SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION NOTES Q225 154 V.10 LIBRARY -reporting national and international developments in scientific and technical information dissemination FEBRUARY-MARCH 1968 VOL. 10, No. 1 National Science Foundation Support Goes To Promote Development of National Physics Information System, Liaison Between Disciplines Development of a National Physics Information System (NPIS) by the American Institute of Physics (AIP) has begun under a grant of $239,000 from the Office of Science Information Service of the National Science Foundation. This is the initial funding for a two-year project which will cost over a million dollars. Another NSF grant, to the American Mathematical Society (AMS), will tie in science information technology in mathematics with the developing physics system as well as with systems in the allied disciplines of engineering science and chemistry. AMS has received $23,500 for interdisciplinary liaison and for consideration and solution of science information problems specific to mathematics. In conjunction with its work on a physics nformation system, AIP has taken over the responsibility for maintenance of the data base in a bibliographic system known as TIP (Technical Information Project), which had reached a state of operational readiness under NSF-supported development by the Massahusetts Institute of Technology. NSF coninues to support this project with a current grant to AIP of $149,000. Dr. H. William Koch, director of AIP, is ›roviding general direction for the physics inormation program with the assistance of a taff expected to exceed 30 computer, scientific, nd professional personnel. Administering the nformation Division of the AIP is Arthur Herschman, physicist and former editor of The Physical Review; and the deputy director of he division is Franz Alt. Dr. Alt will direct he TIP maintenance project. NSF support is expected to enable the United tates physics community to develop techiques for effective communication of physics formation. The program will cover both tra ditional methods of the communication of physics knowledge and "creative simplifications," such as condensations, indexes, reviews, and compilations of evaluated data. The problem in physics information is produced by the rapid growth of the published literature, which threatens a breakdown in communications among scientists. Added to this peril are increasing costs of physics journals, time delays in journal publication, and the decreasing relative number of subscribers to these scientific periodicals. Since 1950 the total pages of scientific literature published by AIP and its seven member societies have risen from 11,000 to 59,000 pages. AIP publishes 20 U.S. journals and bulletins and a dozen journals translated from Russian and one from Chinese. The system development work is planned in two main parts: (1) analysis of information elements in order to permit retrieval of physics knowledge by means of computers; and (2) systems analysis and development directed toward an operational nation-wide information program. Five principal activities will comprise: (a) creation of a "classification scheme" for (c) evolution of a computer composition program for physics journals using magnetic tape; (d) survey of changing needs of the user; and (e) operation of a physics information network. To take over TIP, AIP will assimilate skills necessary to perform this function independently of MIT. These skills may be employed to modify the TIP file to correspond more closely to the specific requirements of AIP by adding indexing information. The plan for accomplishing the input function consists of continued iteration of an established algorithm keyed to the arrival rate of the 38 journals covered in each input cycle. The project will serve as a link between computer photo-composition activities and the indexing and retrieval functions of an over-all National Physics Information System. Integration of work of the AMS Committee to Monitor Problems in Communication with the interdisciplinary liaison effort will be accomplished by means of monthly seminars held by AMS at institutions representative of the disciplines involved. The AMS project is expected to contribute to the development of a concept of a national mathematics information system. The seminar activity should induce technological cross-fertilization among related disciplines and assist them to avoid duplicative or unproductive efforts. New COSATI Panel Officers Named; A new COSATI panel-the Panel on Legal Aspects of Information Systems-has started operations. COSATI, the Committee on Scientific and Technical Information of the Federal Council for Science and Technology, now functions with seven panels to advise the Executive on information science matters. Edward J. Brunenkant of the Atomic Energy Commission is chairman of the new panel. The executive secretary is Arthur J. Caron, Jr., of the Department of Defense. The COSATI Panel on Management of Information Activities recently acquired new officers: Walter C. Christensen of the Department of Defense chairs this panel, and James Hodges of the Defense Supply Agency acts as executive secretary. Committee to Advise NINDB on Its A new Advisory Committee has been formed by the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness (NINDB) to advise on the needs and progress of the NINDB Science Information Programs. NINDB has established a Neurological Information Network, currently comprising four specialized centers, as one of the primary activities