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Report No. 78-75 D

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AUTOMATION AND THE CONGRESSIONAL
RESEARCH SERVICE
CHARLES A. GOODRUM
Former Assistant Director
Office of the Director
Revised by: S. JOHN KALDAHL
Office of Automated
Information Services
March 23, 1978

CONGRESEONAL

RESEARCH

SERWCE

UBRARYOF JF 522

CONGRESS

 

The Congressional Research Service works exclusively for
the Congress, conducting research, analyzing legislation, and
providing information at the request of Committees, Mem-
bers and their staffs.

The Service makes such research available, without partisan
bias, in many forms including studies, reports, compilations,
digests, and background briefings. Upon request, the CRS
assists Committees in analyzing legislative proposals and
issues, and in assessing the possible effects of these proposals
and their alternatives. The Service’s senior specialists and sub-
ject analysts are also available for personal consultations in
their respective fields of expertise.

A. Introduction

Described in the following pages are the major computer-based data
base resources used by the Congressional Research Service in the mission of
answering Congressional requests for information.

In using a computer data base the major piece of equipment is a
computer terminal; that device is explained in terms of functions and major
components. Data base applications using the remote terminal in the CRS
are then defined in terms of either data retrieval or data manipulation.
SCORPIO, the Library's in-house data retrieval system, is explained in some
detail, since that resource is widely used in CRS, in offices of the House
and Senate, throughout the Library, and by the public in the Library's main

reading rooms. Brief descriptions are also given of the CRS use of additional

data base resources.

The outline of this document is as follows:

Introduction
The Computer Terminal
CRS Major Terminal Applications--Data Retrieval and Data Manipulation
1. Data Retrieval
2. Data Manipulation
D. SCORPIO--the Library's Information Retrieval System
1. The Bill Digest Data Base
2. The Bibliographic Citation Data Base
3. The Issue Brief Data Base
4. The Congressional Record Abstracts Data Base
5. Other SCORPIO Data Bases
CRS Subscriptions to External Bibliographic Systems
ATS--the Library's Data Manipulation System
CRS Use of Outside Data Manipulation Systems
For Assistance, a Contact List

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.'-'-l'-‘-C3"=1|f11

This publication is meant to serve as an introduction to CRS data base
applications to the staff of the Service, to congressional offices, and to other
interested parties. To pursue questions or details regarding the contents of this

document, please Contact the relevant entry listed in the last page below.

B. The Computer Terminal

The remote computer terminal--whether a variation of the electric
typewriter or a TV-like screen with keyboard--is a symbol of modern data
processing technology. Applications are everywhere: in various forms they
are in banks, air line reservations offices, insurance offices, factories,
retail stores, supermarkets, in the home, and in Congress. Technology has
placed both equipment and processing capabilities directly into the offices
and committees of the U.S. Legislature. Computer-based resources allow the
member to vote on legislation, answer constituent mail, handle office proce-
dures, and a myriad of other tasks. Of the CRS automated services provided
to Congress, the Library-based SCORPIO legislative information retrieval
system is used in many Capitol Hill offices. In addition to SCORPIO, CRS
research and information staff use other information systems in answering
congressional inquiries.

Computer power, in other words, is now in the hands of the
ultimate user. But it has not always been that way.

In the earlier days of computers, all parts of the data processing
activity were centrally located, with the ultimate user on the outside
passively awaiting printed products. All equipment and data processing were
confined to a single location, the computer center, with the computer pro-
grammers nearby. Data was keypunched, the cards were read into special card
readers, the information was processed by computer programs (software) in
the main computer (main frame), and finally the results were printed on high-
speed printers. It took highly skilled technicians to program the computer
and operate the equipment, and the time span between card preparation and

report printing was usually measured in terms of hours or days.

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Products, like reports or bibliographies, were than mailed to the customers
outside this nucleus.

The remote computer terminal, allowing the ultimate user to
interact or “communicate” with the computer, in his or her office, has
changed this situation.

