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Deliberations on Documentation

Deliberations on Documentation Aircraft Engineering THE MONTHLY ORGAN OF THE AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING PROFESSION VOL XXV No 297 NOVEMBER 1953 and we feel that an international publication is the only really satisfactory solution which should be pressed on with as rapidly as E have received the Summary Records of the first two possible. It is far too expensive an undertaking for commercial meetings of the Documentation Committee of the Advisory enterprise—whether nationally or internationally—and therefore WGroup for Aeronautical Research and Development publication as well as preparation must be an official responsibility. (AGARD) of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). An essential feature is that it must be comprehensive. Our own The reason that these summaries have been sent to us is that the Research Reports and Memoranda pages cover, for example, a Committee decided at its second meeting, held in London on wider field internationally than some other similar publications, but September 3 and 4 last, that its activities should be given the fullest they only deal with reports issued by recognized research bodies and publicity in the Technical Press so that its aims and work are made not with articles published in periodicals—which are, however, known to the large number of organizations interested. We feel that, summarized in other publications of more limited scope in other so far as we are concerned, the best way is to call attention to the directions. Any official publication should cover both. work editorially; particularly as there are certain comments and We feel that the time taken to produce an international abstracting suggestions we wish to make. Before we come to these, however, journal can be over-estimated. Much could be done by arranging we will try to indicate in the briefest terms the results of the Com­ with all bodies, and periodicals, concerned to supply advance copies mittee's deliberations to date under the agenda items agreed at the of forthcoming publications. In any case, the disadvantage of delay initial meeting at Cranfield on March 30 this year. is often overstressed. When it takes, as in practice it commonly does, A. Standardization of document size and format. An upper limit of 210 by two or three years for an author's original report to attain publica­ 297 mm. for technical reports has been agreed and apparently adopted in all tion, does two or three months' further delay in the appearance of countries represented except, so far, the United Kingdom. Suggestions for an abstract realty matter? the form of references to literature have been made. A matter of detail to which we should like to call attention is the B. The inclusion of catalogue cards of a standard size in all reports (3 by 5 in.) is considered a desirable objective and an indication of what they should need for giving the address from which the original of the paper or contain is given. article can be obtained. This is almost universally ignored but is, in C. Abstracting services. Various suggestions are made with regard to this our opinion, a great convenience. matter, with which we will deal later. Turning to Semantical Problems the idea of an officially sponsored D. Subject classification systems. Proposals put forward by the N.A.C.A. are aeronautical dictionary in four or five languages, as recommended being considered. by the Committee, is most attractive, as it is very badly needed. To E. Retrieval systems for specific technical data. The Dutch N.L.L. scheme for base it on the British Standard Glossary also seems sound as this is, cataloguing aerodynamic data is recorded. so far as we know, the only officially-sponsored dictionary in the F. Semantical problems (which, for the benefit of the uninitiated, are defined world, since the N.A.C.A. apparently have ceased issuing one in their in the dictionary as problems connected with that branch of philology which is Technical Reports Series as they used from time to time to do. The concerned with meanings). Under this heading the question of a technical only reservation we have here is that it would probably have to cover dictionary is being considered. We will deal with it later. a considerably wider field, as B.S.185 is deliberately strictly G. Research on documentation. MR. R. A. FAIRTHORNE of the R.A.E. has limited in scope. Like the abstracting journal, the dictionary could been charged with investigating developments in this field, a number of reports on such work conducted in the U.S.A. having been circulated. not, we think, be published on a commercial basis and would have to be a Government undertaking, revised at, say, five-yearly intervals; Abstracting possibly printed in one country and distributed to the others through Government sales organizations. In this way it could presumably In regard to improving abstracting services the Committee be sold at a reasonable price. The question of how to arrange the consider that a single international abstracting journal will various national vocabularies so as to make it readily usable in each take too long to produce for it to be considered as a present language is one that would require a good deal of thought. possibility and the efforts should be directed to improving existing abstracting journals. Index Aeronauticus, the British Ministry of In conclusion, we would point out that the Documentation Com­ Supply's production is, for example, being studied with a view to mittee of AGAR D is merely a branch of NATO ; which rules out not adding a monthly author index and putting it on public sale. We are only the Eastern countries but such nations as Yugoslavia, Spain, fully in accord with the latter suggestion but are not convinced of Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and South America. We feel the need for an author index which, in our opinion, is not nearly so that sooner or later its field will have to be broadened. Incidentally, important as a satisfactory system of classification of entries. This is we wonder if it is a good thing for the Committee to continue to be a matter which seriously needs tackling both in this connexion and part of a military set-up. We should have thought it would come more that of the catalogue cards. We very strongly agree with another appropriately under the aegis of UNESCO. recommendation that all reports, and indeed all technical papers, We are asked to mention that all comments on the work of the should carry an author's summary at the beginning. Abstracting Committee should be sent to MR . R. G. THORNE, Chief Information should we think be, generally speaking, a Government responsibility Officer, Royal Aircraft Establishment, South Farnborough, Hants. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology Emerald Publishing

Deliberations on Documentation

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology , Volume 25 (11): 1 – Nov 1, 1953

