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Special Libraries, 1955 Special Libraries, 1950s
9-1-1955
Special Libraries, September 1955
Special Libraries Association
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Recommended Citation Special Libraries Association, "Special Libraries, September 1955" (1955). Special Libraries, 1955. 7. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1955/7
This Magazine is brought to you for free and open access by the Special Libraries, 1950s at SJSU ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Special Libraries, 1955 by an authorized administrator of SJSU ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. - - VOLUME 46 SEPTEMBER 1955 NUMBER 7
What's in the Future for Special Librarianship? Cjould H. Cloud
Automation James E. Myers
The Challenge of Automation Ross Roy
On Technical Writing J. 1'. Gray, M. D. FREE! (Retail price $30.00) FUNK & WAGNALLS 1955 UNABRIDGED DICTIONARY . . . If jou agree to purchase \tithin the nevt :-ear $125 \zorth of Imoks -- fiction. no~~-ficdonor tee-hnival.
CONDITIONS OF THlS EDWARD D. TAYLOR CLUB PLAN:
1 OLI ir~fotIII US ill u~iti~~g.1%ith ~IIinilia1 orcle~.that I ou agrrr to puwtiase y12.i nc~tthof l~ot)l\*\\ithill the n~xt \ear. This offel expires Octol~et31. 19i3.
For this special offel. all hciol\c a ill he *old to \ OII at list prices. This offer is restricted to cwnlpatl\ lihrarie. and put chasing agents.
@ Ipan rompletion of this b12.i purchacc. there \\ill he no furthe1 obligation on ou~part. IIon e\ rr. we \t ill glad! cw~~tinurto sen ice Iou u11d1.r or11 usual discount schedule. which is as follows:
20% 011 fiction aud ~OII-fictionIwoks 20% on dictionaries and mosl 1)usiness huoks 10% for all other technical hoohs and thohe published h> L nil rrsitx Prescrs
USE THIS COUPON TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE FREE OFFER NOW!
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Please Mention Special Libraries When Answering Advertisements NEW REPRINTS
Ready November 1955: Nucleonics Volumes 1-9, 1947-1951 Cloth bound set ...... $153.00 Single volumes, paper bound ...... $13.00 each
In Preparation: American Chemical Society, Journal Volumes 26-27, 1904-1905 Single volumes, paper bound ...... $30.00 each
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- NEW! THE INTERNATIONAL WHO'S WHO 1955 19th edition
The authoritative source of biographical information about the most important people in the world today - scientists, diplomatists, business executives, religious leaders. heads of states, jurists, musicians, bankers, writers and many more. Includes information about many important personalities in countries where no national Who's Who is published.
1,100 pages London $14.00 Bound STECHERT HAFNER, INC. FOUNDED IN NEW YORK 1872 The World's Leding International Booksellers 31 EAST ~OTHSTREET, NEW YORK 3, N. Y.
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A monthly list of translations received by the SLA Translation Pool at The John Crerar Library in Chicago. Arranged alphabetically by author with a semi-annual author index. Subscriptions will be accepted only for calendar years. The first issue will be January-October 1955, Volume 1, Numbers 1-10. Number 11 will be ~ublishedin November 1955 and Number 12 in December 1955. Subscription rate - $5.00 per year. Send your check and order for 1955. Volume 1, to SLA TRANSLATION POOL The John Crerar Library 86 E. Randolph Street Chicago 1, Illinois Checks should be made payable to SLA TRANSLATION MONTHLY
II New and Forthcoming Publications Handbook of Special Librarianship and Information Work A manual containing thirteen chapters by specialist authors, under the editorship of W. Ashworth, B.Sc., F.L.A. 1955. 50s. (40s. to Aslib members)
Index to Theses Accepted for Higher- Degrees in the Universities of Great Britain and Ireland A complete list of theses titles, with authors' name, university and degree, arranged under subject headings. Vol. I, 1950-1951 Vol. 11, 1951-1952 Each volume 25s. (21s. to Aslib members) Treatment of Special Material in Libraries A revised and enlarged edition of Cataloguing, arrangement and filing of special material in special libraries, by the same author, published by Aslib in 1950. 1955 12s. 6d. (10s. 6d. to Aslib members)
I A S L I B, 4 Palace Gate, London, W.8.. England.
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SPECIAL LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION "Putting Knowledge fo Work" THE FORTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL SLA CONVENTION WILL TAKE PLACE JUNE 3-7, 1956 AT THE HOTEL WILLIAM PENN, PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
OFFICERS PUBLICATIONS President CHESTERM. LEWIS Aviation Subject Headings 1949 $1.75 The New York Times, New York, N. Y. A Brief for Corporation Libraries 1949 $1.75 First Vice-president and President-Elect KATHARINEL. KINDER Contributions Toward a Special Johns-Manville Research Center Library Glossary. 2nd Ed. 1950 $1.25 Manville, New Jersey Second Vice-president Correlation Index Document Series MARYJANE MACDONALD & PB Reports 1953 $10.00 Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Creation & Development of an Kansas City, Missouri Insurance Library. Rev. Ed. 1949 $2.00 Secretary MARGARETA. FIRTH Directory of Special Libraries 1953 $10.00 United Shoe Machinery Corporation Fakes and Forgeries in the Fine Beverly, Massachusetts Arts 1950 $1.75 Treasurer BURTONW. ADKINSON Indexing-with Emphasis on Its Library of Congress, Washington, D. C. Technique - An Annotated Bibliography 1955 $ .50 Directors ELIZABETHB. FRY Libraries for Research and In- United States Steel Corporation dustry - Planning and Equip- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ment (SLA Monograph No. 1) 1955 $3.00 EUGENEB. JACKSON National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics Map Collections in the U. S. and Washington, D. C. Canada, A Directory 1954 $3.00 CLARAG. MILLER Nicknames of American Cities, Imperial Oil, Ltd., Toronto, Ontario, Canada Towns and Villages Past and DR. JERROLD ORNE Present 1951 $2.00 Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala. SARAM. PRICE SLA Directory of Members 1951 $4.00 The Port of New York Authority New York, New York Source List of Selected Labor Statistics. Rev. Ed. 1953 $2.00 DR. ELSE L. SCHULZE Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, Ohio Subject Headings for Aeronaut- Immediate Past-President ical Engineering Libraries 1949 $4.00 GRETCHEND. LITTLE Atlas Powder Company, Wilmington, Delaware Subject Headings for Financial Libraries 1954 $5.00
Executive Secretary Technical Libraries, Their Or- MARIANE. LUCIUS ganization and Management 195 1 $6.00 Special Libraries Association 31 East Tenth St., New York 3, N. Y. Visual Presentation. Our Library. 1953 $10.00
- - OFFICIAL JOURNAL SPECIAL LIBRARIES,published monthly Sep- SPECIAL LIBRARIES tember to April, bi-monthly May to August, by Special Libraries Association, Editorial 0 Offices, 31 East Tenth Street, New York 3, SPONSORED PERIODICAL N. Y. Publication Office: Rea Building, TECHNICAL BOOK REVIEW INDEX 704 Second Avenue, Pittsburgh 19, Pa. Subscription, $7.50 a year SUBSCRIPTIONS:$7 a year; foreign $7.50; ($8.00 Foreign) single- co~ies75 cents. MEMBERSHIPDUES SCHEDULE:Institutional, $30; ~~~i~~,~~~~~i~~~,$5; Student, MANUSCRIPTS submitted for publication must $2; Sustaining, $50; Life, $250; ~~ti~~d,$5. be typed, double space, on only one side of the paper. Mail manuscripts to Editor. For qualifications, privileges and further information, write to the Executive Secre- RRPRINTSmay be ordered immediately prior tary, Special Libraries Association. to or following publication.
Second class mail privileges authorized at Pittsburgh, Pa.. under the Act of March 3, 1879. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided far in the Act of February 28. 1925, authorized February 5, 1947. Special Libraries OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE SPECIAL LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION
Indexed in Industrial Arts Index, Public AfTairs Information Service, and Library Literature
CONTENTS
FEATURE ARTICLES What's in the Future for Special Librarianship? . GOULDH. CLOUD Automation: What It Is and What It Is Not . . JAMES E. MYERS The Challenge of Automation ...... Ross ROY On Technical Writing ...... J. P. GRAY Librarians on Display ...... RUTH NIELANDER
SPECIAL LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION United Nations: Report of SLA Representative to UN Commemorative Meeting . HILDEGARDEF. MILLAR Report of the 1955 Convention Committee ...... FLORENCE H. ARMSTRONG
DEPARTMENTS Chapter Highlights ...... Have You Heard ...... Obituary: Henry Evelyn Bliss ...... Off the Press ......
Committee on Special Libraries Chairman: MRS. MARGARETH. FULLER ROMANAJAVITZ ALMA CLARVOEMITCHIL?
Editorial Staff Acting Editor: ALMA CLARVOEMITCHILL Business Manager: MARIANE. LUCIUS
Regional Representatives MIDDLE WEST: MARIONE. WELLS WEST: ALBERT P. BRADLEY SOUTH: DR. GOULDH. CLOUD CANADA: GRACEREYNOLDS
Papers published in SPECIALLIBRARIES express the views of the authors, and do not represent the opinion or the policy of the editorial staff or the publisher. Contents, copyright, 1955, by Special Libraries Association, 31 East 10th Street, New York 3, New York. Announcing the Publication of SLA MONOGRAPH NO. 1
LIBRARIES FOR RESEARCH AND INDUSTRY Planning and Equipment
Margaret E. Hilligan, Editor
Based on the Symposium on library planning and equipment held at the Cincinnati meeting of Special Libraries Association, May 1954, this is a project of the Science-Technology Division.
CONTENTS: Why's, When's, and How's of Library Planning by Helen Mary Pyle
Planning the New Library by Gretchen Runge
Check List for Reviewing Layout Prints prepared by Gretchen Runge and Helen Mary Pyle
You Can Expand Within Confined Areas by Else L. Schulze
Selected Readings on Library Planning compiled by Helen Mary Pyle and Gretchen Runge
83 illustrations and 20 floor plans 1955 63 pages $3.00
order from SPECIAL LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION 31 East Tenth Street New York 3, New York
Please Mention Special Libraries When Answering Advertisements What's in the Future for Special Librarianship?
