DOCUMENTATION IN MANY LANDS

3. EUROPE*

Gives a general outline of the organisation and workingof scientific and technical documentation centres in sev-eral European countries. Brings out some special featuresand differences in techniques employed in the various cen-tres. Examines some aspects of the application of auto-matic devices like punched-cards. Cordonnier cards. photo-electric devioes for documentation and use of classifica-tion for these devices. Suggests active co_operation be-tween national organisations for reducing the time lag inscientific reporting.

1 INTRODUCTION

The author had an opportunity to visit lastyear a number of national scientific documenta-tion centres, and other specialised organisationswho have arranged documentation facilities. inseveral European countries. This note summa-rises his experiences during that visit.

Besides an acute awareness of the importanceof documentation and its rapid disseminationover the relatively short distances oc cur r ing inmost European countries. the multiplicity ofspecialised libraries, and excellent communi-cations appeared to the writer to be among themajor factors which have contributed to thedevelopment of documentation facilities in Eu-ropean countries to the present high standards .

P. 5 H f f L

lnsdoc, New Delhi

2 NATIONAL DOCUMENTATION CENTRES

The national scientific documentation centres,such as the Centre du Documentation du CentreNational de la Recherche Scientifique, or theYougoslav Centre for Technical and ScientificDocumentation, Belgrade, offer on payment allthe normal documentation services. They re-ceive a large number of requests for copies ofdocuments. Such institutions therefore havetaken steps to build up their own libraries andhave installed equipment for microfilming,photostating or other doc urnent copying methods.They also record information about the holdingsof the local scientific libraries, or compile theunion catalogues of their countries. These re-ference aids are most useful to them for sup-plying information rapidly. Both of these na-tional centres publish abstracting bulletins intheir national language. Arrangements are al-so made to provide, on request. translations ofscientific articles from other languages. Anindex of such translations is maintained at thedocumentation centre.

21 Yugoslavia

The Yugoslav Centre for Technical and Sci-entific Documentation at Belgrade has starteda new experiment, namely that of fostering thegrowth of regional documentation units in select-

• Acknowledgement with thanks is made to the Editors of Nachr ichren fur Dokumenrar ion for permission to publish here the English version of my

article entitled 'Dokumeneari on in Europa - Eindrucke e ine s indischen Dokumentalisten - published in Jahrgang 6, Heft 2. Juni, 1955.

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ed industrial concerns to cover the needs of aparticular group of industry. This experimentin co-operative documentation is an interestingdevelopment, specially when viewed against thespecial conditions now prevailing in that country.A number of such regional units are already func-tioning.

22 Scandinavian Countries

The Scandanavian countries do not have Nat-ional scientific documentation centres. Herethe functions of a national centre are carriedout by the technical libraries, such as the Den-mark Technical Library, Copenhagen, the Tek-niska Hpgskola Bibliotek, Stockholm, and theRoyal Norwegian University Library, Oslo.These libraries receive a copy of all nationalscientific and technical publications, eitherunder copyright law or by co-operative arrage-ments. The libraries co-operate between them-selves in the publication of periodical indexesin special fields, giving indications of availabili-ty in the Scandanivian libraries. Information isthus available about the holdings of all librariesin the region, and inter-library loans are wellorganised. Apart from supplying photostat andmicrofilm services, these libraries provide con-tinuous docLimentation services for selected in-dustries. Standard library cards, 75 mm x 125rnrn , carrying the bibliographic data of currentscientific papers, with a short indicative abst-ract, and classified by U. D. C. are reproducedeither by the a zo process or printed by letterpress and are supplied to industrial organisationson a small payment. A considerable measure ofselection is exercised in the literature searchand compilation of this documentation. This isrelated to the needs of the country and the faci-lities of the organisation carrying out the parti-cular job; for example the Tekniska HogskolaLibrary, Stockholm, provides documentation inmechanical industrie s, while the library of theTechnical University at Gotenberg supplies do-cumentation on textile industry.

23 Great Britain

In Great Britain, the position is somewhatdifferent. There the specialised libraries andinformation services have formed an associa-

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tion called Aslib, and it is this body that pro-vides centralised information on scientific andtechnical matters and also supplies copies ofdocuments. Aslib does not possess a library ofits own but maintains information about holdingsofthe important British libraries. It does not haveits own photographic laboratories either; photo-stat services are available from other institutionssuch as the Science Museum, and users in Britaingenerally prefer photocopies to microfilm copies.Aslib does not provide translations but recom-mends a suitable translator. An index of l-ransla-tions available in all c ornrr.onw ea lt h countries ismaintained.

