Punch card system legal file

Abstract

The filing system of acta and other legal regulations governing various professional fields (particularly of those concerning the activity cf superior bodies, thus intended only for restricted use) is most unsatisfactory at present, often leading to a failure in attempts to collect all regulations affecting a given field or topic, even after prolonged search. It is even less possible to discover whether the respective regulations are in force or have been amended in the meantime.
The solution of this problem was aimed at by the Ministry of Heavy Industry through the development of a punch card system for filing legal regulations. This method permits filing according to several aspects without demanding, for retrieval purposes, the classification of cards in accordance to any system (prearrangement for example by years will, of course, facilitats retrieral).
The most essential feature of the method consists of recording the legal regulation on the punch card by means of a code system developed through the definition and specification of the general concepts or classification data required for retrieval (such as the field and subject matter or national economy branch controlled by the respective regulation, the authorities issuing it, year of publication etc.)
Selection is performed by using a sorter which permits the econonic registration of about 8000 to 10.000 cards. The number of regulations filed is, of course, less than this figure since each regulation requires the preparation of as many cards as many topice (finances, investment, labour etc.) it controls. This is undoubtedly a drawback of the method. Since, however, the low number of hole pairs (96) on the cards prevents the employment of a direct code systen, a hole saving technique - in this case additive coding - had to be resorted to.