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The need for planning in educational systems may be interpreted as the need to identify, prepare, and devise new or revised procedures through which explicit systemic goals may be realized. Usually such efforts have a specific time orientation. Planning is further related to policy in the sense that policy is a legitimized procedure or course of action. The logic suggests that planning should precede procedure specification and formal policy action. Computer simulation is a relatively new approach to the study and further understanding of complex entities and situations. The computer program is the embodiment of the real world event or entity of interest. Its primary advantage is the computer's capability of storing, manipulating, recombining, and reporting the past, current, and future states of numerous variables which together comprise the total behavior of a complex event or system. In this sense, the computer exceeds the intellectual capacity of the average person who would experience difficulty comprehending the totality of input variables, interaction effects, and current states of the system. (Author/WM)

The theory of computer cartography is emphasized in an attempt to bring some related ideas together within a single framework. The paper is part of a series designed to fill the gap between significant research in geography and accessible materials. Part I introduces information theory and cartography, the features of numeric cartography and their structures, points, lines, and surfaces and hardware, and one mapping system. Next, some theory of the surface is presented concerning the information content of a surface-point, surface behavior, and surface features and information hierarchies. Prediction, spectral analysis, and picture processing are discussed in relation to surface processing. The representation of surfaces, lines, and points are discussed in terms of three-dimensional information elements, the picture plane, visibility, block diagrams, planimetrically correct surface representations, isarithms, data grids and functions, and points and lines. Part VI on data structures deals with coding, line-storage and data-organization. Finally, high-accuracy systems and small interactive systems and their applications are examined. Further reading, a glossary, and a list of major programs used for the production of the figures in the paper are included. (Author/KSM)

Written for secondary students, this booklet provides an introduction to several computer-related concepts through a set of six classroom games, most of which can be played with little more than a sheet of paper and a pencil. The games are: 1) SECRET CODES--introduction to binary coding, punched cards, and paper tape; 2) GUESS--efficient methods of searching for mystery numbers; 3) HURKLE--introduction to grids and coordinate systems; 4) BAGLES--introduction to mathematical logic; 5) CAVES--networks and tree structures; 6) ANIMAL--learning to creatively compare similarities and differences of objects. In addition to the games are the code for a computerized version of CAVES and a list of readings and films useful for introductory computer courses. (WDR)

Three working seminars resulted in this book which includes edited versions of 25 prepared papers and 12 workshop reports. The seminars identified political, economic, and managerial issues involved in building and operating computer networks on a national basis. There are four parts to the book. Part I contains an introductory chapter framing some of the questions considered, a chapter outlining selected highlights of issues discussed, and a chapter summarizing the chief conclusions and recommendations of the 152 seminar participants. Parts II, III, and IV contain the edited papers and reports of seminars 1, 2, 3, in that order. Additional conclusions and recommendations of individuals and workshops appear throughout the papers and reports of Parts II, III, and IV. (WCM)

Twenty papers were selected from the Technical Program of the First Mid-Year Regional Conference of the American Society for Information Science, held at the University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio in May 1972. The papers cover a range of subjects related to the general theme of cost reduction in libraries and information centers. Following an overview, which provides a state of the art report and specific sources, the second section covers the more general costing applications such as consumer research and capital investment, helpful hints and dialog on cost reduction and cost justification, and a few "devil's advocate" approaches to the true possibilities of cost reduction. In the third section are personal experiences dealing with small computers and magnetic tape files, methods of input data manipulation, and useful techniques and procedures for cost reduction. The fourth section is a mini-tutorial on costing practices. There are charts, diagrams, lists of references, and an index. (Author/LS)

A description of computer procedures applied to an emerging university's book purchasing program is presented. The analysis includes a description of the system applied, the software employed, the precataloging routines involved, and both a preliminary cost analysis and current costs. Internal flow charting is included for both the in-library sequences and those used in the Data Processing Center. Personnel requirements for the program are discussed, and the interrelationship of professional librarians, library clerks, and Data Processing Center personnel is outlined. Relationships of the system to other library functions are indicated. The stress of the paper is on the simplicity of procedures involved. Three critical commentaries related to the systems are appended. (Author/LS)