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of actual service, but, still better, to suggest possibilities of a larger service than we have enjoyed, but which seems well within the possibilities of realization a t a n early date. igIj-The Chemical Composition of Water Gas T a r . A reference was found through the Industrial Arts Index. Other indexes were also consulted; and the time taken for this was 25 minutes. It is a simple illustration, and one suggestion is that the record of sources should be painstaking, since it makes the answer available as a time saver, should the question arise again. Another suggestion is that the method of recording and classifying the record, to promote “findability,” should be standardized. ig~g-Information on Cyanamid. A trip to the laboratory was needed, where plenty of references were found in familiar technical journals, and the suggestion follows that to crossreference the library with the various departments of the organization is an essential of good service. ~ g r y - I n f o r m a t i o n o n Sulfur Dioxide, if there is such a thing, and if so, its characteristics. Asked by an outsider and referred to a member of the office, who dealt directly with the questioner. Library time, z minutes. Suggestions: ( a ) The importance for the library to know and make a record of who’s who in the organization, because, in this instance, supposing that A,B, and C, any one of whom could well have answered the question, were all away, it is convenient t o know that D, not being away, could supply the answer. ( b ) The importance of serving all who ask, whether outsiders, insiders, heads of departments, or the youngest office boy, i. e., the importance of having an allround reputation for enthusiasm to be of use. Such reputation is an asset; it helps to create an atmosphere, a general desire t o be of mutual service, which you will agree is decidedly worth while. 1916-The Commercial Process of Making Caustic Soda. An office member had a book that contained the information, and the obvious suggestion is that the library should make record of personally owned books and personally subscribed-for periodicals. I recall an instance of our wanting a map of Shanghai. It was borrowed from someone known to have lived in Shanghai for many years; and herein we have the suggestion of developing the vast field of community resources-personal, institutional, and commercial. To a certain extent and in a casual way, we have been making note of such resources on colored cards, which we insert in our library catalogue. This, therefore, which we do casually, should be done systematically. 1g14-Fixation of Nitrogen. Plenty of references. The LIBRARY SERVICE IN THE INDUSTRIAL LABORATORY question, however, was referred to the Boston Coljperative B y G. W. La=, Stone and Webster, Boston, Mass. Information Bureau; and quite likely for the reason that i t did not seem worth while for us to spend much time on routine when The laboratory of Stone and Webster has a fair collection of books and periodicals for handy reference, and in consequence there existed an organization to take such matters off our hands. The cumulative experience of drawing upon the community its use of the general library of the organization is comparatively resources was well illustrated in the history of this information slight. Moreover, none of the general library staff have had more than nominal training in chemistry, so that I need to in- bureau, an undertaking that proved t o be in advance of the time. People had not been sufficiently educated in the use of research terpret the title of this paper with much freedom, and to deal with principles that apply to library service of almost every de- for business purposes to give it due financial support, so that today it is merely the service of courtesy, entered in the telephone scription, whether for industrial chemists and chemical engineers or for political economists, students of history, or for the so-called book under its later name of Information Clearing House of Boston, with the same telephone number as that of Stone and man 011 the street. I would also justify such interpretation Webster. We hope the time is nearly ripe for transferring it from my belief that library service is still in its infancy. The term “service” savors of more than the mere performance to the Public Library or Chamber of Commerce or other organization that will revive it on a going basis. of duty. At any rate, for the purposes of this paper, I would have it signify the endless persistency to give satisfaction; hence igr7-Consurnption of Chloroform and of Carbon Tetraabove all things the habit of putting one’s self in the position chloride per Annum. Twenty-five minutes spent in the library of the questioner, and the enthusiasm to anticipate what ques- when the question was referred t o the Information Bureau, tions are likely to arise. but without getting much satisfaction. A dealer who was asked Let me cite, with comment, a few questions from the record for information said, in effect, “We know but are unwilling to of the Stone and Webster library, not merely to show examples tell;” and this opens up the big question of the trade secret;
of bibliographies, in order that he might have a resume of the literature of a subject to compare his experiences with those of others engaged in the same work. These bibliographies are compilrd on request by the local branch, or by the New York library. Brief abstracts and translations are added to these lists t o increase their usefulness. The research worker is often located a t a distance from his sources of information, and it is of inestimable value to him to know that any material which he needs in his research will be brought to him through the Company library system. Requests for material which is not on file nn the Company libraries are forwarded to the New York branch, which is in a position, through its contact with the large libraries of the city, to furnish copies of this material in photoslat or typewritten form, or to purchase the material in a short time. We have had excellent cooperation from the libraries of New York and Brooklyn, from Lehigh University, the Library of Congress, and government departments, and from editors and publishers. I n a commercial library one of the most important phases of the work is with current periodicals and society publications. It is of the utmost importance for our men to be kept in constant touch with the latest developments in their special lines from day to day. It was to meet this need, and to get the information to the men as soon after publication as possible, and in convenient form, that our Library Bulletin was established. This publication indexes regularly about 125 technical publications, and includes library notices, an alphabetical list of magazine articles briefly abstracted, book reviews, and bibliographies. A convenient blank for calling for this material, on which the articles desired may be noted by number, as 86-Steam Engines, is included in each issue, and is much used by the men. These blanks are sent, through the local branch, to the library having the material on file, and the requests filled as rapidly as possible, the men cooperating by returning the magazines as soon as read. I n this way many of our magazines have a circulation of fifteen, twenty, or even twenty-five readers. Articles in special demand are typed or photostated, and circulated in this form. Our present Company library is thus the result of actual needs which grew up, little by little, through the Company. It has expanded from several small collections of a hundred books each to a series of branch libraries, of which the two largest have a collection of 2300 and 1800 books, respectively. It has extended this threefold library service to all points in the Company, and fills requests from Colorado, Oklahoma, Illinois, Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York.
