110 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1920. 



two volumes have been published, indexing the scientific literature of the period 

 1901-1914. An extraordinarily broad, sound foundation has been laid and much 

 helpful experience gained. The difficulties that were expected to arise have 

 either been nonexistent or were easily overcome. To have established so 

 complete an organization on a thoroughly successful working basis is in itself 

 a feat of no mean order and most creditable to all concerned, not only to the 

 staff of the Central Bureau but also to the various regional bureaus. 



The real difficulty by which the work has always been hampered is want of 

 a working capital; this has affected both the Central and the regional bureaus. 

 Had funds been always available, publication would have been far more rapid 

 and the work might have been more fully developed. Almost every criticism 

 that has been leveled at the Catalogue involves its extension, and therefore 

 additional expenditure. 



The International Catalogue was established primarily to meet 

 the demands of scientific workers by furnishing an annual authors' 

 and subject catalogue and index to the literature of each of the recog- 

 nized branches of science; but as it is now evident that a general 

 revision of the methods of production will be necessary, as soon as 

 international affairs become stabilized, it would appear advisable 

 when this revision becomes operative to establish some form of co- 

 operation with the many existing abstract journals and, so far as 

 possible, to encourage and aid the establishment of abstract journals 

 in sciences not already represented. This need for abstract journals 

 is now pressing for recognition, especially in the United States, and 

 the preparation and publication of abstracts is so akin to that of 

 scientific yearbooks that economy of effort in the production of both 

 branches of bibliography evidently demands a very close cooperation. 

 These abstract journals, organized and directed by workers in the 

 several sciences represented, would, when published, form the basis 

 of the annual volumes of an authors' and subject index similar to 

 the present International Catalogue of Scientific Literature, pref- 

 erably by the reorganization of that international project which 

 already receives official recognition and support from practically 

 all of the countries of the world, acting through some 30 regional 

 bureaus. 



By some simply organized method of cooperation between the 

 abstract journals and the Catalogue, both branches would mutually 

 aid one another to a very great extent and w^ould in practice act as 

 one organization. The abstracts and citations published in the ab- 

 stract journals would form the basis of the Catalogue, thereby 

 greatly simplifying the work of the regional bureaus, which in turn 

 would aid the abstract journals in many ways and relieve them of 

 the necessity of publishing annual indexes, at present quite an ex- 

 pensive and laborious undertaking. The abstract journals and annual 

 indexes would together furnish to scientific investigators, librarians, 

 and others interested in scientific subjects all that they severally 

 require. 



