ington, D.C. 20390), the Italian National Oceanographic Data Service (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Servizio Nazionale Raccolta Dati Oceanografici, Piazzale delle Scienze, 7, 00100 Rome, Italy), the Spanish Oceanographic Data Centre (C.E.D.O., Alcala, 27, Madrid, Spain), the German Oceanographic Data Center (Deutsches Ozeanographisches Datenzentrum, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Federal Republic of Germany), and the Canadian Oceanographic Data Centre (Ottawa, Canada). In addition, the International-Hydrographic Bureau (Oceanographic Institute, Monaco) conducts extensive data gathering, processing, and dissemination operations. The 1968 issues of the Newsletter of the U.S. National Oceanographic Data Center carry informative background articles on some of these data centers. U. K. Ergonomics Info Centre To set up an Ergonomics Information Centre, the Office for Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) in the United Kingdom has granted £11,000 over three years to the Department of Engineering Production, Birmingham University, John G. Fox will direct the project. The information service will consist initially of a priced quarterly abstracts journal and of specialized bibliographies prepared on request. It is planned that these will be self-supporting within three years, and OSTI's grant will be reduced as subscriptions increase. The Centre will try to answer specific queries and hopes particularly to refer inquirers from industry to appropriate research establishments. The abstracts journal will continue a service previously available from the Warren Spring Laboratory, Stevenage. About 10,000 abstracts have been produced annually under this service. The Centre will work in close collaboration with the Human Engineering Information and Analysis Service, Tufts University in the United States, the aim being to provide jointly for world-wide coverage of information of interest to people working in the field of ergonomics. An associated project for the evaluation of alternative means of communicating research and technical information in this field will use the Centre for testing purposes. Rapid Computer Composition Attained by Japanese Information Center System A rapid system for computerized composition of Japanese text has been developed by the Japanese Information Center for Science and Technology (JICST), according to a report by the JICST representative presented in July at a Paris meeting of the Science Information Policy Group of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The computer composition system utilizes Kanjii (Chinese characters). The new computer-controlled system reportedly composes text at a rate of 200 to 600 characters per second. German Astronomical Journal to Extend Coverage; Will Appear in English World-wide coverage in the fields of astronomy and astrophysics will be offered by Astronomischer Jahresberichte, according to plans of the editors." The journal will also increase the accessibility of this information by initiating publication in English beginning in January 1969. British Library Association Journal A new Journal of Librarianship will appear beginning in January 1969. The Library Association of Great Britain plans the quarterly publication as a medium for longer review and research articles and longer critical book reviews. Articles will be commissioned and solicited. CODATA Central Office Moves to Frankfurt, Germany The Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA), of the International Council of Scientific Unions formally relocated its central office in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, on July 1, 1968. For the prior two years the office has been housed in the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. The Third Annual Meeting of CODATA (June 28 and 29) in Frankfurt and the First International CODATA Conference (June 30-July 5) in Arnoldshain, Taunus Mountains, near Frankfurt, accompanied the opening of the Frankfurt office. At the CODATA meeting Canada, represented by R. N. Jones of Ottawa, officially became the seventh member country of CODATA. Guy Waddington, former executive director of the Washington office, was elected to membership as a co-opted expert. The Bureau of CODATA was enlarged from four to six members, the two additions being M. Kotani of Japan and M. A. Styrikovich of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The Arnoldshain conference brought together 90 leaders in data evaluation work from 13 countries. Chaired by W. Klemm of Germany, the week-long meeting was run on "Gordon Conference" lines; its aim was to improve contacts among data compilers of the world. Noteworthly developments from the discussions were proposals for higher quality and better indexes of spectral data collections and the initiation of a cooperative attack on the evaluation of numerical data for chemical kinetics. The executive director of the new Frankfurt CODATA office will be C. Schaefer, who was formerly assistant director of the Washington office. The new address is ICSU CODATA Central Office, Westendstrasse 19, 6 Frankfurt/ Main, Federal Republic of Germany. British Cataloguing Project Funded Experiments in the collection of cataloguing information and its handling by computer will be carried out by the Bodleian Library at Oxford, the University Library at Cambridge, and the British Museum. The Old Dominion Foundation of New York has made a grant of $55,000 for the experiments. The experiments are to be a pilot project for a union catalogue of early books (up to 1801) in all languages in the British Museum and in the college and university libraries at Oxford and Cambridge. The experiments, called collectively Project LOC, are expected to take a year. The project will be administered and controlled by representatives of the three institutions and will be under the direction of J. W. Jolliffe of the British Museum. The processing of the information will be carried out on the Titan computer at Cambridge. Communications Congress in Genoa The XVI International Congress of Trans ports and Communications (XVI Convegno Internazionale Delle Comunicazioni) will take place October 8-12 in Genoa, Italy. Sponsored by the Istituto Internazionale delle Comunicazioni, the congress has as its recurring theme "Progress and Inter-connection in Communications." In addition, this year's other special theme will be "World-Wide Trends in