ARMY MEDICAL LIBRARY WAS H INGTON, D.C. * •'-. v*-. :- :;- * -•■: ;•: «'< * :'i .'; j •*■: * * s>< -'< ^c -'< i';. ?,. # $ £ ;*.- *: .-* •*: * :Y ^ * # •"*: # tf -'• i'< * v :'; j'c ?'< A ^ *: A ARMY MEDICAL LIBRARY ~V .J; :V r't ^: r"« rjs POLICY ON SCOPE AND COVERAGE -;; -*< * Wash: rAgion, 1951 .•. .%. .0 -v. ;.i; ?■',. ;• ;'■ # j^ ,:• •'.: & "t ,*-. /: :': :\ %'■ * >';• -:'■. ~i ■* ?V -*• >'.» 4" # 'I' '«' >''• * IIITROEUCTION The pages which follow are the major documents which have resulted from the Army Medical Library's attempts to define more specifically its policies concerning the scope and coverage of Its collections. They are largely self-explanatory, and need no further exposition here, except perhaps a simple identification of each paper^ and an indication of their relationships with each other The first paper is the original directive setting up a Committee on Scope; in this directive the problem is defined* The second paper is an abridgment of the Committee's report to the Director, submitted in March, 1950* Introductory sections9 and those on methodologyv are largely quoted verbatim; a section of recommendations is not given as most of these are included in the paper which followso After the Committee had submitted its original report in March,, 1950« it was continued in existence until the following Oatober* During this period a series of memoranda was exchanged between the Committee and the Director^ and various problem areas were threshed out© The third paper is Library Order No. 3, dated 6 February 1951- This states, for the staff of the Army Lledical Library^ the policy on scope and coverage which the Library will follow*. It incorporates the recommend- ations made by the Committee in its first report, and further recommenda- tions made in the October report. In most instances the directive uses the original language of the Committee's report; I have generally nerely changed nrhouldtt to ''shall/* although there are some few areas where I have overridden the original recommendations a Attached as appendices to Library Order IIo. 3 are papers by the Chief5 13.story of Medicine Division (Dr- 17* J. TTilson) and the Chief, Acquisition Vivision (Mr. Joseph Groesbeok)« Dr« Tfilson's paper stems from a larger paper originally presented in mimeographed form at the Sixth Meeting of the Association of Honorary Consultants to the Army Lledical Library in October, 1949; Mr» Groesbeck's paper was presented at the Seventh Meeting of the Honorary Consultants in October, 1950* The fourth paper is Library Order No* 6* dated 15 February 19515 establishing a continuing Committeo on Scope and Coverageg and setting forth the matters to which it should turn its attention during the coming year* I have already commended the members of the original Committee - - Miss Brodman, Mr« Groesbeck^ and Mr. Mams - - but I take this occasion to do so again- Their considerable efforts have resulted in v/hat I believe to be a large forward step in the rationalization of the policies of the Army Medical Library* The problems of scope and coverage are infinite in number, constantly presenting new facets for questioning and decision^ and consequently a:*e never to be completely solved• The papers presented herein therefore offer no final answers, but rather serve as a starting point for further discussion and sharpening of the issues-, They have been gathered together in this form because it is felt that they will be of interest outside the Library, in other situations where similar problems are being faced. FRA1IK B. :iCG3RS Lt Col, MC Director Army Medical Library Washington 25, i>9 c« 1 March 1951 Department of the Army ARM! MEDICAL LIBRARY Washington 25, D. C. 17 November 1949 SUBJECTS Committee on Scope and Coverage TO* Miss Estelle Brodman Mr. Scott Adams Mr* Joseph A« Groesbeok 1. There is hereby established a Committee on Scope of the Army Medical Library, constituted as follows! Miss Estelle Brodman, Chairman Mr. Scott Adams Mr. Joseph A. Groesbeok The Committee shall meet from time to time at the call of the Chairman. 2* The Committee on Scope will a. Consider the desirable scope of a current collecting policy for the Army Medical Library. b. Consider the desirable coverage of the field determined to be within scope, l/lfhere ooverage should vary, precise indication will be made of where the variance should occur, and to what extent<- c. Consider the problems of scope and ooverage presented by materials already a part of the Library's collections, with particular attention to the fact that a practically total recataloging job is now under way, and to the fact that a large part of the material already in the oolleotion is represented by entries in the Index-Catalogue. d. Bear in mind at all times (1) the archival functions of the Army Medical Library, as well as its referenoe funotions; (2) the particular responsibilities of the Library, as part of the Department of Defense, in the area of medical intelligence; 17 November 1949 - To Miss Brodman, Mr. Adams, and Mr. Groesbeok. (3) the Director's conviction, no doubt widely shared, that the Library cannot and should not attempt to be autonomous in its collecting policy but must consider carefully the significance of the areas of interest of other libraries, with specific attention to the interests of the Library of the Department of Agri- culture and of the Library of Congress. e. Offer its pooled judgment of the relative priorities which should be given to the collecting of materials in the various categories of imprint date, form (serial, monograph, manu- script), and perhaps price, on the assumption that time, personnel^ and money are not unlimited. f. Make detailed, specific recommendations on the above, with adequate working definitions and suggestions for implementa- tion which will provide a realistic basis for future activity. 5* The Committee's activity need not be limited to the considerations outlined in paragraph 2 above, but in any case will not exclude them« The Committee is urged to consult widely with other members of the Library staff whenever such action is deemed desirable- The Chief. Reference Division^ will make available the services of the Reference Division staff should the Committee desire help in collecting and assembling data for their study; such activities of the staff of the Reference Division shall be given high priority.- 4* The Committee will render a preliminary report on the nature . direction and methodology of its activities to the Director, Army Medical Library, prior to 6 January 1950* They will confer from time to time with the Director, as they deem desirable. A final report will be due on or about 51 March 1950» Upon acceptance of the report by the Director^ the Committee is dissolved. /s/ FRAITK B. ROGERS Major, Medical Corps Director COPY TO: Miss MacDonaId Dr« Mayer Dr. Wilson -2- Abridged Report of THE COMMITTEE ON SCOPE The Army Medical Library Washington 25, D. C. March 1950 THE PROBLEM The time when a person oould set out to learn everything that was known has long since passed. Even in Francis Bacon's time the need for specializa- tion was obvious enough, so that The New Atlantis envisages corps of men trained in one or another species of knowledge. Just as universal knowledge was unattain- able after the time, perhaps, of Thomas Aquinas, so knowledge of the whole of individual subjects soon beoame unattainable. Medicine began to split off from all natural science, astronomy from astrology, chemistry from alohemy soon afber the Renaissance. It is said that Kekule was the last ohemist to understand all the known facts about both organic and inorganic chemistry. Perhaps it was Sir William Osier who was the last great figure to understand all the advances of medicine - or perhaps even he could know only one form of medioine; namely, internal medicine. Be that as it may, knowledge since the middle ages has consistently split up into more manageable segments and then each segment has deepened. .And parallel with the knowledge itself has gone tM literature through which the knowledge is transmitted from worker to worker. Here, where ontogeny faithfully recapitulated phylogeny, we find medicine following the outline of science in general. In the 17th century, the "Invisible College at Gresham" later to be the Royal Society, the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, the Academie Royale des Soiences in Paris, the Kaiserliche Leopoldinisohe Akademie der Naturforsoher, all published scienti- fic journals whose early pages abound in treatises on mathematios, physics, chemistry, geology, botany, and other natural sciences, as well as on medicine. Gradually, however, specialized journals in medicine alone began to appear; end in the 19th century we find even these splitting up into the component specialties of which medicine is composed. Only lately do we find, side by side with a con- tinuing specialized literature, a few attempts to combine several of the sub- divisions into one subjeot-journal. Examples of such reintegration are: the Aota biophysioa et bioohimioa, or the Arkhiv for kemi og mineralogi. Today we have all types of periodical literature: the completely undiffer- entiated science journal (such as Nature, Science, or Zeitschrift fttr Natur- wissensohaften), the large-subject journal ^such as the J.A.M.A., Lancet, Paris Medioale), the minutely specialized periodical (the Zeitschrift fuF urofogisohe chirurgie, for example), and the journals (mentioned above) wnioh attempt to bestride more than one subjeot field. In addition to the growing journal liter- ature, monographio works oontinued to be published in increasing numbers. With the advent of the oentralized state, the government document and the report of governmant-sponsored projects began to be important. Sinoe these did not appear with the same regularity and in the same form as the older literature, new techniques for its oolleotion and use had to be devised. The great problems of the collection of scientific literature, which have plagued libraries and scientists since the beginning of the 20th century, however, may be said to be due in large measure to the tremendous bulk of the literature and to the fluid nature of modern science. Any library which attempts to gather a comprehensive collection in the fisld of medicine today must expect to acquire all the forms of literature dis- cussed above; namely, the early, undifferentiated literature; the later, minutely subdivided literature; and the present-day attempts to bridge the formal boundaries of the individual sciences* It must also be prepared to acquire material in all forms - monographic, documentary, near-printed, as well as in the more common serial state. It goes without saying that these works must be oolleoted in all languages. Because the specialized sciences have not split along clean definite lines, however, it must also be prepared to invest its time, money, energy, and space in the collection and storage of some material from the sciences on the periphery of its major field. For example, psyohiatry is unquestionably considered to be part of medicine today; yet where psychiatry fades off into customs at one end and industrial management at the other, there is, for a medical library, a twilight zone of collecting. In addition, where it was possible, due to the comparative trickle of publications, for early libraries to embrace all knowledge, today's flood of writings makes it expedient to concentrate on a smaller segment of knowledge. Even in these .smaller segments, as mentioned above, know- ledge (and consequently the literature) has deepened to the point where practical considerations of money; space, and personnel make it necessary to define as clearly as possible the exact boundaries of the segment chosen for a collection. By doing so, the library will be more likaly to obtain a comprehensive collection in its field than if it attempted to collect an amorphous mass of books on all subjects. This problem is present to a certain degree in all medical libraries, but it has been especially acute in the Army Medical Library because of the following factors* 1. The Army Medical Library is historically dedicated to collecting extensively in a large field whose borders are ill-defined<. 