The computer center still exists, housing the main computer,
storage devices, and related control equipment; the programmers are still
nearby; raw data are read into the central computer (although this latter
data entry process is often done remotely now); and reports are printed
on high-speed printers. But in addition, terminal devices are now placed
out of the center into the hands of the actual user--with the capability
of retrieving or manipulating the central data core. The CRS printed

editions of the Bill Digest, for example, are generated centrally in the

Library of Congress computer center, located in the LC Thomas Jefferson
Building; but a CRS researcher in the Library of Congress Building, or a
congressional staffer in a House or Senate office, can by extension with a
computer terminal activate this same Bill Digest computerized data base,
and, by conducting a one to one dialogue with the central computer, can
call out relevant digest, action, and other pieces of information in a
matter of seconds or minutes.

So the terminal, in addition to allowing the actual user to play

an active role in data processing, has signaled three major advantages

over the earlier centralized concept. (1) The first is physical separation.

The terminal device may be physically separate from the central facility
by feet, miles, or even continents. Usually the terminal is connected to

a computer by means of telephone lines. A dial-up device, for example can

._,_’+....

make the connection using a regular desk top telephone instrument. (2)

The second is rapid processing. Type a question on a keyboard, and the
answer is flashed on an associate cathode ray tube (CRT) video screen in

a matter of seconds. Such quick interaction with a computer--the question/
answer dialogue-—means that the person at the terminal is in an “on-line"

or instantaneous connection mode with the computer; the card punch operation
mentioned above is in the “off-line” or "batch" or "overnight" mode. (3)

A third advantage in using a remote machine is user simplicity. Armed with

proper training, one can sit at a terminal and operate a powerful data pro-
cessing system without being a computer programmer, computer operator, or
systems analyst. Using but a few SCORPIO commands, a particular bill digest
can be scanned on a CRT; with instruction and practice, the user can answer
in minutes multipart questions that would take hours or be impractical if
done by pursuing printed volumes by hand. The power and efficiency of an
entire computer system has thus been condensed into a single SCORPIO terminal
location.

Major physical components of a computer terminal are brief in
number. For a video device, there is a keyboard for entering a question
(”command”, or ”instruction"), plus a cathode ray tube (CRT) screen for
receiving the answer ("response"); for a typewriter device, both question
and answer are printed on a roll of paper. A machine is simply activated
by a cord to an electric outlet and a telephone line to the computer. The
phone link is either dial-up (in many cases a regular desk telephone may be
used) or dedicated (with a direct phone line from terminal to a specific
computer system). The dial-up version, in spite of the need to call up a

computer, has the advantage of being able to access a number of computer

....5....

systems. And some dial-up typewriter type machines now approach a scant
dozen pounds in weight. Rumor has it that some rather stunning connections
have been made in public telephone booths.

What can the terminal be used for? In CRS the primary research
mission is data base access--bibliographic retrieval and data manipulation.
Major components involved in connecting up to a data bank system, apart from
the terminal, include the computer files and associated computer programs
resident in a computer. The files or data banks to be discussed below are
either bibliographic citation collections or else statistical files, computer
models, and other non-bibliographic banks. Whatever information is involved,
computer programs process the data and activate the terminals. The set of
Library of Congress information retrieval computer programs that process the
Service's legislative data files (such as the Bill Digest file) is called
SCORPIO. iThe collective system, then, consists of four parts--data bases,
programs or software, terminals, and main computer. In retrieving legislative
data at CRS, it may be that a subject analyst is viewing Issue Briefs by means
of a SCORPIO dialogue with a dial-up CRT connected to the LC computer center.
Of note is that all four components must be properly meshed in order to

achieve success at the terminal.

For questions about terminals, their locations and related matters,

see the last section of this report.

