432 THE NEW WORLD OF SCIENCE 



service of the proposed type. The labor of preparing 

 the data in an accurate way, and the difficulties of keep- 

 ing it up to date, are obvious, but they are in no sense 

 insuperable. 



(d) It is planned to develop a library of sources of research 

 information. This would include bibliographies, syste- 

 matic abstracts, digests, hand books, and other conveni- 

 ent periodical or special sources of information concern- 

 ing research. There has already been prepared as a 

 preliminary step a catalogue of bibliographic and abstract 

 periodicals of the world. 



(e) For the use of the several Divisions of the Council, there 

 has been prepared a catalague of scientific and technical 

 societies with information concerning the time and place 

 of meeting. 



(f) An index of approximately 12,000 cards has been pre- 

 pared, covering all foreign reports received by the Re- 

 search Information Service. 



(g) A plan has been devised for improving the status of 

 scientific publications, and especially for rendering ab- 

 stracting and the construction of hand books more 

 satisfactory. It involves cooperation with the several 

 Divisions of the Council in the conduct of systematic 

 enquiry concerning the status of publications in special 

 fields and possible methods of improvement. 



With respect to bibliographic listing and abstracting 

 the following features of the general plan deserve re- 

 mark : 



(i) Formulation of carefully considered and thoroughly 

 tested rules for the preparation of abstracts in any 

 given field of science. The inadequacy of indices 

 is due chiefly to the fact that the title of an article 

 is assumed to be an accurate and complete guide 

 to its contents, which is very rarely the case. It is 

 highly desirable, therefore, that a system be devised 

 which will present in the briefest and most precise 



