Documentation retrieval in a University Computer Center environment

• Authors: Amanda D. Poor;Paul S. Licker
• Venue: ACM '69 Proceedings of the 1969 24th national conference
• Year: 1969

The User Service Documentation Traffic Organizer (USDOCTOR) was developed to assist users of the University of Pennsylvania Computer Center (UPCC) to obtain documentation quickly and in a standard format. The traditional methods of distribution—stacking manuals and write-ups and handing them out on request—became less effective as the community of users grew to include persons at remote sites as much as 20 miles away and the volume of paper began to tax the available storage space and copying machines. With USDOCTOR, the user may request documents, memos, and abstracts of either by running a high priority job in a multiprogrammed batch processing environment. His output includes the requested information as well as reference to manuals and personnel for further information. The system provides facilities for updating and maintenance as well as retrieval.