The collection documents the records of the office of the Vice Chancellor for Data Processing for the years 1977 through 1982. The bulk of the materials in the collection pertain to the Administrative System Planning Study, a project that studied the effects an automated computing system would have on the accuracy and efficiency of data processing at Duke. Materials include the final project report as well as drafts tracking the development of the project as well as notes and correspondence from members of the project team. The collection also includes interviews the committee conducted with Duke employees across a wide range of departments and external studies of information management at Duke. The Administrative System Planning Study series contains materials related to the report. They include a copy of the final report and several drafts of the report including notes and revisions. This series also contains two 1982 editions of The Chronicle announcing the institution of a new data processing system on campus. The Project Materials series contains meeting minutes from the Administrative System Planning council, papers as well as correspondence and notes from three members of the committee, Vice-Chancellor Mel Ray, Joe Kuran and Jim Prestwood as they worked to develop the project. These materials also include analyses of the research materials used in the report. The Research Materials series includes information the committee gathered while preparing the report. These materials include 15 interviews with employees from many departments about the current data processing environment at Duke. Interviewees included President Terry Sanford, Chancellor A. Kenneth Pye and Provost F. Cleaveland. Research materials also include the final copies of automation reports completed by IBM Corporation and Hay Associates on the existing systems and the potential effects of automation. Also included is a 1980 issue of IBM Corporation’s magazine, Prospectives in Computing featuring an article about the academic applications of computing at Duke.