I observed an important difference in the day-to-day working of the document procurementwork of Aslib and the Documentation Centre atParis. Aslib insists on the enquirer s filling uptheir orders in triplicate and uses the copiesfor its internal processing; while the FrenchCentre accepts orders in the form of a singlecopy and makes out copies of the reference asneeded for processing, thus imposing moreclerical work on the staff of the Centre but sp-aring the customer.

The national scientific documentation centresgenerally make a nominal charge only for theirdocumentation services. The low charges arein effect considered an indirect subsidy to sci-entific research. The only exception noticed wasin case of Aslib, which tries to recover its costs.

24 Netherland

The Netherlands National Documentation Cen-tre, Nider, besides providing documentation ser- ,vices, also takes an active interest in the trainingof doc urnentalists.

3 DOCUMENTATION IN INDUSTRIALCONCERNS

I visited a large number of industrial concernsto study the methods of documentation followed "-by them. In general, industrial concerns haveorganised, for their internal use, very good do-cumentation facilities. This arises from theirbasic necessity of keeping abreast of the newdevelopments and refinements in manufacturingprocesses, which may reduce the costs of pro-

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Docm<ENT ATlON IN MANY LANDS 3

ducti~ or lead to the adoption of new or cheaperraw materials. Further, a thorough search ofpatent literature gives an indication of the acti-vitie s of their competitor s ,

The general pattern followed by industrialconcerns in their documentation is fairly uni-form. After recording the receipt of periodi-cals in the library, they are scanned either bythe library staff or by the library staff assist-ed by the technical staff. An index card is thenprepared, sometimes with a short indicativeabstract, and one copy is filled by subject andanother bv author; spare copies are made avail-able to other departments or to sister organisa-tions managed by or associated with the mainfirm. A large number of industrial concernsare using the U. D. C. Emphasis is laid on qui-ck circulation of the data. In some industrialconcerns documentation on social, economicand laJaour management problems is also main-tained.

31 Patent LiteratureThe patent literature is most often looked

after by a special section. The objectives ofthic section are: firstly to keep abreast of theliterature, secondly to be able to carry out aretrospective literature search and if necessarylodge an objection to the grant of a new patent,and thirdly to help their organisation in patentwork. The patents are usually classified andfiled either according to the German system orby their serial number as in the case of Ameri-can patents. The Netherlands Patent Officeoffers to classify any particular patent in accor-dance with U. D. C. or to supply the equivalentof the German classification, whichever iswanted. A very nominal charge is made fordoing this, and a number of industrial concernsavail themselves of this service.

4 DOCUMENT ATION IN RESEARCHASSOCIA TlONS

The development of research associations isa special feature of the organisation of scienti-fic research in Great Britain. The Departmentof Scientific and Industrial Research has takengreat interest in this direction and given finan-cial assistance for the purpose. A number ofother countries also, including India, have adop-ted this mode of organisation of collective orcooperative research.

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Dissemination of scientific and technical in-formation to their members is an important acti-vity of the research associations. For this pur-pose some associations prepare abstracts ofscientific articles, cIa s sify them, and then cir-culate them to members, either in a mimeogra-phed form or as printed abstracts. Informationon new instruments, techniques or raw materi-als for use in their industries, as well as dataon patents literature, is included in this survey.Great emphasis is placed on rapid disseminationof information.

The research associations also undertake re-search work on problems pertaining to their fieldof interest and compile special project reportsfor their members.

5 CLASSIFICA TlON

I observed that a large number of institutionswere classifying books and articles from perio-dicals according to schemes which they had them-selves drawn up. The old established librarieswere generally continuing the classificationscheme which was in use earlier, for facilitiesto reclassify their holdings were not available.In a few libraries, however, the currently usedschemes of classification were not found suf-ficiently well developed to meet their specialneeds and a new scheme was evolved. The li-braries established in recent years have gene-rally adopted the U. D. C.

A simplified classification guide, based onthe U. D. C. for classification of literature inthe Building Sciences has now been published.From discussions with documentation officersattached to a number of building researchinstitutes, it appeared that the scientific insti-tutions, individual scientists,. and mercantilefirms had liked this condensation of the U. D.C. scheme on building sciences into a simplehandy form.

The users of U.D.C. felt for the most partthat greater attention should be given, as amatter of some urgency, to developing a work-able scheme of classification for the compara-tively recent fields of scientific activity. Thisdevelopment work could be accepted for inter-national co-operative purposes, and its further

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elaboration and detailed breakdown left to afew institutions who were actively concernedwith documentation in that particular field.These institutions could develop the schemekeeping in view the rate of scientific progressin that line and the needs of the scientificcommunity.

