Abstract:
The paper discusses a medium scale man-machine information system developed at the Indian Institute of Petroleum ( I I P ) , Dehradun, around a simple sorter and
punched cards, and the recent improvement effected in the system by redesigning the storage and retrieval software. A controlled experiment to assess the efficiency of the system vis-a-vis the efficiency of the
earlier system wherein the Keyword-role (AICHE) combination was used for indexing references, is described. The advantages of prefiling of indexed cards under convenient
class heads for cutting the searching time, P. practice adopted by other organisations with similar sorter-oriented systems abroad, are discussed. The superiority of
the improved system over the earlier one in terms of storage as well as retrieval efficiency is established. A statistical binomial model is discussed to compare system
efficiencies to corroborate the results.
