documents may not be lost individually because they are connected with an entire roll and may not be removed singularly. The main disadvantage of the roll film is the length of time necessary for retrieving information from the roll. There is also the disadvantage that a person using the film, or a particular roll, ties up a great many documents that may not be used by another person.
The advantage of using aperture cards lies in the fact that each card contains a single document, and these may be filed very readily for easy retrieval. They can be either retrieved manually or with automated equipment such as IBM sorter. The aperture card system has two basic disadvantages. First, the system has very low file integrity. Once a card is removed from the file it can easily be replaced in the wrong position, and therefore very difficult to find--particularly when you have as many as 400,000 cards. Also, the other disadvantage is the amount of space required to file these documents. The amount of space is approximately equal to the space required to file the original document.
The microfiche system has the advantage that it contains more than one document per file in a very usable form. Also, the reproduction of the jackets into microfiche is a very inexpensive type of operation and allows changing and sectionalizing the information very readily. The main disadvantage of the microfiche today is again, the lack of complete file integrity. this file integrity, of course, is much better than the aperture card, but not as good as the roll film. The microfiche is preferred over the use of roll film primarily because of the much faster retrieval and the fact that only a small number of documents receive wear during use, where with the roll film, the entire roll is subject to wear during the viewing process.
We have considered and investigated the use of all three of these particular formats. It is our recommendation that the Survey Authority adopt the microfiche or jacket system for its basic format; and that the roll film format be continued and used in conjunction with microfiche and their jackets for the storage of information which would not ordinarily be used in the retrieval process.
REPOSITORY PROCEDURES
Based on the use of microfiche and jackets as the system for this repository, the following procedure of operations is to be utilized.
1. Production. Microfilm from all existing sources will be obtained by the Survey Authority. Much of this microfilm will be in roll film format, and some of it will be in aperture card format. At the present time we do not believe any of it will be in microfiche. Most of this existing film will be converted to the microfiche or jacket format. The aperture card is readily converted by removing the single frame from the aperture card and placing it in the jacket. The roll film is also readily converted by inserting the film into the jackets in the appropriate manner using a microfilm reader filler. This may also be accomplished by hand if necessary. All new microfilm will be photographed in the normal manner on roll film, either 35mm. or 16mm., as the size dictates. This film will then be placed in microfiche jackets. At this point we have all of our microfilm in either roll form or jacket form. We will take the microfiche jackets, both the diazo second generation copies and the silver first generation copies, to the archives section of the Secretary of State's office and they will make diazo microfiche copies for us at no cost. These microfiche copies then will be used as our working file. The jacket film will be stored for safe keeping and in most cases will be the security copy.
2. Indexing. Each frame on the microfiche jacket will be indexed. Basically, according to the jacket number and the position in the jacket. This index shall also include information that will be necessary to define what the document contains. After indexing each one of the frames, overall indexes will be made giving the location of each document by jacket and jacket position according to various formats. This will be a computer generated index system.
3. The Use of the System. As requests are received by the Land Survey Authority, they will be entered upon an appropriate request form. The clerk typist will select the correct jacket or jackets containing the required information. This will be done by using the printed index system. She will then verify the information on each jacket by displaying it on a microfiche reader available at the microfiche file drawer. If the request is from a person in the office, he may also at this time study the microfiche document through this same reader and possibly copy the information that he might need. If a print is required, the printing instructions shall be written on the request form and attached to the microfiche jacket. This will include information as to whether the particular drawing should be blown up, or if only a small part of the document is needed. These instructions, with fiche cards, will be deposited in one central place. Once each day these microfiche documents will be copied for the user and these copies mailed out or given to the people by whom the request was made.
It is believed that this procedure will give us the most efficient use of our personnel and give us an effective and adequate means of distributing the information from the repository. At the present time we are receiving requests at the rate of about two or three per week. It is anticipated that in future months the rate could be as high as four or five a day, requiring as many as maybe twelve to twenty copies. This procedure will work equally well with the volume of today or the expanded volume.
