ABSTRACT
Arountl 1973 I atter~tlctl a lecture on infornlatiori retriev:tl in which a problem posecl I3.y the FBI fingerprint files was rrlerhned. It was c1;rirnctl tlhat the FBI h s a library of about 40 niillion sets of fingerprints. thal 30 t ho~ l s i~~ ld sets of fingerprirlts arrive daily, and thilt each set rmlst be compared with those in the file to see if tllc sul)ject is already represcntcd (,here. possibly r~nder another name. The titsk wils said to hc accomplished with the help or' 15 t l ~ o ~ i s a ~ i d clerks.
