184 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION 



Learned Societies) is not so much a bibliography as a necessary 

 preHmiuary to any thorough bibhographic work involving the liter- 

 ature of science. 



Respectfully submitted. 



Herbert Putnam, Chairman^ 

 Cyrus Adler, 

 J. S. Billings, 



Cotnmittee. 



October 20, 1902. 



Stipplementary Stiggestions by the Chairman of the Committee, 



January 5, ipoj. 



The field of bibliography is all existing literature, with continua- 

 tions. 



From time to time there have been projects of a universal bibli- 

 ography. There is one such project now under way. The Inter- 

 national Institute at Brussels is attempting a universal catalogue, by 

 author and by subject, or rather by class, the classes being based on 

 the decimal system. The entries are, for the most part, composed 

 of clippings from catalogues. They are thus made at second hand. 

 They lack the bibliographic value which exists in an entry made 

 direct from the book itself. They are on cards, and thus lack the 

 utility possible in a catalogue, copies of which are multiplied in book 

 form for distribution. Granting, however, the possibility of a uni- 

 versal bibliography, no member of your committee would, I think, 

 have recommended it for the consideration of the Carnegie Institu- 

 tion. The field is too vast, the expense too great, the utility of the 

 results, in the only form which they could be secured, too doubtful. 



The field of bibliography may be divided in three ways : (a) by 

 territory, {b) by subject, (<:) by period. 



{a) In a division by territory the area for the Carnegie Institution 

 would naturally be the United States. Attempts to cover the litera- 

 ture of this country are indicated under National Bibliographies, 

 United States, on page 5 of the Appendix to the Committee's Report. 

 The completion of Sabin, which now comes down to the letter S, is 

 highly desirable, but it is likely to be undertaken as a commercial 

 venture by the successors of the firm which instituted the work. 

 The printed cards of the Library of Congress will in the course of 



