237 



Report of the Committee on "A List of the Scien 



TiFic AND Technical Serials in the Libraries 



OF THE State of Indiana." 



In submitting to the Academy the final results of "the work of your com- 

 mittee it S3ems desirable that some explanations should be made. The 

 former catalogue, published in the Proceedings of 1911, owing to the short 

 time allowed for its preparation, was compiled in such haste as to be very 

 defective both typographically and in its completeness. It is doubtful if 

 anyone realized the size of the task or the difficulties to be encountered when 

 the committee was first organized. The extension of the scope of the list 

 as well as the number of libraries to be included in the present revised list 

 has more than doubled the size of the catalogue and has greatly multiplied 

 the difficulties. 



Owing to the wide distribution of the libraries it has not been possible 

 for the committee to inspect the serials of every library, and the work has 

 been largely carried on by correspondence and the cooperation of many 

 librarians. Although this has often put a considerable burden of work upon 

 the librarians or their assistants the committee cannot complain of any lack 

 of genuine interest and hearty co-operation in ovu- undertaking. It is, how- 

 ever, impossible to formulate a practicable set of rules for the guidance of 

 librarians in making out their lists that will provide for all contingencies. 

 The task of correlating the numerous items in these many lists has been ex- 

 tremely difficult and in frequent cases impossible with any degree of cer- 

 tainty. For example, what is probably the same serial appears in two dif- 

 ferent lists under slightly different titles, as for instance one says "reports," 

 another "transactions," and without the serial at hand the committee can 

 not determine whether these are the same or distinct series. We have tried 

 to eliminate duplication by careful comparison with other catalogued lists. 

 But after the utmost care there still remains a large residue of doubtful mat- 

 ter of this sort, while in some instances we may have identified series that 

 should have been kept distinct. A number of titles have not been found in 

 any of the serial catalogues which we have consulted and the doubt remains 



