Hon. EMILIO Q. DADDARIO, HERCULES POWDER CO, INC., RESEARCH DEPARTMENT, Wilmington, Del., July 7, 1966. Chairman, Subcommittee on Science, Research and Development, Committee on Science and Astronautics, House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. DEAR SIR: In response to your letter of June 20, 1966, I appreciate the opportunity to offer my comments on HR 15638, known as the Standard Reference Data Act, an Administration bill introduced on June 13 by Chairman George P. Miller. I have been quite familiar, for several years, with the planning activities of the National Bureau of Standards, Department of Commerce, on the National Standard Reference Data System (NSRDS). In fact, I have followed the evolution of the NSRDS through my association with the National Research Council as Chairman of the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Technology for the period of 1962 to 1964. It is within this Division that the Office of Critical Tables was established in 1955 to carry on critical data activities initiated by the National Academy of Sciences over thirty years ago. The magnitude of the task of critical data compilation is such that it calls for government leadership and support. I welcome with enthusiasm the expression of interest by the Congress of the United States in the declaration of policy outlined in Sections I through IV of the proposed Bill and heartily endorse the wording of the Act with reference to these particular sections. Since the compilation and critical evaluation of Standard Reference Data entails a considerable expense which will tend to increase as scientific activities increase, it seems to me desirable to relate the extent of such work to the needs of the scientists and engineers using the compilations. I know of no better way to ensure that such a relationship continues to exist than by establishing prices to the users which may reflect the cost of such compilation and evaluation. Since the government itself is largely involved in the field of science, it does not follow that the entire cost should be so recovered. I note that in Section V, line 20, the phrase, “. . . To the extent practical and appropriate. . . ." modifies the sentence permitting such cost recovery. In my opinion, the pricing policy should aim at maximum utilization of the Standard Reference Data Compilation. I am opposed to Section VI on the grounds that it might appear to provide some sort of a guaranty of accuracy or special status to the physical data contained in the compilations. In all cases data are approximations to reality and the accepted values change as scientific methods improve. Thus, the use of such a symbol could be confusing in the course of time. Since Section VII seems to relate to the special type of copyright, it would seem more appropriate to consider this section in light of the very extensive copyright hearings that have recently been in progress and new copyright legislation now being drawn. Personally, I feel that this Section together with Sections VIII and IX should be deleted from the proposed Act. I do not feel that they are in keeping with the purposes of the other parts of the Act, nor necessary to the proper functioning of the new National Standard Reference Data System. Although these are my personal opinions, I had an opportunity last week at a meeting of the National Academy of Sciences-National Academy of Engineering's Committee on Scientific and Technical Communication (which I chair), to discuss HR 15638 with my colleagues on the Committee and I found that they are in substantial agreement with the above comments. Committee, however, did not take any formal action in this connection. Sincerely yours, The R. W. CAIRNS, Director of Research. 65-891-66- -11 EASTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY, Hon. WESTON E. VIVIAN, DEAR CONGRESSMAN VIVIAN: Thank you for your letter calling attention to H.R. 15638, a bill to authorize the Departmnt of Commerce to college and make available critically evaluated, standardized scientific and technical reference data. We believe that the proopsed expansion of the National Standard Reference Data System is highly desirable. Such a program is indeed essential to the most productive development of research and teaching efforts. We are familiar, of course, with the work of the Center for the Application of Science and Technology at Wayne State University, which uses the NASA tapes, and we infer that data compiled under this authorization might be employed in similar ways. Sincerely yours, 158 DONALD F. DRUMMOND, Hon. BARBER B. CONABLE, Jr., THE UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER, DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY, Rochester, N.Y., June 21, 1966. DEAR MR. CONABLE: I am replying to your letter of June 17 in which you ask for comments on H.R. 15638. Several thoughts immediately came to mind. 1. Offhand this does sound like the sort of service which logically might be expected to be offered by an agency of the National Bureau of Standards. In fact specialized programs already exist there; one which I am familiar with is concerned with the evaluation of nuclear data. Perhaps all such efforts, old and new, should be organized under one administration. 2. In spite of the limitations expressed regarding the nature of the material to be evaluated this project could become very large, in fact I suspect that it would have to be quite large to be reasonably effective in finding and evaluating new material, in rejecting old, inferior data, and in providing rapid access to the information. 