INFORMATION SYSTEMS
CA author indexes now computer-produced Versatile system will use one data base to organize and compose all Chemical Abstracts Service publications Chemical Abstracts Service has taken another big step toward its goal of having, by mid-1970, a single work flow and a single computer data base to provide information for all CAS publications and services. Although most Chemical Abstracts subscribers probably didn't realize it, there was something different about the author index for CA's volume 69 they received earlier this month. While it looks almost the same as previous author indexes, which were produced by photographing individual entries Yarityped on cards, the volume 69 index was compiled, organized, and composed for printing almost entirely by computer. The author names and titles appearing in the index were extracted by computer directly from CA abstract headings recorded in machine language at the time each article and patent covered in volume 69 was selected for abstracting. Abstract numbers, which complete the index entries, were added to the same machinelanguage data store as each CA issue in the volume was organized for publication. To prepare the index, the CAS computers were programed to sort the author names into alphabetical order, merge and sort by title multiple entries under a single author's name, and compose finished index entries on 35mm. film through a computer-operated photocomposing unit. After review by CAS editors of galley proofs produced from this film, necessary corrections were recycled through the computer system and recomposed. The final 35-mm. images were then enlarged photographically to the size of the printed index columns, and the enlarged negatives were used to prepare offset printing plates. Multiple use. The new procedures eliminate most of the human sorting, recopying, and checking of data normally required in preparing an index. But an even greater advantage, CAS officials point out, is the saving in 14 C&EN SEPT. 29, 1969
OUTPUT. Computer system organizes and composes complete CA index columns, records them on 35-mm. film
editorial and clerical effort realized through the multiple use the computer system derives from a single human handling of data. The same machinelanguage data that produce the author index are also used to print abstract headings on the assignment forms sent to CA abstractors and to produce the listings of articles and patents in CA Condensates. The same data will be used again to produce the collective author index. When the system is complete, they will also be used to compose the listings in Chemical Titles and the abstract headings for CA issues. The key to the typeset appearance of the new computer-produced index is an IBM 2280 film recorder unit that has been modified to operate as a highly versatile computer-controlled photocomposing device (C&EN, Sept. 11, 1967, page 68). Through this unit, CAS can derive printed output directly from a computer data store with a typographic quality and legibility equivalent to that of traditionally typeset publications. The 2280 composes by painting characters on the face of a cathode ray tube through a series of computerdirected stroking or plotting actions of the tube's electron beam. The characters, formed on the tube face at a rate of more than 2000 per second, are optically focused and recorded on 35-mm. film. Each character composed is generated from its own set of programed instructions. To prepare a character
for composition through the system, CAS programers place a much enlarged outline of it over a dot grid pattern that duplicates the reference points on the unit's cathode ray tube screen and draw the lines or strokes necessary to form a solid representation of the character on the screen. The grid coordinates of each end of each stroke are then recorded in a master file of computer instructions, and die 2280 recreates the character from these instructions each time it is composed. Since adding a new symbol to the font is simply a matter of adding the instructions for forming it to the computer store, the 2280 can produce a virtually unlimited variety of characters, symbols, and type faces. Versatile. Computer programs also control the type size and face in which a particular item is composed and its arrangement relative to other items in the composed column. Each item recorded in the CAS computer data base carries a code that identifies it as an author name, a title, or some other specific kind of data. Using this identification, format programs direct the system to compose an author name in one type face, a title in another, and to indent the title a predetermined number of spaces under the author name. By substituting new format programs, the same data can be recomposed in a different type face and arrangement for use in another publication without the rekeyboarding that would be required in a manual typesetting process. The author index is the second of CA's volume indexes to be composed with the 2280. Formula indexes, which are less complex in organization and use a smaller variety of type characters and faces, have been produced through the computer system since last year. Work has begun on converting subject indexes to computer production. CAS plans to produce CA abstract issues with the new system by 1971 to 1972. One result of the shift to computerbased index production of CAS will be much more timely collective indexes for CA. Since most of the entries for the 8th Collective (196771) will be in the computer store ready for automatic sorting and merging at the end of the collective period, CAS expects to publish the entire 60,000-page index within 30 months, compared to the nearly 4 years required to complete the 7th Collective by manual methods.
