lindseyt's blog

Dear John:

Thank you for all the help you have been to me by questioning and probing me about all  the projects that I wanted to “computerize”.  I took a college demography (study of population) course in the 1960s for which one of the laboratory sessions was training to use an electromechanical desk-top calculating machine.  Most people on campus had to fill out coding sheets to be read by keypunchers of tabulating cards.  I wrote a summer, 1967 story for a college newspaper about the forthcoming arrival of hard-wired teletype terminals using the Dartmouth Time Sharing System.  It may have been at one of the first 4 other colleges to use the system. More details about the original system http://dtss.dartmouth.edu/sciencearticle/pages/page01.html   .   Computers and electronic calculators were not part of my daily life in high school and college, even after they seemed to be everywhere.

The biggest problem was creating a low cost database of publications that would be withdrawn from a library collection.  (The situation reminds me of a restaurant where each plate is served with a piece of watercress.   Most people do not eat the piece, and it is discarded when plates are returned for cleaning.

Inventory control and auditing requires require each publication to be accounted for, offered to other libraries, and reported as withdrawn in a database.  Each data entry line in the database seemed to be as valuable as a piece of restaurant watercress.

I never had to create a database or a spreadsheet before.  You had to explain the functions, advantages, and disadvantages of using both types of information.  The next challenge was finding computer files with the data elements that  non-copyrighted, in the public domain, FREE, or available for non-commercial use.

You explored ways to convert data files created for one purpose to our inventory project.  Thanks to your questions, explanations, and tutoring, I found a source.  It may not have all the lines of data that we need, but now our project is limited to filling in the missing rows of data.

Thank you again for working on my Agent Orange herbicide and Vietnam veterans project.  Identification and location of ships not in the Department of Veterans Affairs list of ships  in riverine waters could help many veterans qualify for compensation.

Conflicts between humans and animals, especially in regard to field crops, have existed since the beginnings of agriculture.  This site leads to a report on work of the National Wildlife Research Center.

Innovative solutions to human-wildlife conflicts
National Wildlife Research Center accomplishments.

http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS35221

This system created by the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is intended to track cattle and other animals so that disease outbreaks and other problems can be minimized.  Here is a link to a web page.

http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS99230

If you are out there, and asked me how I got to # 4 in a Google Search Ranking, I have no idea how that happened.  This will have to be the way that I contact you.

As for the 249 spam messages:  I looked at your message and the posting to which you are purportedly replying.  It is obvious that most of the messages are sent out automatically to any blog.   Forget it.

I believe that I have disabled the comment feature of this blog.  I was receiving an enormous amount of spam message, an enormous amount of messages that appeared to be generated by computers, and some messages that….     To the fair and decent people who have been reading it, I regret that this action was necessary.

John Baskette has helped me during the past 10 years with my computer projects.  I really appreciate the help he has given me by asking what kind of information I have available, what I want to do with that information, and how to create computer databases and spreadsheets with the information.

Asking me the “1 H and 5 Ws:  How, Who, What, Where, When, and Why” has been very important.  There are a number of “projects” that never got started when John asked me to explain “Why I want to do this, or why I want information this way, or why …”  .  Most the projects involve records that were typed onto 3 x 5 cards. (It is wonderful that the information was not keypunched and saved by tabulating cards.  Where would we find a tabulating card reader?  What about cards with typing that has faded into near-obscurity?)  A number of ‘urgent” projects that he politely moved to the back shelf several years ago turned out to be less urgent than I had thought.

John has helped me find alternative sources of information to the 3 x 5 card file, where some of the information is in the public domain in machine readable form.   And he helped me by by stopping work midway through a project.  Yesterday, we were checking data that would be worked on near the very end of the project.  The data comes from two different, reliable, sources.

Data source ONE reported that when Variable L is “Yes”, the number of “Yes”es is 25.  Data source TWO reported that when Variable L is “Yes”, the number of “Yes”es is 3.    The result is that we must now go back to check the values of variable A through K in each set to determine which “authoritative data source” has the least number of errors, and find a third “authoritative data source”.

