Evening star., 1947-10-12
Reds Hailed Exchange
OF Medical Data With
u. s., Librarians Told

After arranging for an exchange
of medical journals between Russian
and American doctors, the Soviet
authorities suddenly cut off the
stream this year, the final session
OF the annual meeting of the Asso-
citation of the Honorary Consultants
to the Army Medical Library was in
formed yesterday.
DIR. Chauney d. Leake, dean OF
the University of Texas Medical
School and new president of the
school made the exchange arrange
ments through the Russian Embassy
last year.
.'Eyerything went fine until last
April" he said. "Then the Russian
journals suddenly stopped coming.
We haven't received any since"
DR.. Leake mentioned the expert
ence during discussion of the i'm
portance for this country of estab-
fishing close contact with medical
developments in all parts of the
world, and OF keeping the rest of the
world informed of American prog
resS.
UNESCO Plans Abstracts.
Mrs. Eileen Cunningham, presi-
dent of the Medical Libraries Asso-
citation, told the group about pre-
liminary plans discussed at an
UNESCO meeting in Paris last week
to publish condensed abstracts" OF
rllrrppt r,1adjn.,1 aJy.iti Inn
out the world.
The abstracts" she said, would
contain enough information to let
the medical researcher know
whether he should look up the orig
1nal articles and at the same time
furnish record of the most impor-
tant medical writings.
The Army Medical Library is con-
sidering a proposal to sponsor a
joint monthly index with the Amer
ican Medical Association. The object
would be to keep an up-to-date list
OF the worlds medical writings.
The consultants, however. stressed
the Importance of doctors main
tanning individual contacts with
scientists ABROAD.
Recovery Said Doubtful.
There is a great gap between
medicine in the United States and
in Europe" declared Scott Adams,
librarian of the Army Medical
Library. whether European coun-
tries can regain their prewar status
Is extremely dubious"
Mr.. Adams told the group the
library acquired 1928 volumes last
year. It's collection now exceeds
100000 publications. Only about
80 per cent were purchases, he said.
The rest were gifts or exchanges
with other libraries.
Luther H. Evans, Librarian of
Congress, said this nations libraries
soon will begin to receive thousands
of current books from abroad in
exchange for American publications
to be shipped overseas. The pro-
gram, he said, will be conducted by
the American Book Center for War
Deyasted Libraries, Inc.
$4,000 Books a Month.
Mr.. Evans said the center now
sends about 10000 books month
to nations which contribute to the
organization, but that few are re-
ceived in return. The volumes are
processed for shipment at the Lii
brary of Congress by personnel OF
the center.
Under the new plan, which was
approved about two weeks ago, he
said, libraries in this country will
pay a small fee for foreign publi-
cations received from libraries over
seas. The United States libraries,
in turn, will furnish books to be
shipped to a special commission in
each country participating in the
program. The commissions will
distribute the volumes, collecting
shipping costs from the libraries
that receive them, Mr.. Evans said.
The exchanged books will be of
a scholarly level" but will cover all
subjects, he said.