GOULDH. CLOUD Librarian, Houston Research Library, Humble Oil & Refining Co., Houston, Texas
VERY MAN A KING" was the very and consult the record, when he started "E successful slogan of a shrewd making the accomplishments of one politician of a generation ago. On the generation readily available to the next. basis of facilities for creature comfort that are commonplace to us, we ac- tually live much better than did the most fabulous kings of the past. A hun- dred Nubian slaves with their gorgeous peacock fans could not stir up a breeze as pleasant as that created by a refrig- erated window cooling unit! The finest royal coach-and-four that ever existed cannot compare even with a high school boy's jalopy from the standpoint 3f speed as well as comfort! The fine foods available at the corner delicatessen could not have been made available in an earlier age for a king's ransom! What has brought about this change? Why are we blessed so bountifully in A technical man now has at his com- material things? The answers lie in the mand vast stores of knowledge handed fact that we have learned the source of down as a free gift from his predeces- the greatest riches in the world -the sors which he may use as stepping use of other men's experiences in the stones to new discoveries. These vast technical realm. Until a few generations resources are accessible to anyone pos- ago most technical practices were de- sessed of the key to select, combine, termined by custom. Any changes made and apply as he wishes. They present were the result of trial and error in the golden opportunity of "collective which failures were dropped and the thinking with a collective memory."' better methods adopted. For the most Organized creative technology has part, technical knowledge was handed flourished amazingly in our country. down like manual skills by personal in- Scientists, engineers, and manufactur- struction. The experience of others out- ers have teamed together to translate side a man's circle of associates was scientific knowledge into myriads of used only to a very limited degree. useful methods and devices. They have Therefore, the range and variety of used the available store of knowledge knowledge that one could bring to bear as a springboard for jumping out into on a given subject were limited both by the unknown. As a result of this use of his inherent capacity and by the extent knowledge, we have experienced tre- of his personal experience. mendous developments in many scien- The technical progress that we en- tific and technical fields. The deve10~- joy at the present time began when ments in the automobile, the airplane, man learned to store, transmit widely, the radio, radar, television, and many other mechanical and electrical wonders Growth of Science and Technology are very much in evidence. In the As an indication of the growth of chemical field, developments have been science and technology in our country, no less startling. Our chemists have in 1900 there was one technical man synthesized indigo, camphor, rubber, for every 250 men employed in indus- toluene, and many other compounds. try. In 1953, the General Electric Com- They have revolutionized the fabrics pany employed one technical man for industry with the inventions of nylon, every twenty nontechnical men3 In rayon, and other synthetic fibers. They many research organizations today, the and the physicists have solved the se- number of technical men employed is cret of the atom in producing atomic greater than the number of nontech- energy. The men who have made these nical. tremendous contributions to civilization learned early to utilize other men's ex- An indication of the startling growth periences. To them the scientific litera- of technology in our country since 1945 ture was no dusty archive of a dead is given in the chart on page 305 and yesterday but a living, growing tap- shows the money spent on research root which continuously nourished their by three of the leading nonprofit re- scientific researches. search institutes: Armour, Battelle, and Stanford. In each case the money spent Developments in the immediate fu- during the last five years has increased ture are expected to dwarf those of the at a remarkable rate. The rate of recent past. According to David Sar- growth shown by these three organi- noff : zations is typical of the over-all growth "The dominant physical fact in the next of research in the country. Informa- quarter-century will be unprecedented tech- tion given by the National Research nological progress. The last hundred years Council shows that U. S. research is have been no more than a split second in growing at a constant rate of about human history; yet they have compassed more 12 per cent per year.' Expenditures technological achievement than all the mil- lennia that preceded. The harnessing of elec- for industrial research in the U.S.A. tricity, the demonstration of the germ theory were $116 million in 1930.5 By 1940, of disease, the development of anesthetics, expenditures had increased to $240 mil- the evolution of mass production, the develop- lion. In 1954 they were overall about ment of electronics, the splitting of the atom $4 billi~n,~an increase of almost 1700 -these are only highlights. per cent over 1940. At the present time, "Mark the increasing speed at which these business, universities, and the govern- things have come. It is not a case of continued ment are spending more on research increase but of continued 'acceleration' of in- each year than all the money spent on crease. The fact that electronics and atomics are unfolding simultaneously is a portent of research in all the years of our history amazing changes ahead. Never before have prior to World War II!7 two such mighty forces been unleased at once. Together they are certain to dwarf the industrial revolutions brought about by steam Growth of Technical Literature and electricity. This prodigious rate of growth in our "There is no element of material progress technology has been accompanied by n we know today that will not seem, from the mushrooming of our technical litera- vantage point of 1980, a fumbling prelude. A recent statement by the General Electric Com- ture. Besides the large volume of re- pany, referring especially to electronic and ports, correspondence and drawings atomic energy, declared: 'All these fields are which circulate in every industrial estab- so promising that we expect to produce more lishment, there is a tremendous amount in the next ten years than in all the previous of published literature in books and seventy-five years of our existence.' The same pattern of rapid growth holds true for Ameri- periodicals covering the results of sci- can industry as a whole."z entific investigations throughout the
SPECIAL LIBRARIES Southwest Research Institute, gives a good idea of the enormity of the pub- lished literature: "It is reported that approximately 60 million pages of tech- nical literature are currently published every year throughout the world. This is equal to 100,000 volumes of 600 pages each which, at the rate of 10 volumes per foot, would require new book shelving of 10,000 feet or just short of two miles." During the past hundred years, the chemical literature has expanded at least a hundred-fold. At the present time, the rate of growth is better than 10 per cent per year. Prior to World War I1 the cumulative increase in the number of items abstracted in Chemical Abstracts was slightly more than 10 per cent per year. Subsequent to the war, the increase has been about 15 per cent per year. The number of reports puh- lished by the National Advisory Com- mittee for Aeronautics increased 350 per cent in the ten-year period from 1944 through 1954. The following results from Stano- lind" illustrate the growth of the tech- nical literature in a specific case:
Abstracts made by Trends of Research Expenditures Decade Stanolind (cumulative) in Three Industrial Research Institutes up to 1932 25,000 32-42 55,000 42-52 140,000 world. As far back as 1947 there were more than 750,000 technical articles1 Problem of Handling the Literature appearing in the literature each year. At the present time there are over As an indication of the appreciation 30,000 technical and scientific journals of the value of the technical literature, being publi~hed.~Technical reports numerous manufacturing and research covering work sponsored by the federal organizations in this country have estab- government number more than 75,000 lished private technical libraries For per year. In addition, more than 60,000 example, the Dupont Company has technical and scientific booksg are pub- twenty-seven libraries containing over lished each year. 100,000 books. The Humble Company has seven special libraries in the Hous- The following quotation from a speech ton area. As a specific example of the by Dr. Vagtborg,lo president of the value of technical literature, $3,000,000
SEPTEMBER, 1955 worth of captured German technical doc- problems by using existing data with- uments saved our country $70,000,000 out experimental work. Men of initia- worth of aviation research.'" tive with a broad experience with litera- ture and the ability to do high caliber Although our inheritance of human technical work are selected for the experience in the form of technical teams. Occasionally a team may re- knowledge is extremely valuable, our quest someone to conduct an experi- scientists and technologists are finding ment when it seems desirable to fill an themselves in the position of having information gap. The team is regularly too much of a good thing. The volume assigned to advance projects where ex- of technical literature is being increased perimental, development or design at a much faster rate than it is being groups are active. The team provides digested and used effectively. Search- insurance against prolonged repetition ing for needed information has become of older work. It also hastens progress very tedious and time consuming. It is on new ideas by promptly supplying becoming increasingly difficult for a relevant information and quickly weed- specialist to keep up with developments ing out unfruitful proposals. Several even in a narrow field and have enough "finds" by the information specialists time left over for necessary laboratory have clearly saved thousands of dol- research. And the tremendous growth lars of experimentation. of the literature that is resulting from the enormous expansion in research The successes of the Information Re- since 1945 is only beginning to be felt. search team have increased the respect Largely because of the lack of adequate of the whole research staff for the lit- information, the cost of incomplete and erature, and the increased information abandoned research in the U. S. A. is work done by many individuals out- far greater than the cost of successful side the Information Research team has research.'" strengthened the over-all research ef- fort. In the present age, scientists and The problem of handling the litera- technologists must have ready infor- ture has reached such proportions in mation and not sources of information the chemical field that a special sym- if they are to keep abreast of develop- posium entitled "Technical Informa- ments and continue to expand the tion in Action" was held by the Division frontiers of science. of Industrial and Engineering Chem- Although the enormous growth of istry at the ACS meeting in New York our inheritance of human experience in September, 1954. Six men from top in the form of technical knowledge pre- management in important industrial or- sents a tremendous problem to our ganizations told of their problems and scientists, it offers a golden opportunity discussed possible solutions. One of the to special librarians with technical ex- highlights of these talks was that made perience. They can rescue the scientist by Stanolind's E. L. d'ouville entitled from the deluge of ever-settling paper "Interpretative Information Specialists that threatens to smother him. By or- in Petroleum Research." ganizing, indexing, cataloging, and chan- neling the literature for specialized per- sonnel, the special librarian can bring Information Research Teams order out of the existing chaos and thereby render a great service to sci- Stanolind has attacked the problem ence and humanity. of using the vast accumulation of in- formation of organized teams of inter- We are in the rocket age from the pretative information specialists. These standpoint of production and reporting groups work together to solve specific our scientific progress. But we are still
306 SPECIAL LIBRARIES in the horse-and-buggy stage for the The possibilities for job variety and re- most part in the way in which we store sponsibilities are excellent. Opportunity and consult our literature. However, is knocking at his door! there are new methods in the offing for handling the literature which present exciting possibilities for the special li- Bibliography brarian. Machine searching and infor- 1 HOLMSTROM,J. E. Records and Research mation coding systems are being per- in Engineering and Industrial Science. fected which will greatly simplify litera- 2nd Ed. London: Chapman & Hall, 1947.
ture searching." In the not too distant 2 SARNOFF,D. Preview of the Next Twenty- future the library user will be able to five Years. Reader's Digest, 66: 9-12, dial into a catalog machine the specific March 1955. Condensed from Fortune, subject in which he is interested and 51: 82-83, January 1955. have a bibliography of references ap- 8 The Scientific Monthly, 76:93, Feb. 1953. pear before him on a screen. After se- '1, National Academy of Sciences. Applied lecting the pertinent references, he may Research in the U. S. National Research then push a button and the machine Council, March 1, 1952. Publication No. 210. will make a copy of the references de- sired.'Although it will no doubt be 5 Chemical and Engineering News, 25 :1936, 7, 1947. several years before machine searching July is used extensively in our special libra- 6 HOBSON,J. E. The Engineer's Impact on a Free Society. Stanford Research Institute, ries, there are punched-card and infor- February 24, 1955. mation-coding systems readily avail- 33:384, able that can do much to simplify in- 7 Chemical and Engineering News, January 24, 1955. formation handling procedures. GRANFIELD,W. J. Libraries: An Industrial Because of the writer's background Catalyst. SPECIALLIBRARIES, 43:131, 1952. and experience, the material for this April paper has been drawn from the fields !' Statistical Report on Book Production 1937- of science and technology. However, 1950. UNESCO, July 1952. developments in the literature of other 11) VAGTBORG,H. Tomorrow Through Research. fields such as banking, commerce, and Volume 7. No. 1, p. 1, February 1955. law have also been phenomenal. Ac- 11 ~'OUVILLE,J. Information Research on cordingly, opportunities for special ii- Petroleum. Paper presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society, New brarians in these fields are numerous York, September 1954. and attractive. '"BROWN, E. S. Talk before the Texas Chap- ter of Special Libraries Association, Fort Worth, May 10, 1952. Conclusions 1:' FLETT,L. Information Groups Spur Pro- What's in the future for special li- gress. Journal of Commerce, 242:24, No- brarianship? According to our crystal vember 23, 1954. ball there is "gold in them thar hills" '1 Chemical and Engineering News, 32 :866, for those who equip themselves and go March 1, 1954. after it. Industrial management is fast l5 BERKELEY,E. C. Giant Brains or Machines recognizing the importance of the tech- That Think. New York: John Wiley, nical and scientific literature and is 1949. establishing many special libraries. The 16 HOADLEY,W. E. Information - Key to Pro- super abundance of the literature has gress. Talk before Special Libraries Asso- ciation, Lancaster, Penna., April 2, 1955. its users "on the ropes" crying for help. The special librarian is an important factor in the solution of the literature Dr. Gould H. Cloud is president of problem. He is being promoted from the Texas Chapter, Special Libraries "waterboy" to a member of the team.16 Association.
