At the present time there are nearly 1200 radiocarbon dates published from 11 different laboratories. These dates appear in a total of 6 books, monographs, mimeographed lists, and journals. While most of the dates appear in the publication Science, it is nonetheless difficult to sort through the various numbers of this journal in order to compile dates for any one time period, area, or topic. Realizing that the dates could not be utilized efficiently under these circumstances, J. B. Griffin of the University of Michigan, Museum of Anthropology, suggested that an expandable file system be devised for all published radiocarbon dates.