C. CRS Major Terminal Applications--Data Retrieval and Qata Manipulation

The CRS subject analyst sitting at an on-site terminal makes use
of the machine in two quite different ways, which might be called data re-

trieval and data manipulation. A single terminal may be tied in to one

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computer center, yet marked differences exist between the nature of
the respective data banks and associated computer software. At the
Library it is the difference between what can be done with SCORPIO and
ATS.

1. Data Retrieval is the information retrieval and display of
bibliographic citations (and sometimes textual material)-rather efficient
use of a library's card catalog, stuffed into computer storage, if you
will. Sit at a terminal and you can ask for references to books by a
certain author or to articles on a certain subject. Better yet, you can
ask for citations of a certain author combined with a certain subject.

Only with long arms and much time can this be done manually. In addition,

a computer file is almost certain to be more up-to-date than its manual file
equivalent. More examples are given below when discussing SCORPIO. What
cannot be done with an information retrieval system is change the stored
data in any way. Keyboard errors are not destructive. Mistaken keystrokes
result in perhaps retrieving incorrect or unwanted references; or perhaps,
no citations at all. But the integrity of the data remains unaffected.

The primary in-house or LC data retrieval system used by CRS is SCORPIO.

 Major external subscription bibliographic retrieval resources include the

New York Times Info Bank, JURIS, System Development Corp (SDC), Lockheed, and
MEDLINE. For details, see sections D and E, below.

2. Data Manipulation is the information processing of raw data. Data
banks of primary data are involved: economic time series, education models,
columns of numbers, textual reports. What is displayed on the terminal is
not a bibliography or secondary information pointing to something else, but

a primary informational end product. The product may be a financial forecast,

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a display showing the possible impact of pending education legislation,

a crosstabulation or frequency distribution, or a memorandum. More ex-
amples below. Many of the files of a data manipulation system may indeed

be changed at the researcher's terminal, such as correcting errors and
adding up-to-the-minute information; in fact in some systems an entire

user file might be placed in the on-line system in order to reap the benefits
of specialized software. The Library's ATS system, for example, is used for
inquiry message switching, report writing, and data input.

The primary LC data manipulation system used in CRS is ATS (Administra-

tive Terminal System). External subscription facilities to complement ATS
include DRI (Data Resources, Inc.), SBC (Service Bureau Company), and CDC

(Control Data Corporation). See sections F and G, below.
D. SCORPIO--The Library‘s Information Retrieval System

Three files of legislative information are created and maintained
by the CRS for the generation of hard copy publications and access by SCORPIO
computer terminal. A fourth is supplied by a local private vendor. The Bill
Digest file describes current legislation, the Bibliographic file references
the Service's official documents and serial literature, and the lssue Brief
file consists of CRS-written briefs on major issues confronting the current
Congress. From the in-house data banks emanate such publications as the
printed Bill Digest issues, the SDI card system, and Issue Brief reports.
Additional LC files include the National Referral Center Resources file and
the Library of Congress Computerized Catalog. (

All data base collections can be accessed by the Library's SCORPIO

system. Standing for Subject-Content-Oriented-Retriever for-Processing-

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Information-Onwline, SCORPIO is a collection of computer programs designed
and written by a technical staff of system analysts and computer programmers
of the Libraryds Information Systems Office (180, part of the LC Administra-
tive Department). Through the efforts of this staff, SCORPIO has progressed
over the past months from a few test commands to a powerful information
retrieval language; and a continual upgrading of its capabilities (such as
text searching) is taking place.
SCORPIO is available to the staff of CR8 and all LC departments,
to the public in both the Main Reading Room and the Science and Technology
Reading Room, and to the offices of Congress.» Hours of operation are 8:00 am
to 9:30 pm Monday thru Friday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Saturdays, and 1:00 pm to
5:00 pm Sundays.
What follows is a brief description of each of the current automated

files, their major publications, and how they can be searched by SCORPIO.

