Commonwealth of Australia: Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Catalogue of the Scientific and Technical Periodicals in the Libraries of Australia

Abstract

THE problem of rendering available to scientific JL workers the torrent of information now being poured out by the Press is in urgent need of thorough investigation. Obviously, the task comprises five processes—(1) it is necessary to ascertain exactly and immediately all that is published, so that no information may be overlooked; (2) means must be provided for collecting all the material, in order that it may (3) be thoroughly indexed, so that (4) complete bibliographies on special subjects may be supplied to research workers on demand and (5) they may be able to obtain the volumes containing the desired information for study. Merely to state these requirements is to realise that not a single one of them is adequately met. Yet the cost of an organisation, to deal completely with the task would not be much greater than that of the upkeep of one of the large public libraries, certainly much less than of some in America, and, until a practical solution to the problem, as a whole, has been found, scientific workers must continue to waste their energy in useless repetition. It is time that the question was taken in hand.

Commonwealth of Australia: Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. Catalogue of the Scientific and Technical Periodicals in the Libraries of Australia.

Ernest R. Pitt. Pp. xxiv + 1208. (Melbourne: H. J. Green, 1930.) 10s.