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76 
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M U D P 
E 
n o. 1 5 
Museum and University Data, Program and Information Exchange 
A TEST OF GYPSY 
Harriet Meadow recently summarized, in MUDPIE 13, the GYPSY 
program for in formation retrieval. Now a publication is avail- 
W. E. Reid. 
you 
Smithsonian Library could not locate 
at the Library of Congress. We borr 
loan directly from the University, w 
the number qZ/699/.A105/no.2. 
a 
a 
museum-type re 
search 
su 
1 ts of 
its use. 
The 
No 
rth Am 
erica and 
Some 
n. 
J. L. 
Morrison 
, and 
th 
e University of 
Okl a- 
he 
d in 1 
969. To 
save 
t 
to loo 
k at it, 
the 
copy in 
Washingto 
n, even 
d 
it on 
interlibr 
ary 
e 
* j» • 
It xs 
catalogue 
d under 
io 
n cont 
ained in 
263 
ro 
duced 
3987 reco 
rds . 
A demonstration of the computer use was based on the Permian 
records, because the authors consider those records complete 
in their file. Retrieval consists of citations by author, date, 
title, publication, location of hard copy, geography, strati¬ 
graphy , taxonomy, and floral assemblages. No effort was made 
to correct or augment the data in the original papers because 
of a fear that errors would be magnified, nor have any of the 
original taxonomic identifications been changed. The authors 
state (p. 139): "The demonstration was intended to show how 
in-depth studies can be made with GIPSY in the field of palyn- 
ology. This is shown by the following investigation and exam¬ 
ination of subset information described in the demonstration: 
(1) retrieval of al1 Permian palynological literature from the 
data base; (2) separation of the literature into that of North 
America and that exclusive of North America; (3) a floristic 
analysis of North American Permian palynomorph assemblages; 
(4) a search of literature exclusive of North America for dis¬ 
tribution and biotic associations of the genus Lueckisporites ; 
(5) investigate the taxonomic status of species originally 
assigned to Lueckisporites or transferred to it; and (6) inves¬ 
tigate the taxonomic history of a species by search of the trivial 
name in literature." Direct computer readouts are published 
to show how all these things are recovered. 
It was amusing to note that, although the computer invari¬ 
ably spells "Permian" correctly, the authors spell it wrong in 
every table from p. 41 to p. 50. Also, the distribution of the 
genus mentioned on p. 51 is not on p. 44, as stated in the note, 
but on p. 45.—JAP 