1. The Bill Digest Data Base

a. The File. This data base is created, maintained and kept current by
the Bill Digest section of the CRS American Law Division. It is a legislative
content and status system for all pending congressional bills and resolutions.
For each of the approximately 26,000 bills introduced in a Congress there is a
short textual description or digest of the content of the proposed legislation,
a set of subject terms, its current status in the legislative process, who
sponsored and cosponsored it, what committees are handling it, what actions have
been taken on it, and so on. In all, each bill is monitored by over twenty
data elements. The file is updated on a daily basis.

b. Hard Copy Publications. The Digest of Public General Bills and

Resolutions, more commonly known as the Bill Digest, is normally published

during each session of a Congress in five or more cumulative issues, with 
biweekly supplements as needed, and a final cumulation at the session's
conclusion. Copies are distributed throughout the Service, are sent to
all congressional offices and U.S. document depository libraries, and

are available for public sale from the Government Printing Office.

c. Special or Related Documents. A separate legislative publication
the MLC--Major Legislation of the Congress--formerly called the Legislative
Status Report, provides legislative status and bill content information on
selected major bills before the Congress. Copies of the MLC are automatically
distributed to all congressional offices each month. Specialized "bill track-
ing” products are generated from the Bill Digest data base. A list of bill
numbers, gleaned from Digest indexes or retrieved by SCORPIO, can be fed into
the computer via ATS systems, and, on an overnight basis, results in an 11x14
inch “mini-Bill Digest" of digests and actions for the bills involved. CRS
researchers request this service for subject areas, while congressional offices
find it useful to monitor their respective member's sponsored and cosponsored
legislation. Bill Tracking can be executed against the 95th, 94th, and 93rd
Congress automated files.

d. SCORPIO Retrieval. The Bill Digest data base can be directly searched
by bill or public law number, sponsor, cosponsor, subject term, and the commit-
tee to which the bill was initially referred. Once a bill has been retrieved
all of the twenty-plus descriptive elements can be displayed at the terminal.
The current and past Bill Digest data files for the 95th, 94th, and 93rd
Congresses, can be searched at terminals located throughout CRS; equipment
located in the Senate and House reference centers is available for congressional

staff use and complements the networks of devices located in congressional

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offices of both the Senate and the House. These files are now available
via the Library's public terminals.

e. Original Documents. The GPO published bill texts are the original
documents referenced by the Bill Digest data base. Library Services main-
tains a set of bills of the current Congress for CRS use; Senate and House
offices can obtain copies from their respective document room collections.

2. The Bibliographic File

a. The File. The data base is created, maintained, and kept current
by the Bibliographic Section of the CRS Library Services Division. This is
the Service's automated card catalog. Citations refer to two document collec-
tions: one is to CRS written publications, the other to non-CRS written docu-
ments. Each year CRS prepares approximately 300 multilith reports analytical
and background reports, factual data (such as statistics and chronologies),
legal materials (e.g., legislative histories) and general information sheets.
Other in-house documents include reports, committee prints, and major memoranda.
The bibliographic data base also cites documents that the Service receives from
the Congress, the executive branch, the United Nations, major publications of
congressional interest from State and local governments, interest groups and
associations, and from some 6,000 magazine and scholarly journals. Each biblio-
graphic citation is described by author (personal or corporate), title, imprint,
subject terms (broad or "bucket" and narrow or LIV [see below]), series note
(e.g., contents or description of the document's subject coverage), type of
document, original document location, and others. The file consists of over
100,000 citation records, extending from 1969, and is increased by about 3,000
citations per month. The file update is weekly.

b. Hard Copy Publications. From this data base is drawn the SDI (Selective

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Dissemination of Information) service, an automated current awareness
system. Subscriber interest profiles of subject "bucket" terms are
compared by the computer against the week's addition of new citations;

the match generates individualized printouts on 3 x 5 subject cards.

