Widener Library is using a computer to update its shelflist and publish a set of bibliographies of its entire collection.

One-fifth of the library's 1,600,000 books have already been included in the new shelflist and bibliographies, Richard De Gennaro, director of the project, and associate librarian for Systems Development, estimated yesterday. The three-year-old project will probably take five more years to complete, he said.

Seven Technicians

The new shelflist, which is a listing of the books by subject using their call numbers, is being compiled by seven technicians. They transfer data into the computer from the old handwritten shelflist, which dates from the early 1800's.

Harvard University Press is publishing the bibliographies. It has already sold other libraries about 500 of each of the 13 volumes in print so far. Each volume covers one large subject area, such as Africa or twentieth-century Russian literature.

The computer is also programmed to arrange titles according to author and date of publication within each subject, and these classifications are included in each volume.

Inter-Library Loans

Other libraries use the bibliographies to request inter-library loans from Harvard. In addition, the shelflists help scholars find what books are available in Widener on a topic, when the volumes are not on the shelf.

Future revision of the records will be facilitated by this new system, De Gennaro said, because the information is stored on magnetic tapes and the computer can be programmed to file new titles automatically.

De Gennaro said yesterday that Widener is the first library to use computers so extensively for cataloguing purposes.

De Gennaro speculated that in five or ten years all Harvard libraries might use computers in this way.