MINUTES OF THE COINS I/SOVIET PERSONALITY FILES PANEL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01139A000100130025-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 23, 2005
• Sequence Number: 25
• Publication Date: September 16, 1966
• Content Type: MFR

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MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD: 16 Sep 66
SUBJECTS: Minutes of the COINS I/Soviet Personality Files Panel
1. The fourth meeting of the COINS I/Soviet Personality Panel
was held.12 September 1966 at 1000 at DIA.
2. The following individuals were present:
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lCIA distributed the following working papers:
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3. The minutes of the third. meeting of 29 August 1966 were read,
corrected and approved. These minutes will now be published..
NSA distributed copies of the following working papers:
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7. The meeting on transliterations scheduled for next week has been
postponed until 26 September 1966.
8. No comments were received relating to name variations chart that
was attached to the minutes dated 30 August 1966.
9. asked for a definition of personality and biographic
files indicating differences and similarities in content, purpose and use.
~DIA offered the following definitions.
10. NSA reviewed the possible points of agreement with
respect to Soviet names and. it was modified to include minimum lengths in
addition to maximum lengths. Therefore the points of agreement with respect
to names now reads as follows:
a. Names in the files as well as within incoming interrogations
will always be written in the nominative case.
b. Names will not be intentionally truncated nor abbreviated.
c. Each part of a name will be recorded in a separate field. with
a maximum of 25 positions being allowed. for each part of a name (i.e., first,
patronymic and surname) with the minimum length for each field. being as
follows :
(1) First Name: 12
2) Patronymic: 16
3) Surname: 15
11, IIC'IA indicated, that they did not have an occupational code
in CHIVE but that they would provide the code being used in the Biographic
Register. The Assignment Code. (or position code) for CHIVE is being
developed, and. is not available at this time.
of Soviet names.
[NSA is still working on obtaining afrequency count
13. NSA asked members to give some thought in how to:
a. Determine the extent, of duplications that exists in the files
for the COINS Experiment.
b. Best eliminate this duplication.
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]A. Standardization of File and. Field Names:
a. l trement
There is a need in the COINS Experiment for the standardization
in the naming of files and. fields within the files as well as in the
standardization of the manner in which the information is transcribed in
these fields.
b. Objective
(1) The end objective is to achieve compatibility in the data
bases among the participating Agencies and. thereby facilitate the inter-
change or exchange of information between systems without elaborate
conversion tables. Chart I depicts the current situation at this time.
(2) Standardization of file and field. names can be considered
as the initial steps towards developing a generalized users language within
the Intelligence Community for remote interrogation and file maintenance.
For example this means that CIA will use the same data element code (i.e.,
or field name) whenever they interrogate the surname field in any file in
the COINS Experiment. If this is not achieved, the interrogators (i.e.,
intelligence analysts) in each participating Agency may have to learn a
different data element code (i.e., field name) for each file.
c. File Names: Following are the tentative points of agreement
with respect to file names:
(1) No two files within the COINS Experiment will have the
identical long or short title.
(2) Short titles for files will be mnemonic and range in
length from three to five letters.
(3) Short titles of a file will be used when addressing a
file in an interrogation or in a file maintenance transaction.
d.. Field. Names: Following are the tentative points of agreement
with respect to field names within files in the COINS Experiment:
(i) The same field can appear in more than one file (e.g.,
surname) and.when it does it will have the same characteristics regardless
of what file it appears (i.e., same long and short title, length features,
adjustments and data items, etc.).
(2) Short titles for fiels will range in length from two to
five positions in length.
15. NSA indicated that a study is required of the current
and. past requirement being imposed in the participating Agencies for Soviet
biographic or personality data.
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a. CISaAndicated that they had recentlj ompleted such
a study and found that :
(1) Approximately 43% of the requests could be satisfied
with specific answers such as the type that could be provided from the
files in the COINS Experiment.
(2) The remaining 57% were written sketches which required a
detail study and. analysis of all available information. However' if the so
sources of informat:Lon were given in the COINS files they could provide a
bibliography for the researchers answering this type of requests.
requested.
(3) No significant frequency in the type of information
b. Generally agreed that more thought needs to be given on
how to organize a crmnunity-wide study in this area,
c. Generally agreed that response time should, also be a major
factor in this study.
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