OF INTEREST TO STUDENTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 951, 19 April 1930, Page 16

OF INTEREST TO STUDENTS

A COMPREHENSIVE CATALOGUE Workers in all branches of science, in agriculture, in medicine, in the technical and other fields, are always handicapped by the difficulties of obtaining the literature necessary for their work. It is manifestly impossible for the private worker to accumulate for himself a library adequate to his needs. The worker in departments or institutions, although in a better position, has constant need to refer to libraries other than his own in order to be able to keep abreast with the literature in his subject. In Australia, investigators are particularly handicapped by difficulties inevitable 4P a country where technical libraries are relatively few and distances between them often verygreat. While these disabilities cannot be completely remedied, they can be considerably reduced by making readily available a catalogue of the contents of these libraries. A publication of this description enables the worker to locate without a waste of time the literature that he requires.

In so far as periodicals are concerned —and it is periodicals that are of paramount importance to the average worker—a catalogue designed to serve this purpose has now been published by the Commonwealth Council for Scientific and Industrial Research This catalogue, which has been prepared under the editorship of Mr. E. R. Pitt, of the Melbourne Public Library, includes periodicals (in all languages) of a scientific and technical nature, and also the publications issued serially by Government departments, institutions and societies in all countries. In all, 132 Australian libraries have been catalogued. Included in these are the public libraries. the parliamentary libraries and the libraries of Government departments, of the universities, the scientific societies and institutions in each State. A copy of this catalogue will be found invaluable, not only ou the shelves of all libraries, but also to j

medical men, technical chemists, engineers, architects, veterinarians, and those engaged in agricultural research, in public health and sanftation matters, and to all classes of builders and manufacturers. Throughout the preparation of the catalogue special attention has been paid to Australian publications, and it will therefore serve as a record of all periodicals of a scientific and technical nature that have been published in Australia.