Letters to the Editor: NEW SECTION FOR AMERICAN DOCUMENTATION

• Published in: American documentation 1961-10, Vol.12 (4), p.305
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Letters to the editor; Library science; Microfiche
• ISSN: 0096-946X; 1936-6108

[...]arrangement follows the "nothing before something" rule, because attributes that do not occur, and therefore are not listed, are the rarest.Such an arrangement remains effectively optimal, until new accessions drastically alter the frequencies of the attributes.The choice between such an arrangement and an arbitrarily ordered file depends on a financial problem; is it cheaper to maintain strict order or to search? In practice, therefore, collections adequately described by simple combinations do not demand notations so complicated that they work only when written in one's own blood at time of full moon.On the other hand, theoretical studies of the latter are interesting, and can be profitable if, and only if, they commence where others left off.ROBERT A. FAIRTHORNEVisiting Research Professor School of Library Science Western Reserve University Cleveland 6, Ohio Enclosures not printed.ADI DUESOne learns such interesting things in Americurt Docrunen- tntion, e.g. there seems to have been a IVestern Reserve Dictionnry, edited by Perry, Kent, and Taube! (AD page 190). Can the "small installation" even in America, afford the 800 ($2,240) which the big step and repeat cameras cost? I think there is need for a much simpler microfiche camera, with fixed frame size, which can sell for little more than the microfiche readers.