2. In the past half century there has been, by Army rule, a oonstant turnover of commandants, with a re,sultant loss of continuity in the -running of the Library. 3<- The Library has not been supported financially with any consistent policy, so that long-range plans were diffioult. For these and for other reasons, the collections at the Army Medical Library have not been so good as they should have been. John Shaw Billings felt that the Library had at least 80 per cent of all the medical literature. -2- The Committee feels that this may have been a true estimate for 19th century literature, but it is doubtful if even 50 per cent of the medical literature of the first quarter of the 20th century was so oolleoted. This faot must have been apparent to the staff and to users of the Army Medical Library for some time, but it was not until World War II that something was done about itw Under Colonel Harold W. Jones, Director of the Army Medical Library from 1936 to 1945* money was ob- tained from the Rockefeller Foundation and permission obtained from The Surgeon General to have the American Library Association oonduot a survey of the Army Medical Library. The Survey Committee's condensed report was published in 1944s in addition., detailed reports and recommend- ations are preserved in typewritten form in the Library. For the present Committee's work only the sections of the Survey Report referring to the oolleotion are pertinent. The Survey Committee compared the holdings of the Army Medical Library for monographs, as shown in the Index-Catalogue, with the hold- ings of other outstanding medical libraries. The New York Aoadeiay of Medicine, tnd the library of the Amerioan Medical Association^ and com- pared its serial holdings with those of The New York Aoademy of Medioine and the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Columbia University*. It found the Army Medical Library collections woefully weak in man?/ cate- gories, and questioned not only whether the Library had fallen from its high position as the largest medical library in the worldf but whether even some American libraries were not outstripping the Army Medical Library in reooipts of current medioal literature. It made general recommendations for collecting in oertain areas which it felt had been negleotod, and it suggested cooperation with other governmental libraries to avoid overlapping collections. As a result of this Survey,, the Army Medioal Library began to acquire material from all over the world at an enormous rate. In this mass of acquisitions, however, were many pieces only quasi-medical in nature. In addition, it soon began to be perceived that the task of going over the Army Medical library oolleotion systematically and obtaining the missing literature would be an enormous one. Because the recommendations of the Survey Committee had neoessarily been oouched in general termsr aid oould not be obtained from them in deoiding about specific books or topics. A more detailed spelling out of the problems and the steps to their solution was needed. A trial effort at solving these problems was made by inviting outside speoialists to survey the literature in their particular subjeot fields and to make specific recommendations for the acquisition of material and for weeding of the collection as it stood. The American Pharmaceutical Association was thus invited to aid the Army Medioal Library in this manner. A number of meetings were held with representatives of the A.P.A. and the Library profited by valuable general guidanoe and a number of specific recommendations. It was soon apparent, however, that the -3- problems in any subjeot-area had to be considered in relation to the whole collection For this reason, a more pragmatic method was decided upon^ On 17 November 19i|-9, a Committee on Scope and Coverage was established with orders to present its final report on or about 31 Mar GF - Anthropogeography. Tne~ Army Medical Library requires a reference collection only on the distribution of mankind (GF 101); specific works relating to disease, to race, or to population class elsewherec GN - Anthropology. The Army Medical Library recognizes that primary responsibility for anthropology is shared by the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution* Hence, only a working collection is required in most branches of the subject. Collections at the research level are desirable, however, in those branches of anthropology which bear upon anatomy and physiology (GN 171, GN 181, GN 191, GN 221-251); and because of the concern of the Armed Forces in physical measurements, a research collection is required in anthropometry (GN 51-70; GV lj.35)<* Finally, an exhaustive collection is indicated in the medicine of primitive people (GN hll)• GR - Folk-lore. The Army Medical Library requires an exhaustive collection in the folk-lore of medicine (GR 880). GT - Manners and Customs3 The Army Medical Library requires an exhaustive collection In GT 6330-803 customs relating to physicians, surgeons, etc* GV - Sports and Physical Training. The Army Medical Library requires an exhaustive collection on physical training for physically defective persons (GV 3577)* and a research collection in physical measurements (GV 1+35) and physical tests (GV 1+3&) • H - SOCIAL SCIENCES The Army Medical Library will collect certain materials in the field of the social sciences for at least four reasons: 1. Historical interest. The earlier physician was often a worker in what we would today consider another profession. If this were the only reason for collecting in the social sciences, however, the Army Medical Library would be ill advised to keep the collections, much less to add to them.> 2. The calls on the present-day physician to exercise his functions on large groups - for example3 prisoners, school children, workmen, and the like. For the best work here, the physician must have material on such topics as vital statistics (HA-HB), workmen's insurance (HD), the education of the blind (HV), and disaster relief (HV"). In most of these fields the Army Medical Library need not collect beyond the reference collection, though occasion- ally (as in vital statistics (HA)), a research collection will be needed.? 3. The responsibility of the physician to practice his profession through social agencies which have been created to administer to - 5 - *■> "% the sick, the infirm,"the exceptional, and the abnormal. In order to meet this challenge effectively the physician must have access to information on these so ,ial agencies and or. general socio-economic conditions. A good medical library must, therefo: contain some works on the many public and private agenciss of society flc), on criminolcyy, degeneration, and the like. The Army Medical Library need collect only a skeletal oolleotion in the form of directories, quick reference wores, generalised treatises, and the like, and should refer readers to other feb: libraries (such as the Library of Congress and the Office cation) who hold primary responsibility for this are-?. -, f W.r. .-• The scientific contributions which the physician makes as physi- cian in fields (such as the family (HQ), the alcoholic (:"}, the drug addict) which are a joint responsibility of the medical and another profession. In certain sections of this field, namely, those portions of the HQ table ee aline, with sex in its genetic 'aspects, and the HV "Fitions on the feeble-minded, the alcoholic, and the drug addict, the Army - ecical Library will oolleet extensively (to a research level). J - K - POLITICAL SCIENCE AITD LAb The Army ' emical Library recognizes that the Library of Con r ess is the nature 1 depository of political science and lam. Consequently, reference collections only will be attempted in food arm dru;-* and pu'cb •.<■*• health law and admini erraticm, both national and international; axomc'; !;haa ecdieal jurispruce..ice, that is, the application of medical knowledge he legal problems j, will be acquired at a research level. The -j^.y kedical Library is concerned vrlth secondary meteriahs in these field.?-, i.e., with bocks about medical .jurisprudence, etc. Gor-pil- ate ems "f laws, e*vcT, ara left tc the Library of Congress, to the i-'oesl and Drug Admire strati 0:1, and ether appropriate agencies whose primary eeneer*«i they arsm L - EDUCATION The interest in education in a non-academic medical library is rightly on the applications of medical theories to existing situations, e. .«••, school hygiene, mental tests, education cf defective children; and of the use of educational statistics for medical purposes, e. jv., anthre- polopieal and psycho-physical studies of the child. Of course, catalogs of so ho a 1-3 of medicine, dentistry, pharmmy, narsir *, etc. will be exhaus- tively collected, as well as student publications of these schools. N - blebs' -htdS Architecture is of interest to medicine only when it concerns medical and public health buildingse The Army Medical Library need net collect any ether works on the subject. - 6 - 1 ^ Art anatomy, in its truest sense, is surfaoe anatomy viewed dynamically. It is used by students of medioine and medioal illustrators| as well as artists. It will be oolleoted at the research level. P - LITERATURE The Army Medioal Library will not oolleot medioal fiotion. In general, the PA olass is viewed by this Library as part of the History of Medioine, and not as literature per se, and therefore is found in the R and W sohedules. Q - SCIENCE Many works labelled as "general fOicnoen oontain larger or smaller amounts of literature on medioine and its auxiliary soienoes. In particular, earlier scientific publioations are more likely to be undifferentiated in this way than are later ones. "While it is manifestly absurd to set up any exaot rule of what to aoquire, spelled out to percentages, it is felt that the serial publioations of the great learned sooieties before 1800 should be oolleoted quite extensively, and that later publioations should be acquired only when an entire seotion is devoted to medioine or when a substantial number (say, roughly, a quarter) of the artiolea scattered throughout are on medioal or para-medloal topios. This will also be the guiding line for oolleotion of international congresses (Q 101), except that here the general polioy will be interpreted more liberally, since the oolleotion of reports of international congresses in the Amy Medioal .Library has reached suoh stature that It would seem desirable to maintain and augment it. The historioal oonnection between medioine and general science is one reason why some material on the history of solence and biography of scientists should be oolleoted by the Army Medioal Library (Q 125-130)• Here again histories