Bibliographic control of medical illustrations--a case study in the development of a library subsystem: II. Project implementation

This second part of a two-part paper describes how the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Library implemented a bibliographic control system for a medical illustrations collection. Discussed are the staffing of the project, the design of formats and computer programs, further design changes, the input process, quality evaluation of the illustrations, and production and distribution of the control products (printed indexes and microfiche replicas). The report ends with a note on the applicability of the UCSF system to other libraries, and some benefits of the project.     

Science and technology in the European communities: the history of the cost projects

On the 31st of October 1967 the Council of Ministers of the European Communities instructed a working party on scientific and technological policy, the PREST committee, to examine the possibilities for European technological cooperation in seven principal sectors. After a year long hiatus caused by a dispute over the British application to join the EEC, detailed proposals appeared in the ‘Aigrain report’. This document was sent to several non-member countries, including Britain, along with an invitation to participate. Following discussions in a committee of senior national officials drawn from 19 interested countries (the COST committee) a conference of Ministers responsible for science took place in 1971 at which agreements initiating seven so-called COST research projects were signed.This paper describes the events leading up to this final conference and the launching of the COST projects. These historical details are then used to examine the venture in terms of the concept of commitment to collaborate. Two different analytical perspectives are adopted: firstly we deal with the mechanics of COST as a formula for cooperation and consider the choice of research areas and the machinery used to implement the proposals; secondly we look at the relationship between technological cooperation in COST and the framework of the European Communities.We conclude that the structure of COST is very much related to its political milieu, but that few of the predicted advantages of Community research are likely to be realised. However, several of the difficulties associated with intergovernmental forms of cooperation do appear to have been at least partially solved. Finally, some reflections are offered upon the setbacks to the history of the projects and upon their mixed reception in terms of the conflicting goals of pragmatism, on the one hand, and an attempt, to promulgate a broadly based European science policy on the other.     

An application of pert to R & D scheduling

This paper deals with an application of PERT to R & D scheduling for the National Center for Drug Analysis, U. S. Food and Drug Administration. The Center is a pharmaceutical-chemistry laboratory having specialized functional responsibilities for research and development of analytical chemical procedures. The model was constructed based on the empirical data obtained at the Center for a five-year period. The model has been statistically tested and interpreted. It assists the management of the Center in developing a complete work-planning process and in controlling the project tasks, thus achieving the effective utilization of human and physical resources.     

Information and communication: An outline of a possible general theory of sign information

All live systems acquire and use knowledge to ensure appropriate efficiency in the mutual intercourse with the surrounding environment. Knowledge can be communicated only when the subject's internal model of the object of reality is objectified by means of a certain set of physical signs. Such an externalized model, a communicate, is to be accepted, adequately understood and evaluated by other relevant live systems. The information value of a communicate is therefore a function not only of the communicate itself but of the needs, aims, expectations and possibilities of relevant live systems as well. The information value of the same communicate can vary within a set of those systems. The determination of regularities in the relations between the information value of communicates, their content similarity and distinctive features of live systems producing and using them is a problem for experimental and empirical studies.