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Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
0002-2667
DOI
10.1108/eb032354
Publisher site
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Abstract

Aircraft Engineering THE MONTHLY ORGAN OF THE AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING PROFESSION VOL XXV No 297 NOVEMBER 1953 and we feel that an international publication is the only really satisfactory solution which should be pressed on with as rapidly as E have received the Summary Records of the first two possible. It is far too expensive an undertaking for commercial meetings of the Documentation Committee of the Advisory enterprise—whether nationally or internationally—and therefore WGroup for Aeronautical Research and Development publication as well as preparation must be an official responsibility. (AGARD) of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). An essential feature is that it must be comprehensive. Our own The reason that these summaries have been sent to us is that the Research Reports and Memoranda pages cover, for example, a Committee decided at its second meeting, held in London on wider field internationally than some other similar publications, but September 3 and 4 last, that its activities should be given the fullest they only deal with reports issued by recognized research bodies and publicity in the Technical Press so that its aims and work are made not with articles published in periodicals—which are, however, known to the large number of organizations interested. We feel that, summarized in other publications of more limited scope in other so far as we are concerned, the best way is to call attention to the directions. Any official publication should cover both. work editorially; particularly as there are certain comments and We feel that the time taken to produce an international abstracting suggestions we wish to make. Before we come to these, however, journal can be over-estimated. Much could be done by arranging we will try to indicate in the briefest terms the results of the Com­ with all bodies, and periodicals, concerned to supply advance copies mittee's deliberations to date under the agenda items agreed at the of forthcoming publications. In any case, the disadvantage of delay initial meeting at Cranfield on March 30 this year. is often overstressed. When it takes, as in practice it commonly does, A. Standardization of document size and format. An upper limit of 210 by two or three years for an author's original report to attain publica­ 297 mm. for technical reports has been agreed and apparently adopted in all tion, does two or three months' further delay in the appearance of countries represented except, so far, the United Kingdom. Suggestions for an abstract realty matter? the form of references to literature have been made. A matter of detail to which we should like to call attention is the B. The inclusion of catalogue cards of a standard size in all reports (3 by 5 in.) is considered a desirable objective and an indication of what they should need for giving the address from which the original of the paper or contain is given. article can be obtained. This is almost universally ignored but is, in C. Abstracting services. Various suggestions are made with regard to this our opinion, a great convenience. matter, with which we will deal later. Turning to Semantical Problems the idea of an officially sponsored D. Subject classification systems. Proposals put forward by the N.A.C.A. are aeronautical dictionary in four or five languages, as recommended being considered. by the Committee, is most attractive, as it is very badly needed. To E. Retrieval systems for specific technical data. The Dutch N.L.L. scheme for base it on the British Standard Glossary also seems sound as this is, cataloguing aerodynamic data is recorded. so far as we know, the only officially-sponsored dictionary in the F. Semantical problems (which, for the benefit of the uninitiated, are defined world, since the N.A.C.A. apparently have ceased issuing one in their in the dictionary as problems connected with that branch of philology which is Technical Reports Series as they used from time to time to do. The concerned with meanings). Under this heading the question of a technical only reservation we have here is that it would probably have to cover dictionary is being considered. We will deal with it later. a considerably wider field, as B.S.185 is deliberately strictly G. Research on documentation. MR. R. A. FAIRTHORNE of the R.A.E. has limited in scope. Like the abstracting journal, the dictionary could been charged with investigating developments in this field, a number of reports on such work conducted in the U.S.A. having been circulated. not, we think, be published on a commercial basis and would have to be a Government undertaking, revised at, say, five-yearly intervals; Abstracting possibly printed in one country and distributed to the others through Government sales organizations. In this way it could presumably In regard to improving abstracting services the Committee be sold at a reasonable price. The question of how to arrange the consider that a single international abstracting journal will various national vocabularies so as to make it readily usable in each take too long to produce for it to be considered as a present language is one that would require a good deal of thought. possibility and the efforts should be directed to improving existing abstracting journals. Index Aeronauticus, the British Ministry of In conclusion, we would point out that the Documentation Com­ Supply's production is, for example, being studied with a view to mittee of AGAR D is merely a branch of NATO ; which rules out not adding a monthly author index and putting it on public sale. We are only the Eastern countries but such nations as Yugoslavia, Spain, fully in accord with the latter suggestion but are not convinced of Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and South America. We feel the need for an author index which, in our opinion, is not nearly so that sooner or later its field will have to be broadened. Incidentally, important as a satisfactory system of classification of entries. This is we wonder if it is a good thing for the Committee to continue to be a matter which seriously needs tackling both in this connexion and part of a military set-up. We should have thought it would come more that of the catalogue cards. We very strongly agree with another appropriately under the aegis of UNESCO. recommendation that all reports, and indeed all technical papers, We are asked to mention that all comments on the work of the should carry an author's summary at the beginning. Abstracting Committee should be sent to MR . R. G. THORNE, Chief Information should we think be, generally speaking, a Government responsibility Officer, Royal Aircraft Establishment, South Farnborough, Hants.

Journal

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace TechnologyEmerald Publishing

Published: Nov 1, 1953

There are no references for this article.