of early science are more likely to oontain material important to medioine than do histories of later periods. Another reason for oolleoting material on the history of science is to be found in the eoleotio nature of medioine, whioh borrows extensively from all the soienoes. For the latter reason, also, material on the nomenclature, terminology, and philosophy of the soienoes should be aoquired In a minimal fashion (Q 175-179)• It is believed that students of foreign languages should not expeot to find material for their studies in tto Army Medioal Library. For that reason a oolleotion of science readers for the study of foreign languages (Q 211-219) will not be undertalcen. Suoh general tables and groups of handy information as the Chemical Handbook or the Engineers1 Handbook will be necessary for referenoe purposes. These, however, may be weeded as new editions appear. - 7 - ~1 ~\ QA - Mathematics. The Army Medical Library will keep tables of mathematical constants (logarithms, or trigonometric functions), a few works on the presentation of mathematical facts (graphic methods, QA 90), and a general review work on each of the portions of the field of higher mathematics (calculus, probabilities, trigonometry) which is important to exact experimentation and to the collection of vital statistics. (For statistical theory and methods, see HA 29-33.) QC - Physics. Because the science of physics is basic to the development of many of the instruments and methods of medicine, the Library must contain some general works in physics to serve as background to the particular applications of physics to the medical sciences. Classi- cally, these applications have been in sound (for hearing), light and optics (for research on eyesight and on such instruments as microscopes and ophthalmoscopes), and electricity (for treatment through static electricity). Therefore a skeletal collection in general works (QC 21), instruments and apparatus (QC 53), sound (QC 222), heat (QC 25U), thermo- metry (QC 271), optic3 (QC 355)9 electricity and magnetism (QC 518), is required. Books on optical in.struments and apparatus of medical applica- tion (QC 371) will be collected at the research level."" The importance to medicine of other branches of physics has increased greatly in recent years; a knowledge of X-rays, for example, is now implicit in a physician^ education; the use of radioactive elements as tracers and for therapeutic purposes is a new medical field of potentially great significance. The Library will therefore collect enough of the background works in X-ray written from a physical point of view to give the physician an understanding of their medical uses, and enough background material in the physics of radioactivity to give the reader a grounding from which he can study its medical applications without going outside the Library. The collection in X-ray (QC 1+81) and in the clearly medical aspects of radioactivity will be at the research level, but the temptation to accumulate a large number of non- medical works on radioactivity will not be indulged. QD - Chemistry» In the field of inorganic and physical chemistry, the Army Medical library needs only one or two works in each of the main sub- divisions of the field, together with the pertinent tables of chemical constants. Several works on colloidal chemistry and on the determina- tion of hydrogen ion concentration should also be stocked. The Army Medical Library does not nend to have anything but the barest minimum in this field. Similarly^ electrochemistry and thermochemistry need only be collected in a minimum fashion. Systematic weeding of older works should take place. Selected topics in organic chemistry (e.g., proteins, alkaloids, carbohydrates) should be collected at the refer- ence level because of their bearing on biochemistry. Biochemistry itself is covered in the Army Medioal Library's classification QU and would, of course, be collected as completely as possible. - 8 - ~> ~> The chemistry of food is appropriate to the collections only as it con- cerns nutrition,, problems of growth, weight, and physiologic processes* The problems of food spoilage, fermentation, etc. of themselves are outside the Library's concern. QH - Natural History. The section of the Library of Congress classification scheme which is devoted to natural history includes a number of diverse topics. Some are entirely outside the scope of a medical libraryr but others touch on medicine tangentially at several points. In this field, too, the date that a work was published has significance. As has been pointed out, early works on science in general oontain much on medical matters. In the same way, early works on natural history - particularly reports of natural history expeditions before the middle of the 19th century - contain much on anatomyr physiology, and disease. These should be acquired with some liberality, while later ones can either be ignored or pertinent sections obtained. Microscopy is a field which is important to medicine only as a means to an end. Enough of the publications in this field should be acquired to give the physician a mastery of the technical aspects of the microsoope and the methods of preparing material for histology,, cytology, and other similar fields, tor the same reasons, material on the photography of microscopic material should be obtained. A reference collection* Only general works on biology will be kept in the Library. A few general,, up-to-date, and quite inclusive texts with the pertinent reference tools on the subject (lists of laboratories, apparatus, etc.) should be sufficient. In the sub-fields of evolution, genetics, and heredity, however, the Army Medical Library has the responsibility of acquiring a larger amount of material. This is due to both the historic connec- tion of evolution and the physical study of man and the usefulness of a knowledge of evolutionary trends in the explanation of human anomalies. Not everything in this field should be included, however, in that much of it refers to plant, rather than animal, life. A reference collection, with greater coverage when the emphasis is largely medical. QL - Zoology. Material on zoology is collected by this Library, not solely for the information contained in the works, but also as a means to the end of comparing human and sub-human development. For this reason, large collections in comparative anatomy and embryology (a research collection) and an exhaustive collection in medical zoology (QL 99) will be built up; while material on invertebrates (QL 3^2-66) and general works on vertebrates (QL 605) will be oolleoted in smaller amounts. - 9 - ^> *JT-lto.my ) jp - Ffryr..c.lor-y ) p. - bacteriology ) d i c j ne ) / J These filler :o.*em!f rt:" ens of these which ere ^ertiner.t to medicine rre replaced in the Army Medical Tmbrtcry by the special schedules listed below, all of which comprise an area in which the Army edical Library collection T?;ill he exhaustive«, Immieioloey QS - Ibe.mn Anatomy :.T - Physiology iyT - ^biochemistry btv - rhasm.a oology ^ ' - :ec !:er loloey ? Qa - Pp r a s i t o 1 o r;y ■'•' - hliebnal Pathology ^.j r)J?t;>e"!.orv - eieral and Miscellaneous ••cereal Gelatine, to the ad leal Profession .. - mm lie health ■T3 - Practice of Medicine cC - Tv^'-ctioi**s dseases b/D - eystee.ic Diseases ■*E - ;. useeboskeletal System ? - respiratory System - car-H^vascular System MMI - Hemic ana Lymphatic Systems ,.I - Gastrointestinal System YW - Urogenital System Y/K ^ Endocrine System ViTL - rervous System V T * TECHNOLOGY Sanitary engineering (TD) is the branch of technology of chief interest to the Army Medical Library, Here it must be remembered, first, that sanitary engineering is only newly independent of the medical pro- fession which pioneered the public health movement, and that consequently the older literature of the subject is inextricably mixed into medical literature; and, second^ that the military status of the Army Medioal Library involves responsibilities for such subjects as water supply and sewerage which are of less concern to other medical libraries. The Army Medical Library will therefore require strong referenoe collections in these branches of sanitary engineering, and a research collection of the general history of the subject, and of periodioals and congress proceed- ings., In the other branches of technology, the Army Medioal Library need look out for only the specifically medical applications, suoh as aviation physiology and psychology (TL 555) 9 mine resoue work (TN 297)« and medical photography (TR 705), all of which should be collected e xhau st i ve ly • Dietary studies (TX 551-560) should be oolleoted at the research level, not only for their value to the medioal research worker in the field, but also for the use of nurses, dieticians., hospital administrators^ and others in the Armed Forces. Some books on materials suoh as plastics^ ceramics^ and metals used in prosthetic^ surgical^ and dental devices are appropriate to a medical library.} The particular materials and devices in question will determine whether or not particular works are admissible. (Cf. the W schedule.) U - MILITARY SCIENCE V - NAVAL SCIENCE Because of the relationship of this Library to the Armed Forces,, it is necessary for it to acquire more material in the field of military science than is usual in most medical libraries. All material on military, naval, and aeronautic medicine will, of course, be made part of the collection. In addition^ all scientific publica- tions of the medical departments of the Armed Forces should be preserved, even though some of the subjects are only quasi-medical in nature. In addition,, those basic works on military science which contain sections about medical components should be obtained on a selective basis, and weeded as superseded. As reference tools for the use of such publica- tions, pertinent directories^ lists of places and persons connected with medical departments of the Armed Forces^ and histories of certain army,, navy, and air force groups should be procured. Equivalent foreign publications should be obtained wherever possible. - 11 - ^ ^ Z • BIBLIOGRAPHY The Library's collecting policy in the field of bibliography must he .strongly influenced by the Library's past and present position among scholarly libraries.. The needs of the staff, therefore , are here . mm to he considered than the likely public use of the books. In general, the Army Medical Library requires a well«rourded reference collection on the book arts, the book trade,, library history and manage- ment, bibliographic techniques, library procedures and general biblio« graphy-* Catalogs and bibliographies of early books are required in greater strength to illuminate the Library's important collections and to facilitate the tasks of describing and analyzing them adequately. fere a research collection is required* In the narrow fields of medical publishing and bookselling and in medical and related library management and librarianship the collections should be at the research levelp The bibliography of any sutysct regarded in scope is per so proper, according to the degree of completeness to which the subjectTs collected. Thus, any bibliography *.*f pathological psychology (2F 173) is in scope;, because the Library want.**** en exhaustive collection in that subject; however, a slight bibliography of organic chemistry (QD 251) would be disregarded, because the Library seeks only a reference collection in that subject., and ':y definition a reference collection encompasses only a "corpre- hm-isims bibliography." 