College and Research Libraries


As one of the most active users of photog-
raphy for the production of pictorial illustra-
tions as well as document reproduction, the 
Department of Defense felt this confusion 
even more acutely than others. In 1959 it 
produced a mimeographed preliminary-draft 
glossary of some five hundred pages incorpo-
rating material to be found in about forty 
established sources. Copies were sent to pri-
vate individuals, professional and technical 
societies, manufacturers and standardization 
organizations engaged in the fields of pho-
tography and reproduction. Criticism was re-
quested and received, and the results are 
now published as a technical manual listing 
some twenty-seven hundred definitions of 
terms used in all phases of photography. 
This 70c booklet, available from the Superin-
tendent of Documents, is certainly a "best 
buy" in our argot-ridden age. 

In 1955 Hendrix Ten Eyck prepared a 
Glossary of Terms Used in Microreproduc-
tion for publication by the N.M.A. In the 
intervening seven years the language of 
microfilming experienced the same growth 
by accretion that is common with the parent 
technique of photography. Donald Avedon 
works at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, 
where some of the most progressive work pn 
large-scale applications of microfilming is be-
ing done. He had available the military glos-
sary noted above, as well as a number of 
specialized glossaries that have appeared re-
cently. The result is a useful compilation of 
more than seven hundred terms selected 
from a store many times as large. The 
N.M.A. does not consider this publication as 
being definitive in any sense. Mr. Avedon is 
chairman of its Committee on a Glossary of 
Terms, and the expectation is that criticism 
and comment will be received and will result 
ultimately in an even more useful tool. Co-
operation has been offered by the American 
Standards Association, and the next publi-
cation may be under A.S.A. rather than 
N.M.A. sponsorship. 

Trade names present even more confusion 
to the layman than do the less specialized 
terms. As an example, there were last year 
about sixty proper nouns beginning with 
"micro-," and the list is still growing. The 
Avedon glossary lists about twenty-eight 
such trade names and notes that complete-
ness in this area was not attempted. 

The Luther glossary is the last chapter in a 
series on microfilming that he wrote for the 
Library journal. It includes about three hun-
dred sixty items of which some one hundred 
ten are trade names. As the head of a micro-
filming service company that sells equipment 
as well, past president of the N.M.A., and 
acknowledged historian of microfilming, Lu-
ther is in a unique position to prepare such 
a needed and useful aid to the language 
problem.-Hubbard W. Ballou, Columbia 
University Libraries. 

Scientific Periodicals 
A History of Scientific and Technical Peri-

odicals. By David Kronick. New York: 
Scarecrow Press, 1962. 274p. $6.50. 

In an age witnessing an overwhelming pro-
liferation of scientific knowledge, with its 
elaborate structure and complicated system of 
communication, any attempt on the part of 
one man to write a history of one phase of 
this complex, namely the publication of 
scientific periodicals, would be as Herculean 
a task as the attempts to develop systematic 
control of scientific literature have proven to 
be. Therefore, Mr. Kronick has wisely and 
expeditiously chosen to limit his study of 
scientific and technical journals to its earliest 
period from 1664 to 1790. 

After a ten-page introduc~ion in which the 
author discusses the four basic sources from 
which he drew his l~st of periodicals to be 
analyzed, he devotes !' ten more pages to the 
definition of the periodical. It turns out that 
the "differentiation between periodical, serial 
and other forms of publication is usually 
made for administrative reasons rather than 
for their contents." 

Before enlarging upon his analysis of this 
material, Mr. Kronick introduces new evi-
dence to substantiate various facts concern-
ing the historical background and antece-
dents of the scientific periodical; these run 
the gamut from scholarly correspondence to 
the equally important newspaper. The select-
ed periodicals are classified into two major 
categories: the substantive journals and the 
society proceedings-the term substantive be-
ing defined as "not derivative or dependent" 
and referring to those publications which 
contain original contributions. On the other 

174 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



hand, derivative forms of publication include 
abstract journals, review journals, collections 
and anthologies, and even almanacs and cal-
endars, which merit a chapter to themselves. 
Since most of the journals classified thus are 
composites of all of the elements of scien-
tific journalism, Mr. Kronick acknowledges 
the area of overlap between the two cate-
gories and points out that "the distinction is 
important because there are differences in 
methods of publication and regularity of 
issue." 

The author is to be congratulated for his 
exhaustive treatment of each of the periodi-
cal titles selected for analysis and for the 
great amount of research which was necessary 
to uncover the many facts about material 
published three centuries ago, some of which 
was short-lived and often obscure in origin. 
Indeed, the work represents not only an im-
portant contribution to the study of the his-
tory of journalism but also to the study of 
the history of science itself. 

