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Museum and University Data, Program, and Information Exchange 
SYMPOSIUM ON INFORMATION PROBLEMS IN NATURAL SCIENCES 
This symposium was held December 18-20, in Mexico City, under the sponsor¬ 
ship of the Universidad Nacional de Mexico and the Smithsonian Institution. It 
brought together about 60 people with mutual interest in methods of keeping up 
with the large amounts of information available and accumulating. The focus on 
various methods of coping with data pertaining to large collections, and work 
in progress was discussed. The storage of information by museums, such as 
catalogue records, and the rapid retrieval of this information on demand, re¬ 
ceived considerable attention. Several papers covered attempts to make 
bibliographic materials more easy to manipulate. Several methods of preparing, 
handling, and writing systematic keys were described, as was work with storage 
and retrieval of data derived from specific research projects. Conclusions 
drawn by one participant [j. A. Peters] after three days of papers and 
discussion include the following (it should be clear that these conclusions 
probably reflect my biases, and cannot be interpreted as representing the 
results of the symposium in any way): 
1. There are two distinct approaches to storage and retrieval of data: the 
first involves information pertinent to a specific problem, but of such 
a magnitude that it is difficult if not impossible to handle it without 
electronic methods; the second involves information that is not immedi¬ 
ately in demand, and not necessarily pertinent to any existing problem, 
but that represents the total body of information about a specific group 
of objects, with constant demand for changing parts of that body, although 
its total is never required at any one time. The first approach is used 
by an individual or group in a specific research project, and the stored 
information, finally summarized in a single or series of publications, 
might as well be discarded upon completion. The second is used by many 
different workers interested in a multitude of projects, is constantly 
growing as a consequence of additional collections of objects, and its 
value increases both with use and with age. 
2. It is now completely feasible to perform both tasks, in the sense that 
computers have the capacity to handle the masses of information. Use of 
computer methods seem to be equally practical and wise, in fact almost 
mandatory, in the first approach mentioned above. There was, however, a 
considerable division of opinion concerning the practicality and wisdom 
of computer use in the second approach. It seems clear that it can be 
practical, in the sense that money has been made available for several 
such projects currently in progress, although it has so far invariably 
been funded by sources extraneous to the budget of the museum or univer¬ 
sity concerned. Representatives of smaller museums repeatedly pointed 
out that it cannot be practical for their institutions, because their 
budgets will never be large enough. Even were one to assume complete 
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