CHAPTER XI INDEXING AND FILING SYSTEMS, ETC., FOR THE ENGINEERING OFFICE SEC. I. GENERAL ORGANIZATION SYSTEMS A SCHEDULE FOR THE MAINTENANCE OF RECORDS IN A SMALL The following schedule outlines in tabular form a typical scheme of filing, indexing and recording the movement of the data in a small engineering office. In larger offices the scheme will usually be the same, although methods will be more claborate than those indicated below. The system is presented more particularly, however, to the "three or four-man" organization which has good prospects of growing business, as an aid to the installing of methods that will not become over-run and disorganized by the mass of data that accumulates in time, or by the increasing amount of material to be handled every day. The various methods referred to are taken up in greater detail in other portions of this book. A METHOD OF INDEXING AND FILING ENGINEERING OFFICE RECORDS UNDER A UNIFORM SYSTEM In the schedule for filing and indexing the various data of an engineering office given in the preceding article, a separate system of filing and indexing is often indicated, depending on whether the data is contained in a letter, a drawing, a calculation sheet, etc. Thus, letters may be filed on an alphabetical system; original tracings on a "job No." system; calculation sheets on a "Subject Classification" system, etc.; and, in the great majority of offices, this diversity of methods will be preferred. For the purpose of showing that this method is not the only one in use, and that it is possible to install a uniform system under which all data may be indexed and filed, irrespective of whether it is a letter, calculation sheet, drawing, etc., so that all the information on one subject may be found under one file number; the following brief summary of the system1 devised for the New York Board of Water Supply, by its Engineering Bureau, is included. General Description At the time of the organization of the Engineering Bureau of the N. Y. Board of Water Supply, the endeavor was made to select a filing system. that would be uniform in all offices of the board; which would continue adequate indefinitely, which would be uniform for all classes of data, such as drawings, computations, correspondence, field notes, estimates, force accounts, etc.; which would bring together in the files all data bearing on one subject; and which would, at the same time, satisfy the usual requirements of compactness, ready finding, certainty in operation, economy, etc. The system selected consisted of a numbered classification with a decimal subdivision. The Index The whole field of "Water-supply Engineering" was embraced under 70 or 80 headings, using "main structures" for the first eleven divisions, e.g., 2 to cover Watersheds; 3 Reservoirs, 5 Aqueducts, etc.; these being supplemented by other headings relating to materials, methods and generalities, such as, 23 Concrete; 69 Inspection; 74 Surveying, etc.; (compare "The Number System of Indexing with Decimal Extension," p. 415). 1 Eng. News, Aug. 6, 1908. "The Filing System of the New York Board of Water Supply," by J. Leo. Murphy. Each of these headings was subdivided under the decimal system, the division extending to two, three, four, etc., figures, depending upon the extent of the subject. The decimal system is described elsewhere in this volume (see pp. 415, 416, 438, and 442), and this part of the installation will not be described further, although the original article gives all the main headings and indicates some of the principal decimal subdivisions. There was prepared, in addition to this "Topical Index," an "Alphabetical Index" which showed at once the index number of any subject. (See pp. 419 and 438.) The preparation of the topical index with due regard to the relative precedence of "kinds" of structures, "types" of structures, "general data," etc., and with proper anticipation of the future demands upon it, is work calling for special talents of a high order; and the operation of the system, involving the proper fitting of the material to the index, etc., also requires supervision of scarcely less ability; so that the installation of such a system is a matter to be undertaken only after a very thorough study of the conditions presented, and only when the matter of obtaining and keeping competent manipulators is assured. Guide Letters In addition to the "number" given to every subject letters were used to indicate, also, (1) the "treatment," point of view or phase of the subject under consideration (compare the "Form Division" of the Dewey system), and, (2) the "locality" of the subject, identifying the structure. with one particular locality, department, etc. The "treatment" letter preceded the "number" and the "locality" letter followed it. Examples of Indexing The following examples will best illustrate the manner of marking the data for the files. = D 5.3 C G Design (D) of Garrison (G) tunnel (5.3) of the Catskill Aqueduct (C). FA F▲ 3.0 A = Office computations on field notes (F) of triangulation (▲) on Ashokan (A) Reservoir (3.0). G 71.0 E 3.4 AO = Record of borings (G) on "foreign" tunnels (71.0). = Estimate (E) on the Olive Bridge (O) dam (.4) of the Advantages and Disadvantages A study of the system herein described will reveal, besides its conformity with the above principles, the following advantages. "(1) Subjects are grouped and held by the file numbers in the relation to each other that serves best the conditions of the work. Therefore, allied data will be found together in the files, and not widely scattered throughout them. "(2) The system is rigid, inasmuch as the subjects are always in the same relation to each other, but the decimal file numbers permit of ready coördinate expansion. "(3) Integral numbers dispense with the necessity of limitation to ten classes, similar to those of the Dewey system, which would be impracticable where structures are concerned. "(4) It is applicable to all classes of data. "(5) All files are identical, so that the individual understanding files in one office can operate those in any other. Men transferred from one office to another do not have to learn a new filing system. "(6) Data interchanged between offices does not have to have file numbers or other changes made on it; it goes into the same pigeon-hole, wherever its destination. Indexes do not have to be changed when data are moved from place to place, either in the same office or from one office to another. "(7) The minimum filing space can always be used; a large space does not have to be allotted on a guess at future conditions. “(8) Expansion can be made from month to month or from year to year whenever desired, without changing file numbers, indexes or other marks that locate a drawing in the files. "(9) The result of one man's studies or investigations are made readily available to all. "(10) The system continues good indefinitely and will not be outgrown by the business it serves." The following may be considered disadvantages: "(1) It is necessary to arrange the subject list long before the work. Subjects are therefore grouped rigidly in a relation that may not prove good. "(2) Engineers must study the system so that they can arrange their work so that it can be filed readily without an undue amount of cross indexing. "(3) The rigidity of the grouping does not lend to filing data on structures when they are studied in a different connection from what the subject list contemplated in its original design." SEC. II. SYSTEMS AND APPLIANCES IN DETAIL SYSTEMS AND APPLIANCES OF INDEXING, FILING AND RECORDING Definitions. The word "system" is used so frequently in connection with business methods and appliances that its proper relation thereto is sometimes lost sight of; often to the detriment of the installation. The following definitions are intended to emphasize the distinctions. A system of indexing, filing, recording, etc., consists of some prearranged plan for carrying out these operations. Thus, we have the alphabetical, numerical, geographical, topical, chronological, etc., systems for indexing and filing correspondence, drawings, etc. Indexing consists in the installation of "pointers" to the proper location of a letter, drawing, etc., in a file. These pointers may take the form of "tabs" on the cards of a card index or on the page of a book; or of a |