Journal of Documentation

DITMAS, E.M.R.

1948 Journal of Documentation

doi: 10.1108/eb026118

The burden of recorded information is almost as old as man's habit of making recordswitness the cry of Ecclesiastes, of the making of many books there is no end No doubt also man has always wistfully dreamed of some superorganization which would relieve him from the labour of bibliographical research, necessary nevertheless if he is to be sure that his contribution to knowledge is original. These bibliographical searches became more onerous as, with the passage of centuries, man's recorded knowledge increased, and the problem grew rapidly more urgent with the development of science and technology during the last two centuries. The scholar's leisured pace could no longer satisfy the demands of industry the command of informationprinted informationwas now one of the keys to power and to wealth the lack of it might be disastrous to a wide range of interests.

URQUHART, D.J.

1948 Journal of Documentation

doi: 10.1108/eb026119

A great deal of discussion is proceeding with regard to the distribution and use of scientific and technical information, and theories and proposals on the subject fill the air, but the facts on which these discussions are based appear to be few, or even nonexistent. This paper is the report of an effort to discover, by means of a questionnaire addressed to the readers of publications borrowed from the Science Museum Library, some information on such questions as how references to publications are obtained, what the expected information is required for, and whether, in fact, the publications contain the desired information. No earlier survey of this type has been traced.

PENDLETON, O.W.

1948 Journal of Documentation

doi: 10.1108/eb026120

A primitive form of marine insurance existed in very early times in what are known as contracts of bottomry or respondentia. This was an arrangement by which the owners of ships borrowed money at a high rate of interest and did not repay the loan if the ship was lost. This was also extended to other property, so that a rudimentary form of burglary insurance can be traced in the distant past. Loans of this kind were transacted in ancient Babylon, as is shown in the Code of Hammurabi, c. 2025 B.C. Contracts of bottomry were prohibited by a decree of Pope Gregory IX in 1234 on the grounds that they were usurious, and some authorities think that it was at this point that insurance in its true sense developed. In 1310 there existed at Bruges a Chamber of Assurances for the insurance of merchandise against marine and other risks.