Telecommunications Development." A session on communication theory will include a general report on "Recent Developments and Application of Information Theory" by Francesco Carassa. Another session of special interest will cover techniques of information diffusion, with a general report by Silvio Ceccato on "Planned Teaching among the Techniques of Knowledge Diffusion." Simultaneous translation will be provided for the Italian, French, English, German, and Russian languages. For further information apply to the Segreteria Generale 1.1.C., 18, Viale Brigate Partigiane, 16129 Genova, Italy. Project Planning by Network Analysis The Second International Congress on Project Planning by Network Analysis, INTERNET 1969, will be held October 6-10, 1969 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The Congress is jointly sponsored by the Royal Institute of Engineers, the Netherlands Society of Statisticians, and the Netherlands Automatic Information Processing Research Centre. Approximately 400 participants are expected to attend. Among subjects to be covered are managerial problems, structure analysis, the use of computers, and stochastic aspects. For further information please apply to the local secretariat, c/o Holland Organizing Centre, 16 Lange Voorhout, The Hague, The Netherlands. Symposium on Communications The Canadian Symposium on Communications 1968 is scheduled for November 7-8 in Montreal, Canada. Information about the program may be obtained from Arthur H. Gregory, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Box 802, Station B, Montreal 2, Quebec, Canada. EDUCATION AND TRAINING Extensive Support Given by OE for Academic Libraries' Purchases Federal grants totaling more than $57 million have been made by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to institutions of higher learning over the past three years for the purchase of books and other educational materials. Grants of more than $24.5 million went to 1,900 colleges and universities during the fiscal year which ended June 30. Approximately the same amount was made available in the previous fiscal year. In FY 1966, when the program started, $8 million was made available to more than 1,800 institutions. The program, designed to build up the libraries of colleges and universities, is administered by the United States Office of Education under Title II-A of the Higher Education Act of 1965. It enables colleges and universities and heir branch campuses to buy tapes, recordngs, audio-visual materials, and other library naterials as well as books, periodicals, and ocuments. Three types of grant-basic, special purpose, nd supplemental-are available to instituions. Basic grants for the purchase of library tems, awarded on a dollar-for-dollar matching asis, to 1,888 institutions in all the states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and he Virgin Islands totaled approximately $10.3 million this year. In addition, 1,542 of these nstitutions were given supplemental grants of pproximately $10.8 million. Sixty institutions were awarded special purose grants totaling more than $3.4 million. hese grants are awarded on a matching basis f one institutional dollar for every three dolars of Federal funds. nformation Retrieval Courses A series of seminars in information retrieval ill be conducted by Freeman H. Dyke, Jr., or the Industrial Education Institute (IEI) nd the Association for Computing Machinery ACM) in cities across the United States this all. The ACM one-day seminar on "The Role of the Computer in Technical Information Systems" will take place in Boston, Washington, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Diego. IEI's three one-day seminars and a threeday workshop will cover "Managing and Using Technical Information," "Planning and Implementing a Technical Information Center," "Indexing and Abstracting," and "Microfilm and Its Applications." They will be held in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Detroit, Chicago, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Hershey, Pittsburgh, three other cities on the East Coast, and four cities in the Midwest. Further information can be obtained from Mr. Dyke, 4305 Crossway Court, Rockville, Maryland 20853. Computer Science and Programing Courses Special information science courses are being offered in the 1968-1969 year by New York University (NYU). Both high school and college students are involved in computer science work at NYU's School of Commerce. The School has developed a special program, beginning this fall, for college students leading to a bachelor of science degree in the computer sciences. In the summer the School offers work in computer science to high school juniors in the Summer Institute in Computer Application, an intensive, sixweek, tuition-free course in computer science. A new course, "System/360 Programming, Systems Design and Analysis," will be offered this fall by NYU's Division of Business and Management, School of Continuing Education. The Division, just created, embraces the longestablished Management Institute, the Real Estate Institute, the Mortgage Banking and Investment Institute, and the new Data Processing and Systems Analysis Institute. New ERIC Clearinghouse Set Up Establishment of a new document clearing house for information about research findings and other new developments in teacher education has been announced by the United States Office of Education (OE). The new clearinghouse is part of the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), a network of 18 clearinghouses that collect and disseminate educational research documents, articles, and bibliographic resources of use to the educational community. The new ERIC clearinghouse, established with a grant of $127,000, will process information about teacher education and elementary and secondary school teachers. It will be operated in Washington, D.C., by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, the National Commission of Teacher Education and Professional Standards, and the Association for Student Teaching. It replaces a clearinghouse on school personnel at the City University of New York, which ended operations earlier this year. The ERIC system is supported by the OE Bureau of Research under Title IV of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which provides funds for dissemination of research information. The 18 ERIC clearinghouses are conducted by universities and professional organizations