LITERATURE
Coping w i t h Burgeoning Literature Past e x p e r i e n c e m a y b e c o m e t o o e x p e n s i v e to use — unless methods a r e found to e l i m i n a t e obsolete l i t e r a t u r e A MEANS of coping with burgeoning ·**· literature is to eliminate obsolete material, says Clyde Williams, presi dent of Battelle Memorial Institute. Speaking before the ACS Division of Chemical Literature in New York re cently, Williams recalled that our store
house of chemical knowledge is ap proximately doubling every 10 years. Past experience may become too expen sive to use unless workable methods are found to simplify literature organi zation, storage, and recall. Moreover, because of the magnitude
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of the job of drawing from the recorded "past" information essential to the investigation, research people tend to dispense with the literature search altogether. This may lead to duplication of previous research work. Williams' approach is to recognize that a vast amount of the material retained in our libraries is not essential for technical research purposes and could be eliminated in a simplified system. To provide the groundwork for the elimination of obsolete technical literature, Williams breaks it down into four categories, according to structure and content. These are orginial contributions, working papers, information literature, and narrative and descriptive literature. Williams says that original contributions are important when a new thought pattern is being crystallized. However, when original contributions become obsolete and are no longer useful as reference sources, they should not be included in a simplified library. Working papers state and restate new concepts in different ways and examine them against different environments. Many of them have a short life and can be dropped from active status as they become superseded by newer work. Information literature on the evaluation of natural phenomena and the measurement of the properties of matter remains of active interest for a long time. However, some of this information, such as the relative significance of measurements or the definition of properties may change. Furthermore, there are continual refinements in measuring techniques. So even this type of literature must constantly be reexamined for obsolescence. Narrative literature in the field of chemistry includes the description of systems, devices, and processes. From the standpoint of contributing to expanding technology, the usefulness of this type of literature often declines rapidly. It contains, however, most of the literature important in patent work. After restricting the technological storehouse, the next step is to devise ways of using it effectively. To achieve this goal, Williams feels that indexing and retrieval of information are the regions in which hope for improvement exists. Machine techniques are now being developed that make literature searching much faster. One development employs a machine that scans punch cards at rates approaching 1000 per minute. (C&EN, March 1, 1954, pages 86669 ). Design studies indicate that more effective searching equipment could be developed for scanning magnetic tape rather than punch cards.
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