of Science Information Programs. Several other information service programs are being developed. The new committee will provide counsel on the Science Information Programs' objectives, operations, results, and future needs. It will also review the general progress of the Information Network and evaluate the impact of NINDB information programs on the biomedical community. The Neurological Information Network centers are the Parkinson's Disease Information and Research Center at Columbia University; Brain Information Center at the University of California, Los Angeles; Information Center for Hearing and Speech and Disorders of Human Communication at Johns Hopkins University; and Vision Information Center at Harvard University. These centers identify, evaluate, store, retrieve, and disseminate scientific literature in their respective fields. They also provide related library, bibliographic, and reference services and sponsor workshops and meetings. As envisioned, information services for all the neurological and sensory disorders will eventually be included in the Network. Other NINDB scientific information service programs include the Cerebrovascular Dis orders Information Service, the Epilepsy Information Service, the publication of scientific monographs, and the sponsorship of workshops, meetings, conferences, and the visiting scientist program. All of these programs will come under the aegis of the Advisory ComImittee. Members of the new committee, who will serve for four years, are Allen Kent, chairman, Bernard Fry, Henry Heyl, Joseph Leiter, John L. Lindsay, Aran Sefir, Ben H. Senturia, Gustavus S. Simpson, Jr., and Maurice W. Van Allen. Joseph F. Caponio, scientific and technical communications officer, NINDB, is the committee's executive secretary. Edgar A. Bering, Jr., special assistant to the director for program analysis, NINDB, is the project officer for science information activities. Smithsonian Institution Implements Automation of information retrieval processes should help keep museums from bogging down in massive quantities of data. What's more, it should change the museums from being mere passive repositories of millions of non-unique objects to participating dynamically in education and in management of the environment and the biota-essential functions in today's world. That is the expectation of the developers of the Smithsonian Institution Information Retrieval System (SIIRS). = Donald F. Squires, deputy directory of the Smithsonian's Museum of National History, is leading the pilot effort to automate the Museum's accumulation of data on three of its collections. The Museum now houses some 50,000,000 specimens and is acquiring specimens at a rate of 1,000,000 annually. I Thanks are due to the Library and Information Sciences Branch of the Office of Education, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, for funding the initiation of SIIRS. The process is already proving more economical than the classical method of handling museum data. During the training period alone, SIIRS has demonstrated a 70% increase in efficiency in the preparation of data by the cataloger or data recorder. Curators and researchers are relieved of much of the overwhelming clerical burden of records maintenance and can devote more useful time to actual research. And, as a fringe benefit, a machine-readable punched paper tape is produced during the preparation of data records. With the introduction of punched paper tape machines for preparation of standard paper files for the collections, savings in manpower offset the cost of these machines in the first year of operation. The Museum of Natural History has 36 collection units identifiable as discrete scientific areas with specialized requirements. Because museum data-the hows, whats, and whys of the specimens have certain elements in common, it was possible to set up a generalized format applicable to the various collections while still taking into consideration the specific requirements of each collection. The initial collections tackled, oceanic birds, marine crustacea, and marine rocks, have already proved so amenable to incorporation in the system that extension to related areas has begun. Promise of eventual cross-disciplinary information retrieval is offered by SIIRS. SIIRS utilizes elements of traditional museum practice-specimen labels, record cards, unique specimen numbers-but automates the production of these records and the simultaneous production of material suitable for computer use. The economy of the production process is expected to encourage compilation of more complete information about the specimens, and the concomitant computerization of this information will permit more sophisticated manipulation of data involving, for example, interrelationships between organisms and the environment. In operation, the cataloger receives the specimens and data as in the past but prepares the specimen label with the microtypewriter. In preparing this label the operator is also generating a punched paper tape, which, fed into the reader, produces the requisite number of file cards and then is entered into the data storage and retrieval system. The individual specimen forms the core of the system. SIIRS contain a primary level of information on the specimen. On top of this, a secondary level of, say, bibliographic citations to references in which the specimen was described is built. Tertiary levels of information are concerned with the concept of the species of which the specimen is an example. FEBRUARY-MARCH 1968 3 |