Central office for machine documentation

A historical description of the ZMD institute from 1977

The Central Office for Machine Documentation ( ZMD ) was an institute in which, in addition to basic and applied research, development and service work in the area of information and documentation was carried out using electronic data processing . The ZMD was based in Frankfurt am Main and existed from 1964 to 1977.

history

The central office for machine documentation in the Niederrad office district, 1970

The data center of the ZMD , 1970

The building of the former central office for machine documentation, 2016

The central office was a branch of the Institute for Documentation (IDW). It was founded in 1964 and had its first seat in Frankfurt am Main am Holzhausenpark in rented office space. In 1969, the ZMD and the Institute for Documentation (IDW) moved into a newly built, own building in the Niederrad office district . - In 1977 the institute was transferred to the section for technology of the Society for Information and Documentation (GID), which was newly established in the same year. The ZMD was in the area of responsibility of the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology (BMFT) - today the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) -, was financed by funds from the federal government and the federal states and was supported by Minerva GmbH, a subsidiary of the Max Planck Society ( MPG). - The director of the ZMD was Klaus Schneider.

Area of responsibility

The task of the institute was to carry out development and research work in the area of information and documentation using non-numerical electronic data processing (EDP) and to set up databases . In addition, programs for the computer set developed in the training of documentalists and information scientists participated. - Assistance, expert work and participation in advisory committees, for example in connection with automation projects, especially for newly founded libraries; see ref. G. Pflug

Realized projects (extract)

Printed services

One of the first projects that could be realized in close cooperation with librarians from the German Library was the production of the German Bibliography using computer programs developed at the ZMD. In 1966, the German Bibliography was the first national bibliography in the world to be produced entirely on the fly using electronic data processing (EDP). See also Meyer's Lexicon . 9th edition. Volume 6, p. 494.
"The South African National Bibliography " (SANB) was an international project in which a four-year edition was created for the first time with programs from the ZMD, by computer. In 1968 the SANB was the second national bibliography in the world that could be produced in this way. The know-how was later transferred to the State Library in Pretoria; see Lit. Chr. Hitzeroht, the SANB created by computer

The international food division: “Food Science and Technology Abstracts” (FSTA) was another project in which programs developed in the ZMD were used in computer processing; see ref. U. Schützsack, title. FSTA.

Processing, register creation , etc. of the JG Fichte bibliography using data processing and programs adapted in the ZMD.

Processing of the annual volumes of Documentatio Geographica , (Ed.): Institut für Landeskunde , Bad Godesberg , by means of DV and in the ZMD newly developed and adapted programs; see ref. E. Meynen, title, Die Documentatio Geographica.

Database services

1963 - Martin Cremer , the director of the Institute for Documentation (IDW) in Frankfurt (Main), see above story , was one of the co-founders of the Institute for Psychological Information and Documentation , today Leibniz Center for Psychological Information and Documentation (ZPID) at the University of Trier . - In 1975 the Psychological Abstracts database was implemented on the ZMD's computer and in 1977 a dial-up line (later dedicated line ) was set up between the ZPID and the ZMD, thereby enabling online access to the data of Psychological Abstracts .

Post-university training

From 1971 onwards, the ZMD under the direction of Gerhard Lustig offered a 2-year postgraduate training with a research focus on information retrieval and indexing as well as related areas; see also under reference G. Lustig.

Teaching

After the DGD decided to found the Frankfurt Teaching Institute for Documentation (LID) in 1967 , employees of the ZMD participated as lecturers in the training of scientific and certified documentaries and documentation assistants. Regular courses were held both in-house and on the LID premises.

Others

Scientists from the National University of Taiwan in the data center of the ZMD

The Central Office has been widely used by interested professionals from home and abroad besucht.- The adjacent picture shows scientists from the National Taiwan University in Taipei , Taiwan , located in the Institutsrechenzentrum on processed by computer phototypesetting products inform.

The ZMD building was financed with the help of the Volkswagen Foundation and part- financing was provided for the procurement of an IBM 1460 computer system; see Lit. Schneider, the ZMD in Frankfurt am Main., p. 17.

The upper two floors of the house were occupied by the Institute for Documentation (IDW).

Deutsche Bahn AG , DB ProjektBau was later housed in the former ZMD building. The low-rise building of the data center was torn down and made into a parking lot. - Today the house at Herriotstrasse 5 is empty and is being used for a new purpose as part of the currently ongoing residential project: "Change in the Niederrad office district to a mixed-use office and residential area" . - Lt. According to current articles in the German Architecture Forum, the house at Herriotstraße 5 is listed as a listed building.

Literature (excerpt)

Klaus Schneider (Ed.): The ZMD in Frankfurt am Main . Beuth-Vertrieb , Berlin / Cologne / Frankfurt am Main 1969, p. 207.

