- Email: [email protected]
Essays of an information scientist
03064573/78/0@1Al)133/$02
In~omtorion Processing & Managrmml Vol. 14. pp. 133-M @ Pergamon Press Ltd.. 1978. Printed m Great Britain
@l/O
BOOK REVIEWS Essays of an Information !kiintit, EUGENEGARF~ELD,IS1 Press, Vol. 2, 707 pp. $25.00. ISBN 0-89495~Ooo-2.
Philadelphia,
PA., 1977, Vol. 1,544 pp.
Most readers of Information Processing & Management are familiar with the publications Current Contents and Science Citation Index, with the Institute for Scientific Information, and with its President, Eugene Garfield. The Essays of an Information Scientist is a two volume collection of the columns that Garfield has been writing in Current Contents from 1962 through 1976. Originally these columns appeared only occassionally, e.g. two in 1%2, three in l%3, two in 1964, one in 1%5, etc. Starting in 1972, they began to appear regularly every week. This is a prodigious amount of writing, and although there are occassional columns by others and some reprints, most of the writing is by Garfield. These are his personal observations, and they range over a wide variety of subjects while concentrating on information science, research, and most especially on citation indexing and its applications. I enjoyed reading these essays. They are well written, interesting, and informative. It was almost like reading an autobiography-a selective autobiography in which the author wrote mostly about his professional life and activites. But particularly in the last two years, 1975 and 1976, the range of topics expanded and became more personal. I refer specifically to a touching tribute, “To Remember My Mother”, in which he reminisces on the occassion of his mother’s death, and he shares his memories with us. Also personal, but different, are the two essays on jazz in which he writes of his interest in music.and his concern that “documentation of American jazz is almost completely non-existant”. It was fun to reread the essay on “Humor in Scientific Journals, and Journals of Scientific Humor”. These essays, and many more, help portray the humanistic, in contrast to the professionalistic, aspects of the author’s personality, They are unexpected bonuses and will be appreciated mostly by people who know Gene Garfield. The essence of this work, and the value of these two volumes, will be found in the essays dealing with Current Contents and the development of citation indexing as important tools for scientific research. By means of these essays, the reader is able to participate vicariously in this development through the works of its progenitor. Students of the history of information science will find in these essays an invaluable first hand account of the evolution of these publications and their applications. As an aid to the researcher and to the serious and selective reader, each volume contains a cited author index and a subject index covering both volumes. UCLA
An Introduction to Computer-based ISBN 0 855018. $8.50.
HAROLDBORKO
Library
Systems.
TEDD
L. A. Heyden,
London:
1977. 208~~.
Anyone who has ever tried to initiate fledgling librarians to the mysteries of the computer will appreciate the difficulties that the author of an introductory textbook has to face, and probably no one has been able to do the job without recourse to over-simplification while on the other hand drawing on examples that were made obsolete by the rapid development in the computer field even before the book appeared in print. This work, based on a 30-hour course for students at the International Graduate Summer School at the College of Librarianship, Wales, is no exception. The author has a sound knowledge of computer systems and of their applications in libraries, both for the so-called house-keeping functions, and for storage and retrieval purposes. Her problem is how to squeeze this wealth of information into the narrow confines of a brief course and a textbook to which students can resort between lectures and lab-sessions. The first chapter tries to compress the history of computers in libraries, the arguments pro and con their use, cost considerations, and potential problems into a mere IO pages-a tour de force which will leave the novice more puzzled than enlightened. Chapters 2-4 present the computer to library students who presumably have never been exposed even to words like “input” and “output”, complete with pictures of cookie-jars exemplifying storage of digital data. One might question whether a text-book used in the late 133
In~omtorion Processing & Managrmml Vol. 14. pp. 133-M @ Pergamon Press Ltd.. 1978. Printed m Great Britain
@l/O
BOOK REVIEWS Essays of an Information !kiintit, EUGENEGARF~ELD,IS1 Press, Vol. 2, 707 pp. $25.00. ISBN 0-89495~Ooo-2.
Philadelphia,
PA., 1977, Vol. 1,544 pp.
Most readers of Information Processing & Management are familiar with the publications Current Contents and Science Citation Index, with the Institute for Scientific Information, and with its President, Eugene Garfield. The Essays of an Information Scientist is a two volume collection of the columns that Garfield has been writing in Current Contents from 1962 through 1976. Originally these columns appeared only occassionally, e.g. two in 1%2, three in l%3, two in 1964, one in 1%5, etc. Starting in 1972, they began to appear regularly every week. This is a prodigious amount of writing, and although there are occassional columns by others and some reprints, most of the writing is by Garfield. These are his personal observations, and they range over a wide variety of subjects while concentrating on information science, research, and most especially on citation indexing and its applications. I enjoyed reading these essays. They are well written, interesting, and informative. It was almost like reading an autobiography-a selective autobiography in which the author wrote mostly about his professional life and activites. But particularly in the last two years, 1975 and 1976, the range of topics expanded and became more personal. I refer specifically to a touching tribute, “To Remember My Mother”, in which he reminisces on the occassion of his mother’s death, and he shares his memories with us. Also personal, but different, are the two essays on jazz in which he writes of his interest in music.and his concern that “documentation of American jazz is almost completely non-existant”. It was fun to reread the essay on “Humor in Scientific Journals, and Journals of Scientific Humor”. These essays, and many more, help portray the humanistic, in contrast to the professionalistic, aspects of the author’s personality, They are unexpected bonuses and will be appreciated mostly by people who know Gene Garfield. The essence of this work, and the value of these two volumes, will be found in the essays dealing with Current Contents and the development of citation indexing as important tools for scientific research. By means of these essays, the reader is able to participate vicariously in this development through the works of its progenitor. Students of the history of information science will find in these essays an invaluable first hand account of the evolution of these publications and their applications. As an aid to the researcher and to the serious and selective reader, each volume contains a cited author index and a subject index covering both volumes. UCLA
An Introduction to Computer-based ISBN 0 855018. $8.50.
HAROLDBORKO
Library
Systems.
TEDD
L. A. Heyden,
London:
1977. 208~~.
Anyone who has ever tried to initiate fledgling librarians to the mysteries of the computer will appreciate the difficulties that the author of an introductory textbook has to face, and probably no one has been able to do the job without recourse to over-simplification while on the other hand drawing on examples that were made obsolete by the rapid development in the computer field even before the book appeared in print. This work, based on a 30-hour course for students at the International Graduate Summer School at the College of Librarianship, Wales, is no exception. The author has a sound knowledge of computer systems and of their applications in libraries, both for the so-called house-keeping functions, and for storage and retrieval purposes. Her problem is how to squeeze this wealth of information into the narrow confines of a brief course and a textbook to which students can resort between lectures and lab-sessions. The first chapter tries to compress the history of computers in libraries, the arguments pro and con their use, cost considerations, and potential problems into a mere IO pages-a tour de force which will leave the novice more puzzled than enlightened. Chapters 2-4 present the computer to library students who presumably have never been exposed even to words like “input” and “output”, complete with pictures of cookie-jars exemplifying storage of digital data. One might question whether a text-book used in the late 133