Ralph Parker
Works
Ralph Halstead Parker was a pioneer in the implementation of punched-card circulation at the University of Texas. He expanded the use of punched cards at the University of Missouri. He was asked with Frederick G. Kilgour "to judge two options (either microfilm-based or computer printout) for making a book catalogue of the holdings of academic libraries in Ohio. Instead, Kilgour and Parker suggested establishing "an effective, shared-cataloguing program based on a central computer store containing a catalogue for the current holdings of Ohio college libraries." This system would eventually become OCLC, the world's largest consortium, now sharing catalogue records with 43,559 libraries in 86 countries" (University of Missouri Archives, 2003).
Publications
LaBerge, R., & Parker, R. H. (1966). Automated catalog card production system manual : system devised by Ralph H. Parker . [publisher not identified].
Parker, “The Punched Card Method in Circulation Work,” Library Journal 61 (December 1936): 903–5.
Parker, R. H. (1952). Library applications of punched cards : a description of mechanical systems. American Library Association.
Parker, R. H. (1968). A feasibility study for a joint computer center for five Washington, D.C. university libraries ; final report. Consortium of Universities of Metropolitan Washington, D.C.
Parker, R. H. (1969). Computers, communication and library co-operation. International Library Review, 1(3), 309-315.
Parker, R. H. (1974). A stochastic analysis of books circulated from Elmer Ellis Library : University of Missouri-Columbia, 1972-1973. [publisher not identified].
Awards
Further Reading
Burns, C.S. (2014). Academic libraries and automation. A historical reflection on Ralph Halstead Parker. portal: Libraries and the Academy, 14(1), 87-102. http://muse.jhu.edu/article/534487
Mina Hoyer, “The History of Automation in the University of Missouri Library, 1947–1963” (master’s thesis, Indiana University, 1965).
University of Missouri Archives (2003). "Of Libraries and Computers." https://muarchives.missouri.edu/libraryex3.html