It is interesting to note that the earliest 
forms of scholarly publication created prob-
lems of bibliographic control quite similar to 
those which continue to plague us today. 
Even before the advent of scientific journal-
ism, Francis Bacon and his contemporaries 
recognized the importance of accumulating 
and organizing data as the first step in the 
advancement of knowledge. However, with 
the tremendous recent increase in the com-
plexity of science, Mr. Kronick laments the 
almost impossible task befallen the scientific 
journal in its effort to serve the scientific 
community adequately, efficiently, and with 
celerity, for the journal is now forced to play 
a dual role-"that of a repository for the 
storage of new scientific knowledge, and its 
primary function as a vehicle for the dissemi-
nation of information." 

For the reader hopefully determined to 
find new knowledge which may eventually 
help solve the riddle of bibliographic control, 
this work can do no more than provide some 
of the historical background against which 
a critical appraisal might be made of a system 
designed to improve scientific communica-
tion. As a study of a technical and intellectu-
al process which coincided with the introduc-
tion of modern science, the book is recom-
mended for the valuable information it con-
tains, bearing in mind that its coverage is 

MARCH 1963 

limited to a well-defined period in the history 
of human communication, namely-the first 
hundred years of scientific journalism.-John 
J. Gordon, Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
nology. 

Guide to Latin American Scientific and 
Technical Periodicals, an Annotated List. 
... Washington, D.C.: Pan American Un-
ion; Mexico: Centro de Documentacion 
Cientifica y Technica de Mexico, 1962. 
187p. $4. 

This guide is a comprehensive list of scien-
ti~c and technical periodicals currently pub-
lished in Latin America, the only exceptions 
being those from the Guianas and the British 
and Dutch territories of the Caribbean. The. 
book is divided into two major sections. The 
first part contains a subject arrangement of 
more than a thousand periodicals and an in-
dex of titles arranged alphabetically under 
country. With a few noted exceptions, only 
those journals for which it could be deter-
mined that at least one issue has been pub-
lished every two years since 1956 have been 
listed. 

The second section, which is available 
separately as a reprint, is a statistical study 
of 950 of these journals. It adds greatly to 
the value of the book and should be read by 
all librarians interested in the difficulties of 
scholarly publication in Latin America. The 
problems and patterns of production de-
scribed are typical of more than just the pub-
lication of scientific journals. 

The principal value of this guide is the 
completeness of the information it offers. 
Each entry includes title, place of publica-
tion, name and address of publication office, 
periodicity, size, average number of pages 
per issue, and an indication of the use of 
illustrative material. Annotations provide 
even more details. These vary somewhat but, 
among other things, include the type of 
article published, subject area, language, in-
dexing, name of the editor, date publication 
began, former titles with dates, subscription 
price, availability on exchange, and cover-
age by indexing and abstracting services. 

While there is no evaluation by subject 
specialists of the quality of the research being 
published, the statistical study provides a 
general indication of the quality and also 
brings into focus the problem of inadequate 

175 



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dissemination of information which plagues 
the Latin American scientist. He is usually 
limited to journals which accept articles in 
Spanish and Portuguese, and, while a surpris-
ing forty per , cent of the journals in this 
study are covered by major indexing and ab-
stracting services, the original articles are 
frequently unavailable to other scientists. 

The obvious solution of increasing the 
number of journals may not be as important 
as finding adequate support for those that 
already exist. The seventeen journals listed 
under the heading "Chemistry," for example, 
annually publish less than two thirds of 
the total number of pages published by the 
Journal of the American Chemical Society in 
1961. A smaller number of regularly pub-
lished journals with sufficient financing to 
permit larger, more frequent issues and 
wider distribution would undoubtedly im-
prove the situation. 

In any case, this guide would greatly bene-
fit those interested in these problems, and is 
a welcome addition to a growing number of 
bibliographic aids concerned with Latin 
American publications.-Roy Kidman , Uni-
versity of California, San Diego . 

•• 

'(.Advances in the Astronautical Sciences " 
(an American Astronautical Society publication) 

Volumes 10-13 
Vol. 10 Manned Lunar Flight $ 11.50 

Symposium, Denver, Dec. 1961 , cosponsored by AAAS, NASA and American 
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Vol. 11 Eighth Annual Meeting $ 1.6.75 
AAS meeting, Washington, D.C. , Jan. 1962. Includes: Basic Research, Guid-
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Vol. 12 Scientific Satellites-Mission & Design $ 11.50 
Symposium, Philadelphia, Dec. 1962, cosponsored by NASA and AAAS. In-
cludes status reports on Topside Sounder, Aeronomy Satellite S-6 and on ob-
servatory satellites. 

Vol. 13 Int erplanetary Missions Conference $ 16.75 
Ninth Annual Meetings, Los Angeles, Jan. 1963. Includes: Planetary Bases & 
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