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Mr Mason has already referred in his paper to the three main streams of professional and semi‐professional training and education available to librarians and information scientists in this country. Although the distinction between these two so patently different types of animal has not been drawn with a sufficient degree of accuracy, it is nevertheless true that only one of these streams is specifically directed to the training of information scientists, and this is, quite rightly, directly or indirectly under the aegis of the Institute of Information Scientists.

Miss Barbara R. F. Kyle has been appointed Research Librarian of Aslib and, in succession to Miss E. M. R. Ditmas, Managing Editor of the Journal of Documentation. She will join the Aslib staff on 24th June. Barbara Kyle is at present Assistant Director of the National Book League, which appointment she has held since 1958. After wide experience in public libraries she was, for ten years, Librarian of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. Since 1955, thanks to grants from both the Nuffield Foundation and the United States National Science Foundation, she has drafted and is testing a classification for social sciences. She is a member of the Unesco International Advisory Committee for Bibliography, Documentation, and Terminology, and a Vice‐President of the International Federation for Documentation. For many years she has taken an active interest in Aslib affairs. She was elected to the Council in 1949 and has since given her services as Chairman of the Conference and Meetings Committee (1950–51), Honorary Secretary (1951–55), Chairman of Council (1955–57), Chairman of the International Relations Committee (1957–61), Chairman of the Research Committee (1961–62), and has served also on the Education and the Executive and Finance Committees.

In the field of technical information and documentation the problem of compiling an abstract bulletin and then providing catalogue cards of the abstracts for a card index has hitherto implied the necessity of completely retyping the information given in the abstract bulletin on to stencils for subsequent duplication by the usual processes. It can be seen that this old method, which was unavoidable in the case of abstract bulletins with formats different from that of the catalogue cards, was unnecessarily cumbersome and time‐consuming because of the second typing stage. The new process obviates this retyping stage and thereby ensures a consequent saving in time and expenditure as shown in Table I.

I do not intend, in this paper, to confine my remarks to the narrow ground of abstracts versus bulletins. The two are complementary rather than in rivalry. It is almost impossible to compile a bulletin without recourse to ‘individual abstracts’ or titles, albeit temporarily. There is the added complication that probably the majority of library bulletins do not contain abstracts. I apologise for the fact that I have not prepared an O. & M. survey on the comparative economics of the two since any full discussion needs this. For those who are interested in an economic method of producing bulletins and abstracts, there is a recent article by Liebesny, which should be studied. In this paper I wish to examine, briefly, the use of abstracts and bulletins in laboratories and to suggest how, from the chemical library/information stand‐point, they could be improved. There is nothing original in what I have to say, but its restatement will not do any harm.

The issue of language as a barrier to the work of librarians in post‐war Britain was pinpointed in the report of the Royal Society's Scientific Information Conference in 1948. Concerning the work of information officers, it stated:

Mr L.J.Anthony, FLA, has been appointed to a new post of Assistant Director (Services) on the staff of Aslib and takes up his appointment at the beginning of October. Mrs Sauvee has kindly agreed to remain at work until he takes over. Mr Anthony is well known to the membership as the Librarian and Head of Documentation Services of the Culham Laboratory of the UK Atomic Energy Authority and as the former Deputy Librarian at Harwell; members of longer standing will remember him as Assistant Director at Aslib in 1954–55, when the consultancy service and first research activities were being established, and previously as Information Officer at British Telecom‐munications Research Ltd.

Before we can establish whether anything can be learned from abroad, we must find out what services are available abroad. A recent survey by Frances E. Kaiser of the Georgia Institute of Technology enumerated no less than forty‐two translation pools in eleven countries showing that there are schemes in many countries, and quite a few in some countries, but only a few national schemes, notably in East Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, and France. This survey does not include the translation pools in the USSR and Poland, about which far too little is known. Mr Patrick and Mr Goldstone have already spoken about the Aslib index, but it must, of course, be borne in mind that this index is duplicated in several Commonwealth countries, namely in Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, and South Africa. In view of the fact that their experience must perforce be rather similar to that of the British section of the index, I shall not discuss this any further.

All over the world—in research laboratories, universities, factories, plantations, hospitals—there are people wanting information. All over the world, in those same places, there are people generating information. To direct the streams of information from its innumerable sources into central reservoirs, and then to channel it as required to those who need it—this is the problem we call ‘the communication of information’. Documentation is the transfer of information through the medium of documents, and it covers a large part, though not all, of the problem under discussion. This problem is not new: it has been with us for millennia. The librarians of Alexandria knew about it. The translation academies of Baghdad tackled it. Bibliographers down the centuries have kept track of recorded information. There are numerous well‐tried methods of transferring information. Why is there such a demand, now, for research into the problem?

Patents deserve bibliometric study both for their own sake and because their formality can be exploited. Here the year by year issue of US patents since 1836 is used to correct for growth their apparent aging, as obtained by a synchronous study of citations made by (a) US patent examiners and (b) periodicals. Apparent and corrected aging are treated in terms of conditional probabilities. In (a), whereas the recent apparent aging of chemical patents is much faster than that of the whole, after correction the rates are very close. Using a very broad (trichotomous) subject classification, no cut‐off dates for novelty searches can be established if total recall is the goal. The strictly retrospective method of such searches is invoked to explain why a linearity found here in one type of corrected aging function has also been found for a search file truncated at 1920. In (b) the now classic exponential form of aging applies back to the twenties, but older patents are cited too frequently to conform. The deviation is graphically even more striking after correction for growth and is probably due to citations made for historical purposes.

Sir Raymond Streat, C.B.E., Director of The Cotton Board, Manchester, accompanied by Lady Streat. A Vice‐President: F. C. Francis, M.A., F.S.A., Keeper of the Department of Printed Books, British Museum. Honorary Treasurer: J. E. Wright, Institution of Electrical Engineers. Honorary Secretary: Mrs. J. Lancaster‐Jones, B.Sc., Science Librarian, British Council. Chairman of Council: Miss Barbara Kyle, Research Worker, Social Sciences Documentation. Director: Leslie Wilson, M.A.