new coding system for aec
TRANSCRIPT
L I T E R A T U R E
New Coding System for AEC May convert older cataloging devices so that both conventional and electronic sifting are possible
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A NEW LANGUAGE IX CODING h o l d s Out
hope of solving a how-to-find-it dilemma in modern knowledge almost equal to how-to-do-it. The project is now unde r way in the offices of Herner, Meyer and Co., which is working in close cooperation with the Atomic ^Energy Commission. The dilemma has been created by a piling u p of publications in all fields. Many say that t he dilemma can be solved only by "electronic brain" methods.
At work on nonsecret files of the A E C in Washington, D . C , is a team headed by Saul Herner and Rober t S. Meyer. They are testing a system that can b e used " by hand'* and by mechanical devices, too. According to the researchers, preliminary tests show that even by manual methods their cataloging system may b e as much as seven and a half t imes faster than the systems now in use.
• How the System Works · Herner and Meyer are working up a system that will tell scientists in their own language how to find just what they are looking for instead of setting them loose more or less a t random in the vast scientific pasture. They are doing this by converging a major subject to single aspects of it. Classifications are carefully keyed to each other so as to guide the user t o his goal.
As for the "input" phases of the system, actual timing shows that this process takes an average of two minutes of classifying t ime per document as against a 15-minute average under customary methods.
Herner and Meyer say that not until the wor th of t h e method has been nailed down by conventional means, however, will it b e applied to mechanical devices.
• Pre l iminary Testing. Students, who have not been trained either in the proposed system or in any other in its field, are being used to pu t the Herner-Meyer system to test. T h e same documents will be filled and retrieved by the same students under bo th the existing system and the Herner-Meyer method. This is to determine the performance and t ime, and hence the money advantage of one system over the other.
One claim for the Herner-Meyer system is that it avoids classifying every
possible subject from every possible approach as do the regular library systems. This is claimed t o speed u p cataloging and searching b y minimizing the number of places the users of the system have to look.
The system is adapted specifically to the literature of an almost limitless body of knowledge and is presented in terms used b y those familiar with that literature. To pin down t h e language and the viewpoint of t h e actual user of AEC information, Herner and Meyer are screening several thousand reference questions which have been received by AEC libraries over the past few years.
Herner, Meyer and Co., 2625 Eye Street, N.W., Washington, is a library planning firm specializing in the design of information systems. Recently, it received a grant from the National Science Foundation t o study the usefulness of its proposed system.
NEW BOOKS
Man's Physical Universe: A Survey of Physical Science for Colleges, 4th ed. ARTHUR TALBOT BAWDEN. XV -f- 822 pages. The MacMillan Co., 60 Fifth Ave., New York 11, Ν. Υ. 1957. $6.25.
A text for survey course in physical science. Aims to give the student an over-all view of the fields concerned, and an understanding of their principles and relationships. Also, aims to aid the student in determining whether he wishes to specialize in any aspect of the field.
Fun with Science. MAE AND IRA FREEMAN. 60 pages. Random House, Inc., 457 Madison Ave., New York 22, Ν. Υ. 1956. $1.50.
Easy experiments for young people. The experiments can be done at home with no more complicated apparatus than rulers, tumblers, rubber bands, and the like.
Amino Acid Handbook. Methods and Results of Protein Analysis. RICHARD J. BLOCK, xiii -f- 386 pages. Charles C Thomas, 301-327 East Lawrence Ave., Springfield, 111. 1956. $10.50.
Tried and proved examples of the three most widely used methods of amino acid analysis—that is, by microoreanisms, by column chromatography, and by paper chromatography. Also includes a tabulation of the amino acid composition of proteins, biologically active polypeptides, and foods.
Number 14 i n Advances in Chemistry Series
edited by the staff of Industrial and Engineering
Chemistry
NOMENCLATURE FOR TERPENE HYDROCARBONS A system of nomenclature for terpene hydrocarbons (including sections on information to aid in t h e reading of terpene litei-ature) which was prepared by Mildred W . Grafflin. 11 has been accepted b y the Nomenclature Committee of t h e Amer ican Chemical Society's Division of Organic Chemistry and approved b y the ACS on recommendation of its general Nomenclature, Spelling and Pronunciation Committee. Accepted by the IUPAC. 109 pages.
paper bound—$3.00
order jrom : Special Publ icat ions Dept. American Chemical Society 1155 Sixteenth Street, N . W. Washington 6, D. C .
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