Thus, if a researcher is responsible for tracking ongoing developments

in crime as a national issue, the computer will identify only those
articles, reports, multiliths, and other documents which relate to that
subject in broad terms--gun control, delinquency, prison reform, street
lighting, and so on. Nearly 500 individual subscribers now receive SDI
service: appyoximately 350 CRS staff and 150 congressional offices.
Subject and author monthly book catalogs are produced for the biblio-
graphers and in-house researchers. Requests for specialized bibliographies
can be directed against the bibliographic file on an overnight basis using
a special “retriever” computer program. A bibliographic question is trans-
lated into the retriever language by Library information specialists, placed
on punched cards, and processed at the Library's Computer Service Center.

A high-speed printout is the result. This service, too, is used primarily
by CRS researchers in answering long lead-time congressional requests,
rather than directly by congressional offices.

c. Special or Related Documents. The LIV (Legislative Indexing
Vocabulary) was developed by CRS to insure consistency of subject indexing
terms in the bibliographic data base. This thesaurus of some 6,000 terms,
compatible with the LC subject headings, is now used as an indexing author-
ity for the Bill Digest and Major Issues automated files. The hard-copy LIV,
now in its eleventh edition (Fall 1977), is available for research staff through-

out the CRS subject divisions and has limited distribution to congressional

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offices. The LIV has been brought on~line under SCORPIO as a searching aid
for those searching the associated computer files.

d. SEORPIO Retrieval. The bibliographic data base can be directly

searched by author (personal or corporate), subject term (bucket or LIV),
and citation number. Once a citation has been retrieved, all of the de-
scriptive elements mentioned above can be displayed. Depth of historical
searching by terminal is as follows: CRS hard-wired CRTs can search the
entire 1969 to present data base; CRS dial-up devices, as well as terminals
located in the Senate and House, can search the last two years (at present,
1976 to date); a sanitized version of this latter file (omitting citations
to documents restricted for congressional offices) is available on LC
public terminals.

e. Original Documents. Original documents cited by the bibliographic

file~-either CRS or non-CRS written publications--are maintained by Library
Services. The Service's staff make special use of these files in fulfilling
their SDI interests. Congressional offices request original documents on the
basis of SDI, SCORPIO searches, or other printed bibliographies; the relevant
original document is then photocopied (where copyright or length is not a
factor) and sent to the congressional requestor. CRS resources prevents
distribution of hard copies to the public.
3. Issue Briefs
a. The File. Issue Briefs are unique document creations of the CRS,

designed to reflect the major issues confronting Congress and written by CRS
subject analysts. The computerized file of these 250 briefing papers are input,
maintained, and kept current by the Issue Brief Unit, which is part of the CRS

Director's Office. Unlike the surrogate records of the Bill Digest and

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Bibliographic files, where digests and citations refer to full~text original
documents, each brief in the automated Issue Brief file is itself a full

text document consisting of a number of sections: a definition and back~

ground analysis of the issue, a listing of current, relevant legislation

before the Congress and of pertinent congressional hearings and reports,

a chronology of significant events which brought the matter to public atten-
tion and references to additional information available in the professional
literature. All briefs are similar in format and are organized into the
headings just listed. Issue briefs vary in length and comprehensiveness
depending upon the nature of the topic. A typical brief runs from eight to

ten double-spaced typewritten pages. Sample issue briefs available include:
Agriculture: Domestic Problems and Prospects; Employment and Unemployment
Statistics; Panama Canal Treaties; Space Shuttle; and Welfare Reform. Briefs
are updated on the computer file as demanded by the events of the issues.
Moreover, new briefs are added to the file, and old ones deleted from the

file, to reflect the purpose of the issue Brief system.

b. Hard Copy Publications. Complete sets of hard copy Issue Briefs~~

8%xll inch computer printouts——are maintained in six locations: the Issue

Brief Unit, the Congressional Reference Division, the Senate Reference Center,
the Longworth Reference Center, the House Annex #2 Reference Center,and the
Rayburn Reference Center. Whenever a brief is updated or changed in any way,

new originals are printed for insertion into these collected sets. Congressional
offices wanting the hard copy can either telephone the CRS request number. one

of the reference centers, or the Issue Brief unit directly.

