This is basically still true, and the price we may have to pay for this negligence may someday be extremely high. This country is today publishing the main indexes in the fields of chemistry, medicine, biology, and psychology, we are finding it increasingly more difficult to handle this work. There is a great lack of properly trained personnel needed to take up the varied tasks involved in the preparation of indexing and abstracting publications. I can state from personal acquaintance with the directors of our leading indexing and abstracting publications that this situation becomes worse each day. In the laboratories and in the field scientists increasingly are turning out the results of their investigational work.
Scientific researchers play a more important role in industry and in human welfare than ever before.
Scientific journals are multiplying and most of them are crowded with information. The Journal of the American Chemical Society , for example, is now publishing over 3,000 papers per year. This is but one of thousands of scientific periodicals. New scientific information is produced for use. It cannot be used effectively unless practical means of learning what is published are provided.