ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT: References on Ground-Water Hydrology UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR GEOLOGICAL SURVEY WATER RESOURCES DIVISION Washington 25, D. C. In reply refer to: March 31, 1960 4053 0001 GROUND WATER BRANCH MEMORANDUM NO. 60.42 To: District Chiefs and Staff Officials, Ground Water Branch From: Chief, Ground Water Branch, Washington, D. C. Subject: ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT: References on Ground-Water Hydrology Twenty-two lists of References on Ground-Water Hydrology have been issued by this office during the period January 1952 to January 1959. We have supplied these lists to ground-water district offices and to individual professional employees. The references generally have been in the form of abstracts prepared and (or) submitted by personnel of the Branch. This office is also maintaining, as time and personnel permit, a card file of references on ground-water hydrology prepared on 4-by 6-inch cards. We believe that these activities need to be studied, evaluated, and redesigned. We are not satisfied that the lists of References on Ground-Water Hydrology are providing the service and assistance they should be providing. We recognize that finding either a specific reference or all the references to a specific subject in the current lists of references is difficult. The system of assembling and making the references available to personnel of the Branch needs revision to make the references more readily available and, thus, more usable. Flexibility in adding new references is an equally important factor. Combining the two activities may be feasible and may result in an overall saving of time and effort, or in providing better references and service with about the same expenditure of time and effort. Supplying each field office a set of reference cards for each reference has been considered. To do so would appear to necessitate a job of duplicating in the Washington office that is almost impossible under current space, personnel, and equipment limitations. We expect little or no relief from these limitations soon. The size of such an effort can be realized when it is only roughly computed. To provide adequate cross-filing, we need an average of perhaps 3 or 4 index cards per reference--author, principal subject or subjects, and area. Thus, if index cards covering 100 references were prepared for 50 offices each 3 months, 500 separate masters would need to be prepared and 25,000 cards duplicated, sorted, and mailed. In a year this could easily amount to 1,500 to 2,000 master cards and 75,000 to 100,000 index cards. This suggestion, therefore, definitely is not practical. Another suggested method would operate as follows: (1) A list of master subjects would be adopted and supplied all field offices and certain individuals (considerable work on this already has been done in the Reports Section in connection with the Branch card index file on references); (2) abstracts to reference items would be prepared in the same way as at present, except that the offices sending in abstracts would place on each card submitted the master subject heading under which the reference should be filed, using as many cards and subjects from the list of master subjects as necessary, and would place the complete abstract on one of these cards as at present; (3) the Reports Section would place all index reference cards in one master file; (4) the Reports Section would furnish upon request copies (perhaps Thermo- Fax) of reference cards in the master index file under any topic in the list of master subjects. Of course, requests for copies of the reference cards would have to be on the basis of actual need, rather than simply a desire to build up a complete reference card file in any one field office. Otherwise, this system would fail, as requests from several offices for all reference cards under a considerable number of subjects would result in a system similar to but even more difficult than the one discussed in the preceding paragraph. To help keep requests under control, a small charge would be made for each card furnished. To explore this subject thoroughly before arriving at a decision to revise current procedures, we request each District Chief, after consulting with others in his office, to send to his Branch Area Chief, with copy to this office, Code 4053 0001, (1) his comments on the effectiveness of current procedures, (2) his comments on the suggestion outlined in the preceding paragraph, (3) and any other suggestions for solving the problem that he believes would be practical. The Branch Area Chiefs are to digest the comments and suggestions and forward them to Mr. George H. Taylor, Operations Research Engineer (GW), 510 Rudge-Guenzel Building, Lincoln 8, Nebr., with their own summary and recommendations. District Chiefs should prepare their replies so as to reach the Branch Area Chiefs by April 25, 1960, in order that the Branch Area Chiefs may be prepared to discuss the subject at their meeting here on May 2-6; and the Branch Area Chiefs should submit their summaries to Mr. Taylor by June 10, 1960. Philip E. LaMoreaux DISTRIBUTION: A, B, S3, FO-L3, SL (WRD)