1;~ Special areas - a-, Responsibility as mart of the Armed forces.. Army Special Regulabtr6ns^I|^2Cj^T "(Ij? larch 19^9) designates the .urmy Medical Library as a record depository for certain types of publications issued by the iirmy Medical Service „ Permanent files maintained at the Library will include the following; (l) One copy of each publication issued by any administrative uioarc of the Office of the Surgeon General. (2) One copy of each publication issued by the Surgeon of any Army Headquarters or Overseas Command. This includes "hospital newspapers or periodicals pub lis lied primarily in the interest of patients or duty personnel; copies of -m'ofessional or technical reports of hospital staff meetings; copies of reports of experimental studies or research carried out at the hospital„" - 12 - m *"> Government documents. The Army Medical Library is in fact, if not in name, the National Medical Library. As such, it must collect all government documents on a state and local level, as well as on a national level, which pertain to medicine as defined in paragraph 3 above• Library archives. The Army Medical Library will preserve the archives of the Library in accordance with the recommendations of the National Archives? (l) Organization and administrative history of the agency; (2) The policies it followed and the reasons for their adoption; (3) Its working methods; (h) Its specific individual transactions, including personnel service, so far as they established a legal status of any kind, or as they may be presumed to have a general and continuing interest; (5) The general social, economic, or other conditions with which the agency dealt. The History of Medicine Division will function as official archivist of the Library. The files of the Library will be periodically examined by the History of Medicine Division, and important documents will be extracted, calendared, and preserved. Art Collection. The Art Section, presently assigned to the Catalog .Division, is eventually to be a section of the History of Medicine Division; the emphasis of its collecting policy is therefore historical. It is not concerned with visual materials used in clinical medicine* these are in the province of the Medical Illustration Service, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. The Art Section will include all varieties of visual material (paintings, prints, photographs, drawings, posters, cuts, slides, etc.) relating to the history of medicine. (I) First emphasis will be placed upon development of the portrait collection; - 13 - (2) Second emphasis will be placed on collecting illustrations of medical institutions; (3) Medical caricatures, pictorial broadsides, and similar curiosities illustrative of the social history of medicine will be added to the exist- ing collections, recognizing always that for the Library subject value is of more importance than artistic merito e. History of Medicine. The policies set forth in Appendix I will serve as a basis for Library policy0 5<> Affirmation of previous decisions. a. Fictions As works of medical fiction are freely available to research workers both in and out of Washington, the Library's previous decision not to collect In this area is affirmedo b. Translationss All translations from a foreign language Into English will be sought after and acquiredo All translations from an -unfamiliar to a familiar language as, for example5 from Arabic to French, will be obtained. In the case of translations from English to a foreign language, however, only a limited number of examples of the more important works will be acquired. c. Bibliographic variants; The policy on the collection of certain variant editions is here modified and redefinedo (The policy on variant editions of rare books as defined in Appendix I is affirmed; the following applies to biblio- graphic variants of the 20th century.) Where a bock is published simultaneously in two or more places from the same plates but with different imprints, as is likely to be the case in British, Canadian, and American works, the Army Medical Library will not attempt to acquire more than a single imprinto 6. Use in reshaping the collections. The definitions of scope given in paragraph 3 "above, with due consideration for the many intangibles and limiting factors set forth in the paper attached to this Order as Appendix II, will be applied in an effort to reshape the collections, both by pruning and by discovering and correcting previously undeveloped areas. 7. Priorities. a, Serials are the most important material acquired by a re- search library* Prime emphasis will be placed on this area. . m- ^ b. Current and recent monographs will be vigorously sought after. o. Monographs of the 19th and early 20th (up to 1920) oenturies will be acquired as offered. d. Early and rare books will be aoquired aooording to the principles outlined in Appendix I. Fiscal controls, announced from time to time, will be used to establish limitations in this area; it will be general policy not to exoeed 10 peroont of the total book funds in the purchase of rare books. Attached: Appendix I Appendix II -fU/VwJL'S ^ FRANK B. ROGERS Lt Col, MC Direotor Appendix I Library Order No- 3 6 February 1951 SCOPE AND COVERAGE IN THE HISTORICAL PORTION OF THE LIBRARY* By William Jerome Wilson Chief, mstory of Medicine Division In 19U8, when the History of Medicine Division undertook a microfilm acquisition program aimed at rounding out the Library's collection of early medical texts, the time seemed ripe for a fresh evaluation of its entire acquisition polioy with respect to historical materials- It is on this reassessment, made under the impact of the new techniques of documentary photography,, that the present paper attempts to reports GENERAL ACQUISITION PROBLEMS OF AN HISTORICAL LIBRARY In an historical library with fixed chronological limits, an active program of acquisitions is increasingly difficult to maintain* New books, in the strict sense of the word are unobtainableff Accessions , in such a library, consist usually of copies of additional old books that appear from time to time in the auction catalogs and in the offerings of second- hand dealers- The prices are high and because of the increasing rarity of the items they seem destined to go higher and higher-^ Only extra- ordinary endowments or appropriations can stand the strain of a really active acquisition program in any of the rare book fields- One answer, though not a perfect one. is possible through the photo- graphic reproduction of books^ For years it has been evident that the photocopying of texts in other libraries had important possibilities not only for the reference division but also for the acquisition division of an historical library- As yet, however its possibilities as an acquisi- tion tool have not been fully exploited^ ♦This paper stems from a paper read before the 6th Annual Meeting of The Association of Honorary Consultants to the Army Medioal Library in 19l|.9l it will appear in greatly expanded form in early issues of Library Quarterly^ Appendix I The real hindrance is the large intellectual effort necessary for its effective us6. The first problems to come up, when such a program is launched, are those of scope and coverage — what range of subjects to in- clude, and how completely to represent the existing literary traditions as to each subject chosen. In the Army Medical Library, confined as It is to medicine, there is considerable difficulty in delimiting the field and deciding how many of the fringe subjects should be included. The question of the completeness of coverage is equally baffling. Manifestly, not every medical and near- medical record can be collected, even with the aid of microphotography. What degree of completeness, then, ought to be attempted? Shall the library try to cover with equal thoroughness the early centuries when books mere copied by hand, the first hundred years or so of printing when the scribes and the printers still competed with each other, and the more re- cent centuries in which the printing press reigns supreme and its output i s ove rwhe lmi iig ? THE SCOPE OF THE MEDICO-HISTORICAL COLLECTION The Basic Literature of Medicine. Defining the scope of a medico- historical collection involves a number of close distinctions. Medicine? it is commonly said, is both a science and an art. "Artrt in this case, however, denotes not an esthetic but a technological aspect. It is what the medieval writers commonly oalled "practica" as distinguished from "theorica." A generation just past would have called it an "applied11 as opposed to.a "pure" science. The two things — call them science and art, theory and practice, or what you will — constantly react upon each other and actually cannot exist without each other. And yet medicine proper in its most characteristic aspect would seem to be a technology. It has con- cerned it .self, in all ages and all countries, with such matters as diseases and wounds, symptoms and diagnosis, treatment and remedies. These consti- tute the great main core of a medic-historical collection. They are medi- cal subjects in the most typical sense, and pn them an institution like the Army Medical library must concentrate its primary attention. These subjects tend to divide under numerous subheads, all of which are still unmistakably medical. Surgery is one of the great main branches, and dentistry is an important branch of surgery. Treatises on the fitting of eye-glasses, the training of deaf-mutes, and the correction of posture or foot defects all deserve to be included in a medico-historical collection. 7/hat, however, of veterinary science? Is animal medicine a medical subject? Put in tleis form, the question answers itself. In practice, the matter is one of definition simply. If a collection is dedicated to the records of human medicine only, then animal medicine is excluded. If it is dedicated to medicine generally, then veterinary science is a part of it. - 2 - Appendix I 7he Ltt^rr-time of the Medioal Sciences- Nest to the straight medical wcrbs *nd equa. ly ;ee.dispennabj^':,n^uch''^cel"-Tbion,, are beaks on what are fr^queimhy '■/I'i.Ri -Lbe> m'-»lm>al stances* These are in~ellec+-ua!i discipline.fi, srrri-'m.m.^s cibithv-at^d, for 'b"bcbar"o-*r>" saSe and capable cf standing by them selves in the b.ierarc'ry of VTicw?.r>i~ c*"ma X reeplr^ment ;ln a medicat education. >?b.y;-v»m,ians have madr; most ^*n'\pc», acd marked advp.rces in them hevo been rrcmytly fo; te*red. by "imprevftme-ots in medimai practice, mmm science-*'., ncT-etby botany, w^ro cultivated for centuries from a, poirm of v:m>w miml m?-,r t'-» tb«i med:-cal science,?,, such, as anatamy or pb.y7iQ3.cgy- Ih<~ <:-r^^k lore -"egerdirr; medicinal plants '■--'*■*.$ -handed, da-^ra through Dioscormde..> to the scholare cf.' the Middle Age?? and led to a long succev.aior. of berbals* rm-*m;e mmscirst^.ng rclume-m often profusely illustrated., set forth the ex1'- p^mrp^co i^rd, hahim* af dmc-^s «f plants. fo>lcw?d regularly by informaticr as to mheir medicinal use?. But -rith the establishment of the Lirnn^an cbam^ificmtmcTm the science of bet?.nv presently brcr*e array from medaoine end at the erd of the b3*'-h and beginning of the 19th century some herbals term.?, to ^p-pear mitbmut mention f;f medicinal values* These* accordingly,, fp'.'l cut&ihm the s'.rrc of c me dice -historical collection,* There is a cer- bun i: cny «?bout puoh decisions?, since the later herbals from a scientific standpoint jr* babhor than the m*dic»x herbals that preceded them, hover- *hb-mlf)5?,fs, th^ later and better treatises are clearly out cf score. /rhem.istry mrmi physics had a somewhat similar development, though the details w=>re different* Even the knowledge of the stars wa?