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Classified Abstract Archive of the Alcohol Literature

Manual and punchcards

The Classified Abstract Archive of the Alcohol Literature (CAAAL) is a collection of approximately 20,000 abstracts prepared by Center staff from 1939 through 1977 of the scientific and scholarly alcohol literature (journal articles, published and unpublished reports, and monographs). The publication of CAAAL ceased in 1978. 

A manual is available for use 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.

The abstracts were printed on McBee sorting cards that were punched around the edges according to subject codes listed in the CAAAL Manual. The CAAAL items can be browsed and searched by author (either though the library’s master catalog or in a print catalog currently in the Rutgers University Library Annex), by CAAAL reference number, or by subject using a needle-sort method.

The McBee punch card provides 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 too.

Most of the items that were abstracted for CAAAL were also abstracted in the Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol and later in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol (now the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs). Full-text copies of all items for CAAAL were also deposited in the McCarthy Memorial Collection, housed in custom made, red archival boxes in the Rutgers University Library Annex.  To locate something in the McCarthy Collection, use the CAAAL reference number, or look up the citation in the Master Author Catalog (in the card catalog in Annex) and get the McCarthy number.

From the Digital Alcohol Studies Archives