c. Special or Related Documents. A listing of current Issue Brief titles --

a “menu”--is sent to all congressional offices biweekly. Any topic which appears

to be of interest can be requested by telephone (see preceding paragraph), and a

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hard copy printout will be delivered within a single work day. The menu
lists new Briefs added to the automated file, cites Briefs available on
audio cassette, and gives an alphabetical list of the titles of all avail-
able Briefs in the system (also indicating by an asterisk those Briefs

updated since publication of the previous menu).

d. SCORPIO Retrieval. The Issue Brief data base can be searched by
subject (LIV) term or by the first word of the title. Once retrieved as
in the other CRS automated files, all of the descriptive sections of the
Issue can be displayed. Issue Briefs can be searched by computer terminals
located throughout CRS, the Senate, Longworth, House Annex #2, and Rayburn
reference centers, and Senate and House offices.

e. Original Documents. Issue Briefs are Original Documents; see above.

4. The Congressional Record Abstract File

a. The File. Reflecting the activities of Congress, the Congressional

Record is issued daily by the Government Printing Office while the Congress

is in session and contains detailed information on bills and resolutions,
recorded votes on bills and amendments, committee schedules, voting records,
and a variety of other textual items. There are four sections of the printed
document: a chronology of events of the two legislative chambers detailed in
House and Senate sections; a variety of items such as texts of speeches in

the extension of Remarks; and a Daily Digest section of summaries of the day's
legislative events. A local Washington, D.C. firm, Capitol Services, Inc.,

indexes and abstracts the daily Congressional Record to produce a variety of

hard copy products by computer. By means of a purchase agreement with the
Congressional Research Service, CSI sends daily machine-readable computer tapes

to the Library's computer center to be added to SCORPIO as a distinct data base

...15....

of Congressional Record abstracts. Available for SCORPIO retrieval are abstracts
for the 2nd Session of the 94th Congress (1976), and for the entire 95th Congress
(1977 to present). A typical entry includes an abstract, indexing terms, bill

numbers, page number reference to the full text in the printed Congressional

Record, and the date of the Record. The data base is updated daily, usually
by noon.
b. Hard Copy Publications. None. CSI can be contacted for the purchase
of its hard copy SDI service based on this indexing and abstracting activity.
c. Special or Related Documents. None.

d. SCORPIO Retrieval. The Congressional Record abstract file can be

directly searched by bill number, member name, Congressional Record data, and

indexing terms. Subject searching is based on approximately 275 broad subject
terms derived from the CSI classification scheme used for the hard copy

SDI service. Because of the contract agreement, the Congressional Record

abstracts data bank is only available to the CRS and offices of the House

and Senate.

e. Original Documents. The Congressional Record.

5. Other SCORPIO Files
a. National Referral Center Resources File. This resource is a
collection of more than 10,000 descriptions of organizations qualified and
willing to answer questions or provide information on virtually any topic
in science, technology, and the social sciences. Updated weekly, the data
bank is a combination of entries from the Information Resources Information

System (IRIS) and records from the publication series, A Directory of Informa-

tion Resources in the United States. Each SCORPIO record contains the name of

the resource, mailing address, location, telephone number(s), areas of interest,

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literature holdings, publications, and information services. A description may
also contain statements of purpose, description of facilities, and addresses and
telephone numbers of regional offices. Subject terms are assigned by National
Referral Center (Science and Technology Division) indexers. The data base can
be searched by date of last contact, name of organization, subject term, and
city or state in which organization is located.