In view of the experience gained by the pub-lication of the simplified classification guidefor building sciences, it may be better if simi-lar broad-based schemes of classification couldbe compiled for various scientific fields, newor old, revised every year and thus kept rea-sonably uptodate, whereas the detailed classi-fication guide could be r evis ed and br ought upto date once in ten years or so.

6 APPLICATION OF AUTOMATIC MACHINESFOR SCIENTIFIC DOCUMENTATION

The application of automatic machines for do-cumentation was somewhat limited in the Euro-pean countries visited. In some cases the avail-ability of the automatic machines in connectionwith mathematical computation work led to theiruse in documentation. Only a few of the institu-tes visited had installed machines specially forscientific documentation.

61 Punched Cards

The Bureau of Agriculture, Cambridge, main-tains on punched cards complete documentationon the subject of plant breeding. Ten agricultu-ral crops fall under their purview and a differentcoloured card is employed for punching data ab-out a particular crop. Thus a visual separationis effected in the first round by filing these cardsin separate indexes. The data punched on eachcard comprise the U. D. C. classification number,the -year of publication, a serial number for thejournal, its volume and page number, and theserial number of the abstract in their monthlyabstracting bulletin.

The Power Samas accounting machine for pun-ching and sorting is employed. For this institu-tion, therefore, it becomes comparatively easyto ·:ompile d. bibl iog r a phv on a particular pr ob.lern connected with any of these ten agriculturalc r ops . I va s told that apart from retrospective

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searches the machine was most useful for thepurpose of compiling the annual index of thePlant Breeding Abstracts, by subject as well atauthor.

The Gmelin Institute is using 1. B. M. machi- ines and Hollerith type cards for indexing infor-imati on on inorganic compounds. The system ofclassification employed has been specially developed and follows the element, not necessarily iin the periodic table order. The chemical for-mula is written in straight lines for ease inpunching. Geographical and geological data arealso indexed. This arrangement enables the idata to be searched from many different angles". '

62 Cordonnier Cards

IThe principle involved in the use of these r

cards is well known and a num.ber of institutions iare employing this system. A search conduct- !ed on these cards yields the numbers of the re- ;ferences from a serially numbered index but .does not lead to information about the contentsof the article s.

The Documentation Centre of the Centre Na-tional de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, iskeeping complete records of the notified trans-lations on this system. The numbers indexedare the serial number of the translation in theirmonthly list. The lnstitut des Fruits et Agrum,es Coloniaux at Paris is using these cards forrecording abstracts of articles of interest tothem; the num.ber indexed in the cards relatesto the se r ia l number of the abstract bulletin.

63 Edge-notched Punch Cards

The Association for the Study of Textiles, Br-'i

ussels, uses edge notched punched cards fortheir documentation. The system of classifi-cation employed is U. D. C. and the data recor-ded are the U. D. C. number, a few letter s ofthe alphabet from name of the author, a serialnumber corresponding to the title of a journaland year of publication, the geographical a r ea ,and also whether the reprint is available or 13

being obtained. Information about pat ent s isalso punched. The s urnrn a r v 'of the a,oticLe istyped on the space provided in t he centre ofthe card.

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DOCUM>NTA nON IN MANY LANDS 3

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rr. ":'liple ,~' ~-,:<..~ I :.1-Ln~-~ ill difi(~rent sets. Vlitb

~. little 1:·xI)l:1-:t(~ ...- ir: rriai nipula t inj. the sortingn c c.ri le s: ~t becDr:lcs easy to l o c at e a reference,a r.c: a s c icr tio.. is possible Ior rn different anglesb-,: using s cv e ra l needles appropriately arran-f-'ed.

The Gmelin In st it ut is also keeping some dataon edge-notched punched card. Improved devi-ces for picking out the edge-notched cards requi-red in a search have been designed, and a rnaxi-rn urri of 30 needles at a time can be ern pl oved toeffect a search.

64 Photo-electric Searching Devices

The Centre National de l a Recherche Scienti-fique, Paris is developing for use in documenta-tion an automatic machine based on photoelect-ric searching methods and employs a 45 rnrn x70 rrirn microfilm sheet instead of a punchedcard. One half of the film sheet (35 mm x 45mm ) carries a photographic copy of the biblio-graphical reference and the abstract publishedin the Bulletin Analytique, and the other halfcontains photographic information of the differ-ent aspects covered by the paper in a coded fo-rm. These aspects, together with informationabout the journal, the year of publication, theauthors' abbreviated na rn e (total of five letters),8tC. can be indicated in as many rows as requir.ed up to 20 rows, each row having space forfive nurn e r a l s ,

The selecting machine picks out the searched-:or combination of numerals irrespecdve of itsoos it ion in any of the 20 rows. The rate of scan-ling is fast - 600 film sheets a minute.