SEPTEMBER, 1955 AUTOMATION What It Is and What It Is
JAMESE. MYERS Manager, Methods & Procedures Division, Burroughs Corp., Detroit, Michigan
F WE WERE TO GATHER the current fed it at one end and finished product I opinions on just what automation coming out the other). is, and eliminate all the minor differ- "It is a philosophy that may extend ences we would have five to ten quite back to the design of the product. It is different basic viewpoints. This should a new method of manufacture, not not surprise anybody since there is necessarily a new way of cutting metal, very great disagreement among the ex- but a way of controlling the various perts on the subject. processes. Automation is a philosophy of design, it is a manufacturing meth- Definition of Automation od and it is control within a machine." The term "Automation" is usually at- This one is complicated enough to tributed to the manufacturing vice- suit anybody. It tells us three things president of the Ford Motor Company, that automation almost is but is not, Mr. Del. S. Harder. He defined it first and three things that it almost is not as the "automatic handling of parts but is. between progressive production pro- Nobody ever knocks another man's cesses." This definition does have the definition without having one of his advantage of being clear and confined own to offer. In my opinion, there are to something small enough to be under- three factors which must be present in standable. So simple a definition had any system in order to call it Automa- little chance of surviving in the Ameri- tion. They are power, automatic coil- can climate. It seems that Americans trol, and sequence. Power to use for a have a secret need to complicate things productive purpose, automatic control to the point where only the chosen few for standardization and economy, and can understand what we're talking sequence to allow the performance of about. Then to make sure that people several related operations one after the recognize that we're talking about some- other without intermediate handling of thing very high brow and difficult, we any great extent. give the thing or idea a catchy name like Automation, or Cybernetics. Even more realistic might be the statement that Automation is merely It is now common to hear very com- the continuation of a process of tech- plex definitions of Automation. I quote nical advancement and evolution which a current one that appeared recently in has its roots as deep in the past as the the Detroit Free Press: invention of the stone axe and which "Automation is more than merely stretches into the future beyond the transferring (a part from one manufac- limits of our imagination. The current turing process to another). Nor is it ;I flurry of publicity which this process is push-button factory (a completely receiving is not a new thing by any automatic plant with materials being means. Back in the thirties everyone was worried about technological unenl- * Based on a paper presented at the SLA 46th Annual Convention, Detroit, Michigan, ployment -back of which lay concern June 13, 1955. over something which today we call
SPECIAL LIBRARIES Automation. Much further back, people which look like a cross between a gra- were sinking steamboats, burning fac- ham cracker and a Necco wafer. These tories, all as an expression of their con- can be automatically handled and cern over their personal job security. stacked in such a way as to produce Dutch workers created the word sabot- the desired results. age by throwing their wooden shoes, or It seems to me that there are two sabots, into factory machinery which conditions which lead to industrial auto- they feared would put them out of mation. One is where the work to be work. done is arduous, dangerous, or unpleas- Automation, or technical evolution, ant. The other occurs where work is then might briefly be called a process highly standardized and the volume is whereby human labor is progressively great. Here a small economy can be replaced by one sort of automatic converted into a great economy be- equipment or another. cause of the many times the operation must be repeated. Of the two condi- Automatic processing has been high- tions, it seems to me that the undesir- ly developed in the past in the continu- able working conditions are the most ous flow, or process industries: petrole- effective since those industries so af- um, textiles, paper and newspaper print- flicted must automate or lose out in the ing, refining of ores, tobacco, industrial competition for people to do the work. and pharmaceutical chemicals, and food The process industries generally include processing. Here raw materials flow in many functions which are arduous, dan- one end of the pipe line and finished gerous, and unpleasant. This accounts goods flow out the other, and the in- I believe for the lead which these in- terior is always filled with material in dustries have established in automatic process. processing. There is not much incentive to automate the repetitive function Just recently there have been steps type of industry while there is a plenti- to move automatic processing into a ful supply of inexpensive labor. As the new class of work. These might be call- cost of labor increases, the highly com- ed the areas of fabrication, assembly, petitive mass production industries are and information processing. We are faced in their turn with the alternative: hearing about automotive cylinder find more economical ways of doing blocks which are being automatically work or close their doors. handled through long series of machin- ing stations. For example, the Ford People are interested in Automation Motor Company operates an engine for many reasons. We are part of a plant in Cleveland in which more than technically conscious society; our in- 500 machining operations are done, one terests range from new gim cracks for after the other on an automated line our kitchens to atomic power. The whole about a quarter of a mile long. Con- idea of automation has been highly trolled machines, automatic handling publicized, and since it bears a definite equipment, and electronic inspection name perhaps we think of it as a de- devices enable forty men to turn out finite thing rather than a nebulous sort 150 engine blocks an hour. Prior to of trend. Perhaps most of us are inter- automation these men could have pro- ested because we feel that inherent in duced only fifty blocks per hour, or technological advancement are some only one-third of the present output. deep-seated social problems. The electronic industry is hard at A short time ago I sat on a panel work setting up the fabrication of discussing the social aspects of Auto- radios and TV automatically. This is mation. Another member of the panel based on the use of small unit circuits was a representative of the United
SEPTEMBER, 1955 309 Auto Workers Of course, he was a do not believe that there has ever been spokesman for a group which feels a field in which quite so many amateur keenly that there are troublesome so- publicists and practitioners plunged in cial aspects of Automation. His view with so resounding a splash -unless was that the UAW is generally in favor maybe it was in witchcraft and the of Automation; that they recognize that psychology of sex. The men, who first standards of living increase in the long coined the terms "Giant Brain" and run due to technical advancement; and "Thinking Machines" as applied to elec- that the CIO has contributed to the tronic computers, were probably aware growth of Automation by working for of the limitations of the comparison. increased compensation for the working Then came a large crew of opportunists man. He went on to say that while the who took up the "Giant Brain" cry long range picture is good, the CIO is usually to their own financial benefit. more concerned with the short range. A more inappropriate term for an elec- He, then, was interested in controls and tronic computer could hardly be imag- agreements to minimize the suffering of ined. True, many of them are giant, the workingman and his family due to but hardly could they be called brains. short term job disruptions and displace- An idiot can babble and drool of his ments. own choice, but a computer can't even do this. It can't even blow a fuse unless I think that the official union view- some intelligent being turns on the point must be recognized as partially power for it. Nevertheless, the idea that genuine concern. Also present, I believe, computers are brains has been firmly is the seizing of an opportunity to cre- planted and our collective thinking is ate a rallying point around which the clouded because of it. unions can muster new members and new strength. New groups of workers The next thing which, in my opinion, may take refuge in union organization contributed to the confusion was that out of fear for their jobs. Clearly this a group of scientists was struck by increases the numerical and financial certain casual similarities in complex strength of organized labor. The right electronic circuits and the human ner- to organize cannot be disputed in a vous system. It is true research to ex- society based on free and responsible plore such a comparison to see if new choice, but we must be sure that all facts can be added to each as a result sides of the issue are heard and under- of what is known about the other. The stood. term Cybernetics is used as a name for We cannot shut our eyes to the Auto- this new field. It means the study of mation issue in the hope that it will go the communications which occur in away. However we may feel about the controlled systems, whether human or real magnitude of the problems, we machine. Most of the Cybernetics peo- must admit that at least the apparent ple approach their work calmly and magnitude is great. From the social are fully aware of its limitations. Un- point of view, it does not matter too fortunately, some of the most vocal of much whether a problem has real sig- them make great issues ,over small nificance or people just think it has -- points which reach many people, com- for their fears and actions will be much pletely out of perspective. For exam- the same in either case. ple, we think of a nervous breakdown as a privilege almost exclusively re- served for human beings. If a scientist The Electronic Computer who may have some reputation in some The electronic digital computer field other field says that an electronic com- has done much, in my opinion, to con- puter failure is like a nervous break- tribute to the furor over Automation. I down, what are we to think? If this is
3 10 SPECIAL LIBRARIES true, then the computer must be almost During World War 11, I was in charge of a human in nature. large group of people at the Naval Research Laboratory. These people were engaged in Most people, in my opinion, do not transcribing numerical data from motion pic- seriously believe that computers think ture film exposed during the operational test of anti-Aircraft Fire Control Systems de- in any broad sense of the term. Those veloped for the use of the Navy. After the who profess to believe it, usually have numbers were recorded, a lengthy and com- something to gain by the expression of plex computing job was carried out to de- such a belief. Perhaps it is done just to termine where the shells would have gone had be different; perhaps there are other they been fired. Then there was a requirement for statistical analysis to find out what sys- aims, but I cannot believe that the ex- tems were best, how they could be improved, pression is ever sincere. This is impor- and how significant the tests were. Of the tant, for the replacement of human fifty people, about eighteen were engaged in brute labor machinery has led always reading and transcribing film, eighteen run- ning calculating machines, eight doing the to an improved standard of living. The charting and drawing necessary to present the replacement of human thought by me- results, and eight in supervision and statistical chanical processes, on the other hand, analysis. So important was this job con- would lead back to the dark ages. 1 sidered to be, that new engineers arriving on feel that it is the half-accepted -hajf- the scene frequently spent three to six months doing these jobs before going on to assign- rejected fear that computers do think ments better suited to their training. The sta- in any complete fashion that suggests tistical analysis was done in the most quick that perhaps their use may be a social and slipshod fashion. I'm sure that some of problem. It is my firm belief that a our answers were incorrect because of the need for haste. Even so, the input data on motion computer is no more a thinking ma- picture film piled up far faster than we could chine, than any other collection of process it. wires, tubes, and mechanical gadgets. In 1944, the first electronic digital com- It will do a job faithfully, it is true, but puter, designed and built by Bell Telephone only if it is built correctly to start with Laboratories, was moved in and installed. by human beings. Furthermore, it must After a shakedown period, the personnel dis- be used correctly by human beings- tribution was: and it will go nowhere unless its path Twenty-five people engaged in reading and transcribing film and punching input tapes was carefuly planned in advance, every for the computer. You recall there were minute step of the way, by human beings. eighteen here before, for a net increase of seven. There were five people who made up The social questions to be faced the computer staff as compared with the squarely are : eighteen doing computation previously, a net reduction of thirteen. The same eight charted 1. Will new developments in electron- results, and the eight who were doing super- ics, such as computers and control vision and statistical analysis had increased to systems, displace more jobs than twelve, a net increase of four. All in all, the staff had decreased by two people. Now did they create? these two lose their jobs? No, it was now possible to use the engineers in engineering 2. Will the social changes following the assignments rather than in computational new developments be forward steps work. Furthermore, we were doing the job in or backward? a way that had not been possible before. What about the job content? Three jobs appeared It is my belief that here and there, in which the skills required were down-graded -the girls who punched tapes. On the other more and more, that the particular na- hand, nine jobs were substantially up-graded. ture of many jobs will change as time Some of our people moved into the better passes, and some will disappear to be jobs, some were filled by new people as some replaced by others. members of our former staff left of their own volition, and the three tape cutters were new The following is an example from typists hired for the job. Now if we look at the jobs which the development and fabrica- my own experience which confirms this tion of that computer made possible, it is point of view: clear that many more jobs existed because of
SEPTEMBER, 1955 it than were eliminated. The governments life, yesterday's luxury has a way of be- costs were up, in this case, over previous coming today's necessity. Recreation and levels. But the job desired was being done. leisure time are purchased just as surely Now this computer did not think, it merely as a new automobile or refrigerator are did as it was told. A year before its arrival, purchased. If we manage our income, we however, a man looked at the computational strike a nice balance in what we buy. The routine as it stood at that time. He thought competitive American being what he is, I about it and made one suggestion. That sug- cannot see a large portion of his potential gestion cut the amount of time required to income going into the purchase of idle time. run a job to one-third the former require- ments. If the suggestion had not been made, Job Redistribution none of the fifty jobs would have existed, for the Navy would have said, "We simply can- I feel that we are talking not so not afford 150 people to do this job - we'll much about job displacement, but about just have to take our Anti-Aircraft Systems as job redistribution. We know that the they come." electrical industry had a profound ef- First we had a simplifying suggestion that fect on the leather industry, as an ex- made the jobs possible to start with - a result of human thought. Then a technical improve- ample. Power distributed through wires ment changing many jobs, and eliminating instead of turning shafts and leather two, which made it possible to do the work belts, reduced the requirement for properly. leather belting. Some leather workers Of course, the staff for which I was directly were displaced. In the meantime, over responsible decreased from fifty to forty-one. The computer staff was elsewhere since it was the past twenty years, employment in found that other computing jobs could be the electronics industry alone increased done which we had never thought of attempt- from 180,000 people to 5,000,000 peo- ing before. If I had felt that I was twenty ple. The comparison is not direct, but per cent more important when I had fifty our shops are safer without all the slap- people instead of forty, I might have fallen prey to the fears which some feel today. ping belts, and the work in the elec- Electronic data processing and Auto- tronics industry is much cleaner, safer, mation generally will, in my opinion, and more rewarding than employment in a tannery ever was, or is today. work these effects on the economic structure : Though there are some forces which a. Jobs displaced will be more than offset by tend to solve automatically the prob- new jobs arising out of functions not pres- lems raised by job and skill redistribu- ently performed, out of new products and tion, the total solution does not come services and in the new areas of computer design and construction. readily. One of the automatic factors b. The standard of living of the people of is that new skills are not possessed by the United States will continue to rise large portions of the population. If it is gradually and not at all in a revolutionary desired to make use of new skills it is fashion. To think of the introduction of our usually necessary to train present em- new developments as revolutionary is to overlook the tremendous tasks of planning ployees, or new ones, in those skills. and make ready before such new devices The competition for what is already can be used. available is too keen, and each com- The work done by people will be more pany is nearly on its own. In such a highly skilled, more challenging; rather case, wholesale layoffs are unlikely. than less so. No major economic and social adjustments The portion of the solution, which will be necessary. The material benefits of does not come at all automatically, is life should be increasingly available to all, a continuing review of the position of at a lower cost, with higher quality. The talk of a radically shortened work week the technician in our social structure. that we hear is fearfully premature in my It is certain that we need more highly opinion. The American worker buys many skilled technicians than are available things with his paycheck; the necessities of now, and that for the long pull a gen- life, gadgets and luxuries, to a degree de- eral rise in the technical comprehension pending upon his industry, skill, and in- come management; and recreation and of our people is necessary. We are con- leisure time. In an increasing standard of cerned over the fact that the Soviet
SPECIAL LIBRARIES Union is now graduating, many more our minds with factual matters, yet engineers and technicians than we. It who in unfamiliar fields are subject to may be easy for us to solve the surface the same limitations as we are? Thepic- problem and perhaps aggravate a deep- tures drawn of fully mechanized work er one within. I feel that more and places and mass technological unem- more we are training our technical peo- ployment are simply not rational views. ple intensively for technology at the Let us think for a moment of the expense of educating them for anything comparison between the mails, the else. There are many examples of peo- telegraph, and the telephone as succes- ple highly skilled in narrow fields, who sively more advanced means of com- do not appreciate the complexities of munication. The mails were not dis- other fields sufficiently, to recognize placed by electrical communication, nor properly their own limitations and prop- was the telegraph displaced by the erly to exercise their responsibilities telephone. Each has continued to grow, as citizens. Indeed we are discussing and there is today more use of the just such a problem today. There is no mails in the presence of competition better example than the Automation than there ever was prior to competi- controversy of what may happen when tion. This remains true even when the technical development outstrips social necessary adjustments for population development. In a technical or scien- growth over the same period are made. tific field, action is based on experi- The telegram enjoys greater popularity ment and formula. In the humanities, today than ever before when the tele- on the other hand, action is based on phone didn't compete with it. This is, law, morals, mores, and the Sermon on I believe, because each has its own the Mount. May I suggest that our cur- rent technical education seems barely unique approach to service in allowing people to communicate with one an- to prepare a man for the governing of his personal actions, and hardly at all other. The point is that we cannot talk to direct the actions of others or to about a new system completely dis- evaluate social consequences even of placing the old. New services and new his own developments? problems inevitably arise, and the old and new continue to exist side by side It seems to me there is a job to be with consequent increase in job oppor- done by our colleges and universities. tunitv and the content of living for all. Furnish the technicians, yes; but fur- As a final point, no economic entity nish them in a sufficiently broadened has gone farther in making processes form so that the statements they make automatic than the armed services are responsible statements whether ap- have. We heard of push-button warfare plying to their own fields of competence before we heard serious talk of push- or not. If the quantities of technically button factories. Yet what is the fore- trained people must increase for our most concern of our armed forces to- national advancement and security, day? The answer is simply manpower! then let the numbers increase. But let An adequate supply of sufficiently train- us have an eye to the quality of our ed manpower. Why? Because we re- products, and prepare them to live as quire more supporting skilled services socially responsible people as well as behind the man who flies the jet air- qualified technicians. craft or launches the guidedu missile As a people, we are responsible to than we ever did behind the man with ourselves to evaluate what we hear. We a rifle. There are fewer men with rifles do this in our political spheres, but do to be sure, but the over-all requirement we apply the same questioning attitude for people who have skill and can think, to the statements and predictions of as no machine ever can, has increased technical people who are associated in and will continue to increase.