We are looking now for a statistics data source that has a connection with money payments.  If  Variable L is yes, the government pays money.   EVERYONE knows that governments are NEVER wrong about making payments that should not be made.   But governments are watched by politicians and news media waiting to pounce when mistakes and waste are found.

Thank you John, for helping me with this project, finding the error in the source data.  Thank you for finding the errors in the source data on the other projects.   Your skill at finding errors may be a reason why you can remediate .pdf web pages and other computer files.

John, you probably do good work with AS/400 and RPG computing.  I don’t use that computer or RPG computer language.   Computer recruiters of the world, let’s give him opportunities to show his knowledge, skill, and ability!

John and I have worked on my computer stored information projects for more than 10 years. When I graduated from college, the main computer on campus was an IBM System 360, occupying its own building. (When I went back to campus for the 25 year reunion, the building had been converted into office space for graduate students. The computer has probably been long dismantled for scrap. The
metal frame may be part of an artificial reef in an ocean, for all I know.) My current projects usually involve printed information that will never be scanned, or digitized, or ever be available in computer readable form. A computer readable database including the title, publication date, and storage location is necessary so that we can show that we have or once had the publication, and when it was removed from storage and removed from our custody. I learned about computing and information systems in the era of the IBM System 360, and added a little more learning with Wordperfect and Wordstar (1980s) and Microsoft Office in the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s.
John calls me regularly to ask about new projects that he can do for me. He doesn’t “sit back and wait for his ship to come in”, he “paddles his canoe out to my ship” looking for work.
My local newspaper reported that there are 6 million people among the “officially unemployed” counted by the U.S. Department of Labor. New jobs are being created at the rate of 2 million jobs per year. 6 divided by 2 equals 3, as in “3 years”.
I tip my hat and salute John Baskette, who is not waiting for his ship to come in “sometime, but maybe never”, during the next 3 years.

I apologize to people who got “junked” when I posted their comments to my blog.  I do not my blog to be a “blot”.  In the future, I will read comments for my own use, but I will not be posting any comments.

I have removed the Allow Comments and Allow Trackbacks and Pingbacks options.

It is nice to know that some real human beings are looking at this blog, not just junk email machines.

I still have to complete the Y classification, the Y 3 classificaition stems, the Y 4 Congressional, Y 7, and Y 10  Congressional Budget Office.

Remember, the material now ends around book stack 62 instead of book stack 75 as originally shelved.

PR 37.12            Federal Advisory Committees, Annual Report of the President, 1973, 1974

PR 38                    President of the United States Gerald Ford    1974-1977

PR 38.2:              General publications related to the Ford presidency

PR 38.8:               Reports and publications of Commissions appointed by President Ford

PR 38.8: C33/C33  Report to the President by the Commission on CIA Activities within the United States.

PR 38.9:                Economic Report of the President

PR 38.10:              Federal Advisory Committees, Annual Report of the President, 1974, 1975, 1976
PR 39                    President of the United States Jimmy Carter        1977    1981

PR 39.8:               Reports and publications of Commissions appointed by President Carter
PR 39.9:              Economic Report of the President
PR 39.10:            Federal Advisory Committees, Annual Report of the President, 1977, 1978, 1979

PR 40     President of the United States Ronald Reagan    1981    1989

PR 40.8:    Reports and publications of Commissions appointed by President Reagan

Book Stack 58

A printed book, Guide to U.S. Government Publications [latest year available at the Information Desk], older copies at Z 1223 .Z7 .A573 will help identify current and past publication series.  This guide includes depository and non-depository publication series.  The Agency Class Chronology that follows the list of classification numbers is helpful in finding predecessor and successor organizations.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

S 9.10: 12193 to SI 3.6: 79

Book Stack 59: A Missing Book Stack

Book Stack 59 was a broken movable book stack.  It was removed at some time in the past.