Rüdiger Bernhard: Computer use in the production of the German Bibliography . News for documentation (the NfD, the official bulletin of the DGD ), Ed. 17, 1966, pp. 23-30.

Kurt Köster : The use of computers in compiling national bibliographies. Illustrate by the example of the Deutsche Bibliographie. In: Libri . 16, 1966, pp. 269-281.

Rudolf Blum: The German Bibliography. Retrospect and Prospect. Journal for Libraries and Bibliography , Special Issue 3, 1966, pp. 91–116

Rudolf Blum: Composizione tipografica per mezzo di un elaboratore elettronico di dati. La German Bibliography. In: Accademie Biblioteche d'Italia. 34, 1966, pp. 295-301.

Dietrich Müller: Machine data processing in libraries , literature compilation . (= Series of publications by the Central Office for Machine Documentation. A 3 III). Frankfurt am Main 1966, OCLC 312041302 , p. 52.

Karl-Heinz Koch: Machine-compatible title recording illustrated using the example of the guidelines for data collection for "Documentatio Geographica" . (= Series of publications from the Central Office for Machine Documentation A). Frankfurt am Main 1967

Karl-Heinz Koch: Machine-friendly recording of title recordings with punched tape typewriters . Beuth sales, Berlin / Cologne / Frankfurt am Main 1968.

Walter Lingenberg: Machine data processing in libraries with the help of computer systems . Computerwissen Online, Springer-Verlag, 1968, ISBN 3-211-80877-9 .

Günther Pflug : The ZMD from a library perspective . Beuth-Vertrieb, Berlin / Cologne / Frankfurt am Main 1969, pp. 52–55.

Christiane Hitzeroth: The South African National Bibliography - produced with the help of the computer. In: NfD. Ed. 20, 1969, p. 93.

Christiane Hitzeroth: Training of documentaries . Beuth-Vertrieb, Berlin / Cologne / Frankfurt am Main 1969, pp. 184-185.

Udo Schützsack: Organization, division of labor and use of computers at the Food Science and Technology Abstracts (FSTA) unit. In: NfD. Ed. 20, 1969, pp. 108-115.

Emil Meynen : The Documentatio Geographica - reporting on geographical magazines and series literature. Beuth-Vertrieb, Berlin / Cologne / Frankfurt am Main 1969, pp. 71–77.

Gerhard Lustig : Can the automatic indexing already be used? In: News for Documentation. (NfD), Ed. 20, 1969, pp. 190-193.

Ernst Lutterbeck : Documentation and Information - Information Science and Computer Science . Umschau Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 1971, p. 322 and p. 35–42.

Rolf G. Henzler: Quantitative relationships between text length and vocabulary . (= Series of publications by the Central Office for Machine Documentation A 28). Beuth-Vertrieb, Berlin / Cologne / Frankfurt am Main, p. 60, 1974

Gerhard Lustig: Problems of dictionary development for automatic indexing and retrieval. In: News for Documentation. (NfD), Ed. 25, 1974, pp. 50-54.

Gertraute Brühl, Werner Meder: Catalog of functions: User-side requirements for information retrieval systems . (= Series of publications from the Central Office for Machine Documentation A 30). Beuth-Vertrieb, Berlin / Cologne / Frankfurt am Main 1977, ISBN 3-410-44030-5 , p. 217.

Bauer, H .: Klaus Schneider. In: Information: Science and Practice. 53 (2002) 53, ISSN 1434-4653 .

Kurt Nowak: Use of computers in the production of a national bibliography: German bibliography . Verlag Walter de Gruyter , online in English, published in October 2009.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Housing project Frankfurt-Niederrad Herriotstrasse 5 ( Memento from November 21, 2015 in the web archive archive.today )

^ Archives of the Max Planck Society - inventory overview | Department II ( Memento from September 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

^ Department of Information Science: 1960–1979 - see 1964, paragraph 2 ( Memento from June 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

↑ District Association Niederrad eV = Heimatmuseum Niederrad - 1969 inauguration of IDW and ZMD

↑ Information science: 1960–1979 - see 1977, paragraph 1 ( Memento from June 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

↑ Information science: 1960–1979 - see 1960, paragraph 1 ( Memento from June 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

↑ Printing and duplication (high-speed printer, lead typesetting, phototypesetting ): Libri - UNESCO seminar on EDV in libraries, UniBib. Regensburg, April 1970.

^ Chronicle of the DGI - DGD - see 1967, point 1

↑ IBM data processing system 1401/1460

^ "Kurt Köster", former director of the German Library, Frankfurt / Main

↑ Hausarbeit_Nationalbibliothek_Suedafrika.pdf ( Memento from July 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) - Chapter 1.3.1 The South African National Bibliography (SANB) p. 15.