Once the selection has been made by the ma-:hine, the preparation of a bibliography on mi-:rofilm becomes easy and mechanical. The.iLrn sheets are fed in the proper order into aspe c ia l printing device which prints on a 35 rnrn.il rn the bibliographical data and the abstracts.

A special scheme of classification covering.he field of cancer research has been complet-e d and all information on this subject is now

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beinr put on these film sheets. It was under-s t ood t ha t a.tt cm pt s were being made to developa s im ila r code for the biological sciences also.

65 Classification for Use with AutomaticDevices

In the application of automatic devices III sci-entific doc urnent at ion , the problem of classifica-tion is a very important one. Almost all the in-stitutions I visited have developed their own sch-eme of classification. Every system has no dou-bt certain advantages, but they are not developedto cover all fields of scientific activity, and anall round acceptable system is not available.

Attempts were made by the Statistics Depart-ment, TNO, the Hague, to punch Hollerith typecards according to the U. D. C. classificationnumber, but it was found that retrospective se-arches were not very easy to make. The diffi-culty probably arose f r orn the non-uniformityof the length of the number s punched, which mig-ht sometimes be in three digits and sometimestwo, and were generally interspersed with com-ma, stroke, dash, full-stop, and colon. It wasfelt that, if the machine was to work satisfac-torily, the system of classification should provi-de a code consisting of a uniform number of di-gits or letters of the alphabet in each column.

The International Advisory Committee on Do-cumentation in Natural Sciences, which is func-tioning under Unesco, has also given considera-tion to this problem and at its last meeting inFebruary, 1954 it recommended that a workingpaper be prepared reviewing the position in thisfield and suggesting such measures as may beconsidered necessary to remedy the situation.

66 Observations on the Use of AutomaticDevices

In considering the question of large scale useof automatic devices for organising documenta-tion services the following points are important:1) the volume of scientific data which have to bestudied, classified, coded and punched beforethe machine can be used; 2} the volume of workin retrospective searches and its dissemination;3) the field of activity, whether it is narrow, spe-cialised or general.

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In the case of a Documentation Centre cover-ing all branches of activity, the number of cardsto be punched will be eri or rn ou s and unles s thevolume of work on retrospective searches keepsthe selecting rn ac hirre s fully errrpl oyed , it rria ynot be e c on orn ica l to spend time and labour oncoding all the inf or rnat ion.

On the other hand, if the Centre were dealingwith a limited field of activity, such as the De-pa r trn ent of the Bureau of Agriculture publishingthe Plant Breeding Abstracts, then the questionresolves itself into a rather s irn pl e r problem ofeconomics, narrie ly the salaries of the staff re-quired for non crna chtne retrospective searchesas against the cost of a reasonably priced mach-.ine which would rapidly carry out the search.

INTERNATIONAL CO -OPERA TlON FORSCIENTIFIC REPOR TlNG

The rate at which scientific reporting is pro-gressing, and the importance of knowing in agiven region what is published in another partof the world at the earliest possible opportuni-ty, have both increased rapidly in rn od er n t irn e s ,If scientific reporting of world literature wereleft, as it is now being left, to a Ii.mit ed nurnb-.er of internationally recognised abstractingjournals, such as the Physics Abstracts, ChelTI-ical Abstracts, Index Medicus, and BiologicalAbstracts, then it s e e rn s desirable that somemachinery should function effectively to reduce

the average t irn e lag between the publication ofa communication and the inclusion of its ab s t r a crin an international abstracting journal. Moderndocumentation techniques offer two possibilitiesin this direction.

i) rn ic r ofi lrrii.ng of abstracts, classified acco-rding to a recognised s ch erne , and their on-ward t r an s rrri s s ion by air to the internation-ally recognised abstracting journals. Thedata could be photographically enlarged.

ii) punching the data on cards, according to aninternationally agreed s c he m e , and trans-mission by air freight to the appropriateabstracting journal. The data could be de-coded by tabulating machines.

Either of these arrangements can work effec-tively, provided active co-operation is establi-shed between specified national organisations forcornpi l irig abstracts of papers published in their

. countries, and international abstracting organi-sations.

At the present tempo of scientific research,lfeel that the problem of quick dissemination ofinformation, although an old one, needs recon- .sideration by the appropriate international orga··nisations, especially in view of the advancesmade in doc urn ent.at ion techniques. The versa-tility and possibilities of adapting automatic ac-counting rna chi ne s to documentation techniquesalone is a promising field of study.

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