SEPTEMBER, 1955 313 The Challenge of Automations: Ross ROY President, Ross Roy, Znc., Detroit, Michigan
UTOMATION is a subject of vital products at lower costs. The word A interest in all fields today. Every- "Automation" is comparatively new - one is talking about it. As more and I don't believe you will find it defined more automatic machinery and pro- in any dictionary. Simply stated, Auto- cesses are designed, they will mean in- mation is the application of automatic creased production in all industries. And controls to machinery in the production this increased production will have its of goods. It is push-button operation at effect on all of us. its complex and mystifying best, used This new era of productivity will by industry for the worthy purposes of bring many new problems to manage- ( 1) increasing production, (2 ) reduc- ment. Management will have to keep ing costs, and (3) improving quality. up to date on many and varied new de- velopments. More research will be need- Advertising and Marketing ed. Unskilled laborers must be trained Automation will have no less effect for more skilled work. New markets on our economy tomorrow than the must be found. We are on the threshold mechanization of yesterday. Because I of a second industrial revolution. This am particularly interested in the fields is the beginning of the age of Cyber- of advertising and selling, I wonder if netics . . . more popularly known as our advertising and selling force can Automation. Mechanization of industry begin to keep pace with our new, tre- was the start of the first industrial revo- mendously increased productive force. lution; it was the replacement of man- I would like to discuss a few of my ual methods of production with ma- ideas of what should happen in the chine-powered production. With it came fields of advertising and marketing to mass manufacturing, mass distribution, keep up with Automation. mass marketing, and the mass pros- The automobile industry is presently perity that we know today. producing passenger cars and trucks at Two years ago sixty-six groups of a rate of over seven million units a men came to this country from differ- year. I am told that the Automation ent industries in Great Britain. Their techniques now in operation in our reports of their visits were gathered automobile plants make possible right into a book by an economist, Graham now a current annual production of Hutton. These men reported that the nine million vehicles whenever the pub- American people believe in discover- lic is ready for them. Improvement in ing and putting into operation every the methods of production in this par- new idea or technique that makes more ticular industry has gone on apace in products at lower cost. It is high pro- the past few years. But can we as con- ductivity, he said, which has led us to sumers use this many vehicles? Have higher and higher standards of living we hit the saturation point? I don't and to our mass prosperity. Automa- believe so. We have passed several so- tion is merely a continuation of this called saturation points in the automo- searching for new ways of making more tive industry, as we have in many other industries. In my view, the big chal- lenge confronting us -in the automo- "Based on a paper presented at the SLA 46th Annual Convention, Detroit, Michigan, bile industry and in any other-is the June 13, 1955. rebuilding of our sales strength, and
3 14 SPECIAL LIBRARIES gearing it to the strength of Automa- This does not mean that I feel we tion - to the strength of production. need bigger advertising budgets. They will come -slowly, perhaps, but sure- Automation production is by no ly, for advertising has gained stature means confined to the automobile busi- with management. Advertising is grad- ness. General Electric is applying Auto- ually losing the step-child stigma so mation methods in the production of long attached to it. The need for adver- refrigerators. Motorola, Raytheon, and tising is well established- it has paid RCA are manufacturing automation- its way. Perhaps it has done too well, produced radio and television sets. Oil for in my opinion sales effectiveness refineries have automationed almost 100 has not kept pace with advertising ef- per cent. A push-button tanning process fectiveness. To put it a different way - has been developed by a tanning plant advertising has been doing a better job in Milwaukee. The Bell Telephone Com- of driving customers into retail estab- pany has developed a system whereby lishments than salespeople have been we can dial calls not only in our own doing their job of selling. And this has community but in other, distant cities. been going on since 1942. Automation has already reached into the field of librarianship in the form of Sales Budget automatic charging systems. Automa- tion is a thermostat to turn your fur- The thing we need most is a larger nace on and off. Automation opens a budget for sales training and sales pro- door for you, when you walk through motion. The sales budget should be set a beam of light. up exactly the way the budget for in- creased production is set up. It should A clue to the widespread interest in be kept firm, fixed-not subject to Automation is the fact that three lead- downward adjustment. It is just as im- ing business paper publishers-Penton, portant to keep the selling program in- Reinhold, and McGraw-Hill-have tact and unassailable, as it is the pro- brought out new trade magazines de- duction program. voted exclusively to this topic. My first My concept of advertising has always feeling in seeing Automation in action been that it is not just the creation of was one of tremendous respect for the an idea and its execution, but of follow genius and wizardry of the engineering through right up to and even beyond minds behind this achievement; my sec- the actual transaction of a sale. Let us ond, and even stronger feeling, was that continue to value attractive and com- advertising and selling are going to pelling advertising, but let us also reach have a tremendous job to keep up with beyond it and do the many, many the efficiency of this productive mon- other things that will result in the con- ster! When management in any indus- sumption of all the goods that will re- try authorizes the expenditure of mil- sult from our increased production. Let lions of dollars for the purpose of in- us borrow a page from Automation's creasing production, it automatically as- book -let us integrate and coordinate sumes the responsibility to invest ad- to make advertising and selling a ditional money for the purpose of in- smooth, joint effort. creasing sales. For every dollar that is spent in plant Automation, some money must be set aside to invest in sales Place of the Librarian manpower and equipment that will as- Librarians may be asking themselves: sure full disposition of plant output. what can we do about this? As librari- When we double our production, we ans we have nothing to do with setting must find twice as many buyers, which budgets for advertising or selling or will require twice the sales effort. sales promotion. Special librarians, how-
SEPTEMBER, 1955 ever, have an obligation as well as an brarian to see that the necessary train- opportunity to help make the company ing materials are available and properiy they work for more profitable. They organized for training departments and can assist their management to obtain for the workers themselves. the complete sales and marketing pic- ture and accurate information on which Then there is the fact that larger to base decisions. Librarians can also output per man hour has usually been help with the development of creative accompanied by a reduction in the ideas. total number of working hours. This means that Automation may bring about With the increased production cre- a shorter working day and shorter work- ated by the use of automatic equip- ing week. What will people do with this ment, management will face many increased leisure time? The librarian problems. Management must keep up can assist people to make use of this to date on all the latest developments extra free time. Materials can be avail- in automatic equipment, on new mate- able for study, hobbies, amusement and rials, on consumer preferences, on the recreation. size and buying power of the market. Then, there is the need for research in The first concern of special librari- all fields. The research worker today ans is the welfare of the company which finds it practically impossible to keep employs them -whether it be adver- up with what is going on in his field. tising, manufacturing, chemicals, com- In the chemical field, for example, munications, food or any of our many twenty-five years ago, anyone who had industries. Perhaps librarians need to taken high school chemistry was fa- orient themselves more to manage- miliar with the leading products of the ment's needs, rather than to library chemical industry. Today, a highly problems. It is up to the librarian trained chemist has trouble keeping up to help management make better de- with the newest products. Librarians cisions. Librarians are in a unique should see that current information in position in business. They are probably the chemical research worker's particu- the only ones who have access to all lar field automatically reaches his desk. the information which makes a com- plete picture. Librarians can pass on to These new automatic machines will top management enough of this infor- mean that many engineers and produc- mation so that management will not be tion people will need basic information shut up in an ivory tower-so that it on metals and minerals and the proper sees the whole picture. Top manage- utilization of tools. The textile manu- ment does not have the time to review facturer, for example, will need infor- and evaluate all pertinent literature. mation on all the new synthetic mate- By constantly keeping management in- rials. He will want to know how they formed about relationships between can be used, what will make them ap- purchasing power and sales, about all pealing to designers, what will make the economic and sociological factors them appealing to the public. Then as in our economy, the librarian can help more and more machines will take over management meet competition more the jobs heretofore performed by man- successfully. ual labor, the workers will have to be trained to take over the maintenance Automation will mean an increase in and operation of these machines. The America's standard of living-will mean manual laborer must be trained to be- that our people will be able to enjoy come a semi-skilled laborer; the semi- still more leisure, still higher income, skilled laborer must be up-graded to still greater employment, and a still take over some of the engineer's func- happier existence, if we can meet its tions. Who is better fitted than the li- challenge.
