Journal of Documentation

This study tested the hypothesis that the vocabulary of a discipline whose major emphasis is on concrete phenomena will, on the average, have fewer synonyms per concept than will the vocabulary of a discipline whose major emphasis is on abstract phenomena. Subject terms from each of two concrete disciplines and two abstract disciplines were analysed. Results showed that there was a significant difference at the ·05 level between concrete and abstract disciplines but that the significant difference was attributable to only one of the abstract disciplines. The other abstract discipline was not significantly different from the two concrete disciplines. It was concluded that although there is some support for the hypothesis, at least one other factor has a stronger influence on terminological consistency than the phonomena with which a subject deals.

THE Index of Christian Art is a division of the Department of Art and Archaeology of Princeton University. The purpose of the index is to catalogue by subject and iconographic type all the published monuments and objects containing representations of Christian subjects dated before the year 1400.1 To this end two principal files are maintained, the Subject File and the Monuments or Photographic File. At the present time there are about 35,000 monuments and objects filed under more than 21,000 headings or titles, the whole consisting of more than 425,000 typed cards. These are illustrated in the Monuments File by more than 80,000 photographs.

Authors of scientific articles often read a paper that fails to cite their prior work when they feel it should have. A survey of university faculty shows the extent to which such opinions abound. If justified, they reflect non‐use of bibliographic search methods, their inadequacy or non‐scholarly use of the result. Principles for the design of a new kind of automated or semi‐automated document retrieval system are formulated. They are analysed and shown likely to improve the scholarly quality of scientific work as represented by the bibliographies in manuscripts reporting that work.

This paper describes the methodology and results of a study designed to compare figures derived from a questionnaire‐based book availability survey technique and from computer records of the use of the library's computer catalogue. Although several important differences emerge between the two sets of data, it is concluded that within specific limits the computer monitoring technique could act as a surrogate for book availability surveys.

Le 10 juin 1940, alors que les armées allemandes, qui étaient reparties à l'attaque sur un large front, quelques jours auparavant, approchaient rapidement de Paris, la Bibliothèque Nationale fermait ses portes au public. Les collections les plus précieuses des quatre grands départements (Manuscrits, Imprimés, Estampes et Médailles) ainsi que celles des bibliothèques Mazarine, de l'Arsenal, de Versailles, du Conservatoire ou de l'Opéra (toutes ces bibliothèques étant rattachées à la Bibliothèque Nationale) avaient été mises sous caisses dès la fin d'août 1939 et évacuées en province dans deux châteaux réquisitionnés à cet effet: le château d'Ussé en Touraine, d'abord, puis à partir du 22 mai 1940 celui de Castelnau, dans le midi de la France. Ces deux dépôts avaient été organisés par le conservateur honoraire du Cabinet des Estampes, Monsieur P.‐A. Lemoisne, secondé par des gardiens.

The Kirton Adaption‐Innovation Inventory and the Learning Styles Questionnaire were used as part of a wider investigation, reported in an earlier paper, to explore the influence of personality, discipline and organisational structure on the information behaviour of biochemists, entomologists and statisticians working at an agricultural research station (n = 67). Results from the psychometric tests were assessed in terms of the groups obtained from a cluster analysis. Groups identified by the KAI as Innovators and by the LSQ as Activists sought information more widely, more enthusiastically and from more diverse sources than other groups. Groups identified as Adaptors by the KAI and Reflectors by the LSQ, were more controlled, methodical and systematic in their information behaviour.