FEB. 19, 1921 sosman: distribution of scientific information 89 



feres with the "team work" necessary to make an organization success- 

 ful, as such. Another effect is to drive him altogether out of public 

 or philanthropic research into industrial research, where it is commonly- 

 assumed (whether rightly or wrongly I do not venture to say) that 

 "silence is golden." 



The above remarks do not apply, it hardly need be said, to the 

 personal exchange of information among investigators; this is a part 

 of the process of production rather than distribution. 



The informational middleman. — Once in a while it happens that an 

 individual who has undertaken to do research finds the personal 

 retailing of information much more to his taste than the slow and 

 tedious and discouraging task of digging it up. He should by all 

 means be given a chance to utilize the talent, with a corresponding 

 release of burdens on the research worker. Some of the Federal 

 bureaus already have what might be called "secretaries for foreign 

 affairs" who stand between the bureau and the public, but I believe 

 their functions could be profitably enlarged; the large proportion 

 of simple and oft-repeated questions which comes to them might be 

 transferred to a central bureau of information representing all the 

 scientific bureaus, which might also handle that most time-consuming 

 of all inquirers, the "harmless crank." 



The large research foundations are so new that the public is not 

 yet widely aware of their existence as sources of knowledge, or, when 

 it is aware of them, assumes that they are manufacturing something 

 tangible and salable. As they become better known, however, they 

 will have to provide some organization for answering questions, for 

 they are public institutions in an environment which is relatively 

 unsympathetic, and considers them all too frequently as possible 

 sources of alms but of little else. They cannot afford to overlook 

 any method of enlisting public confidence. 



The retailer of information for profit is also likely to increase in 

 numbers in the future. In the field of medicine, for instance, it is 

 now possible to consult the diagnostician who reports facts only and 

 offers no treatment or advice, and this kind of service will increase 

 with the increase in medical specialization. We may even perceive 

 a kind of w^holesale and retail system in the course of development, 

 the wholesale distribution being through specialized bureaus by way 

 of technical publications to which the public has little if any access, 

 but which the information office digests and retails to its inquirers. 

 Various commercial information bureaus in Washington, such as that 

 of F. J. Haskin, perform this kind of ser^'ice. 