b. Library of Congress Computerized Catalog. This bibliographic data
base contains about 600,000 references from the Library's MARC (Machine Read-
able Catalog) data base and consists of: English language books with imprint
dates from 1968 or catalogued from 1969 to the present; French language books
catalogued from 1973 to the present; German, Portuguese, and Spanish language
books with imprint dates from 1975 to the present; and references to the Science
Reading Room and Main Reading Room collections including journals, handbooks,
and encyclopedias in a number of languages. Usually the citation contains
author's name, monograph title, imprint, LC and Dewey classification numbers,
descriptive annotations, general subject headings, and LC card number. The
file can be searched by author (personal author, personal added entry) title,
LC classification number, index terms, corporate author (corporate added entry),
and conference name (conference added entry),

E. CRS Subscription to External Bibliographic Systems

In order to complement/supplement the citation and textual material
in SCORPIO, CRS currently subscribes to five "outside" or external computerized
bibliographic information retrieval systems. All function along the lines of
SCORPIO, and in fact some dial-up SCORPIO terminals can be used, except that
the computers and data banks used are not the Library's. These resources, each

requiring specialized training, are used by the CRS divisions in answering

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congressional requests.

1. New York Times Info Bank. A subsidiary of the New York Times Company,
this data base system contains citations and references to daily Times news-
papers from 1969 to the present. In addition, some sixty other publications

are included in the Info Bank facility, including the Washington Post, the Wall

Street Journal, Business Week, Time, and the like. Items are extensively sub-
ject-coded for precise retrieval. The primary use of the Info Bank in CRS is
made by the Congressional Reference Division.

2. JEEIS. The CRS American Law Division utilizes the Department of Justice
JURIS (Justice Retrieval and Inquiry System) automated capability. Started in
1970, the system is noted for having the text of the U.S. Code (l90th Edition
through Supplement II) stored in computer form. JURIS legal data is divided
into Case law, Statutes, and Department of Justice Work Products. Retrieved
information can be displayed by citation, by a full display of the computer
stored documents, and by KWIC (Key Word In Context) index format.

3. MEDLINE. MEDlars On-Line (MEDLINE) is the National Library of
Medicine's on-line computer data bank system containing bibliographic citations
to journal articles from approximately 3.000 biomedical serial titles. It is
updated monthly and contains citations for the current year plus the two pre-
vious calendar years. Other searchable data bases are available under a single
MEDLINE subscription and include a file of citations for the current month only,
file of cites predating MEDLINE, another of some 40,000 citations of the National
Cancer Institute, and a data bank of references to audio-visual material. The
CRS use of MEDLINE centers in the Science Policy Division and the Congressional
Reference Division.

4. SDC and Lockheed. The System Development Corporation (SDC) and

9.:

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Lockheed Information Systems are two separate for-profit data base brokers--
intermediaries-which supply both government and commerical computerized informa-
tion to subscribers. Most of the information is bibliographic. At present there
are approximately thirty separate data bases in the SDC facility, about sixty

in Lockheed. Both firms have computer processing centers in California, but they
are available in the Washington, D.C. area through a local phone call to a nation-
wide telecommunications facility. The data bases of the two companies cover a
wide range of subject areas including education, business, science and technology,
economics, and the social sciences. The files of SDC and Lockheed are used
throughout the CRS.

F. ATS--The Library's Data Manipulation System
One of the major data manipulation facilities of the Library's

computer service center used by the CRS is a collection of computer pro-

grams called the Administrative Terminal System (ATS). Like SCORPIO and

the other information retrieval systems, ATS can be accessed by remote

terminal. But, unlike these retrieval packages, as explained in section C,

above, ATS as a processor can be used to input information into the computer;
update that information (that is, change or make corrections, add more infor-
mation, or make deletions); process what has been stored (for instance by

sorting columns of numbers or lines of text); and finally print final products
such as letters, memoranda, and reports.

