The Smith Papers document the work of the COMMITTEE ON INFORMATION HANG-UPS from 1969 to 1986, related USER GROUPS from 1971 to 1981, the SHARED BIBLIOGRAPHIC INPUT EXPERIMENT from 1973 to 1981, and the DEPOSITORY LIBRARY COUNCIL TO THE PUBLIC PRINTER from 1974 to 1979. The collection contains correspondence, meeting minutes, agendas, reports, notes, and articles. Also included are IDA LIBRARY/TECHNICAL INFORMATION SERVICES annual reports, covering the work of Smith and her staff between 1970 and 1980, and PUBLICATIONS of the Committee on Information Hang-Ups and other user groups. The bulk of the collection dates from the time when Smith served at IDA. Very little is from after she joined NTIS.
The focus is on the work of user groups in influencing policies on the pricing and dissemination of information of Federal government agencies, especially the Defense Documentation Center, the National Technical Information Service, and the Government Printing Office. A name index to correspondence in the collection is available.
For many years, Ruth S. Smithserved as the head librarian and then manager of technical information services at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) in Arlington, Virginia. The IDA is a non-profit research organization working under contract to Federal government agencies, especially the Department of Defense. Due to her position, Ms. Smith became very interested in matters involving the production and dissemination of technical reports by such government agencies as the Defense Documentation Center (DDC), the National Technical Information Service (NTIS), and the Government Printing Office.
In 1969, Smith and other librarians representing users of government technical information formed a loose-knit organization called the Committee on Information Hang-Ups. While this group had no formal organization, it provided interested librarians in the Washington area with the opportunity to meet several times a year to exchange information about the flow of information, to look at problems, and to attempt to suggest solutions. In addition to advising government agencies on potential changes in the production and pricing of government technical information, the committee worked on such topics as the development of standards for descriptive cataloging of technical reports.
As user interest grew and the agencies became more receptive to input from their users, additional user groups developed around the country. Ms. Smith kept up regular contacts with these groups and was also active in the Federation of Information Users, an organization which tried to coordinate the efforts of the local groups. For a number of years, Smith also headed the Government Information Services Committee of the Special Libraries Association, which provided her with additional user contacts around the country.
From 1973 to 1981, Ms. Smith and her staff were involved in the Shared Bibliographic Input Experiment of the Defense Documentation Center. As part of the experiment, the IDA and several other users of DDC documents received remote terminals allowing them to search the DDC database for cataloging information on classified documents. Participating users could also input bibliographic information for items not previously entered in the database. The experiment tested the feasibility of a full-blown shared cataloging system, under which user libraries would be able to save on cataloging resources, while the DDC would benefit through the acquisition of bibliographic information (and location) for documents not held by DDC.
Ms. Smith served on the Depository Library Council to the Public Printer from 1974 to 1979, advising the Government Printing Office on such topics as the depository library system, bibliographic control of government documents, and revising the format of the Monthly Catalog of government publications.
Ms. Smith left the IDA in 1981, and joined the staff of the National Technical Information Service in the newly-created position of director of the Office of Consumer Services. She continued to build bridges between NTIS and its users in the library community until her retirement in 1988. Subsequently she founded Ruth S. Smith Associates, a consulting firm.
