FEB. 19, 1921 sosman: distribution of scientific information 73 



(1) personal communication, (2) the public lecture, (3) the museum 

 or exhibition, (4) the printed page, (5) the "movie" film. 



We shall also bear in mind that for our present purposes a fairly 

 sharp division can be drawn between two classes of consumers. The 

 one, relatively small in numbers, consists of those who themselves 

 are also producers of information, while the other consists of the 

 greater part of the country's population. 



Distribution by personal communication. — Undoubtedly the most 

 effective method of distributing information, as far as the individual 

 is concerned, is by personal communication. Anyone who has 

 tried it knows that to discuss an unfamiliar subject with a specialist 

 in that subject for an hour or two is equivalent to reading about it 

 for a week. 



Unfortunately, this method, the most effective of all as regards 

 the individual, is the least effective of all as far as the public is con- 

 cerned. The actual producers of scientific information in the United 

 States form a very small fraction of the population. Those who 

 devote all or part of their time to this pursuit can hardly number 

 more than 50,000. If, then, every person in the country went to 

 an original source only once a year for information, each producer 

 would have to talk with 2120 inquirers per year, or about 7 persons 

 per day on every one of 300 working days. Needless to say, pro- 

 duction of new information would practically cease under such cir- 

 cumstances. 



This interference of distribution with production, which I have 

 just hinted at, is more serious than we are accustomed to consider 

 it, for though every inhabitant of the United States does not seek 

 original information even once a year, there are many inhabitants 

 who seek it much oftener than that. Industrial concerns, with 

 whom reliable new information is often a matter of success or failure, 

 realize the value of personal contact and do not hesitate to send 

 representatives on long journeys and pay their expenses for con- 

 siderable periods, in order to get into personal touch with original 

 sources. The public or quasi-public investigator also realizes it, 

 sometimes to his sorrow. There is frequent complaint from members 

 of the Government scientific bureaus that their time is seriously 

 broken up by requests for information, in person, by telephone, or 

 by letter. As one member of an active research organization expressed 

 it, "I wish they would give me either the job of supplying information 

 or the job of doing research; I cannot attempt both at once without 

 spoiling them both." 



