December 2002-February 2003

The project has passed the "commissioning" stage and is now entering the "steady-state" phase, with the solidifying of the workflow and the addition of the third and last indexer.

To date, we have finished the RIP indexing for Catholic Biblical Quarterly (1939-1948), Ecumenical Review (1948-1949), Hebrew Union College Annual (1919, 1924-1948), Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology (1947-1948), and Journal of Pastoral Care (1947-1948).

Indexing has begun on American Catholic Sociological Review (1940-1949), Bibliotheca Sacra (1843-1851), Christian Oracle (Jl 1884), Church History (1932-1936), Eastern Buddhist (1921-1922), Journal of Biblical Literature (1881-1914, 1917-1920, 1925-1926), and Orate Fratres (1927-1944, with many gaps in coverage due to incomplete holdings at Regenstein Library).

As stipulated in the first report, we will continue to index the 19 ATLAS titles exclusively until complete, before beginning the indexing of non-ATLAS periodicals.

Heidi Arnold has volunteered to round up the issues and volumes missing from our Hyde Park libraries through the informal ATLA inter-library loan system. We are currently waiting for missing items in order to complete indexing of Orate Fratres and American Catholic Sociological Review.

Todd Ferry has begun creating ARDIS records in Hyde Park. He was supplied by Information Services with a slow but useable PC (a Pentium II) that can utilize the University of Chicago network. For the time being, he will spend 2 days a week indexing in Hyde Park, which will include approving my own work, a significant savings of wear on dilapidated periodical volumes and my backpack. With Regenstein Library's limitation of 25 items charged per card for Affiliates, we are all the more dependent on in-house indexing in Hyde Park.

Benjamin Butler was hired at the beginning of the year to index full-time for RIP. He is being trained concurrently by Heidi Arnold, Erica Treesh and the writer, an experiment in providing broad-spectrum training. I would hasten to add that Todd Ferry provides significant instructional support. Ben shows an amazing penchant for MARC detail, and in every respect promises to become a strong third member in the RIP staff.

With the hiring of Benjamin Butler, I find I am spending more of my RIP time proofing and approving records, as anticipated. IS gave me a significantly faster laptop as part of the Windows 2000 upgrade, which expedites the creation of records and is especially helpful for approving records. I have begun indexing the unique copies of Christian Oracle made available through the courtesy of Disciples Divinity House of the University of Chicago, "unique" in that these volumes were microfilmed by the ATLA Preservation Department predecessor decades ago. In order to use the limited space at the House, I will be indexing exclusively during weekday evening hours. These volumes—a weekly newspaper in elephant folio format—present the intrepid indexer with pages almost entirely oxidized, with no pagination. Because Todd cannot view the original, I will have to approve my own indexing, an unfortunate but necessary evil. I expect this title will take many months to complete.

Respectfully Submitted,

Steven W. Holloway, RIP Project Director
February 12, 2003