NEWSA N D NOTES LETTERTO
THE
EDITOR
Sir: I am writing to correct two small points in the very good paper “The Evaluator Versus the Chemical Literature” by W. H. Evans and David Garvin which appeared in the August 1970 issue of The Journaf of Chemical Documentation. Page 149, last paragraph, lefthand column, states, “Abstracts written by authors are now being used in Chemical Abstracts almost verbatim. They are the primary basis for indexing.” Chemical Abstracts does not use author abstracts verbatim. We edit author abstracts. We add structural formulas, and we convert the author abstracts to the C A format. Of even greater importance, however, is the very basic fact these author abstracts are not the “primary basis for indexing.” It has been a long-standing policy of Chemical Abstracts to prepare all index entries for papers which deai with chexical structures, new chemical substances, etc.. directly from the documents. This is true for all synthetic inorganic and organic chemistry and for much of the biochemical literature. \Ye no longer attempt to include every compound within the abstract. but we continue to index every compound from the original document. Consistently. we have maintained that the C A abstract provides access to the original document. I t does not replace the original document. We feel it is quite important that the users of the chemical literature understand that the C A indexing, whenever chemical substances are involved, is done directly from the original documents. U’e expect to continue this. We believe it is only in this manner that we can maintain the accuracy and the completeness of the C.4S Chemical Registry System and the accompanying printed volume indexes. I do not believe these small statements detract from the good paper, but I did want to make this point clear so that it can be understood. Russell J. Rowlett, Jr. Editor, Chemical Abstracts
CAS Advisory Board
Appointment of seven new members and reappointment of one member to the advisory board of the American Chemical Society’s Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) has been announced by CAS Director Dale B. Baker. The board has been expanded from 18 to 20 members. Included in the new appointments are two representatives each named by the United Kingdom Consortium on Chemical Information and West Germany’s Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker. The British and German organizations were invited to appoint members to the CAS advisory board after formal agreements were concluded in 1969 for their cooperation with the American Chemical Society in the development of an international chemical information system. Their presence on the board is intended t o assure that international views and concerns are represented in the board’s deliberations on CAS plans and policies. New members appointed t o the board by CAS are Edward J. Brunenkant, director of the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission’s Division of Technical Information,
Washington, D. C.; Dr. Arnold A. Cohen, staff director for systems technology a t Sperry Rand Corporation’s Univac Data Processing Division in Roseville, Minnesota; and John P. McGowan, associate university librarian and assistant professor of engineering a t Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. Dr. C. H. Arrington, director of research a t the E. I. du Pont Company’s central research department in Wilmington, Delaware, was reappointed to the board for a second term. Named to represent the British consortium on the board are Dr. Jack W . Barrett, director of research and development for Monsanto Chemicals Limited and chairman of the management board of the consortium, and Dr. Lionel C. Cross, managing editor of The Chemical Society (London) and executive officer of the consortium. Representing the West German Chemical Society are Dr. Helmut Gruenewald, the society’s director of publications, and Dr. Christian Weiske, editor in chief of its Division of Information and Documentation. IEEE Special Issue
The I E E E Transactions on Engineering Writing and Speech for August 1970 (Vol. 13, No. 2) is a special issue devoted to recent developments in information science and technology. Subject Headings for Engineering
Engineering Index, Inc. (Ei), has published S H E (Subject Headings for Engineering), the alphabetical list of subject terms currently used by Ei technical editorial specialists in indexing the literature of engineering and related sciences. SHE is the major tool, a t Ei and for users of Ei information services, for organizing and searching the abstracts and notations of content reporting all major engineering literature. In 1971 some 77,000 items will be so indexed for future use by the engineering community. S H E is used as a controlled vocabulary for indexing the records of the transdisciplinary data base created by Ei. As the authority list, S H E has been regularly updated and revised for over three quarters of a century, and today S H E is the basic tool for indexing using the nomenclature derived from the literature of the many specialized areas of engineering and engineering technology. SHE contains in excess of 12,000 terms. Profuse cross reference terms and scope notes add to the usefulness of this indexing tool. As a search tool. S H E greatly enhances the relevance of information retrieval whether manually through the printed services or by machine through C O M P E N D E X (Computerized Engineering Index), the magnetic tape service, or through the development of profiles for a S D I service. S H E is distributed to the corporations now leasing COMPENDEX as a support tool in searching the Ei data base as well as t o organizations licensed to search the data base for sale of output to third parties. S H E is available to the public for $15.00 per copy. Orders for S H E or inquiries regarding this indexing tool should be directed to the Ei Marketing and Business Services Division, 345 East 47th Street, New York, N . Y. 10017. Journal of Chemical Documentation, Vol. 11, No.
2, 1971
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