3 16 SPECIAL LIBRARIES On Technical Writing:!:
J. P. GRAY,M.D. Director, Special Medical Services, Parke, Davis & Co., Detroit, Michigan
HE IMPORTANCE of communications tion of ideas to those of related fields, Tcannot be overemphasized in ef- even to those of closely related fields, fecting the formula: Industry plus becomes difficult because even old Knowledge equals Progress. Almost as terms frequently have new and differ- important also is another hidden fac- ent meanings. McAllister in Science tor: Interprefation. (12 1:530, April 15, 1955) in replying to the question, "Is There Accepted Scien- In any center of progress, be it edu- tific Jargon?", gives some excellent ex- cational, industrial, or other, the library amples of difficulties which confront the is essential; and the library has its basis student of guided missiles particularly, in the written or printed word the . . . and comes up with the conclusion that usual means of permanent recording of there is an "accepted scientific jargon ideas, experience, and knowledge. So, . . . determined mostly by usage . . . we cannot progress without communi- appropriate and desirable whenever it cations, the printed or written word, serves as a vehicle for accurate and and libraries; and we need interpreta- efficient communication between ex- tion of the results of inquiry and of perts, but not otherwise . ." research. . Two factors come to mind as impor- Anyone interested in progress in any tant in answering the question: How field, who explores recorded ideas, ex- has the quality of writing deteriorated? perience, and knowledge related to the Firstly, so-called progressive methods field of interest, soon appreciates the in teaching reading, coupled with laxity difficulties presented in technical litera- in teaching various aspects of grammar, ture, by technical jargon, by quality have resulted in carelessness in use of (or lack of quality) of technical writ- English both in speech and in writing 'ing. Not only in medical literature does in too large a proportion of students. poor quality of writing present a prob- Too frequently, even in requirements lem. Similar problems exist also, I have for advanced academic degrees, re- learned, in other fields as well, includ- quirements for foreign languages as well ing: law, theology, engineering, the physical sciences, the natural sciences, as for specific subjects in the field of the humanities, et alii. special interest, have pushed aside the basic need for ability to express clearly and incisively one's thoughts in good Deterioration in the Quality of Writing English. Secondly, the use of scientific jargon per se encourages carelessness in Inevitably with specialization, which use of English in writing. "It is easier in itself is essential to progress, there to say it in jargon than in English. Any- comes into use a special jargon for com- way, you know what I mean! Why hold munication of ideas among those inter- me to such minute points?" The aver- ested in the field. Technical jargon age teacher too often has no interest in becomes so complex that communica- how the student expresses himself, but only in "whether he knows the subject." He has his hands full, he thinks, in * Based on a paper presented at the SLA 46th Annual Convention, Detroit, Michigan, teaching his subject: "Let the English June 16, 1955. teacher teach English!"
SEPTEMBER, 1955 Howie, microbiologist of the Rowett their respective fields. In 1955 the Medical Research Institute, in Black- AMWA established the Visiting Lec- burn, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, express- tureship in Medical Writing, in which ed it so well in his paper, "On Writing the lecturer is available to schools of to be Read" (Lancet, 2 :320, 1954) : medicine and medical centers. By Spring of 1955, ten schools, of the eighty in "Doctors and scientists usually seem North America, have been visited. The to dislike writing about their work. 'I hope is that the lecturer may arouse hate the writing up' they often say. interest in the need for improvement in Perhaps it is the up that does the harm. quality of writing. Little more can be If authors were content to write instead achieved in a single lecture; if interest of writing up, many mistakes might be can be aroused, the student will be avoided. Writing up suggests that the aware, it is hoped, of his own inade- author feels the need to do something quacies, spurred to put forth his best beyond communicating his facts and effort, even to seek aid in his writing. thoughts. Often it seems that authors The Medical Manuscript Editing Ser- work hard to introduce much that a vice maintained by the AMWA offers good editor will remove because of his such a service to its members and to duty to see that (his) readers are not bored or bewildered." other medical authors. Someone has said that if authors would If teaching of reading and of gram- remember three, or possibly four ques- mar is of basic causal import in the tions: ( 1) What did I do? (2) How present situation, even if we were to did I do it? (3) What did I find? and, have improved methods of teaching to- perhaps, (4) Why did I do it?, techni- day, a generation would be required be- cal papers would be markedly simpli- fore tangible improvement in quality of fied, much more interesting to read, and technical writing might be expected. much more helpful to the reader. Howie There is also another way. If teachers (cited above) sets the desirable stand- could be inspired to a continuing and ard in his statement: "A medical paper constant interest in writing (in addition should be as precise as a legal documknt to their interest in their own subjects), and as interesting as a good short in secondary schools, in colleges, in story." Too often medical authors do universities, in professional schools, stu- not keep these objectives in mind; and dents would then have the benefit of too often technical writers in other constructive criticism of examination fields, likewise, do not give as much papers, of laboratory reports, and of consideration to these and to their read- other writings and of speech. Stimu- ers as should be necessary if we have lation of interest, and maintenance of improved technical writing. that interest in the language itself is not simple or easy. But therein lies our Improving the Quality of Writing only hope for an improved quality of technical writing. Two organizations exist -one in medicine (The American Medical Writ- It is not too late to begin! And begin ers' Association) and one in law (The we should! For an improved technical, Scribes) -with objectives directed at including medical, literature is basic to improvement in quality of writing in our progress.
convention Papers Selected papers presented at SLA's Annual Convention in Detroit, June 13-1 7, 1955, will be published in forthcoming issues of SPECIALLIBRARIES.
3 18 SPECIAL LIBRARIES Librarians on Display* RUTH NIELANDER Librarian, Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Company, Chicago, Illinois
HERE is no doubt groups and associations who had pub- Tabout it, librari- lished recruitment literature, and a must come out from collection of this material was assem- under the bushel - bled into kits for distribution at the the bushel under convention in April. which they are hiding The booth itself was attractive and their light, that is, in professional looking, with colorful lit- order to do a more erature as well as pictures of various adequate job of re- types of public, special and school li- cruitment! Spend a braries . . . Over 300 counselors and few hours at a booth such as the one personnel administrators stopped to sponsored by the Joint Committee on pick up literature and chat with the Library Work as a Career at the Con- exhibitors. vention of the American Personnel and But an attractive booth is not enough, Guidance Association, if you are not and, recognizing that fact, an attempt convinced of this fact. was made to man the exhibit with en- For here, from April 3 through April thusiastic library salesmen . . . For it is 7, 1955, at the Conrad Hilton Hotel in primarily a selling job, in which libra- Chicago were gathered hundreds of per- rians compete for recognition with hun- sonnel and guidance representatives - dreds of other glamorous professions. It people who should be informed about is a selling job which must be done by the-library profession, and yet among every librarian, every day and every this group there was a noticeable lack where. Again and again the counselors of enthusiasm for, and ignorance of, who stopped at the booth expressed sur- librarianship as an attractive career prise at the variety of jobs available for young students. How can this apathy and at the fact that men were librari- be overcome? ans. A few men helped at the booth and There are a number of ways, and one seemed to offer considerable bait! of the best is a booth for use at kev How much of this apathy is the fault conventions such as the one set up by of colorless librarians who have never Clara Reaum, Head of the Displays come out of their complacent shells to Division of the Chicago Public Library. look around at the world outside? How Plans for this booth were begun at the much is due to lack of information on Midwinter ALA meeting in Chicago in the part of counselors who could be our February. At that time Sara K. Vann, selling right arms? Let each librarian chairman of the Joint Committee on answer this question honestly for him- Library Work as a Career, 1954-1955, self. If the former shoe fits, let him put met with Clara Reaum representing a bit of color into his job; let him show the Chicago Library Club and Ruth some sincere enthusiasm for his pro- Nielander representing Special Libra- fession. If the latter shoe pinches, let ries Association. Following this meet- him become a committee of one to in- ing, letters were sent to various library form local high school counselors about the profession and what it can offer to alert wide-awake students. * Reprinted by courtesy of the ALA Bul- letin, where the article appeared in the June Here is your footwear- are you go- 1955 issue. ing to try it on for size?
SEPTEMBER, 1955 319 United Nations 1945 - 1955
HEN SPECIALLIBRARIES ASSO- fens presided. A minute of silent prayer w CIATION did me the honor of or meditation was followed by an ad- designating me as its Non-Government- dress by President Eisenhower, whose a1 Organization representative (pro- presence, denoting his approval, meant tem) at the United Nations Commem- much to those attending. Approbation orative Meeting in San Francisco in of the United Nations was needed and June of this year I accepted with much was given by him freely and honestly. gratitude, although I realized that my acceptance involved certain duties and The plenary meetings started each responsibilities. What I might gain per- morning at 10 A. M. and lasted to 12:30 sonally was incidental to my obligation P. M. and were resumed in the after- to the Association. noon at 3 P. M. until 5:30 P. M. In the course of these meetings, each nation's Thousands upon thousands of words Chief Delegate had an opportunity to have been written about this Commem- speak in the order listed on the formal orative Meeting, but I shall endeavor program. Some of these addresses were to give you a few of the impressions I outstanding while others were less had during the meeting. worthwhile. At times there was a same- ness in the speeches and one wished I remember well when the United that this was more than just a birthday Nations was formed in 1945. I had an celebration. The NGO meetings were opportunity then to attend many of the excellent. Two hundred and sixty sessions. The Bureau of International United Nations non-governmental or- Relations Library on the University of ganizations attended. California campus, Berkeley, sent hun- dreds of volumes to the United Nations A few dramatic moments ensued Library in San Francisco. While attend- when the gavel of President van Klef- ing the meetings this year my mind fens was used. There may have been kept going back to ten years ago. How some inconsistency in the using of the well I remembered the tenseness, peo- gavel, but to have stopped Mr. Molotov ple asking each other and themselves: with the gavel could not have been "Will the United Nations succeed? After done! After all, everyone there wanted all, the League of Nations failed." to hear what Mr. Molotov had to say. He spoke long and well, and was ap- How different the atmosphere of plauded during and after his speech. 1955. A sense of having settled down Here again my mind wandered back to with the United Nations seemed to pre- ten years ago. Mr. Molotov then was vail. The opening meeting took place the sphinx; this time he was almost Monday, June 20, at 3 P. M. The scene jovial. It was hard to believe. that met our eyes when we entered the Opera House was an awe-inspiring one. At the last plenary meeting on the The flags of the sixty nations, the pla- afternoon of Friday, June 24, Mr. V. cards showing where each delegation Krishna Menon spoke. His plea for was to sit, the atmosphere of expecta- more universality in the United Na- tion was all a bit breathtaking. The ear tions, his plea for peace, at least the phones were mystifying at first but we willingness to talk about peace, was soon got used to them. The translators very moving. I had heard Mr. Menon were excellent. Mr. Eeclo N. van Klef- on Tuesday evening when he spoke to
SPECIAL LIBRARIES members of the World Affairs Council tween the United Nations and some- of Northern California say "peace is a thing better. The choice is between the calculated risk worth taking." United Nations - between the princi- ples of the United Nations -and inter- On Friday evening a meeting was national anarchy and violence which held at the Opera House. Here we may lead to total destruction for all heard a statement of the Executive nations of the world." Heads of the Specialized Agencies pre- sented by Dr. Philip V. Cardon, Direc- HILDEGARDEI?. MILLAR,Librarian, tor General of the Food and Agricul- Bureau of International Relations Library ture Organization of the United Na- University of California tions, followed by an address from The Honorable Harry S. Truman. The ad- dress was a most fitting climax to the Special Libraries Association, as occasion, for had not Mr. Truman a non-governmental organization opened the sessions of the 1945 mee'c- (NGO) accredited to the United Na- ing when the UN was formed? tions, maintains liaison with the UN through Lee Ash, vice-chairman On Saturday afternoon, at the Uni- and chairman-elect, Social Science versity of California, in the Greek Ths- Division, SLA. Association members ater at Berkeley, a Special Convocation with problems concerning the UN. was held, honoring the United Nations its publications, etc., are invited to on this occasion of the Tenth Annivzr- write to Mr. Ash, librarian, Car- sary of the signing of its Charter. Finally, negie Endowment for International on Sunday, June 26, the closing meet- Peace, UN Plaza at 46th Street, ing of the Commemoration took place. New York 17, N. Y. On display in front of the speaker's dais were the original documents of the Charter of the United Nations and the The July 1955 issue of Librarians Statute of the International Court of UN Justice. Statements were made by and the is a particularly interest- ing one. It contains a message from the nutnerous speakers and the Commem- President of the American Library As- oration was declared closed by Presi- sociation, Richard Richards; Presi- dent van Kleffens. S. dent Eisenhower's 1955 UN Proclama- On the whole I felt that this meeting tion setting aside Monday, October 24, had meant much to many people, and 1955, as United Nations Day; Library had brought before the public, in a program suggestions; and additional in- most vivid and honest manner, the teresting information. Copies of this failures and accomplishments of the publication may be secured from the United Nations during the last ten United States Committee for the years. Let me end by quoting ex-presi- United Nations, 816 Twenty-first St., dent Truman: "The choice is not be- N.W., Washington 6, D. C.
