THE INFORMATION CENTER OF AMERICAN CYANAMID'S STAMFORD LABORATORIES' CHARLES E. FUNK, Jr. American Cyanamid Company, Stamford, Connecticut
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Stamford Research Laboratories were established in 193637 by consolidating at one location many of the diverse research groups of American Cyanamid Company. The Laboratories were located apart from any manufacturing unit of the company, and therefore had to be made self-sufficient, including making provision for technical information facilities. These included the nucleus of a library and a number of literature scientists, then known as "abstractors." Both were then part of the patent department of the company, which, too, had been centralized at Stamford. In 1950, both were separated from the patent department and, with the addition of a report indexing group, formed into an independent department reporting to the director of the Laboratories. Later, after the formal establishment of the company's research division in 1954, the information services were absorbed into the new research service department with the status of a "section." The Technical Information Section is responsible for four major areas of activity: library, literature surveys and searches, translations, indexing of formal reports and chemical compounds. LIBRARY
The library is, basically, a chemical library but with significant additional holdings in the literature of rubber, plastics, textiles, paper, surface coatings, petroleum, agriculture, biology, medicine, physics, and engineering. It also still serves the patent department, and hence it has holdings in both patent and general law, but neither orders nor holds patents. Most books and non-current periodicals are circulated on an unlimited loan basis, although subject to recall a t any time if needed by another borrower. Books and periodicals of reference value circulate only by special permission and only for a short period. Current periodicals are not circulated until they have been made available to library users on open reading racks for two weeks. However, copies of their tables of contents are sent out, promptly, to persons who have indicated an interest in one of fifteen subject categories, such as resins, business, analytical chemistry, etc. Subsequent circulation is on a firstcome-first-served basis, and the loan period is five days. Annual surveys of the circulation records are made so that the subscription list may be "weeded,"
' Presented before the Division of Chemical Literature at the 130th Meetimg of the American Chemical Society, Atlantic City, September, 1956. VOLUME 34, NO. 10, OCTOBER, 1957
or, conversely, extra subscriptions may be added. Book holdings, too, are "weeded" a t intervals. Total holdings today are in excess of 20,000 volumes, and current subscriptions include some 500 titles. The library also receives copies of all formal reports of work done in the Stamford Laboratories and is responsible for issuing new notebooks and storing and circulating completed notebooks. The reference collection includes four subscriptions to Chemical Abstracts, one for circulation and three t o he hound. Of these three, two are kept in the library and one is held in rererve for replacement purposes. All three are complete sets. The collection also includes two complete sets of Beilstein, 4th edition, and one of the 3rd edition; Chemisches Zentralblatl, complete from 1830 to date; and now also Referativnyi Zhurnal, Khimia. Other reference holdings are British Abstracts, Biological Abstracts, and Industrial Arts Index among the abstracting and indexing tools, and Gmelin, Elsevier, Ullmann, and Kirk-Othmer among the compendia and encyclopedias. The library function of the section is staffed entirely by secretarial~lerical personnel who are supervised by the secretary to the section manager, but its operation is under the observation and guidance of the group leader of the scientific literature group, who is also responsible in general for the enforcement of library policy. He may also recommend changes in policy, subject to the approval of the section manager. LITERATURE SURVEYS AND SEARCHES
Our second major activity is that of literature surveys and searches. These are conducted by members of the scientific literature group, six of whom are engaged part or full time in this activity. At the present, continuing surveys of the current literature are made in four subject areas: resins and plastics, nitrogen cbemicals, acetylene chemistry, and chemical pesticides. Except for pesticide data, which are reported on special forms according to chemical constitution, the results of these surveys are compiled in current literature bulletins that circulate widely throughout the company. Journals used in the compilation of these continuing surveys are routed, promptly after being processed for the table of contents service described above, to one or another of the literature scientists, who scans each journal for items in each one of the assigned fields. She makes the necessary notes of articles in her own area, and places markers a t articles in the areas of her co-workers, finally passing the journal along to the
latter. When all have finished, the journal is sent to the reading rack. It has been found quite advantageous to conduct the current literature surveys in this manner. Each of the three literature scientists working on the bulletins must scan the entirety of only one-third of the journals reviewed, yet each remains responsible for the preparation of abstracts in her own subject specialty. Further, the time for which a given journal is not available to the reading rack is kept a t a minimum. Two current literature bulletins are issued every two weeks on an alternating schedule. One of these is devoted entirely to resins and plastics; the other includes both nitrogen chemicals and acetylene chemistry. Each has its own circulation list, and each is circulated only to individuals making specific request. Literature searches--defined as examinations of the past literature rather than of the current l i t e r a t u r e are conducted on request only. They are tailored to meet the needs of the research and development groups who, a t the start of or during the course of a program, need background information either on special aspects of the program or on the entire subject. There is advantage in working on the special aspects rather than the entire field for two reasons. First, the search is much more limited in scope, can be completed promptly, and can often be reported informally; second, a group conducting a new research program will not infrequently find its aims changing as experience is gained. Thus if coverage of the whole subject is requested initially, the broadness of the scope will often require a long time to make a complete search, and, if the aims should change, the whole search may be without value even before it is finished. Nevertheless, there is always some demand for the extended, comprehensive search, and requests are accepted. TRANSLATIONS