** considered by many im the 15th and 16-th centuries to be a handmaiden of medicine. rrcrvs r~ w;pcdioial aa^-olcgy" ard "critical daysw w^re consulted by somm physicians ?n -m-. effort to determine in advance the course of ac 3 line^s «nd the prm^pecbm cf .tecovery- In the words of the Catalan mystic,., Ramon Lul,, reput-J'ty a m'^icol man? "'The aatrenrm^r cam give as tru^ a judgment abort a sic*: perrer ds can the physician."-*■ In the then state of medical trowJmdgo this mmvm 0.»r_. have berna t*,**u=**_ In thmse a*"1 a obher medical sciences the decision as to whether a parte oular work is in or out of scope cannot be made mechanically or on the bes:; a mf chronology only. It is necessary to examine bhe book itself and determine it a purpose sn.d point of vie**? .'U Bam en ImI^ Arbo*: scientiae, Barcelona,, 22 August 1482., f„ -2 8 Or? "Astronomic pctest data ita~"*^runf iuaT?£urn de nomine infirmo si cut medicus»n 3 - Appendix I In strictly modern times the great sciences have become so vast that ^crh has developed many specialties of its own,, and rome of these have cIcfo mo died affiliations. In the field of chemistry., for example, the biochemists are constantly parsing on new knewle&go to the pharmacologists- and :in the field of physics the radiologist?** are doing 'the same for medi- cine o Beth biochemistry and. radiology rely en the hospitals and the physioians for much of the experimentation on *arhich th~ir scientific pro- gress c^pep.ds. Circumstances may change, but at the moment these sub« sciences are in about the sprne position as was botany before 1300* Near-m^dicm! and ;?art**medioa'i 'forks., -"lbere If? another end to thi.e spoei;rumv All the"c:Icr6r scienQOs"7ie-^crude and magical beginnings, and the medical sciences were no exception. Back of the herbals ~~ and for noyeral centuries contemporaneous -with them as '«*ell <-»• there were elabo- rate ti-eatipjos in Greek on the r'virtuesn Ox plantss of stones, of animals-: of bir^.n, and of fishes. In suoh •works.the effort toward classification my he recognised as a rudimentary manifestation of the scientific spirit, b^t the alleged, virtues or peters arc on the order of magical charms. Thu■•***, a certain stone worn as en amulet may -ward off -sceapons in battle j; a certain fish properly prepared ard eaten restore the memory; the juice of P, cer-terr riant protect from the plague., and so on* The student of historical deve- lopments will see bmre the background of the later sciences of botany.. mineralogy, zoology,, ornithology, and ichthyology, and Trill admit a slight medical slant in rome of the so-callod virtues; but one can hardly accord to p'i.oh compilations the dignity of medical sciences., j*hey have a little jre&ical interestc and a comprehensive me lice—historical library ought pro bably to certain representative samples, but they are far fiom being its primary concern. In the game category ere most of the works on alchemy — predecessor cf chemistry —- a ->-o'-sided science -which sought in one of its lines of er^eavn-r to find the philosophers ■ stone, a perfect medicine -which should cure all tho ills to rrhioh mankind is heir. Here to some extent is the manguago of physicians, but the content is almost pure magic. The same is ■fcrv.^ cf most treatises on astrology, whose predictions are on the sooth- rmayer's level, although seme, of them, as noted above, were employed in medi- cal 'iip.^^'sifl* Not essentially different are eh.ircmancy and physiognomy, tOich, seek to foretell human fortunes from the line3 of the ha^d or the shape of the head* Diseases are sometimes included among the5.r prediction.-! o^ disaster- bnt there are ©samples of soothsaying* not of medicineo For all puch psm?.dor*cie*oees, as -well as for the compilations of -Virtues,11 per- hapc the best designation wouM be wnear-medical«w In a medioc-historioO. collection they aro at best only fringe subjects,- ~ 4 «. ^pporiim*; I ^a«mho, in its proacbentific and ps-rd.v'.ci'nt-brxo manife.rtab.bcn.c i*? rot the only rsm«rca cf roar-medical wemcr-m r^rmanc-* and theological treatises nometimep disc*"**.-**;.** problemr of health .and sickness, ^speoielly durine; epidemics* In 1468.-, for example,, pomcrmoo porinici, Pishop of Brescia, composed a..closely rop.pored tract on the duty of the clergy in timm cf pistilorn*-^a^ 7Ta> a orelate bound to at: ay with hip pecpio irhilf.' a pbaguo wan raging5 or m.i 2*ht hs fl.mo to rc-m? safer pl.aoo? Hero :ir a matter with undc-jbv^djy i^-dmcal impli^atioxcF, but it is treated, from an ecclesiastical point of T«dm~m The seme is hue cf tbm ml to* of St Roche and other patrols of physicians end of thei*- patiortp. Xaturgioal works also iroludo speoial prayo'.'s V he said for tba sick* Philosophy,, li?^eirise, makes its contributionnP let-; ar oh - s Medicina ircaiupque fortun.ee was frequently publiahad. era widely read, but let no one ia?! 'misjlemT'by mho title- This ic rot a troatice on medicine, but a philosophical dipc/aacion of gpori and bed fortvi.ro 0 Tom profane states the purpose of the work in farms suggestive of modern psychiatry, but in spite of its prof ace, the --omk falls not po much into the psychiatric class as into that popular and perennial genre which it is the fashion nowadays to call tho "peace-of-mind books m,;?> As far as medical interact goes, it is owe on the fringes of the sr*.\joot. Scmeo-hat different is Sebastian Brant mc !?bip cf Fools- This is en cnt©rermbir.g fororpraor of todays p, illustrate d comb op*' It would seem at fir'rt to bo complete by out of soope r and yet it happens to contain a f-'m.m-.c, pimtr.ro of a librarian wearing eye-glasses, one of tb.e earliest kscor-. illustrations of those aids to poor mision* A.medicothistorieal lijDT^ry is certainly justified 5,n including at least one copy of the h O ">K Ir.-'harocB mi^ht be multiplied- Hhat, for exomrl?,, of the encyclo- pedia.?.- pxcbro;. "ai historic p., and other goner a"1 works? Many of these oo.amain one or more sections o.i modi cone or pbm/ci clone, and -while seldom of Itfr.r.e hic-'m-xioa.l s:i grificac.ee., -fcber.e tell fomsthmng of the profassicn as "pen f r ma am outside -^v general point of view* ^orks on the art of 1* Cfo D~ ?£« bohacliar,^ "A Manurjcript of Dominicx in the A-mry Medical Imhrary?:? ^'curr-al of th^. Eiptm-y of Medicine and Allied Scior.cep,.; III (irAsV/^^^r """""""""'''""^"""'-™- — —~ -- " —" b- For a pomebm-m, laudatory exposition of the roTk, in opposition to ex- pressed opinions of Jyrra thorn-like., see George barton., ?'In Defense of "otraroa--- B-m*k on tho Remedies for Good and Evil Fortune..1* in IcAs, X"^ (19.19), PF 65-'*?. - 5 Arp^rdir: I **~ar aro likely to ha"-"***** aeotrUmiP cr>. th<* care of waund^ and the sanitation of crmps, T~rk?> on th.--. culbna-r fr-t may touch on matters of diet, and these on ^y^^^.ptlc ^m-mrm^ m--y gl~~e pom^dio.l o^ercisesc "i^c;m*s en. architecture often describe tmr center ebb or. of bcspStals . T'-t^x on agriculture usually take up at pome -mint the oar- of domestic enim.als.* their di--aa.pesr end how to mr-o thorn- ^rmp~u.>d.irms of law sometimes deal at length with medical juris- mru;mr.oos a^amptinr, to sot forth, the legal rights and -esporsi bilitres of th-o praotitbon-m - In all such t-oxts there is pome portion with genuinely "•odioal subject ratm-* ?fl t-hough it may net oermPlt-v ,o a very large fraction of the T-riol^, If ore -memo seelmlng for th:sm ,; difforert label f:mmo. **ncar»< moiioal5r' it mb^ht perhaps be ^part-modioal-'0 mRIN'mrhFC OF nm&CxIGB FOR mRIttmiT) BOOKS v^ro:;^!.- X-icO the we 11-lor* ow.1--* apple-porter, too director of a compre- h^rsi-m accrbs^-clop prcjest 5m faced, aith intellectual decisiors all day l-m;m After do^idipr rbiofc ,'aibject*. -*-.e cc*T^r, he must decide how compl^t^ly t' ii-rr-.r tboy;-c n.id h** srmr, aearns th-t ma suoh w>-.-k no rules can be applied, -m^^ o^ily t-C; o,iI tyre? of rocords «ind all chronological porieds. Tho era of merit:script t:.;remission requires di^lom-int treacm^rb from the era cr printed ^■"h"1, whs bo a-'mo rcouliar problems beset that century o.c so during rhieb norlh-p ar.d print*":r =3 aome'^i for ^hm business of circulateng tho org.anis^c!. tmoutht of -ho re^terr world,, Cm*"-rre-o mill pl;co diffnr as Trr'Twsen medic-ire arcl tho medioal sciences,, en the ere hard, and tho near-mad:1 cab and part m-fdioab w^rks, en tho other. Fir ally,, there is the practical problem of bmLaao.lng the two forms of aoquisiicon.,, the expon/mvo hook mad tho cheaper facsimile, if both are available 'in any given instance,. Inounahmlg or? Vodioine. and th.e Medical Soiemccp., Selection is easiest by ffr^crT^O-KO^ is oma ^ijiplo rums ^Inelxide o-ror—thiD^o^ Incunabula pre rot too ruraorou,s ^t bast,, and it may so assumed that svory gomniroly radical' item that has survived i'rom the 15h>i .h-v'Ases;, and. oemmontariee quoting part or all cf the orii-anal work? All of thsp'-m, in a smsso , ame t^hf edit'icra,, and the gonial prob-leoi here being mm sod may for c or enlar^or Appendix I it obviously contains new historical matter, and ought to be represented in a comprehensive collection. A translation Into another language is also important. Three points of historical value are obvious, (l) If it does not actually add any new matter, it at least will give the trans- lator's understanding of doubtful or ambiguous points in the original. In this respect every translation is a critical interpretation. (2) To compilers of medical dictionaries, it is always interesting and instruc- tive to see v/hat happens to new technical terms in another tongue. Some are merely transliterated, others actually translated. (3) An edition in foreign language is clear evidence that a medical work has extended its influence into a new national or linguistic area. Condensations, para- phrases, and commentaries bear similar testimony to an author1 s widening influence, in addition to recording new information or shifts of interest and emphasis. But what of the simple reprint? Of all types of new edition this is the most difficult to justify under a principle of complete coverage. By hypothesis the text is the same as that of the original edition. If so, why bother to secure a copy? The point is arguable, but I think that it is well, at least for the early centuries, to extend the edition-coverage to include mere reprints. If they can be obtained in microfilm form, the added trouble and expense is not very great* Three considerations seem to favor such a policy, (l) Even a reprint testifies to the breadth of the author's influence and so makes a slight contribution to his biography. (2) While the text remains the same, the introductory matter often changes. (3) There is always the possibility that a painstaking biographer will find minor but historically significant variants in an edition that has previously been considered a mere reprint of the original. It may be permissible at this point to cast a wary eye toward that murky morass in which bibliographers — usually working in centuries after the l^th — struggle with vaguely identified "issues" and "variant states" and belabor one another with arguments about