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and trade secrets, as many of us have found, impede the research man, though, of course, there are two sides to the question. Igrg-The Use of Water Glass t o Prevent Rust. A question that apparently can be answered by somebody, but the answer not found as yet; hence we are minded of the question box, the ways and means of readily advertising the unanswered question, and thus of getting in touch witfi sources of needed information. More questions illustrating one point or another could readily be cited; but let these seven suffice t o suggest how much more zi library service is than a general or special collection of books, periodicals, indexes, and a staff to consult them. What can this convention do to perfect the ways and means of getting information? Can it, by resolution, encourage the librarians of the country, through the American Library Association (having headquarters a t 78 East Washington Street, Chicago), to act as a great clearing house of information and of research? I believe that those headquarters would, if appealed t o in this capacity, take adequate means to build up a service t h a t would give sensitive response to seekers for information who have not been successful through local resources. Perhaps a very simple way to stimulate the big library industry I have hinted at, is for each delegate here to-day to remember to send to the American Library Association headquarters a t least one question that he has found to be a puzzler, with the expectation that the Association will show itself eager to render the service of securing the answer. It would be well to include return postage with the question. If satisfaction is not obtained by this means, then, as sponsor for the suggestion, I would ask to be informed of the fact myself; and if I am thus informed before the middle of June, it should be in time for me to report the complaint to the general convention of librarians, which is to be a t Asbury Park the last week in June.
W O R K OF THE LIBRARY OF THE SOLVAY PROCESS COMPANY B y W. L NRILI,, Solvuy Process Co , Syracuse, N Y. The collecting of books and journals for this Company began more than thirty years ago. Ours is particularly a special library, mainly on chemical subjects, which contains some I Z O O volumes, including bound volumes of the principal English and German chemical journals for some years past. It is in constant use by our staff of chemists. It is indexed on the Dewey system, with the usual cards. We have also, as a second part of the library, files of the principal technical journals, both American and foreign. From these we make abstracts, which are printed and sent out to about IOO men in our employ, one-half of whom are in the local office and one-half in our other works. We also circulate among the officials here about twenty of the journals, which are carried out and brought in daily after two days’ use.
SPECIAL LIBRARY SERVICE IN THE BARRETT COMPANY Not only has this firm realized the value to be derived from a permanent library service bureau with headquarters in the main office but has recognized the necessity for attaching to the personnel of the Research Laboratory a “library chemist” whose time is exclusively devoted to the compilation of literature references pertaining to subjects under investigation or to be investigated. The bibliographies thus compiled are put into ring binders, each abstracted reference having its separate sheet. The main classification of the references is chronological and each year is again classified alphabetically by authors. Classification is followed by pagination and then the bibliography is ready for the preparation of both author and subject indexes. The subject index is cross-indexed to the minutest detail and some-
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times covers as much as 15 pages for a bibliography of 150 to 250 pages. The above remarks are not intended to serve as an outline of our Research Information Service, but are merely given t o illustrate our view as to the simplicity and serviceability of any such scheme.
LIBRARY SERVICE IN THE CHEMICAL DEPARTMENT AND CHEMICAL DEPARTMENT LABORATORIES OF E. I. DUPONT DE NEMOURS L COMPANY B y F. .I
GALLUP, E. I. du Pont de Kernours & Co., Wilmington, Del.
I n answer to a request for a paper describing any special features of the library of the chemical department of E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company which are helpful to us or may be helpful to others, it is necessary to describe briefly the library organization in the chemical department of the Company. The department is composed of some ten divisions whose executive heads are in the main office of the Company. The department maintains, outside of the city of Wilmington, four experimental laboratories, each of which is in itself a large organization. Each of these laboratories has a library and a librarian. Each of the five libraries of the department is a special library and really special unto itself for the following reason. Particular lines of work are delegated to each laboratory organization which may be briefly summarized as follows: EXPERIMENTAL STATION-smokeless powder, black powder, artificial leather, and some special chemicals. EASTERN LABORATORY-cO~~erCial dynamites and high explosives. JACKSON LABORATORY-Dyes. DELTA LABORATORY-PYrahl products and pyroxylin compositions.
It is natural that each library should specialize along the lines its men are interested in. The Main Office Library functions for the executives who direct the activities of the several laboratories and as a result the Main Office Library directs its attention more particularly t o the broader aspects of the subjects the department is interested in and less to material required in laboratory investigation and routine. The Main Office Library of the department has no authority in the direction of the other libraries but a serious effort is made among the several libraries to cooperate, each to be helpful to the others as occasion permits. This cooperation is a very hearty one and much good comes from it. Our library organization is not old, in fact is comparatively young, but a serious effort is being made to develop our libraries along common-sense lines and to have as librarians those who know not only the principles and rules of library economics, but who can study their problem from the service standpoint and discount the requirements of the library to the extent of anticipating the needs of the chemists on old and new problems. We believe in this connection that it is of decided importance to have means provided by executive heads which shall supply a librarian serving industrial laboratories as promptly as possible with as much information as possible to aid in placing in the library needed information on new subjects for investigation in the laboratory. It is of prime importance to provide, as far as possible, in advance, library requirements of a n industrial laboratory. I t is a source of added stimulation to the investigator to be able to find his information a t hand a t the time wanted and not to have to wait until it is ordered and received and perhaps in the meantime have led himself into unnecessary expenditure of time in trying t o produce the information through laboratory experiments, or lost in some degree his enthusiasm. There are several features in our library organization that are particularly helpful. There is a monthly exchange of accession