The preparation or obtaining of translations is the third major responsibility of the technical information section and the second of the scientific literature group. Over t.he past five years about half a million words per year of foreign language material have been translated, and the volume shows a tendency toward a small but steady increase each year. I n addition to translating complete articles, "on the spot" translation assistance is given to readers who may be stuck by a word or sentence or who may need just the gist of the content of an item. Experience shows that German and Russian are nearly equally in demand in first place (probably because more scientists have some reading knowledge of German than of Russian; otherwise German would certainly have first place), French is well behind in third place, and ten t o twelve other European languages plus Japanese are scattered thereafter in no regular order. Literature scientists who work with the published literature are expected to be able to use German and French publications without the aid of a translator except for rare cases. The same facility with Russian would be helpful but not yet necessary. Experience has shown that reading knowledge and translating ability are not synonymous. So, for years past, there has been one person on the staff whose prime respon-
sibility is that of translator. This person must be able to handle French, German, and Russian with nearly equal facility, and he should be enough of a student of language as such to be able to use his knowledge of these basic three in handling most of the languages of importance in science literature. Copies of our translations are routinely sent to the Special Libraries Association Translation Pool a t the John Crerar Library in Chicago. INDEXING
The activity of the technical information section, which has more unique features than any of those already described, is that of the documentation of the literature of tomorrow, or, more prosaically, the indexing of the Laboratories' research reports. Although some indexing had been started earlier, the indexes were neither complete nor up-to-date. Therefore, in 1950 the decision was made to form a group, under the leadership of John H. Fletcher, to study the problem, recommend a solution, and undertake an indexing program. A staff of four young chemists was assembled to work on the project under Dr. Fletcher, and a small printing shop with a printer, both then part of the library's equipment and staff, were made available to the group. After thoroughly studying the matters of subject headings, ancillary indexes, and indexing policy, it was decided that the index should be divided into four parts; a subject index, an author index, a problem (project) number index, and a molecular formula index. Each of these was to be duplicated at one or more other company locations. Entries are made on 3 X 5 rards and a short abstract of the report, as well as its title, bibliographic identification, and authors, is printed on each index card used. The problem number index was the first completed; that is, was the first to be run back in time to the establishment of the Laboratories. The author index was next prepared, using the simple process of turning to the first page of each report and copying out the authors, title, and reference. The molecular formula index is wholly one of chemical compounds. Sources of information leading to entries in this index are not limited to reports, but include all screening programs, purchases, incidental syntheses, etc., an.ywhere in the three laboratories of the research division-Bound Brook, New Jersey; Pearl River, New York; and Stamford. The faces of the cards, which are filed in Remington Rand Kardex drawers, bear the molecular formula, the name under which the compound will be found in the subject index, and the source of the information. The reverse of the card bears the typed structural formula of the compound2 and repeats the molecular formula and the indexing name. If the source of information is a report, this is noted without specific reference merely by checking a box provided on the form, as the actual reference may be found in the subject index. In this respect the formula index serves as an adjunct to the subject index by showing that information on the compound is entered there and by giving the indexing name. If the source is other than a report, this will be noted, and in this case the formula index is a supple%
Chem. Eng. N e w , 30, 2622 (1952).
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
ment to the subject index. The two are thus designed to be used together. The molecular formulas are entered in such a way that the more unusual elements have precedence over the more common, with the most common, carbon and hydrogen, being last. Details of this arrangement have been described by F l e t ~ h e r . ~This arrangement has proved most useful in searching this file, now containing about 35,000 compounds, for functional groupings. It has been estimated that this index may level off a t about 50 to 60 thousand compounds and that its utility in the form chosen will always be greater than a punch card index of the same magnitude. It is less effective only when the functionality being sought is peculiar to the carbon-hydrogen nucleus rather than to the substituent, for example, a C-C triple bond. Although the formula index is invaluable as a guide to the indexing nomenclature as well as for the conducting of searches for structural groupings, still the index of primary importance is the suhject index. There are minor differences, of course, hut by and large the subject indexing principles used are similar to those of Chemical Abstracts. Perhaps the biggest single difference is the greater use of modified main entries and of more extensive secondary entries. Just the opposite, though, is trne of the abstracts. Here, because the total information-main entry, secondary entry, authors, reference, and abstract-is limited to a 3 X 5 card, the abstract must he limited to a maximum of 75 (preferably 60) words while still being as informative as possible. The deficiency in length of abstract is ameliorated by extensive subject indexing of the report itself, and also by the fact that, a t Stamford, a non-circulating copy of the report is kept within a few feet of the index. ORGANIZATION
The organization of the technical information section is shown in the accompanying chart. I t is one of four sections of the research service department, which also includes analytical, testing, and other service units "FI~HER, J. H., AND DOLORES 8. DUBBS, Chem. Eng. News, 34, 5888 (1956).
VOLUME 34, NO. 10, OCTOBER, 1957
Gmup Leader Scienflflc Liferofure
Secrelory
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Leoder
Fi0 Leader
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supporting the research and development programs at Stamford. The department is headed by a director who reports to the director of the Laboratories, and to whom, in turn, the section managers report. The duties of the manager of the technical information section are principally to ensure that the operation of the section fills the needs of the Laboratories. He is in a position to know of the institution of new research programs and of the completion of old, and to modify the activities of the section accordingly. He also maintains close liaison with the other information services of the research division through serving on an intra-divisional library committee established by top management for this purpose. Reporting directly to the manager are his secretary, who is also head of the secretarial-clerical st& of the section, and the group leader of the scientific literature group. The scientific literature group includes, at present, eleven literature scientists in addition to the group leader. The principal responsibilities of the group leader have already been indicated. In addition, he may to some degree act for the section manager in the latter's absence. Five of the literature scientists are assigned to the indexing area and six to the literature service area of the group. Each of these areas is under the supervision of one of the members, who reports to the group leader. A similar arrangement exists in the secretarial-clerical group, where each of the several activities has its own leader.