American magazines are one of the best ways of telling the story of America, and are popular with our friends overseas. "Magazines for Friendship" is a plan for sending old copies of good American magazines abroad. It has been repre- sented that a single copy of a prominent magazine was passed among one hundred persons who were eager to understand our way of life. For instructions for mailing, an overseas address, and other pertinent information, write to Magazines for Friendship, Occidental College, 10s Angeles, California.
SEPTEMBER, 1955 32 1 Report of the 1955 Convention Committee
HE FORTY-SIXTHANNUAL CONVEN- Board of the Special Libraries Asso- TTION of the Special Libraries Asso- ciation: ciation was held at the Statler Hotel in 1. That the Executive Board authorize Detroit, Michigan, June 13-17, 1955. the cost of the purchase of a new The Convention was attended by 883 ticket box. We suggest that this box members and guests. A complete sta- be similar to a theater box, with tistical break-down appeared in the sloping slots, so that the ticket num- July-August issue of SPECIALLIBRARIES. ber can be inserted below the slot. The local Convention Executive Com- This would greatly speed the han- mittee had several meetings during the dling of tickets. 1953-54 Association year for advance 2. That a flat registration fee for the planning -convention theme, fees, sug- entire convention be charged. This gested speakers, etc. During the 1954- made registration much quicker and 55 Association year, this committee easier to handle and provides more met informally about twice a month to revenue. We had very few complaints see that all plans were going smoothly. and none of those were serious ones. There were six meetings of all conven- 3. That the Executive Secretary be in- tion chairmen and division representa- structed to keep the Information tives to discuss plans. A major portion Desk informed as to her whereabouts of one chapter meeting was devoted to (particularly during the day) in or- final plans. One post-convention meet- der to assist the Convention com- ing was held to discuss recommenda- mittees when questions arise. tions to be forwarded to the Convention 4. That the Executive Secretary be in- Advisory Committee. In addition, there structed to assign exhibit space in were hundreds of telephone calls, let- the order of receipt of reservations. ters and telegrams to be handled. This would speed-up reservations The Convention would have been because those received first would more profitable had the largest room get the best space. Also, it would not been used for exhibits. This neces- make it possible to see that com- sitated the payment of a $600.00 fee petitors were not placed side-by- Allowing exhibitors to pick their own side. Final allotment of space should exhibit space made it impossible to be made as late as possible to facili- change rooms when it became obvious tate any necessary late changes in that all the booths would not be sold rooms or arrangements. and also caused some competitors to 5. We recommend that a secretary be have booths side-by-side. employed for the week of conven- From a study of attendance records, tion. She should be available to help we found that workshop meetings were the SLA President, Executive Secre- the most popular. Also, the members tary and Convention Chairman. seems to appreciate a banquet speaker 6. We appreciate the fact that the As- and toastmaster with a light touch as sociation needs the revenue from the well as a message for the audience. convention to help balance its bud- get. Since convention revenues vary Recommendations from year to year depending upon The 1955 Convention Executive Com- size and location, we recommend that mittee would like to make the follow- the actual amount of convention sur- ing recommendations to the Executive plus from any year be added to the
322 SPECIAL LIBRARIES next year's budget rather than a de- finite amount determined in advance which the committee must strive to ISABELLE BRONK FELLOWSHIP meet. Although we have attended many conventions in other cities, I do not The Institute of Local and State think any of us realized how much hard Government has created an Isabelle Bronk Fellowship in the work there is in planning a convention. Graduate School of Arts and Sci- There were many headaches and dis- ences, University of Pennsylvania, appointments. The Convention could leading to the Master of Arts De- never have been held without the won- gree in Political Science in mem- derful cooperation of the Statler Hotel ory of the late Isabelle Bronk, and its staff, the Detroit Convention and Institute librarian from 1937 to Tourist Bureau; the many companies 1955. Miss Bronk, a member of who supplied such excellent speakers SLA's Philadelphia Council, died and who gave so generously of their on February 2, 1955. time and services; and the press which was so generous with publicity. The This Fellowship, which will be greatest assistance of all came from the awarded annually, is for a period complete cooperation of the members of nine months, September 15 to of the Michigan Chapter. June 15. It will cover full tuition In spite of the amount of work in- charges and carry an annual cash volved, we have all enjoyed running award of $1.000. , to be aid to the the 1955 Convention and are glad to recipient in nine equal install- have been of service to the Association. ments. The recipient, in turn, will Our many "thank you" notes from devote thirty hours a week to re- members have made us feel it was all search or other work activities in worthwhile. the area of local and state govern- ment under the supervision of an We realize that some of our recom- Institute staff member. mendations will involve extra expendi- tures but believe that they will be worth it by causing a more smoothly run con- The academic program leading vention and by creating good will of to the M.A. degree includes in- struction in the fields of admin- the members and exhibitors. We would istrative theory, the objectives, like to request action on the recom- practices, and problems of local mendations included in this report. and state government administra- FLORENCEH. ARMSTRONG,Chairman tion, political theory, constitution- al law, and research methods. The requirement of an acceptable master's thesis in the general area of local and state government must also be met by the recipient. Available on Loan Since the course of study leading Rare Earth Elements and Metals: to the degree is a two-year pro- Selective Bibliography, 1946-1953, with gram, it is anticipated that the Subject Index, and Titanium and Its fellowship would be renewed for Alloys: Selective Bibliography, Janu- the second year upon successful ary-June 1954, with Subject Index, are performance by the recipient in available on loan from Headquarters. both the academic and research Helen Basil, librarian of the Crane phases of the program. Company Engineering Library, Chi- cago, Illinois, is the compiler.
SEPTEMBER, 1955 Chapter Highlights
Georgia Georgia Institute of Technology staff, Dr. Maneck Bapuji Vajifdar, assist- has accepted the chairmanship of the ant librarian, Tata Institute of Funda- Index Project. mental Research, Bombay, India, spoke * * * on India and its libraries at the May New Jersey meeting of the Georgia Chapter. One The Newark Business Library offered of the foreign librarians brought to this one of its display windows to publicize country under the internship program the work of the New Jersey Chapter of ALA and the State Department, Dr. and its member libraries. Pictures of Vajifdar interned at the Georgia Insti- these libraries were attractively mount- tute of Technology Library in Atlanta. ed on colored cardboard. In addition, Describing India's progress in over- the SLA publication, Our Library, was coming problems of language differ.- placed in a prominent spot to attract ences and illiteracy, Dr. Vajifdar point- the attention of the public. ed out that as illiteracy decreases, the task of India's librarians becomes great- ter. If the educational program is to Washington, D. C. have practical results, libraries must Several members of the Washington, provide books for the increasing num- D. C. Chapter plan to attend the Inter- ber of readers. national Congress of Libraries and Documentation Centres to be held in Most of India's more than six hun- Brussels, Belgium, September 11-18, dred libraries are special or university. 1955. The members planning to attend "Public" libraries supported by social are Paul Burnette, Lt. Col. Frank organizations or public-spirited individ- Rogers, Scott Adams, Marietta Daniels, uals do good work but few can provide Eleanor Hastings, Foster Mohrhardt, real public library service. National and Lucile Morsch, Anita Welge, Karl Baer, state governments, however, are rapid- Anvor Barstad, and John and Ruby ly developing plans for increased li- Moats. SLA President Chester M. Lewis brary service. has appointed Mrs. Eileen Cunning- The National Library at Calcutta has ham of the Vanderbilt School of Medi- possibly India's largest collection, well cine Library as official delegate to over a million volumes. At Delhi, a Pub- represent SLA. Marietta Daniels and lic Library established with UNESCO Foster Mohrhardt will also attend the aid will serve as a model in library Conference as SLA delegates. development. The government-support- ed Indian National Scientific Docu- mentation Centre in Delhi is a major Wisconsin research repository. The former Milwaukee Chapter, MARIONR. TAYLORwhich has eighty-five members repre- senting forty-five individual libraries throughout the state, voted recently to change its name to the Wisconsin Chap- The Georgia Chapter has undertaken ter. As a means of introducing the to compile an author index to the first Chapter and the Association to fellow eleven volumes of Microfilm Abstracts librarians, several SLA members com- (formerly Dissertation Abstracfs ), pub- piled brief histories of their libraries lished by University Microfilms, Ann which were published in the Wisconsin Arbor, Michigan. Dorothy Jones, of the Library Bulletin for May-June 1955.
SPECIAL LIBRARIES Have you heard . . .
SLA Metals Division Fall Meeting Standard on the Storage of Microfilm The fall meeting of the SLA Metals The British Standards Institution Division will be held in Philadelphia, has issued a revision of its Standard October 19-2 1, during the National Recommendations for the storage of Metals Congress and Exposition. Jean microfilm, BS 1153:1955. This stand- Wesner, librarian, Bethlehem Steel Cor- ard supersedes the 1944 edition and poration, will be chairman of the meet- contains up-to-date information obtain- ing which is sponsored jointly by the ed as the result of recent experience. It Metals Division and the Philadelphia applies only to microfilms made on a Council, SLA, and the American Society safety-film base and it is recommended for Metals. that other microfilm should be copied The following papers on Indexing on to safety film. Separate conditions Systems in Industrial Libraries and are specified for microfilm required for Powder Metallurgy will be presented a period up to twenty-five years and for on Thursday, October 20: film required for archival permanence. Use of the ASM-SLA System by Industrial Aspects covered include processing, Metallurgists, by E. C. Wallace, metallurgist, protection from fire and water, chem- Barber-Colman Company Uniterm-Coordinate Index System, by R. L. ical contamination, relative humidity, Francisco, Engineering Services Division, temperature and air conditioning. Rec- General Electric Company ommendations are also made concern- Battelle Memorial Institute Subject Index Sys- ing containers, film removal and con- tem, by Robert Gibson, assistant librarian, Battelle Memorial Institute ditions for transport. Copies may be Powder Metallurgy Literature and the Library, had from the Sales Manager, British by Mrs. Jean Haime, librarian, Pansteel Standards Institution, British Stand- Corporation ards House, 2 Park Street, London, Powder Metallurgy with Especial Reference W.1. The price is three shillings (42 to the Refractory Metals, by Harry W. Highriter, vice - president, Vascoloy - Ramet cents). Corporation The program also includes a tour of the Bethlehem Steel Company and the Monthly Issues of New Serial Titles American Society for Testing Materials. A monthly issue of New Serial Titles in subject arrangement by Dewey deci- Microfilm Service for Government mal classification has been initiated by Patents the Card Division of the Library of Because film copies are not generally Congress. This arrangement enables li- available, a growing amount of shelf brarians to survey for acquisition pur- space- about twenty-five three-foot poses the new serials in selected fields of shelves-is required each year to house interest without surveying the entire the patent specifications for that year list. Each hundred of the decimal classi- in bound form. fication starts on a new recto (except Ernest Biel of Biel's Photocopy and that the 200's continue directly after Microfilm Service is considering start- the 400's). Thus the unbound issues, ing a microfilm project to film U. S. printed on 9Y4 x 11% sheets, stapled Patents, either on 35 or 16mm. film in one corner, may be disassembled, and and is interested in ascertaining how all or part of the major classes may be much demand there might be for such sent to subject department librarians, a project. For further information, write faculty members, or other specialists to Mr. Biel at 1037 Ellicott Square for their information and recommen- Building, Buffalo 3, N. Y. dations.
