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Classified Abstract Archive of the Alcohol Literature

Classified Abstract Archive of the Alcohol Literature

The Center was a groundbreaking pioneer in organizing and sharing alcohol-related literature, creating the first comprehensive systems for collecting and disseminating scholarly research on alcohol, which originated in the Carnegie-funded abstracting project. As a result, the Classified Abstract Archive of the Alcohol Literature (CAAAL) emerged as a crucial resource, the first of its kind, a collection of approximately 20,000 abstracts from 1939 through 1977 of the scientific and scholarly alcohol literature.

The Center's staff meticulously compiled abstracts from scientific journals, published and unpublished research reports, and scholarly monographs that they reviewed for the journal. By establishing an innovative approach to documenting and preserving alcohol-related scholarly literature, the Center was instrumental in making alcohol research accessible to both academic researchers and the broader public, setting a new standard for scientific information sharing during a time when such comprehensive archival systems were rare.

The original articles that described the archive and the code dictionary became the foundation of the Manual of the Classified Abstract Archive of the Alcohol Literature. 

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Tools of the trade

A photo of the tools to use CAAAL: punchcards, sorting needle, and the CAAAL manual in the Center of Alcohol Studies Library in 2014.
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Content development for CAAAL at QJSA

Two staff members are working on organizing alcohol research at Yale University. One of them, Vera Efron is pictured to sort the McBee punch cards with the searching tool of the era, a sorting needle. Based on the collection, the Center of Alcohol Studies Bibliographies were also updated annually as extensive printed lists of references to the international scientific literature on specific alcohol subjects. Journal articles, books, technical reports, dissertations and conference proceedings were covered. Cited items were limited to the English language.
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The CAAAL Manual

Cover of the CAAAL manual: a guide to the use of the Classified Abstract Archive of the Alcohol Literature, second updated edition, published in 1965. The original manual was issued in 1953 with title: Manual of the Classified Abstract Archive of the Alcohol Literature (29 pages). The new edition includes bibliographical references (page 155) and an index.
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Tools of the Trade: Searching CAAAL 

As explained in the CAAAL Manual: a guide to the use of the Classified Abstract Archive of the Alcohol Literature, the approximately 20,000 abstracts were printed on McBee sorting cards that were punched (around the edges) according to subject codes listed in the CAAAL Manual. The McBee punch card provides information available for each article, including author, title, publication data, and an abstract. Access is provided by CAAAL number or by subject using a needle-sort method.

Scholarly literature on McBee cards

The McBee punch cards provide information available for each article, including author, title, publication data, and an abstract, usually written by CAS staff. In addition to the English-language literature, publications in several other languages were covered as well.

The original documents abstracted in CAAAL are filed by their CAAAL or McCarthy numbers (for items not included in CAAAL). Access to the Raymond G. McCarthy Memorial Collection is provided by author through the master catalog, by author or subject using the abstracts and indexes of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol, or by subject searching CAAAL. The original documents in the Raymond G. McCarthy Memorial Collection are housed in special cases in the Rutgers University Libraries Annex. 

Based on the scholarly and lay content abstracted and indexed for CAAAL, the QJSA staff at the Center also prepared topical bibliographies, which included items from the McCarthy Collection. The McCarthy Collection also contains the original texts of all items abstracted in the Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol, now the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

The publication of CAAAL ceased in 1978. A manual is available for help in subject searching: Keller, M., Efron, V., & Jellinek, E. M. (1965). CAAAL manual: A guide to the use of the Classified Abstract Archive of the Alcohol Literature. New Brunswick, NJ: Publications Division, Rutgers Center of Alcohol Studies.

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A sample CAAAL card

The actual size of a McBee punch card is 7 1/2 by 6 5/8 inches (19.1 by 16.8 centimeters). The holes punched on the sides guide the sorting needle to search by Author-Name and Year-of-Publication codes or help find abstracts by topical sorting, as explained in the Manual (pp. 18-29). The abstracts are about 550 words long, which is the amount the front of the card can handle with the letter type and size used. Each card features a CAAAL serial number.

From the Digital Alcohol Studies Archives