cancel title-pages, re-issues, simultaneous issues, broken type, and such formidable abstractions as "the ideal copy" and "the consistent unit." There is, of course, no cheaper humor than the merriment of a novice over a form of intellectual investi- gation v/hioh does not happen to appeal to him. I mention the difficulties and complexities of descriptive bibliography, not to scoff but to classify. The basis of such studies is the fact that typesetters in all ages have made mistakes and that early printers often caught misprints and corrected them while a work was going through the press* To attempt from such cor- rections to determine which copies of a given edition were issued first and which after is a perfectly legitimate exercise of human ingenuity, though some bibliographers have doubtless evolved more elaborate theories as to "the first issue of the first edition" than the evidence will support. The point of present interest, however, is this. Such investigations are of - 7 - Appendix I value for the history of typography, but never, I think, for the history cf medicine. It follows that a medico-historical collection may stop its cover- age with the edition. It is under no logical obligation to go further and try to secure copies of all alleged issues. Issue-coverage — if the term is not too barbarous — may be left to the historians of printing and to any library catering especially to their needs. Near-medical and Part-medical Incunabula* For strictly treatises, in- cluding those in the medical sciences, the edition is the lower limit of coverage, but for near-medical and part-medical works even edition-coverage seems more than can be justified* In a comprehensive library on the history of medioine one may reasonably expect to find all of -Hie 1.5th century edi- tions, let us say, of Bernard de Gordonio's Li Hum medioinae, which was the most widely used general compendium on the subject in that period. Quite different must be the Library1s attitude toward a general encyclopedia of the sciences, such as Bartholomaeus Anglicus, De propietatibus rerum. This contains some significant passages on medicine and a good deal of background material of value to the medical historian,. The work went through a dozen incunable editions in the original Latin, and there are a doc en more in other languages. The logical place.in which to look for the -whole series would be in a universal library like the British Museum, or better still, in- some historical library aiming to cover comprehensively the history of the natural scienceSo Of all the early near-medical or part-medical works, probably the out- standing example is Pliny the Elder1 s Historia naturalis. It may fairly be classified in both of those categories' xne quantity or medioal information in this compendium is very considerable, thou«gh the quality may leave some- thing to be desired* In general it reflects, not the higher levels of medicine as derived by the Romans from the Greeks, but the popular levels, well mixed with superstition and magic. There is also a great deal of in- formation «- and misinformation — regarding plants and herbs, minerals and metals, stars and planets, and others of our fringe subjects. Edition- coverage for suoh a work ought to be as generous as for any partHaedical or near-medical treatise that can be named. As a matter of fact, at the Army Medical Library it is quite generous. \ Of the fifteen incunable editions re- corded by Arnold C. Klebs in his Incunabula scientifica et medioa, four are represented here in book form? the fifth, eighth, ninth, and fifteenth. Of the three incunable editions of the Italian translation the first and second are present, and there are copies also of seven later editions, including English and German translations, bearing dates of 1587, 1593, 1778-91, 1781-88, 1835-36, 1855-57, and 1856. Is this sufficient, or ought an effort to be made to secure in book form or on film the remaining twelve incunable editions? - 8 Appendix J. Here again i.«? a question that 5s endlessly arguable.. On it I offer suggestions rathe:' -hen decisions The real question is not,.. I submit.. "what it would be nice to haw-'1 or ?Vhat s-sae scholar might some day ask to soF. t hut rathe- '"v.-hmt it would bo logical to expeot %n a comprehensive library, on the history cf modi mire '* If Pliny were a medioal writer,, ma should want the enijre printed record in ord^r to bllu«t:ato the ramifica- tions of his influence and the vavrous addition* and site.-a.trons that hs.-m h^en made in his text Sauce he is not a iimdio?.l writer bat has only 11 lustrative and background valuo fnr -'-h* hi-=t-* ry oJ rm~ticine it would seem sufficient as a practical working soiutaor, cf *!h.e pv*ohlerm so content our m°lvef? mth t.w-3 thing?-;** (l 1 an early edition., preferably the f rst if it mf available,, and (?m the best modem critical edition in existence Th-^e v*wo would app«*m-'c to ho the indrisp^roablo minimum lr thero 1p to be pay'extension beyoad this coverage, obviously it oupirt to ha in the :?pr-md c;e^mry rather than tho firmt A^ vu.ll bo brought out more clearly below,, the piling up of successive incunable editions, will hardly bring up nearer to the original wording of rtiny-s text -- whioh is usually what the medical historian w«sntf when he consults a copy of the Historia naturalis On the ohher hand., the precise purpose of a modern critical' e matron"is te get hack of all the variants that have crept into the nanus crip t--i and -the early uncritical editions- and to m^ccve- as nearly g.s possible just what IT liny wrote If any new -•- and presumably better critical temt is caor 'cnhlishmd..... the Army Medical library ought to secure it Here., rath to* «tau -meap; the incunabula,-, is the. place for complete editions-coverage of no a~■*■- medical arm"1 part-medical works* Increased Selectivity for the Later Centuries., For tnc genuinely med.a sal lite ram** re cf the ibth century,. uc en;, it is not too .mhitious to say.- '5 Prelude everything that has survived. 1" - As a matter, of fact the same prin- ciple nay reasonably be applied to the .16th century as well Beyond, that point. If a comprehensive acquisition project sbihl seems a feasible Tinder - taking, there will inevitably be a tightening of tho principles of select!me For one thing, scope wd.il probably he defined more narrowly and the lb"inge subjects will he more and more rigidly excluded.-. In the 15uh and 16th centuries medicine' ana its subsidiary and allied -subjects we-'e pretty m.moli interrelateCj net to say ommu-ed In the -.7th ami 18th centuries the dis- ciplines became much better* distinguished, l.n the lath and 20th the trend. toward specialisation bfc>arm acute- It is pvehsblo, rotwithstanc.lng;, that o-ven too.ay the sciences an co-act on erne another about as much as '"■boy ever did But thinkers and writers, rdcen they deal vrith such interactions .—- .asp for example, bol-^en medieiue and atomic physios or between medicine and aviation -■- shew rrmra skill at concentrating en the precise points of medr - cal concern The result as between the disciplines, is sharper contact and. ~ 9 « /ppendir I Vss confusion uhan formerly To put the matter a little differently, the a...roctor of a cmmprahon^ive medico 'historical library., when he comes to take c-er for himio*-ical purposes the materials of the 19th and 20th cen- turies,, will find mast of the determination of scope already dene for bun; through the refined speoialination of science itself* What v-ill not hav° "been so we'bl dore for him is the segregation of the historically significant from the insignifleanto Here is a problem for -\rchivastf- find librarians alike - Certain events or persons stand out in the course of history for their mm-cial- contributions . They mark a new dimr.oaoaViv, an impr^-od method,, a critical insight,, am important change of di"eetber.o Or. -'.he 'tb.er hand, the great generality of everts and of person*: is routine and trivial item- the historian can only treat statistically- yrro mlng irai .mmhual dif feoerees and contenting himself -"ith gyrieraiir,a.tiviis as to the nature and. sipr*.if leasee of thousauds or millions of similar per-= s^ns or repetit-ire circrmstaroeso In do cum'"rating the outstanding events cf the past the archivist cv the hisboriecb librarian will make few mistakes* The records of a Vesalius, a Harney a Jeunor will be well chosen ,ar.d carefully preserved. But what of the ma^mara, th.e trivia,,, the routine are repetitive publications? Far c.ra.m.ple* ti*e medical school r- publish not merely anrual eat amors, and ]lsts cf courses hat a^o a varied promotional literature- It all has a bearing,. though of ben slight* .;n the histm- *y of medioine.* Shall it. as far as it is availably he a'comhled cbbbVr in print or on film? Shall It h^ a.'■ ambled fox tb^ medical schools of Kurop^ .Asia* Africa,, Australia... and ot1. Ameri= oar. eouatm-es., as well as for the United States and Canada; Again, what of the medical journal;:-- and "h^ rep''res of associations? Shall only thesv*. of national sagmf: canoa he collected or those of purely local significance as wo? 1? Vmat .m the v-eprints of separate article^-"1 And vt&r about bio-- gy^ubiem op phys.lcia.ns, chmm portraits., their obituary notices? If -these are systematically collected,, shall all medioal men be included or only the em?. ><=«•;"> r-Thb!rb!lS OF SBlmCTiOIJ FOR MF'tsCRIPT^ 'mna.mal. Beak of the irrre ration of printing lie the long centuries *m*m:a all ^*Jm:tor.~Veccrd«: -^re copied by hand M«aay of mh^se have smmmved •-•- pro* babl.y about a million -^lumes in all -- and for the director of a oomprahem si^^'historical mbbrary ^■-f offer a number of special problems. Manuscript tc-rts of medical weeks are sometime? offered £'->r sale by dealers., and copies of marusmarm "s rmos^rmed in public libraries can usually be secured or. micro film, iust am re-dily as the tarts of printed books.- In some ways their - 10 ,/ope rdlx. 1 selection, whether m film, o^ as originals, furnishes more trouble and mo.ie misunderstanding as bet—en dealers and libra-mans •*hsn ordinarily arises ir acquiring printed bc^s-. Because tb.no a-- come marusorapts that '--mm .and phenomenally high prices ■"hen they come on the market the "npression at times prevails that a manu- m^ipt as suoh is mc^ssari'iy imoort-nt This is far from true* After print- ing wns ful'y e^taHtis ed har-* spying b~'.. \me distinctly a second-rate technique and anything which failed cm printing is likely to have boon a second rate work. Th**re were -except?.onsr preeminent among which wall be rem- ember-i the nrtebomk.**' of Leonardo da Vine*** Never tho lass.