Consideration of a physics information system

Abstract

This article represents an attempt to achieve two objectives. The first is a response to William T. Knox's invitation, directed to some scientific disciplines, for each discipline to present a concept of its information system and discuss the compatibility of that system with the proposed national networks. The second objective is to present this same concept to the physics community since it will have major bearing on future physics research and education. The first portion of this article serves this dual purpose. The second portion is intended to tell physicists about current developments in areas of interest to them.

A crux in scientific and technical communication.

“…The professional societies are indeed very active: the APA in its pioneering studies of the process of scientific communication (APA, 1965;Garvey & Griffith, 1964); the American Institute of Physics in analyzing the needs of physicists and planning a balanced array of services to meet them (Williams, Hutchisson, & Wolfe, 1966); the Engineers Joint Council, Engineering Index, and Engineering Societies Library in their joint effort toward a national system for engineering information (Cottrell, 1966;Speight, 1966); the American Society for Metals in operating a mechanized searching service for its members (Cottrell & Flanagan,196S). The Government has recognized responsibility for fostering the use of the knowledge gained through Governmentsponsored research and development and is engaged in a major effort to improve the availability and use of scientific and technical information (Knox,196Sa).…”