2 
THE USE OF COMPUTERS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF CHECK LISTS 
The basic requirements in producing a check list of the biota from a particular 
region are a knowledge of the species found there; a comprehensive literature refer¬ 
ence list for that area, and a list of the species concerned. The onerous task is 
then compiling the numerous combinations of cross references for each species. I 
have developed a flexible and easily updated method of simplifying this job which is 
at present being used for the fish fauna of the Capricorn Group, Great Barrier Reef. 
All species names are stored on tape in taxonomic order, each species having a numerical 
identification number. Likewise all references are stored on tape in alphabetic order,- 
also with a numerical identification number. For the production of the check list, a 
card input listing species identification number, reference identification number and 
pagination (for that species for that reference) are all that are needed. The computer 
then prints out the species listing in family groups, in taxonomic order. Each species 
is followed by the primary reference and one, two, or any number of references as 
desired. 
The advantages of this system are threefold: 
A. The taxonomic order can be readily changed or updated - a new listing 
takes only a matter of minutes. 
B. The reference listing, once put onto tape in the correct form, will never 
need rechecking. Furthermore, the printout of references in the check list 
can be specified as Author and Date only, or may include the name of the 
publication and/or the title of the article. 
C. A complete alphabetic listing is also produced but lists only those refer¬ 
ences actually used in the check list, thus removing the problem of checking 
for 'uncited references'. 
These programs have been written in FORTRAN IV and are currently running on the 
I.B.M. 1460 at Macquarie University, Sydney. 
B. Goldman 
Australian Museum 
6-8 College Street 
Sydney, N.S.W. 2000, Australia 
A NON-COMPUTER IZED DATA RETRIEVAL SYSTEM 
A technique for retrieving large amounts of data consisting of an overlay 
retrieval system called the "Polyclave" has been worked out by James A. Duke. 
