LETTERSTO THE EDITOR SIR:In reference to the article by O’Donohue, Manzelli, Kuhn, and Powell [J. CHEM.DOC.9, 147 (1949)], which mentions that there is no central depository of mass spectra, please publish the following: The Mass Spectrometry Data Centre was set up at AWRE, Aldermaston, Berks., UK, nearly four years ago to provide information and data services for all mass spectrometrists’. The Centre is supported by the British Government through the OAice for Scientific and Technical Information, is recognized by the mass spectrometry organizations in Britain, USA, France, Germany, and Japan, and has the advice of an international advisory committee with representatives from these countries. A comprehensive monthly current awareness guide to the literature, the Mass Spectrometry Bulletin, is published, and this is distributed through Her Majesty’s Stationery O5ce to over 33 countries. The Centre encourages the contribution of new mass spectra from all sources and distributes these on a worldwide basis. Twenty-five hundred such spectra have been received already, and the spectra are avaliable from the Centre as data sheets and on, magnetic tape. A magnetic tape file is also available with over 6000 additional mass spectra. The Centre’s studies of the computer identification of mass spectra will be published shortly. H. D. M. Jager, D. C. Maxwell, and R. G. Ridley, Inform. Stor. Retrieval 4, 133 (1968). R. G. RIDLEY United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority Aldermaston, Berkshire England
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SIR: Paul Craig and Helen Ebert [J. CHEM.DOC. 9, 141 (1969)] recently referred to a paper given by Esteleta Dale and me in 1955 on the distribution of chemical fragments in the Chemical-Biological Coordination Center code. They said the information “was never published in the scientific literature.” This is not so. The data appeared in a chapter in Peakes, Kent, and Perry, “Progress Report in Chemical Literature Retrieval,” pp. 201-14, Interscience, New York, 1957. This book was volume 1 of “Advances in Documentation and Library Science.” From this experience, I conclude once more that information science, like the cobbler’s children, has dealt adequately with its own literature at the same time it gives advice to all other disciplines. KARLF. HEUMANN Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Bethesda, Md. 20014
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