diff --git a/PROMS/DataLoader/Sections.cs b/PROMS/DataLoader/Sections.cs
index 03bbd5d3..3c4bf42f 100644
--- a/PROMS/DataLoader/Sections.cs
+++ b/PROMS/DataLoader/Sections.cs
@@ -559,7 +559,16 @@ namespace DataLoader
 				ci.AddItem("Section", "NumPages", sequence.Substring(3, 1));
 
 				// see if it's a libdoc too
-				string thekey = procnum.PadRight(20) + step.Substring(0, 1).PadRight(10);
+				string mystep = null;
+				try
+				{
+					mystep = dr["Step"].ToString();
+				}
+				catch (Exception ex)
+				{
+					Console.WriteLine("testing - error = {0}", ex.Message);
+				}
+				string thekey = procnum.PadRight(20) + ((mystep!=null)?mystep.Substring(0,1).PadRight(10):step.Substring(0, 1).PadRight(10));
 				if (dicLibDocRef.ContainsKey(thekey))
 				{
 					// if it is a library document, see if the section record has already been