SEPTEMBER, 1955 325 New Serial Titles - Classed Subject of these copies to the proper depart- Arrangement will appear monthly only; ments, according to the color-code, is there will be no annual cumulations. automatically and positively assured. The first issue, however, will be a com- Colored papers are available in cut bined issue for January-May. Subscrip- sheets 8% by 11, 81/2 by 14, and 11 by tions may be placed with the Card Di- 17 inches in size. For further informa- vision, Library of Congress, Washing- tion contact Paul M. Platzman, man- ton, D. C., at $25.00 a year. ager, Publicity & Public Relations De- partment, John Mather Lupton Co., Inc., 420 Lexington Ave., New York 17, Re-Publication of Index-Catalogue N. Y. A re-publication of the Index-Cata- logue of the U. S. Surgeon-General's Moveable Booth for Photocopying Office has been announced by the Readex Microprint Corporation, New A moveable photocopy booth for con- trolling light while making photocopy York City. It is an exact facsimile of ail prints is now available from Hunter the four series originally published, with Photo-Copyist, Inc., Syracuse, New over one million entries. York. Parts for this booth come in While the original Index-Catalogue package form, capable of being set up consists of fifty-seven volumes, the in five to seven minutes on any desk or Microprint edition comprises only four table. Frame for the booth is of light, labelled royal octavo boxes, which are sturdy, tubular steel over which a spe- shelved in exactly the same way as cially shaped cloth is drawn to shield books, yet take up only eleven inches of the photocopying machine and process shelf space. Librarians, who are con- from the light. For further information cerned over the distintegration of their write the Hunter Photo-Copyist, Inc., original volumes, will welcome this op- 595 Spencer Street, Syracuse 4, N. Y. portunity to replace them at low cost. The Microprint edition sells at $75.00 for the complete set of four series. A Photocopy Service at the New York Public Library The New York Public Library has Color-Coded Photocopies inaugurated a new quick-copy service Color-coding, which speeds up com- for its readers. The Cormac Book-Print- munication by expediting the distribu- er, highspeed photocopy equipment can tion of "paperwork", has for the first copy directly from the pages of any time been successfully extended to bound book in forty seconds. photocopying. Peerless Photo Products, In the past, anyone wishing replicas Inc., Shoreham, L. I., New York, manu- of pages from a book in any library facturers of the DRI-STATline of dry- has had to photograph or photostat process photocopy equipment and ma- pages pressed down under glass, wait terials, is now offering colored positive for processing (three days to a week), papers, on a heavy, durable 10-point and in many cases could not capture 220-gram card stock. Green, yellow and all the original material due to too white are now available; for additional small margins. colors, users should contact Peerless or The advent of this machine and its its nearest distributor. technical advantages will speed up and The photo-sensitive side of the paper improve the work of researchers, en- is colored. By making several copies of gineers, technicians and librarians. For an original letter, an incoming order, an further information, write to W. Ware invoice, a part-drawing, or a specifica- Lynch, president, Russell Birdwell (L, tion on several different colored sheets Associates, Inc., 30 Rockefeller Plaza, of the new DRI-STATpaper, the routing New York 20, N. Y.
326 SPECIAL LIBRARIES NEW SERIAL PUBLICATIONS Henry Evelyn Bliss 1870 - 1955 This new monthly periodical repro- Henry Evelyn Bliss, author of A duces the tables of contents of some Bibliographic Classification and other 200 domestic and foreign journals in works on library classification published the field of library science and docu- by The H. W. Wilson Company, died on August 9, 1955, after a slight illness. mentation. The journal will be issued He was one of America's foremost con- eleven times a year. One issue will con- tributors to the systemizing of biblio- sist of a union list of the titles whose graphic classification. tables of contents are included. Eugene Garfield is editor. Subscriptions at $6.00 Mr. Bliss, who retired in 1940 as as- sociate librarian of the College of the a year should be addressed to Contents City of New York, had been associated in Advance, P. 0. Box 64, Williams- with that institution since 1891. The bridge Station, New York 67, N. Y. bibliographic organization of knowl- edge, a study to which he devoted more HISTORICALABSTRACTS than fifty years, first engaged his at- Volume 1, No. 1 of this quarterly tention about 1900 when he found that covering the world's periodical litera- the classification system used by the City College library was inadequate for ture from 1775-1945 includes abstracts classifying the rapidly developing fields 1-989. The perspective is for coverage of science, social science, technology, of 600 periodicals by the end of Volume literature, and other subjects. 2. Erich H. Boehm is editor. Individual and institutional subscriptions are $15.00 His new classification system, by which he reorganized the City College and $25.00 a year, respectively, for four library in 1905-1908, endeavored to issues and index. Editorial address is systemize all branches of knowledge c/o Historisches Seminar, Universitat and study in accordance with the con- Wien, Vienna 1, Austria. Publishing ad- sensus of modern scientific and educa- dress is 640 West 153rd Street, New tional thought. His introductory vol- York 31, N. Y. ume, The Organization of Knowledge and the System of the Sciences ( 1929), JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL& was followed by The Organization of THEORETICALPHYSICS Knowledge in Libraries and the Sub- ject-Approach to Books (1933) and A The American Institute of Physics Bibliographic Classification (a four- will shortly begin publication of Soviet volume work completed early in 1953.) Physics -JETP, a periodical transla- Although the Bliss classification has tion of research reports appearing in been adopted by only a few libraries the Russian language Journal of Ex- in the United States, it has influenced perimental and Theoretical Physics. The American thinking on classification. It National Science Foundation of the also enjoys a considerable reputation in Federal Government has granted funds Britain and the British Commonwealth to help finance the first year's opera- nations, where it is in use in about sixty tions. The editor is Professor Robert T. libraries. Beyer of the Department of Physics, In the last years of his life, in ad- Brown University, where the editorial dition to other activities, Mr. Bliss office will be located. planned (and edited the first three numbers of) the Bliss Classification The journal will appear every two Bulletin, an occasional mimeographed months, the first issue being scheduled publication designed to keep his system of classification up to date. He was a for publication in October, 1955. For member of Special Libraries Associa- further information, write to the Ameri- tion, Library Association of the United can Institute of Physics, 57 East 55th Kingdom, and the (British) Poetry So- Street, New York City. ciety.
SEPTEMBER, 1955 32 7 Off the Press . . .
Directories and Yearbooks A directory of almost 400 special libraries in Australia with information on subject fields. AMERICANART DIRECTORY.Vo1. 39. Edited Arrangement is alphabetical by states and by by Dorothy B. Gilbert. Rev. ed. New York: a subject index as well. R. R. Bowker, 1955. 358p. $17.50. This 1955 edition, sponsored by the American THE INTERNATIONALLABOR DIRECTORY AND Federation of Arts, lists all museums, art HANDBOOK.1955 edition. Edited by Jack societies and art associations in the U. S. and Schuyler and staff. 2nd ed. rev. New York: Canada. Includes information on personnel, Praeger, 1955. 1,000p. $25. collections, exhibitions and activities. A comprehensive listing of labor unions and officials, government and private organiza- APPLIEDSOLAR ENERGY RESEARCH. A Direc- tions, and individuals affiliated with the labor tory of World Activity and Bibliography of movement. Listings include labor press, in- Significant Literature. Edited by E. J. stitutes and labor libraries, labor lawyers, ac- Burda. Stanford, California: Stanford Re- countants and consultants, human relations search Institute (available from the Asso- agencies, federal, state and municipal officials ciation for Applied Solar Energy, Suite concerned with labor. 204, Mayer-Heard Bldg., Phoenix, Arizona) 1955. 298p. Cloth, $5. Paper, $4. THE LIBRARYASSOCIATION YEAR BOOK 1955. Includes the names of individuals and organi- London: The Library Association, 1955. zations in 27 countries with a brief descrip- 127p. plus membership directory. Paper, tion of their current programs. app. $3.15. Includes names of officers and committees, CANADIANALMANAC AND DIRECTORY.Edited charter and by-laws, regulations and syllabus by Beatrice Logan. 108th annual edition. of examinations, library schools, graded list Toronto, Canada: The Copp Clark Co., of textbooks. 1955. 822p. $11. Revised and up-to-date compendium of infor- THE 1955 AB BOOKMAN'SYEARBOOK. The Specialist Book Trade Annual for All Book- mation on Canadian affairs. Over 50,000 in- dexed listings covering Dominion and Pro- men: Dealers and Publishers, Librarians and Collectors. Newark, N. J.: Antiquarian vincial government officials, banks, insurance companies, associations, educational institu- Bookman (42 Walnut Street) 1955. 345p. tions, newspapers and periodicals, custom and Paper, $2. postal regulations, forms of address, railways, A PENROSEANNUAL. A Review of the Graphic air lines, etc. Arts. Vol. 49. 1955. Edited by R. B. Fish- enden. New York: Hastings House, 1955. DEMOGRAPHICYEARBOOK 1954. Sixth Issue. 131p. plus illustrations. $8.50. Prepared by the Statistical Office of the The 1955 edition of this well-known refer- United Nations. New York: United Nations ence source for designers, artists, printers, (Columbia University Press) 1954. 729p. advertising people, and all graphic arts crafts- Cloth, $7.50. Paper, $6. men. New, additional and revised figures in this international compilation of basic demogra- SCIENTIFICAND TECHNICALSOCIETIES OF THE phic statistics. Fertility data is emphasized. UNITED STATES AND CANADA.Sixth Ed. English and French text. Washington, D. C.: National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, 1955. DIRECTORYOF MANUFACTURERSOF AMERICA. 447p. Brooklyn, N. Y.: Directory of Manufactur- Lists information on history, purpose, mem- ers (186 Joralemon Street) 1955. 1,143~. bership, meetings, research funds, publications. $125. Entries are limited to membership group or- Lists some 300,000 manufacturers in all in- ganizations. Trade associations with research dustries with pertinent data (number of em- activities, previously included, have been ployees, etc.) Information is compiled by eliminated. states and within states by classifications. No advertising appears in the volume. VOCATIONALTRAINING DIRECTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. A compilation of about DIRECTORYOF SPECIAL LIBRARIES IN AUS- 3,800 Private and 600 Public Non-degree TRALIA. Compiled by Barbara M. Brown Schools, Offering over 300 Semi-profession- and others. Sidney, Australia: The Library al, Technical, and Trade Courses. Compiled Association of Australia, 1954. 149p. App. by Nathan M. Cohen (1434 Harvard Street, $3. N.W.) 1955. 191p. Paper, $2.95.
SPECIAL LIBRARIES Library Methods SUBJECT SPECIALISATIONAND CO-OPERATIVE BOOK PURCHASEIN THE LIBRARIESOF GREATBRITAIN. (Library Association Pam- BASICBOOKBINDING. By W. Lewis. London: A, phlet No. 12.) By K. G. Hunt, London: Batsford, Ltd. from New The Library Association, 1955. 33p. Paper, York) 1955. 147p. $1.75. app. 50 cents. Step-by-step instructions, with the aid of dia- ~~~l~d~~a chapter on university and special grams and photographs, in the binding of Libraries. books bv hand. Enables the beainner- to bind his own books in a satisfactory and attractive style. VOCATIONALAND PROFESSIONALMONOGRAPHS. No. 1. The Librarv Profession. Bv Ruth Shaw Leonard and Margaret Paige Hazen. CHARGINGSYSTEMS. By Helen Thornton Geer. Cambridge, Mass.: Bellman Publishing Co., Chicago : American Library Association, 1955. 20p. Paper, $1. 1955. 177p. $3.75. The first in a series dealing with vocation A guide to the selection of a charging system. and career opportunities. Covers personal Tables show comparative features of 17 sys- qualifications, scholastic training needed, em- tems currently in use in public, college and ployment opportunities, etc. university libraries. Cost figures or installation data are not included.
