ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON BIBIvIOGRAPHY 1 83 



literature upon a given subject, or within a certain area or period, 

 there must be added the catalogues and topical lists issued by libra- 

 ries of material in their own collections, where the collection has 

 been developed with a view to relative completeness. Nor can there 

 be omitted from consideration trade catalogues, reviews in current 

 journals, and selected lists of authorities appended to treatises ; for 

 any proposal for a grant by the Carnegie Institution assumes that 

 the investigator is in present need of information as to the literature 

 of his subject not now convenientl}', precisely, or adequately acces- 

 sible to him. If, for example, it be proposed for the Institution that 

 it shall undertake a comprehensive bibliography, the work of the In- 

 stitute at Brussels must be reckoned with ; if a national bibliography 

 for the United States, Sabin, the American Catalogue, the publications 

 of the American Library Association, the Card Indexes of the 

 Library of Congre.ss, and other undertakings which in the aggregate 

 are likeh- to cover, even though unevenl)', this area ; if the litera- 

 ture of the natural and physical sciences, the Royal Society Index, 

 the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature, the publications 

 of the Concilium Bibliographicum at Zurich, and the various Cen- 

 tralblatter and Jahresberichte, etc., etc. 



On the other hand, the existing bibliographies vary greatly in 

 form, in method, in accuracy, in completeness, and in acces.sibility ; 

 so that the mere existence of a bibliography dealing with a certain 

 branch of science, or a certain period or area, is by no means con- 

 clusive against a proposal for further work within the same field — or 

 in continuation — for the subject matter continuing, the bibliographic 

 record of it is never ended. A bibliography thorough within its 

 field may be insufficient because it includes entries by author only, 

 while the investigator requires a classification by subject ; or it may 

 be on cards, while his convenience requires a publication in book 

 form ; or, if of current literature, its issue may be so tardy as to defeat 

 its utility ; or, having all merits to his need, it may have failed, or 

 be in peril of failing, as a commercial venture and require and jus- 

 tify a grant in its aid. 



Your committee deems it futile in this report to define a result- 

 ant appropriate field of activity for the Carnegie Institution. It 

 contents itself with responding to the particular proposals already 

 submitted, which it has endeavored to test by a consideration of the 

 existing facilities, and to recommend for immediate action only two, 

 the first of which (the Index Medicus) has already demonstrated its 

 utility and necessity, and the second of which (the Handbook to 



