College and Research Libraries


Revie-w Articles 
• Documentation 

Docum entation. By S. C. Bradford. London, 
Crosby Lockwood & Son, 1948, 156p. I0/6. 
More than half a century after La Fontaine 

and Otlet began their work in developing 
improved techniques for the bibliographical 
analysis of printed and nonprinted documents, 
the English speaking world has remained 
without a basic treatise on the principles of 
documentation. The absence of such a work 
may in large measure explain the failure of 
American librarianship to keep pace with such 
developments in France and other European 
countries. The publications of the Interna-
tional Federation of Documentation, and scat-
tered contributions widely dispersed through-
out a miscellaneous variety of journals, have 
but imperfectly interpreted the meaning of 
documentation to those on this side of the 
Atlantic who should be most interested in the 
field. The late Mr. Bradford's little volume, 
then, is an attempt to bring together for the 
first time, in a systematic treatment, the basic 
principles and problems of documentation in a 
manner which will make them most useful 
to the English speaking world. In effect the 
volume is an addition to our shelves rather 
than to the literature of documentation, since 
it is largely an assembly of previously pub-
lished articles; a method of compilation whi.ch 
almost inevitably results in a sacrifice of 
cohesiveness . . For all that, it remains a use-
ful volume and librarians generally can read 
it with profit and be grateful for it. 

Quite properly the book opens with a 
consideration of the nature , origin, and pur-
pose of documentation, an approach partic-
ularly appropriate for American readers to 
whom the concept of documentation is still 
generally unfamilar. After a provocative 
consideration of the problems inherent in 
alphabetical subject indexing the author be-
gins his vigorous defense of the Universal 
Decimal Classification, a theme to which he ' 
reverts all too frequently throughout the 
entire book. The remainder of the volume is 
largely concerned with the docu.mentary chaos 
which the author finds at present characteris-
tic of the work now being carried on by the 
variety of English organizations working in 

the field, and his own rational plan for more 
adequate bibliographic coverage of scientific 
literature-a constructive program that is 
somewhat less convinci9g than his criticisms 
of the existing situation. 

The author's treatment of the semantic 
problems inherent in alphabetic subject in-
dexing, and his contention that such subject 
headings are themselves a concealed classifi-
cation, are both admirable, but he seems to be 
unaware that these same weaknesses are also 
implicit in all of our existing systems of book 
classification, and that because of the physical 
form of the book itself and the multiplicity 
of concepts which a single volume may con-
tain, no schematism can assemble in one place 
even a substantial proportion of the total 
library resources on a given subject. Ad-
mittedly Mr. Bradford is primarily concerned 
with a classification of the literature ) rather 
than a shelf arrangement of books which of 
necessity is largely predetermined by their 
physical format. This freedom from the 
restriction of the codex form does not solve 
the problem of classification if the terminol-
ogy of the discipline is not precisely defined 
or the relationships among its subordinate 
disciplines but imperfectly understood. 

It is Mr. Bradford's excessive enthusiasm 
for the Universal Decimal Classification 
which will probably arouse the greatest criti-
cism in ·this country. Though the U.D.C. is 
based upon the scheme devised by Melvil 
Dewey, the length of its notation, the intri-
cacy of its details and the complexities attend-
ing its application have made it so extremely 
unpopular with American librarians that it has 
been almost completely neglected in the 
United States. One wishes that this book had 
been less a tract for the U .D.C. and more of 
a general consideration of the problems of 
classification as applied to bibliographic organ-
ization. 

More constructively important is the 
author's proposal for an integrated system 
of special libraries under the leadership of a 
central library of science and technology. 
Such a system would promote an expansion 
of the librarian's activities to include more 

276 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



I 

effective organization of bibliographical opera-
tions and the more adequate indexing and 
abstracting of scientific and technical litera-
ture. His central library would coordinate 
the acquisition program of the system, func-
tion as a clearing house for all phases of 
interlibrary cooperation and promote central-
ized cataloging and indexing. This appeal 
for the expansion of traditional library func-
tions and the greater concern on the part of 
librarians with the bibliographic organization 
of their resources may well be considered with 
profit by American librarians, who have all 
too long been indifferent to an area in which 
they should be assuming the initiative. 

Confronted by this chaotic state of British 
documentation, and urging a coordinated sys-
tem of special libraries in science and tech-
nology, Mr. Bradford reaches the climax of 
his argument in his proposals for a plan for 
complete scientific documentation throughout 
the scholarly world. This program urges the 
development of an international network of 
existing agencies concerned with indexing and 
abstracting of scientific literature, each agency 
operating in its own clearly defined area and 
transferring to the others all materials rele-
vant to their particular fields. Though it 
would rely solely upon voluntary cooperation 
for the control of its constituent parts, the 
failure of any one of which might seriously 
endanger the success of the whole, the author 
believes that the results of such effort would 
bring to the bibliographic organization of 
scientific literature a thoroughness of coverage 
and a directed effort that are now conspic-
uously lacking. The objective is certainly 
meritorious, but voluntary cooperation on an 
international level is at best an uncertain 

foundation stone upon which to rest so impor-
tant an undertaking. One can hope that Mr. 
Bradford is right, but past experience and 
present realities engender skepticism. 

Perhaps enough has been said to indicate 
that the constructive proposals of this book 
are less successful than the picture it presents 
of the present state of documentation and its 
criticisms of the existing situation. The chaos 
of documentation, especially in the field of the 
social sciences, in this country is even greater 
than that found by Mr. Bradford in his 
native England. If the book will serve no 
other purpose , at least it should focus the 
attention of American librarians upon the 
importance of the problems which it raises, 
the need for much greater attention to the 
promotion of more adequate bibliographical 
controls, and the desirability of effective ex-
ploration and original investigation in the 
field. It is to be hoped that the newly re-
vived American Documentation Institute may 
eventually achieve at least some of Mr. 
Bradford's desired goals. Already there is 
considerable evidence that workers in medi-
cine, pure science, and technology . are grow-
ing increasingly concerned over the inade-
quacy of their bibliographical services and 
classification systems, and even the social sci-
entists are beginning to think seriously about 
an effective abstracting medium to fill the need 
left by the demise of Social S ci'ence A b-. 
stracts. To such activity librarians can ill 
afford to be indifferent, and if Mr. Brad-
ford's book should arouse some stirring in 
the library world, its results may well be the 
author's best memorial.-] esse H. Shera , 
Graduate Library School, University of Chi-
cago. 

Literature of Mathematics and Physics 
Guide to the Literature of Mathematics and 

Physics, Including Related Wo ,rks· in Engi-
neering Science. By Nathan Grier Parke, 
III. New York, McGraw-Hill, 1947, 205p. 
$5.00. 
Here is a welcome companion piece to 

those subject guides which already exist m 
chemistry and engineering. As the first of 
its kind in this specific field, this book is "in-
tended to be of most help to those who do 
not necessarily have a detailed knowledge of 

mathematics and physics." It provides the 
reader-be he scientist, student or librarian 
-with a general orientation in the literature 
available and indicates landmark books as well 
as further sources of information. 

The author has divided his presentation 
into two parts of somewhat varying quality. 
The first part is concerned chiefly with general 
information on methods of study and reading, 
the use of the library and the technique of the 
literature search. One cannot help but feel 

277