LIBRARYMANUAL. A Study-Work Manual of Lessons on the Use of Books and Libraries. Miscellaneous Bv Marie A. Toser. 5th ed. rev. New York: H W. Wilson, 1955. 94p. Paper, 70 cents. BRITAIN: An Official Handbook. 1955 Edition. A standard text for teaching the use of libra- London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office ries and reference books to high school and (available from British Information Ser- junior high school students. vices, New York) 1955. 438p. $1.80. The 1955 edition of the Handbook, prepared MODERNSTORAGE EQUIPMENT AND METHODS by the Central Office of Information, London, FOR SPECIAL MATERIALSIN LIBRARIES.By has been extensively revised and enlarged. Robert L. Collison. Essex, England: Mason The volume contains a wealth of information, & Sons (available from the author at 7A, compiled from official sources, on Great Worsley Road, Hampstead, N.W. 3) 1955. Britain's geography, history, government, trade 32p. Paper, 35 cents. and export regulations, transportation, science, An introduction and handbook issued in con- national economy, etc. Includes diagrams, il- nection with an exhibition of modem storage lustrations, maps, a bibliography and cross- equipment and methods for special material in index. libraries, held in London, January 1-12, 1955, under the auspices of the London and Home CUMULATIVEINDEX OF HOSPITALLITERATURE Counties Branch of The Library Association. 1950-1954. Prepared by the Library of the Brief comments on archives, maps, news clip- American Hospital Association. Chicago: pings, microfilm, music, pamphlets, etc. Gen- American Hospital Association (18 E. Di- eral bibliography is included. vision Street) 1955. 513p. $6. This is the second cumulative index to jour- PROBLEMSAND PROSPECTSOF THE RESEARCH nals in the hospital and related fields. The first LIBRARY.Edited by Edwin E. Williams. covered the years 1945-49. These two cumula- New Brunswick, N. J.: Scarecrow Press, tions will give the administrator, librarian or 1955. 181p. $3.50. student an accurate insight into hospital pro- gress over the past decade. The present vol- This volume contains the papers and proceed- ume covers more than 300 journals and is ings of the Monticello (Illinois) Conference arranged by author and subject. A list of the of the Association of Research Libraries. periodicals indexed is a valuable aid in ascer- taining which magazines are included among SERIALPUBLICATIONS. Their Place and Treat- indexed. ment in Libraries. Chicago: American Li- brary Association, 1955. 309p. $6. ENGLISH-VIETNAMESEDICTIONARY ANH-VIET A theoretical and practical introduction to Tu-DIEN. Paris: Edition La Fontaine the library aspects of serial publications. (available from Educational Services, 1730 Special libraries have been taken into account Eye Street, N.W., Washington, D. C.) 1955. equally with general libraries. 2,000~.$19.50.
SEPTEMBER, 1955 329 EVERYONE'SCOMPLETE LEGALADVISER. By William Capitman. Rev. ed. New York: CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING Gilbert Press (available from Julian Mess- Positions open and wanted - 50 cents per line; ner, New York) 1955. 384p. $3.95. ninimum charge $1.50. Copy must be received Useful home guide to law, written for the by 10th of month preceding month of publication. layman. 4ddress Executive Secretary, Special Librartes /Issociation, 31 E. 10 St., New York 3, N. Y. FEDERALPOPULATION CENSUSES 1840-80. A Price List of Microfilm Copies of the POSITIONS OPEN Original Schedules. (National Archives Publication No. 55-7.) Washington, D. C.: Librarian-1, UCLA. Reference Librarian, Bio- The National Archives (General Services medical Library, subject background in life Administration) 1955. 73p. Gratis. sciences desirable. Accredited graduate degree required; salary $295-376 depending upon education and experience. Retirement, sick A GUIDETO THE DISPOSITIONOR STATISTICAL leave, liberal vacation. Apply to: Miss Page RELEASESISSUED BY THE BOARDOF GOV- Ackerman, Assistant Librarian, Los Angeles ERNORS OF THE FEDERALRESERVE SYSTEM. 24, California. Compiled by the Library, Board of Gov- ernors of the Federal Reserve System. Washington, D. C.: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 1955. 6p. Mimeographed. Gratis. SCIENTIFIC - TECHNICAL HANDBOOKOF PARLIAMENTARYPROCEDURE. By Henry A. Davidson. New York: Ronald Press, 1955. 292p. $3.75. LITERATURE Useful source for on-the-spot answers to par- liamentary questions. A compact manual of organizational tactics and operations.
INTELLECTUALFREEDOM. (Aspects of Libra- rianship No. 7.) By John M. Goudeau. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University, 1955. Immediate opening for man 12p. Mimeographed. Gratis. or woman to abstract scien- A readable and thoughtful presentation of the tific and technical publica- subject. tions in a special library. College degree required with a minimum of two years of THE INVENTORIES.By Frederick Staples. physics or chemistry. Libra- Thiensville, Wisconsin: Counting House ry degree and/or experience Publishing Co., 1955. 113p. Paper, $2. desirable but not essential. Handbook and practical guide to the prepara- Pleasant working condi- tion of inventories, including general pricing tions. Salary commensurate principles, inventory methods, verification by with qualifications. Send re- outside auditors. Examples, sample forms and sume (including phone num- extensive alphabetical index. ber) to .Mr. .Robert. C. Sale, Chlef Librarian, United Air- craft Corporation, East Hart- OUR NATURALRESOURCES: THEIR DEVELP- ford 8, Conn. MENT AND USE. (The Reference Shelf, Vol. 27, No. 2.) Edited by Juanita Morris Kreps. New York: H. W. Wilson, 1955. 189p. $2. Explores national policies on hydroelectric power, the Tidelands, public lands and atomic energy through reprints of articles and SOCIAL WELFARE IN THE UNITED STATES. speeches by experts. Includes bibliography. Edited by Poyntz Tyler. (The Reference Shelf, Vol. 27, No. 3.) New York: H. W. REPORTWRITING. By John Ball and Cecil B. Wilson, 1955. 209p. $2. Williams. New York: Ronald Press, 1955. The background and current state of our 407p. $4.75. social security system presented by means of Emphasizes the functional approach. Includes reprinted speeches and articles by experts many current examples of reports, readings, on the subject. Includes bibliography of re- problems, and work materials. cent books, pamphlets and periodicals. Please Mention Special Libraries When Answering Advertisements SPECIAL LZBRARZE What's NEW in
College and Research Libraries MALE DIRECTOR
0 About to begin BI-MONTHLY publication OF (rather than effective with the January, 1956 number SPECIAL LIBRARY 0 Expanded and enlarged annual STATISTICS because of new method of reproduction 0 A-V CLEARINGHOUSE, prepared by the Eastern Connecticut industry has imme- ACRL Audio-visual Committee, to car!y diate opening available for director of news of interest to a-v librarians In college and university libraries special library. Library or museum ex- 0 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING section starting perience required. Write Box A31, giving in Jonuory, 1956. experience, age and salary expected. lNEW COVER Al! this-in addition to orticles by outstand- mg leaders on all phases of college, university and reference libmrionship, and other regular features. Available on subscription . . . $5.00 per year FOR Membership in ALA and ACRL in- Special Library Service cludes receipt of COLLEGE AND RE- SUBSCRIPTIONS! SEARCH LIBRARIES and the ALA Bul- letin. Personal memberships cost from lover 20 Thousand Titles) $6.00 to $20.00, based on salary. BACK NUMBERS! (over 3 Million in Stock) WRITE FOR INFORMATION ON SUBSCRIPTIONS OR MEMBERSHIP PUBLICATIONS! (over 100 Reference Books) ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGE ANQ TRY REFERENCE LIBRARIES F. W. FAXON CO., INC. A Division of the American Library Association 83-91 Francis Street Boston IS. Mas. 50 East Huron Street Chicago 11, Illinois Continnow Library Service Since 1886
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Please Mention Special Libraries When Answering Advertisements SEPTEMBER, 1955 33 1 -JUST PUBLISHED Just published BIBLIOGRAPHY THE DEVELOPMENT OF REFERENCE OF SERVICES THROUGH ACADEMIC ENGINEERING ABSTRACTING TRADITIONS, PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICES PRACTICE AND SPECIAL LIBRARI- Miriam M. Landuyt, Editor ANSHIP. By Samuel Rothstein Compiled by the Committee on Engineering Abstracting Services, This full-length book examines the activities Engineering Section, Science- of major American research libraries in order Technology Division. to trace reference services from their first A guide to sources of abstracting beginnings one hundred years ago. It em- services pertinent to engineering phasizes the contributions of various types fields being published in 1954. of libraries to the expanding concept of reference service and stresses special library SLA Bibliography No. 1 leadership. Exhaustively documented. 40 pages $1.50 $2.75 (paper); $3.25 (cloth) Order your copy now from ACRL MONOGRAPHS SPECIAL LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION c/o American Library Association 31 East 10 Street, New York 3, N. Y. 50 East Huron Street Chicago 11, Illinois 31 EAST 10 STREET, NEW YORK 3, N. Y.
New and Different Coverage
economics labor public opinion lN T E R N A T I0N A L ~~~~,~ysCiencemusicology theatre arts geography INDEX and many other topics
This international guide to periodical literature in the social sciences and humanities now has new and different coverage. In accordance with a vote of all subscribers, the following changes were made effective with the June 1955 issue: increased coverage of periodicals in the humanities and social sciences exclusion of purely scientific, psychological, and foreign language periodicals
To bring these changes about, 53 periodicals have been added to the inder- national. Among the subjects now indexed are: language, literature, anthropology, archaeology, geography and history; also, economics, sociology, political science, labor, public opinion, philosophy, religion, musicology and theatre arts.
The International Index is a quarterly with annual and three year cumulations.
WRITE FOR YOUR SERVICE BASIS RATE TO THE H. W. WILSON COMPANY 950 University Ave., N. Y. 52, N. Y.
Please Mention Special Libraries When Answering Advertisements 332 SPECIAL LIBRARIES The new look in libraries is str~kingly exemplified In C~ncinnati'snew $3,250,000 steel-and-glass structure. Librarian: Carl Vitz. Arch~tect: Frederick W. Garber & Associates. General Contractor: Frank E. Moser & Son.
CHOSE3 FOR ANOTHER DISTIR'CUISHKD AMERICAN LIURARY- VMP BOOKSTACKS AND LISKARY EQUIPMENT
sl)eci;ilizetl erl)erier~ce l)el~i~~tltlren~, \7.\ll"s sLilletl e~~gi~~eerscall I~el~) settle
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Multi-tier, top braced stack in Cincinnati's new library is pictured here before books were placed on the shelves. This type of stack 1s fastened to the floor, and has channel members across the top of the columns to assure r~gidity.
E..Ba eta1 products, mc. ORANGE. VIRGINIA Subsidiary of Chesapeake Industries, Inc.
Please Mention Special Libraries When Answering Advertisemenfs 3 new reference books every library will want
AMERICAN ARCHITECTS DIRECTORY /~ublishr~tlur~tlrr tlt~ spo~tsorship of the Amcricnr~lrrsrittrtr of -1rchitrrfs
Thi\ %I-st of its kind" directory offcrs information on w:nc 11.000 architects. including the members of the American Institute of Architects :I\ well as those non-member\ deemed likely to bc inquired aftcr. In each of the alphabetically arranged biographies. when the information was submitted. there are complete details on the architect's home and bu\iness address, his outstanding architectural achieve- ments, positions he has held, education, states in which he is registered, etc. -4 geographical cross-index tci all the names in the book is also included in addition to special data on the AIA organization. The appendix offers valuable information on Architectural Competition Code Procedures, AIA Basic Schedule of .4rchitectural Services. Standards of Professional Practice, lists of Schools of Architecture and State Registration Boards and ofticers, etc. Edited by George S. Koyl, FAIA. Ready in November. Pre-puh price. $18 net p. p.; post-pub price, $20 net p. p.
AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE Volur~r~11. The Biological Sciences
25,000 leading biologists are listed in this authoritative "who's who." Botany, bacteriology, neurology, pathology, public health, zoology - these are but a few of the fields covered in Volume I1 of the new AMERICANMEN OF SCIENCE.Names and the following up-to-date biographical facts are supplied on biologists now living in the United States and Canada: place of business, home address. specialty, educational background, and professional affiliations. So rapidly have the fields grown since the publication of the last edition five years ago that now AMERICANMEN OF SCIENCE is 50% bigger in almost every category. Be sure your library offers this up-to-date. thorough information on the scientists of today. Ready in October. $18 net postpaid pre-pub; $20 net postpaid post-pub. A Science Press p~lblication edited by Jaques Cattell.
AMERICAN LIBRARY ANNUAL
Once again, the AMERICANLIBRARY ANNUAL will bring together in one source much-needed information for all those interested in library activities. The Council of National Library Associations is sponsoring the publication of the volume, the last issue of which appeared in 1918. The first part of the new volume, edited by Wyllis Wright, will be devoted to a comprehensive, descriptive listing of key library associations, their committees, and joint committees. Committee chairmen will be cross-indexed by subject interest of committee. The second part will be prepared by the editors of the R. R. Bowker Company and will bring together statistics, trends, and latest developments in areas of interest to the library world. October. $5 net p. p. R. R. Bowker Company, 62 W. 45th, New York 36 Please Menfion Special Libraries When Answering Advertisements