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It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields but who have a common interest in the means by which information may be collected and disseminated to the greatest advantage. Lists of its members have, therefore, a more than ordinary value since they present, in miniature, a cross‐section of institutions and individuals who share this special interest.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

R.M. Fishenden Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, described the general organization of the conference, which was divided into seven areas, half a day being devoted to each area and all delegates able to attend. For each area the organizers had selected a discussion panel which took up about two‐thirds of the time available for discussion; other participants, such as authors and members of other panels, could speak during the remaining time. The rest of the conference delegates were segregated behind a rope barrier, solely as observers.

In a recent article with the above title R. C. Coile publishes a list of electrical engineering periodicals arranged in the order of the frequency with which references were made to them in the articles contained in six ‘key’ journals in 1949. It is then stated: ‘This method of ranking periodical journals may be considered to provide an approximate index of usefulness of the periodicals to engineers and librarians.’ There is no doubt that the list is of considerable interest, and probably represents no less than is claimed for it as an approximation to a rather uncertain truth; but a warning is necessary against according such a list a greater degree of authority than it deserves. Its character is determined by the choice of the six ‘key’ journals, which was made on the basis of a ‘preliminary pilot survey’, of which no details are given; the list might well have been different had other ‘key’ journals been chosen.

Amalgamation with the British Society for International Bibliography, agreed in principle in 1947, was accomplished de facto as from 1 January, 1948. The legal side, however, has taken longer than was anticipated, though the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the new body have been accepted by the Board of Trade and it is hoped that the formalities will be completed during 1948. Until these have taken place the finances of the two organisations have had to be kept separate, although their activities have been controlled as one organization under a joint Council. It is expected that the first Annual General Meeting of the new Aslib will be held about April, 1949, when the whole present Council will resign and a new Council will be elected.

Under severely aggressive conditions, such as those experienced in the chemical industry, there has been extensive use of stainless steels in order to reduce corrosion losses. The successful industrial use of stainless steels led to requests for information on the corrosion resistance of stainless steels and similar alloys in sea‐water. This paper was awarded a prize in the Essay competition organised by the Corrosion Group of the Society of Chemical Industry, 1959.

Reprints of the following papers are available on loan from Aslib library pending receipt of the published proceedings.

The Industrial Training Council has published its first report at the end of the first seventeen months of its existence. To describe it adequately one needs the language of the modern teenager: it adds up to a big nothing.

The authors of this paper were formerly involved in designing computer‐assisted services for physicists, particularly with respect to the improvements to facilities offered by Physics Abstracts. This study arose from discussions concerned with defining what the literature of physics is. This is an extremely difficult task, but one which has to be faced by those providing a service which aims to give an acceptable coverage of the relevant literature.

The burden of recorded information is almost as old as man's habit of making records—witness the cry of Ecclesiastes, ‘of the making of many books there is no end!’ No doubt also man has always wistfully dreamed of some super‐organization 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 information—printed information—was now one of the keys to power and to wealth; the lack of it might be disastrous to a wide range of interests.