- by end large, what rao ret printed prob hly did not deserve to be- Fe sometimes think of the acei.Vmrs cf history and the ravages of time as having exercised a random and ur-e^rtunato peloctcon on the records of the past There were accidents arm -hr-er*c ^ve ravages, yet after the 5.nvention of printing there was,, throuah the day by-lay decisions of editors and publishers,, probably more rational choice than accident in determining what records should survive through the medium of print.. It may be profitable first to consider some of the types of manuscript produced after the invention of printing, particularly after the process of printing became common. ManuscriptsJ.7ritten Afte1- the_ Invention of Printing. One of the interest- ing types ct ipodern manuscripts "is the' preliminary" draft of a hock that has appeared in prirt It nay be the author's first draft, with corrections It may he the crpy as it want t«-> the printer — usually in recent times a type-- script ?i*,ch manuscriptst. if the publieation is dui.y famous,, are frequently regymdea as collectors' Items, and to them are sometimes added the or oof sheets as they ,.. am° fv ma the printer In all such cases the importance of these preliminary stages depends en the importance of the publication itself In ■'■he case of a very famous work, the:/ have a good deal of interests though this as obv-ously more sentimental than histori cal They are Uke the mold in whioh a bronze rtatue has been cast, or the scaffolding which has helped to ppcpovt a beautiful building. It is the finished work of art that is im- portant: the moid or the s~affolding is usually thrown away- If kept at all it has a secondary or derived value. Still less encouraging are the manuscripts containing lecture notes Of these the /amy I.Ied^m--1 Library has quite an array? most of them from the 17th -<- • the 20th oontu-.-es Some are the professor's own outline of his course, "--he--a are a student ms record, in the nature of things not too reliable, of what is said It is of course,, a commonplace in university circles that c-iomsroom leotur^s represent hooks not yet wail enough organised to print, r-aCn r^oorde-d by means of a student's notes., they are likely to be even «ess 11 Appendix 7. w*m ■. oc^,,ni.zma Push manuscripts are usually significant only if the pre- rc.-R.-or iVdf. -;rory illua'mioos e the *tudent be-err- a^ There are such cases, but- "'hey a.*-e rave., A disappointing lype of manuscript is 'the simple Oopy of a printed book This is likely to have moiginoted toward the erd of the 15th or the begin- nine cm i-he 16th century, though sm^e ioastanoes eaour much latere In the G-:oc-do sawaking cm P/c-rfcierm-spesking world they are fairly common down to the b8th. or even 19th omrtu-ry. ainae in those parts of "Flur-cpe the ri»e of print- ing "'is 'em^ delayed.. j.yt the tim* i^on scribe ar.d printer ^-re in competi*= tion and panted bc-Va.. though cheaper than manuscripts,, woo© still costly, or a^oemur-ous v-helpr -'ometimes thought it better to transcribe a boob than *so buy it for his o-*«n use, ?ueh a tra-rsmr-pt is enviously less valuable than tb*> im ok from -^mob it wa^ taken,, sine© it is bound to contain some e*"or in covylng Is a matter of fact, those manuscript copies of printed oooks are among the most annoying that modarr. librarians have to deal with.. "Pm-* -the copyist was seldom if ?-t^t a professional scribe j but was a private rahelao" mrViug the -transcript for his own use,, he was apt to be careless about identifying the work He was quite likely to omit p.ier-e and date of printing end. fair by likely to omit the author Of all the means of identi- fication the title if the one most commonly preserved., but this by itself ir. rmt mimh of a n?v-.- There is always a chsr.ee when such a manuscript comes on the mm-kot that theme is a hithe-"to unknown troatiss on the subject vYith this kind, of hmpe =■■■>» whioh dealers seem to do little to discourage — more thorn ere librarian has bought suoh a ma nuoeri.pt s only to find afte- pains- t-kiug r-1-search that the entire, text ha.l been previously printed-, Unless the manuscript copy contains addihicrs,, significant on their 0*01 account, t° tb.e published *'«"" ::"*s,« both the money and the investigative effort spent on the volume have "c^.^i. wasted. M-nuo••? ipt- 7b i 'ten Bof me- the i"n*re;ati*n c*' Fj.ir'mng In its oivn prcpe. pe -ice ^DS:fore'"m?^iua*enmien co; printmng. "the iaarms^rip'; is a very differerh ^^i? He-'e it is the medium, practically the sole medium, mm- articulate '■orfi-tg foam the past Imctueom statues, huildimps* even meaunentr ^aiim irs^aipt;-ems or -'mem., tell boa little regarding the actual thiidcing of earlier peerle^-. ilanuseria-Oa tell a a/m:ut deal* If an early writer :s ^rologiea! eamto^ .or -';b.e contrary,, -rare notoriously unprotected-. Here avuy fresh eepyist naomm to have felt almost lite a new author, at liber by t~> ^eloet, emilm or alter at -as-Ill., Medioal manuscripts may be of either ^art-, bf+or the ri.se o.f *the modioal schools toward "the end. of tha Middle Ages., the tevts of such em.lr.ert authorities as Hippocrates? smd Paler., Rhaz.es and Avicerr- vaeer.mod a g'od deal cf pr^teetiorm On. tbm other heud: werhs op popular meba -< cine as well ao J-e.mta in the rarieas frirpy subjects.- were more cm less re- written at e-jemy mea-yyina; One cf the u-^odi-rieur; efforts of modern historical scholarship has besm to 3f-epernor the oritlnel i^its nf the ancient and medieval wr*iters* In the caao of -iumroteetad t->m'-e this if often an. impossible goal;; each new as-writ- arm. tlm-u-rb ocmcorboat dopan,"iar.t on the earlier;, has "the practical value of a remised and enlarged, edition or of a. paraphrase or condensation,. and contra -- bum-o little- bo -the amoT^rr of the original euthor^s words.. But Therm "f:hm tomt tsndaiima ~.m? y^a a mooamrehle -.ogr-QB o.f protection., critical study has aoca*mplishmd a groat d?ai* thanks primarily to -the Germans, mho in general b.r-*re stowo m^a^ rptitude for this morute ana oa.irstabing kind of scholarship 'v*h?-;i trro ,r Pmm-em Foiplioty Italian, or American colleagues,. The task Is Par im-'cm £.;re shorn., many miner -mrltoro. and e-;a?n a few important ones still await the so-called: definitive edition Nor has the work done been always. oompletaly saioeosaful^ some passages in oven the most carefully edited texts rmaaiii oonjsr mooL lexcrcm. criticism is a field for specialists;. In any gansrotiou there are rot likely to he in the entire oomomrrwealta of scholars* m-mre than b&jf a dcoen real authorities en the teat of the Aphorisms of Hippocrates or the emaor. c?f At! cacao a. there may not he •more than one* There may ever, be none0 bamccusly on fields, so acutely op >cialioedf casual judgments as to the '"terni-ram -value ^ of a given manuscript are practically worthless:-. Its date is of1 course,, seme, Indication.,; but far from conclusive* An early manuscript.: if c—?ied by an unreliable s tribe., may hams a morse tent than a late manu- scriut th,mt~ has boom w?Xl "'protected^ at all stages in the tranmrdssioou be this respect th^.r-o is an evident difference between a collated and ma uncollat-p aa?/: If a m^amsmoipm cf Eippocratos^ -lot us say,< has al- ready hear v.&dti by Lit~re in his critical aaitmrnm then Its presumable value fur the ***e.at as bxmaoa and can be reported on by anyone who can read and understand 'bdttr^m Cue need merely say*. ?,lhis is Codex A in Littre*s - IS Appendix I a j. «.■ a oca.:" list '■** Of course the collated manuscripts are usually in public libraries and will rot apoon ha offered for sa]m On the othe? hand an occasional Pippocmta.. m^ruocrbpt hithert0 pre-srved in a primage collection and as y-r^urcot]a;3d, may ccom onto the market How can this be appraised as to te-■ tuaJ valu'7 A reliable appraisal carno'-: com* frera s dealer no matter ■mra rir1mam;ed rv a lihrar> an. r.o matter how expert, or a cetaloger„ no matte: ho:, ioeticu^ous cm an, historian no matter bow* leaor^d r-.ilscs the'appraiser i* also in his o^-. right a speoialist in text eritioorm In fact, he must he a spsoirj.U-t in HI ppocrsmic tert oriticiam, M appraisal of an ELppo- crates aanu-'mipr hy an Arm- emoe. text critic can be little more than an inspired pueas um'.oso the Avicmana critie is or takes tho trouble to heemm^ also himselT* su Hippoorates emitio or-> tmo of early manuscript,, not an extremely large group and yet of scum imporuar,.e 'uarhains manor unpublished treatises The ma.joi medical T'"*" v?- ~n'' as sua-.' have r\\ appeared in print at ore time a:- another c ho^oe., ■> ir^-ra-?om..pt will contain a hitherto urmoumocl. tract my or -•"•:*prjty scion.-; e or some other medical topic This snv nste*"i';al libra-y may well acquire if it-can afford it In the hepo tbac m^mb--"'- o* iJ*s stopb r,o acme ether interested person may analyse the - aa'^'m ard perhaps pu.bi.Ish the text of the pmoe-m- to do so will be a s^r- ric^ m am'- ica^hip trough the ehcrces are slight of fir.di.no; in such a nrnuo.-omi.p-" f-ry hi ?'■**-;;i sal po-rl of pp--at price. all things considered. brUvO* t-j rmoc*^ '.-o ho ib,-> type o< :.-m*-u**so ii.pt am which the .Army Ivledxcai ;,:.oramr amy hoot rmT-o er.tr ate its p-^acnt progra-a op requisition?:-. Vs-vaso',-'■ p--• a as itm-urn Pieces- For tho acquiring of manum "ia.pts there if""-?. :;..uti:rb,.a,0' ^tv^'-ai raascus besides their teaoual value, .Any university 3ibmo----\- c.r ot.aer c^mte**: of culture is iustifled in bu^.n.e; a-s memv as It cam atf'**'d in or cm a to illuot^aim Hmubm.y the G?^?*pio:t of the scroll th3 cmo^a and ether ^hc-ma -vmtoh the berk has taker os """mil as the different etyles of aoup*'- A beautifully iilumiuntod .manua-mlp-y, especially *jre with miniatures, has also a hrmjh esthetic apooal. whi.ch s~mohcw has a way cf get- ting it so if rmCf-mcred in ""ha p-'iaa,.- Are*- library oao.a'.n.g to acquire man.u- sm-tpts for e::ah reasons 03 these will natimaliy try to secure a variety of larmmares. ajph&bm «s cud sub.iec5",?. with fi'mmt no i"*.g-o*;:j .free i'miurJ values Fmt ~"lar bhaJeo'"His msob'by'tpcb.r library number,, hut a h* at of ie-ti•"■*"• mmTholH as found In o.he middle cf th- scene r^aume- '1 Appendix I The assembling and aggrandizement of such literary museum is a legiti- mate and praiseworthy form of library activity, the extent of which is apt to b© limited by availability of funds. It is more properly the concern, to ho sure, .of a large general institution like the Library of Congress, or of a urava-mty library with a wide sweep of interests, than of a specialized institution like the Army Medical library. Nevertheless* -whatever its, main purpose, H.ny collection of early manuscripts inevitably takes on something of a museum-like aspect, and the institution owning it will be tempted to make at least a part of its acquisitions with a view to enhancing that aspect* That m true of "lime* manuscripts, but mi ere film copies are different, Th-y are not show-pieoe^.-> -.No one leans over a display case and exclaims at the beauty of a roil of film.. Occasionally a lecturer on illustrated books cr on illuminated manu.scripts may enliven his remarks by shewing a few films. especially colored films, in a. projection machine,,, but ordinarily they are ucod by historiarao for reading purposes only. If the historian is also a paleographer, he can read for himself the often difficult writing of a filmed manus'-ript. If not. he must depend on printed editions prepared for him by the textual critics Manuscripts on Film. Here emerges an important distinction for the director cf a me dice historical library*. Film copies of printed books are collected for the use of historians generally* Tho clientele may be small and select, but at least it is a wo 7 Id-mi do and mere or less continuous.