Book Stack 60

A printed book, Guide to U.S. Government Publications [latest year available at the Information Desk], older copies at Z 1223 .Z7 .A573 will help identify current and past publication series.  This guide includes depository and non-depository publication series.  The Agency Class Chronology that follows the list of classification numbers is helpful in finding predecessor and successor organizations.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SI 3.6: 80 to T 28.6: 866/2

SI 3  National Museum, National Museum of History and Technology, National Museum of American History [Smithsonian Institution]

SI 4  American Historical Association . Annual Report and the annual bibliography  “Writings in American History” are located here.  Very useful for
literature searches about American History.

SI 6  National Gallery of Art, National Collection of Fine Arts, National Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art [1921-1937]

SI 7  Freer Gallery of Art

SI 8  National Gallery of Art [1937-current]

SI 9  National Air and Space Museum

SI 10 John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

SI 11 National Portrait Gallery

SI 12 Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

SI 13 Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

SI 14  National Museum of African Art

SS 1  Social Security Board [1935-1939]  This is the orginal agency responsible for administration of the Social Security programs.

SSA 1 Social Security Administration [1995- ]  The Social Security Administration became an independent agency and was separated from the
Department of Health and Human Services.  Its previous classification number stems includes SS 1, FS 3, and HE 3 .

T 1  Department of the Treasury

T 9  Department of the Treasury, Warrants, Estimates and Appropriations Divisions [1879-1894], Bookkeeping and Warrants Division [1894-1940]

T 9.11: year  Combined Statements of Receipts and Expenditures of the United States  various years 1888 to 1905

T 11  Coast and Geodetic Survey [1 publication, 1896]

T 12  Comptroller of the Currency

T 15  Comptroller of the Treasury

T 17  Customs Service [Functions transferred to Department of Homeland Security in 2003]

T 18  Bureau of Engraving and Printing [2 publications]

T 22 Internal Revenue Service

T 27 Public Health Service.  [2 publications, including  T 27.17: 9  The Ship's Medicine Chest and First Aid at Sea.  1929. ]

T 28 Bureau of the Mint

T 34 Secret Service

T 37  Statistics Bureau [1886-1903]  Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1881.

T 47  United States Coast Guard.  The Coast Guard functioned as part of the U.S. Navy during 1941-1946, returned to the Treasury Department until
reassignment to the Department of Transportation in 1966, and was reassigned to the Department of Homeland Security in 2003.

T 56  Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs [1969-1973]

T 63  Fiscal Service

T 63.100  Bureau of Accounts

T 63.200  Bureau of the Public Debt

T 66  Savings Bonds Division

T 70  Bureau of Alcohol, Tax, and Firearms

T 71  Office of Thrift Supervision

TC 1  Tarriff Commission [1916-1974], International Trade Commission [1974-1984] , classification number stem changed to ITC in 1981

TD 1  Department of Transportation

TD 1.100  National Transportation Safety Board

Book Stack 61

A printed book, Guide to U.S. Government Publications [latest year available at the Information Desk], older copies at Z 1223 .Z7 .A573 will help identify current and past publication series.  This guide includes depository and non-depository publication series.  The Agency Class Chronology that follows the list of classification numbers is helpful in finding predecessor and successor organizations.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

VA 1.2: P94/8/pt. 1 to X 1.1/A: 151/163 [Congressional Record, Volume 151]

Book Stack 62

A printed book, Guide to U.S. Government Publications [latest year available at the Information Desk], older copies at Z 1223 .Z7 .A573 will help identify current and past publication series.  This guide includes depository and non-depository publication series.  The Agency Class Chronology that follows the list of classification numbers is helpful in finding predecessor and successor organizations.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

X 89-1: 111/pt. 2 [Congressional Record 89th Congress] to Y 1.1/2: 12883-1 [Congressional Serial Set]

Book Stack 63

A printed book, Guide to U.S. Government Publications [latest year available at the Information Desk], older copies at Z 1223 .Z7 .A573 will help identify current and past publication series.  This guide includes depository and non-depository publication series.  The Agency Class Chronology that follows the list of classification numbers is helpful in finding predecessor and successor organizations.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Y 1.1/2: 12883-2 to Y 1.1/3: 108-11/v. 2