A HIGHLY ORGANIZED MEDICAL LIBRARY
| Date | 01 March 1946 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb026085 |
| Pages | 57-59 |
| Published date | 01 March 1946 |
| Author | DAVID THOMSON |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
The
Journal
of
DOCUMENTATION
Edited
by
THEODORE
BESTERMAN
Volume II
SEPTEMBER
1946 Number 2
A HIGHLY ORGANIZED MEDICAL LIBRARY
by
DAVID
THOMSON
Director
of
the
Pickett-Thomson Research Laboratory
THE
usual medical library consists largely of bound volumes of medical
journals. The volumes of each journal are kept together and are arranged in
chronological order.
Since the average medical journal contains as a rule several papers on
entirely different subjects, it follows that the original papers contained in the
volumes of a medical library are as thoroughly mixed as if they had been
jumbled up in a rotary mixing machine.
Suppose a group of experts decided to compile, say, a 30-volume encyclo-
paedia on cancer, designed to give an account of the world's literature on this
disease in all its aspects. This body of experts, if they did the job thoroughly,
would find that it was necessary to consult about 60,000 to 80,000 original
papers on cancer. These papers would be contained in thousands of different
volumes in some great medical library. The few journals which are entirely
devoted to cancer would come in very useful, but these contain only a small
fraction of the world's literature on cancer. When the group of experts after
years of strenuous labours in the library had at last made the necessary extracts
from the 80,000 papers consulted, their task would only be half-finished. The
next stage would consist in the classification of the thousands of extracts into
about a thousand different headings. Then and only then would they be in
a position to make a start on the compilation of their great encyclopaedia.
Many books have been written on cancer, and these would help very much.
We must remember, however, that many of the experts who wrote these
books had to spend years of toil in some library in order to get the data.
Let us now suppose that these experts had chanced to come to the library
of the Pickett-Thomson Research Laboratory. They would have found all in
readiness two steel
cases,
containing 80,000 papers and abstracts on cancer, all
classified under about 800 headings, in packets arranged in sections and in
alphabetical order.
I have given this illustration to show that a highly organized library where-
in the papers and abstracts are already separated and classified must of
neces-
sity be of immense value in saving the time of both the research worker and
F
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