ATS is used for various projects and applications throughout the

Service. The CRS-maintained SCORPIO data bases--Bill Digest, Bibliographic
Citation, and Major Issues--use this facility as a data input vehicle; the
ATS-stored data is then processed by ISO-written computer programs for sub-

sequent SCORPIO retrieval. Another ATS application is as an electronic message

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switching medium in the CRS Inquiry Unit; once received by telephone, “rush”
congressional inquiries are dispatched by computer from point of reception
in the Inquiry Unit to the proper CRS subject research division for response
ATS is also used by the CRS Information Systems Group in implementing data
processing projects for the CRS divisions or for subject divisions in con-
junction with congressional clients. Project examples are the generation of
a yearly committee print subject index; a committee study of interlocking
directorates; and an analysis of research and development grants by sorting
data by amount, by recipient college or university, by geographical region,
and purpose.
G. CRS Use of Outside Data Manipulation Systems
Just as the Library's SCORPIO system is supplemented by external

bibliographic subscriptions, likewise the ATS service is supplemented by
outside data manipulation facilities. In these latter cases a person in CRS
has access via an on-site computer terminal to data and processing routines
resident in a computer system located outside the Library of Congress. The
facilities include the following two examples.

1. BEE. Data Resources, Inc. (DRI) offers a computer-based, large—scale
econometric model of the U.S. economy and several economic data banks. The
model contains forecasts in such areas as consumer spending, automobiles,
housing, and other topics of current national interest. An economist using

the DRI system keys in "questions," and the system responds with relevant

”answers,' such as a columnar quarter-by-quarter GNP forecasts. Model results

can be obtained by using the system assumptions or by using different assump-
tions entered at the terminal. Auxiliary services include: a statistical time

series capability, a statistical cross-sectional analysis capability, and an

-20....

informational service providing releases and reports relating to changes in
the news.

2. _§§E. The Service Bureau Company (SBC) was originally used to process
data analysis programs, a system that included the program grants and expendi-
tures of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and that used a
computer program to project the costs of veterans‘ benefits. Apart from these
specialized functions, SBC offers data input and programming language capabil-
ities. In one application some columnar fiscal data was keyed and stored in

the SBC computer system long enough to write and execute computer programs

that mathematically manipulated the data.

-21..

H. For Assistance, A Library of Congress Contact List

1. Congressional Queries:
CRS: 426-5700

2. Visitors, Demos, General Information:
CRS: 426-5715
Library (Public Education): 426-6587

3. CRS Reference Centers:

Congressional Reading Room: 426-5737
Room 109, Main Building
Hours: 8:30am-9:30pm, Monday-Friday

8:30am-5:00pm, Saturday
1:00pm-5:00pm, Sunday

Rayburn Reference Center: 426-6467 (225-6958)
Room B335, Rayburn Building
Hours: 9:00am-5:30pm, Monday-Friday

Longworth Reference Center: 426-6049 (225-2030)
Room B221, Longworth Building
Hours: 9:00am-5:30pm, Monday-Friday

House Annex Reference Center: 426-6223 (225-4343)
Room 3113, House Annex #2
Hours: 9:00am-5:30pm, Monday-Friday

Senate Reference Center: 426-5978 (224-3550)
Room 5-SA, Russell Building
Hours: 9:00am-5:30pm, Monday-Friday

4. SCORPIO Hours of Operation
Hours: 8:00am-9:30pm, Monday-Friday
8:00am-5:00pm, Saturday
1:00pm-5:00pm, Sunday

5. Location of SCORPIO Public Terminals
Main Reading Room (Main Building)
Science & Technology Reading Room (TJBuilding)

6. SCORPIO Training Services

CRS, Congressional Offices: 426-6447 (Information Systems Group, CRS)

LC Departments: 426-6473 (Computer Applications Office, ISO)

Public: 426-6210 (Research Guidance Office)
426-6055 (Federal Library Committee)
426-6120 (Catalog Distribution Service)

7. Automation in the Library of Congress:

Questions about this document: 426-6313 (Information Systems Group, CR8
Bill Digest: 426-6996

Bibliographic Citation: 426-5812

Issue Briefs: 426-6386

Information Systems Office (ISO): 426-5114

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