throughout the country. Each collects, screens, catalogues, and disseminates information on a different subject area in education. ERIC stores the full texts of the documents and makes them available to the educational community in pamphlet form or on microfiche (4-by 6-inch sheets of film containing about 60 pages of material). New acquisitions are announced in Research in Education, a monthly abstract journal which is available from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. ERIC Receives Award The Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) of the Bureau of Research was given the Office of Education's Superior Service Award by Commissioner of Education Harold Howe II. The citation reading "For imaginative leadership and outstanding performance in building an educational information system based on a novel combination of Federal, university, professional organization, and industrial resources" is the highest honor that can be given to a group of employees by the Office of Education. Members of the ERIC staff introduced by David S. Pollen, deputy associate commissioner for research, were Lee G. Burchinal, director, Information Technology and Dissemination; Harvey Marron, chief, ERIC; William Buehner, Frank Bryars, Millie Chase, Shirley Datcher, James Eller, Charles Missar, Lawrence Papier, Frank Smardak, Rosalie Spence, Patricia Sullivan, Delmer Trester, and Loretta Williams. MEETINGS Automation and Society Symposium The First Annual Symposium on Automation and Society will take place February 17-19, 1969, in Athens, Georgia. Sponsored by the University of Georgia Social Science Research Institute and the Department of Management and Reliance Electric Company, the symposium will be limited to a group of invited participants who are experts in their fields. The symposium will consider the ramifications of automation in such basic areas as technology, education, social organization, and business and the economy. Among the speakers will be Willy Ley and Roger W. Bolz. Position papers will be prepared by Clifford E. Evanson, E. Grant Venn, Frederick L. Bates, and Emerson P. Schmidt. The sponsors anticipate publishing a book resulting from the subject matter and discussions at the symposium. The chairman of the symposium is Ellis L. Scott, Georgia Center for Continuing Education, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30601. Regional Conferences in Mathematical Sciences The National Science Foundation is seeking proposals for five-day regional conferences on subjects of current research interest in the mathematical sciences. Topics for conferences may be concerned with one or more of the various disciplines of the mathematical sciences, including, in addition to pure mathematics, fields such as applied mathematics, statistics, computer science, operations research, and management science. The objective of the conferences is to stimulate and broaden mathematical research activity, particularly in regions of the country where such activity needs further development. The organization of the conferences, evaluation of proposals, and arrangements for publication of conference-related expository papers will be carried out by the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences, Washington, D.C., under contract with the National Science. Foundation. At present ten conferences are projected, each to take place at a host academic institution during a summer week in 1969 or 1970, or possibly within a recess of the intervening academic year. Preliminary inquiries regarding details of these regional conferences may be addressed to the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences, 834 Joseph Henry Building, 2100 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037. Proposals by prospective host institutions should be sent to the Mathematical Sciences Section, National Science Foundation, 1800 G Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20550. 1968 FJCC Technical Program The technical program for the 1968 Fall Joint Computer Conference will comprise 45 sessions on software, hardware, simulation techniques, business applications, computers in education, and computers in medicine. The meeting is scheduled for December 9, 10 and 11 in San Francisco. The technical program chairman is Robert H. Glaser. The fall and spring computer conferences are sponsored by the American Federation of Information Processing Societies, with head quarters in New York and conference committees in the semiannual locations. General chairman of the San Francisco FJCC is William H. Davidow of Hewlett-Packard Company, 395 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, California 94306. Medical Librarianship Congress A general call has been issued for "free communications," or unsolicited papers, for the III International Congress of Medical Librarianship, to be held May 5-9, 1969, in Amsterdam. The over-all theme of the congress is "World Progress in Medical Librarianship." Papers may be submitted in English, French, German, Russian, or Spanish. October 15, 1968, is the deadline for submission of papers to: III International Congress of Medical Librarianship, Office of the Secretary-General, Excerpta Medica Foundation, 119, Herengracht, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. MLA Reschedules 1969 Annual Meeting The Medical Library Association's 1969 Annual Meeting will take place October 26-30, 1969, in Louisville, Kentucky. The meeting will combine business sessions and election of officers with program meetings. The meeting has been rescheduled so as not to conflict with the Third International Congress on Medical Librarianship May 5-9, 1969, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. For further information contact the convention chairman, Joan Titley, University of Louisville Medical Library, 101 West Chestnut Street, Louisville, Kentucky 40202. Machine Methods in Libraries The fifth Symposium on Machine Methods in Libraries will take place in November under sponsorship of the School of Medicine, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri. The three-day meeting will cover automation at the libraries of various institutions, such as the United Nations, the Royal Society of Medicine, the Upstate Medical Center's Biomedical Network, the New York Medical Center, the University of Louisville Medical School, and the School of Medicine at Washington University. For further information, contact Estelle |