-. Film ooies of early manusatipts, on, the contrary, are collected not for the text critic but by him in American universities it has become more or less the the custom fcr a scholar of this sort to deposit with his library the final collection of his films or photostats In some instances the library has pur- chs-sod them an the first place, at his request., and merely takes them over ■whs? the work is dono - All this is instructive for the formulation of acquisition policies© Films of printed hooks may he 'mtooksdm* "wftiereas films of early manuscripts should be so cur ad only ron order r Such is 'the prevailing practice, and there is no reason tc ohanpy it. With the development of the microfilm- ing technique and the realization of its possibilities in the acquisition field, the Question was bound to arise as to the coverage of early manu- scripts- Sound raasens have been adv,anced for the complete edition-cover- age of 15th -and 16th century medical books. Ihy not* then, complete manu- sc*-"lpt"vCO"*rarage for the centuries preceding? The answer is, *Now and the reason is the difference :ln "*&© quality of the product, the difficulty of its selection- and the nature of its usee As feu the quality, there is no question that print is superior. Manu- script copying; became a'second-rate technique as soon as the printing press 15 - Appendix I was fairly established, and this was true not only of manuscripts that happened to be made after tho invention of printing but also of those mo.de beforeo A*^ once the world of scholarship began trying to provide ever- im- portant author with a printed edition. WHen it became evident that manu- script texts of early works varied in reliability, the laborious process of critical evaluation began, with the obvious purpose of providing an ancient or medieval author with such an edition as he might have had if he had lived in the age of printing and had had access to a oublisher direct. Text- ual criticism, m effect, tries to overpass the whole period of manuscript transmission and give the author at long last the protection of the printed editiono The difficulty of selecting medical manuscripts for filming, if any large-scale program were attempted, is manifesto Ho librarian, even in a specialized historical library, would be capable of covering the fieldo Such selection can be properly done only by acute specialists working on parti- cular authors or in limited subject fields<, There is no better illustration of this kind of work than the project to which Dr. Sigerist has already devoted many years of his life* While directing the Institute of the History of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Uni- versity, he spent several summers In Europe, carrying a Leica camera and visiting various libraries in which medical manuscripts were known or sus- pected to existe He was seeking significant copies of early medieval texts, previous to the introduction of Arabic influenceso The story of his re- searches is fascinatingly told and illustrates in vivid detail the methods and the vicissitudes of manuscript study — here an unimportant copy of a well-known work, there a text requiring to be photogre.phed for further in- vestigation, yonder a collection of non-medical texts erroneously cataloged as medioal, and occasionally the finding of a hitherto unkno^m work that must be publishedo Deer to his heart though the Welch Medical Library doubtless was, he was not seeking to add to its collections by these.mianuscript re- searches „ He was gathering materials for Henry Eo Sigerist to use in his projected history of medicineo1 In all this I shall not be misunderstood as depreciating manuscripts on their.own account* The million or so of early manuscripts in the libraries 1© Henry E. Sigerist* "Hie Medical Literature of the Early Middle Agos,w In Bulletin o£ the Ins ti tut© of^ the History of Medi^cine a - 11 {19 31),, pp c 2 6 -5 0 s al o o u A Summer cf'lle search in Eur ope an Libraries./' ibid cipp. 55 9 -610* From time to tine the travelogue is interrupted, by a systematic discussion of some urincipl* of manuscript studyo If a sequel to these reports -;a- ever published* it has escaped me0 Appendix I Europe and America contain some of the most precious records which the human race possesses But they are not suitable for mass microfilm ac- quisition on a broad subject basis by an institution like the Army Medi- cal Library Such microfilms are not historical p^uroes in the ordinary sense of the term- They would be used practically by po on© but textual scholars in preparing critical editions of ancient or medieval works They could be properly selected for a comprehensive collection only by a succession of such specialists- After they h&ve been so selected, how- ever and after the text critic has used therm they may with propriety be deposited in such a library as this where later scholars ipay at times consult them to verify details in the text9 as published THE COLLECTING PROGRAM OF THE HISTORY OF MBPIGINB DIVISION Such a project as the Army Medical Library is attempting fen the printed books in the field of medicine is large Fortunately, however, it can be arranged to cover a century at a time Many of the earlier policy decisions in the Division, while not made with this in vlew; have been of a character to facilitate it: The books h&ya been shelved by centuries the 15th 16th, 17trt and 18th b^lng ajphja-bijtised separately- The preliminary card cataloging^ now commonly spoken of &s checklisting, has also been by centuries It was therefore only natural when a com- prehensive acquisition program was attempted by microfilming,, that the centuries should he taken up one after another beginning with the 15th end 1.6th This breaks the project up Into manageable segments and gives to it certain advantages; For one thing official authorization is mere easily secured for a succession of limited objectives than for one huge program- Furthermore,, each stage that is completed becomes something of sn argument for under-* taking the next:. Ard finally if through changes in the high policy* making personnel through the drying up of appropriations, or by some other accident the project should later be abandoned there might still he something to show fo1* the work already dope. If ap undifferentiated project were begun on all centuries from the 15th to th-p 48th &&£ then had to be halted in mi^-course it might be ha^d to present tbp partial results in usable fenm But if the medical literature %%y, of the l^th or the ]6th century ware selected assfiuhiled and listed,, that much w sticks only gingerly and always with historical sense when we are measuring the claim of yesterday's book to inclusion in the Library. That does not mean, however, that because fresh water algae v/ere a fascinating and fruitful study for William Osier, v/e must keep or acquire every biology book of the nineteenth oentury. Alfred Clark Chapin suoceeded in illustrating brilliantly the whole course of civili- zation in the carefully selected collection of ten thousand volumes which he gave Williams College. We should be able to illustrate the relations between biology and medicine in the nineteenth oentury by the exercise of similar discrimination Very well, then, we can prune our collections of older material of peripheral medical interest, and depending upon our taste and judgment and knowledge we can shape the collections to reflect relationships whioh are perhaos obscured by an undiscriminated accretion of books, significant and insignificant, in the fields tangential to medicine. We must, though, avoid yet another pitfall. We must recognize the fact of book collecting, that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts* One or two or twenty of the English Civil War tracts collected by George Thomason between l61j.O and l66l are nothing; the 23,000 pieces of that collection, arranged chronologically and bound in 2,000 volumes, comprise a body of historical source material which is not only a monument to the good sense of that maligned monarch, George the Third, v/ho had the wisdom to buy it for the nation in 1762, but is a priceless possession of the whole civilized world. We do not intend to "weed" any of the minor Thomason collections v/e possess, medical or not medical. We do, however, recommend that suoh collections be examined and weighed very carefully, and that, if they are determined to be outside the Library's scope, they be transferred en bloc to a more appropriate repository. What I have been saying must suggest that the whole effort of the Scone Committee has been in the direction of reducing the area of the Library's responsibility. That is not the case. ISe are even more concerned to discover and repair the gaps, and to assure so far as we can that we are not neglecting areas which are properly ours. The Committee has recommended, therefore, that a systematic assay of the collections be considered a continuing necessity. Such continuous weighing and measuring will disclose many weak spots and omissions which cannot be corrected until discovered. - 5 - Appendix II " they Irf LflaotaHI ™ dollh°™V°™ of the Scope Comittee Suifia for tta fnor^t^lt3 r!P°rt wil1 prOVido tha basis °* » »«M« apolisd with our E ♦ • 5 th9/my H3dioal Library-s oollootiona, and, PidirlslhOt ?b 3»"f»nt. for a pruning of the library's pr9Sont — 6 ** LIBRARY ORDER No- SuBJECT: THE ARMY ILTDDICAL LIBRARY Washington 25, D. C« Committee on Scope and Coverage 15 February 1951 1- The Library's Committee on Scope and Coverage is hereby re- established. Membership will be as followst a. Chief, Acquisition Division (Chairman) Chief. Reference Division Chiefs History of Lledlcine Division; and b. Three members at larger chosen from the staff, and to be relieved at periodio intervals* perhaps annually. The first such members will be: Mr* Robert B. Austin* Referenoe Division; Mrr. Leslie K. Falk, Acquisition Division; I.Iiss Winifred A* Johnson. Catalog division. The Committee shall meet from time to time at tho call of the Chairman. 2* In general, the Committee will carry on the v/ork of the pre- cedent committee., and to that end the members of the present Committee will thoroughly familiarize themselves with .the previous work in this area., and with the Library directives whioh resulted therefrom. 5■■* Specifically, the Committee will a- Develop a tentative list of agenda for a meeting with representatives of the Department of Agriculture Library* The agenda,, when approved, will be transmitted by the Director to the Librarian of the Department pf Agriculture with the suggestion that our two libraries get together, on a more formal basis than has heretofore obtained, in defining our respective collecting fields -with the objective of minimum duplication of effort and expense, and with the suggestion that, having reached such an agreement,, our two libraries jointly approach representatives of the Library of Congress, to the same end* b«- Consider the implications of paragraph 1\bl, Library Order No« 3r. 4ated 6 February 1951* "Responsibility as part of the Armed Forces," and draft an amplified and more detailed statement of policy and definitions, whioh may be incorporated in the basic Library Order* Where the present interests of the Army Medical Library are found to conflict -with existing Army Regulations and Special Regulations, redrafts of such regulations embodying phraseology which will resolve suoh conflicts will be submitted to the Direotor. Co Consider the implications of paragraph i+b, Library Order Ho* 3, dated 6 February 1951, "Government Documents," and draft an amplified statement of recommended policy, spelling out priorities in detail. d. Make detailed recommendations on ways and means of condueting a systematic assay of the collections of the Library. Ip* The Committee is urged to consult widely with ot.ber members of the staff, and to render reports of its activities to the Director from time to time. FRANK B. ROGERS * Lt Col, MC Director - 2 -