3. This project seems logically to be connected with the broad problem of information retrieval, which has recently been undergoing serious study by a number of separate groups. This means computer orperations on a large scale. I understand that there is a big information retrieval project at the Library of Congress, now working to get the entire L.C. card file into computer language and that this is a continuing long range effort to streamline information retrieval for the whole country. A second project, quite a bit smaller, is one sponsored by the N.I.H. with the participation of the National Institute of Arthritic and Metabolic Diseases and three universities, the University of Rochester (Dr. Joseph Izzo), the University of Minnesota (Dr. Lazerow) and and Western Reserve University (Dr. Al Goldwyn). I understand that an automated system developed by them over the past five years is already in service. These are obviously only samples of fairly widespread efforts in information retrieval. You probably know of others. 4. The quality of the data provided will naturally depend on the quality and interest of the people who review the data. Will these be permanent staff people who make the judgments, will specialized committees be established from the scientific community, will opinions of individual outside people be solicited? 5. My overall impression is that such a service could be of great value if it proves after study, to be technically and economically sound. These are all offhand remarks. I hope that they will prove of some value. Sincerely yours, H. W. FULBRIGHT, Mr. E. Q. DADDARIO, THE UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER, NUCLEAR STRUCTURE RESEARCH LABORATORY, Chairman, Subcommittee on Science, Research and Development, House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. DEAR MR. DADDARIO: Thank you for your letter of June 20, 1966, asking for comments on H.R. 15638 proposing a National Standard Reference Data System. I am presently serving as chairman of an advisory panel on nuclear data to the Office of Standard Reference Data of the National Bureau of Standards; and I feel very strongly that, at least in the nuclear data field, it is absolutely imperative to very substantially reduce the time between the publication of data in scientific journals and the appearance of the data with some degree of critical evaluation in compilations which are quickly available to people working in the field. Principally because of the Atomic Energy Commission's interest in the nuclear data field, compilations of such data are said to be more extensive and up to date than in many other scientific fields. If so, the situation in other fields must be appalling. The lack of such compilations inevitably leads to vast duplication of effort because it is often quicker to measure physical properties in which one is interested than to search the literature to find out whether someone else has already done so. It is absolutely clear to me that major efforts must be made at once to correct this situation. The problems involved are so complex that I can see no hope of solving them short of establishing a permanent Government office whose personnel would be involved full time in such efforts. In my opinion, the National Standard Reference Data System under the Secretary of Commerce provides the proper framework for coordinating and strengthening present data compilation efforts, expanding such activities in areas not presently covered, establishing acceptable standards for such efforts and providing a mechanism for distributing the results to scientists and engineers. The preliminary planning that has been done by the Office of Standard Reference Data as outlined in the National Bureau of Standards publication NSRDSNBS 1 seems to me a sensible approach. The project is in its infancy, and I welcome any steps that can be taken to get things moving. H.R. 15638 will give Congressional backing to the NBS program and clearly such backing is essential. I can say without reservation that I am very much in favor of passage of this bill by Congress. Yours sincerely, H. E. GOVE Director and Professor of Physics. Mr. EMILIO Q. DADDARIO, E. I. DU PONT DE NEMOURS & CO., INC., Chairman, Subcommittee on Science, Research and Development, Committee on Science and Astronautics, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C. DEAR MR. DADDARIO: I have reviewed your letter of June 20th with enclosures, which relate to H.R. 15638, a bill to provide for the collection, compilation, critical evaluation, publication, and sale of standard reference data. I would support this proposal enthusiastically, and hope very much that the Bill will have the approval of the Congress. The compilation of recent data is exceedingly important to the entire scientific community, and I can think of no better agency than the National Bureau of Standards to carry that responsibility. In my very early days as a scientist, I did a small amount of work in connection with the compilation of the International Critical Tables. These have long since become out of date, and I am afraid the task of up-dating is far too great for a private institution to undertake. As to details, the Bill seems entirely adequate for its purposes and I would have no comments to make as to procedural methods. Sincerely yours, C. H. GREENEWALT, Chairman. 161 |