4. The Equipment Necessary. To implement this particular program at the present time it is necessary that we invest in the very basic microfilm reader printer equipment. The following equipment is necessary to effectively operate the system. A variable magnification reader capable of blowing the microfilm documents between a magnification of 10 and 40 diameters. This reader must be capable of handling either roll, card, or fiche documents, and will be the overall workhorse of our system. In conjunction with this reader we need a rapid process print developer. This will allow us to use a photographic process in conjunction with the reader to produce very high quality photographic copies of the microfilm. A fixed magnification microfiche reader is also necessary. This unit will be used to verify the microfiche document retrieved and will also serve as a means for inhouse viewing of the microfiche without using the variable magnification reader. A 35mm. jacket filler will also be a very important asset to our repository. This will allow us to very efficiently convert roll film to jackets, therefore to microfiche. It is not absolutely necessary, but with the limited personnel in our organization, this will allow us a great deal more production. Also, we will need file cabinets to store the microfiche. These will be standard 4" x 6" file card cabinets. At the present we will need approximately eight drawer capacity. This should hold all of the microfiche cards necessary in the next year or two. These will be purchased in lots of four at a time, and will be stacked together.
Future plans would include the acquisition of a dry process reader printer of variable magnification. At the present time there are no variable magnification reader printers that give good quality prints. The dry process reader printers available today are designed for high volume and small size documents such as bank drafts and 8 1/2" x 11" size documents. This equipment is changing rapidly and in the next few years we will see a considerable change. As our volume increases, and the quality of this equipment increases, there will be a time when we will want to purchase a piece of equipment such as this. This equipment will not replace the equipment we are proposing at this time, but will add to our capacity.
5. Filming Equipment. We have three avenues open for obtaining microfilm copies ourselves. First we have the ability to work with the Secretary of State's archival section in microfilming documents with their cameras in Jefferson City. They have 35mm. and 16mm. planetary cameras. They are excellent for microfilming documents less than 26" x 36" in size, and for documents not needing a back lighting system or vacumn [sic] frame mounting. There is no cost for this microfilm service. Therefore, when at all possible we will use this source.
The second alternative open to the Survey Authority is the use of the microfilm equipment available at the University of Missouri-Rolla Library. The maximum copy size of this equipment is 37 1/2" x 52 1/2". The drawings can be back lighted and it also provides for a vacumn [sic] frame to hold down drawings that are hard to copy. The approximate cost of this operation will be about $.04 per frame. This compares very favorably with the commercial rate of about $.14 per frame.
The third alternative for microfilming is the purchase of a small panetary [sic] camera similar to the one used in the Secretary of State's office. These cameras can be taken apart and transported to the recorder's offices and then can be assembled and adjusted to give good quality work similar to that which we would receive from the Secretary of State's office. The cost of this camera is about $4,000 or it may be leased on a basis of about $135 per month.
It is our recommendation that the program of filming the records proceed as follows: First, obtain all of the existing microfilm records available to us and convert these into microfiche. We will take all the documentation that we have here and that can be filmed by the small camera to the Secretary of State's office for their filming and placing in jackets for us. These jackets will then be converted to microfiche. We will determine which of the records cannot be filmed by the Secretary of State's office and then make arrangements with the University of Missouri at Rolla to film them. We believe that most of the county recorder's records today need to be copied on the large planetary camera, such as the one at the University of Missouri at Rolla. Approximately nine counties will allow us to bring the records to Rolla for microfilming. This may require that we bring one of the recorder's men along with the documents while the microfilming process is carried on. Because of the equipment and arrangements with the University, this would be a very economical and fast operation requiring approximately one to two days for each of the counties. Therefore the total cost to us would be relatively small. We will not be able to have this same turn around time if we use the Secretary of State's office. This phase of the microfilming program will carry us until July 1 of this year. At that time we will know how many of the other counties will allow us to remove their records for filming. In the event that we find that many of these will not allow us, we then will purchase the microfilm caera [sic] and transport it to the county offices and reassemble and readjust it there. This same microfilm camera will be installed here in our offices for a continuing program of microfilming of the documentation received as time progresses. This camera will be sufficient for almost all documents after the initial filming of the documents at the recorder's offices. This is primarily because of the proposed adoption of a standard plat size of 18" x 24".
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Transcribed by Steven E. Weible
