RESEARCH AT ASLIB

The Aslib Research Department was set up in 1959. Because of the difficulty of identifying the most significant problems and the need to establish appropriate experimental techniques, it initially tried its hand using a variety of approaches. During the period 1959–64 a survey was made of some fifty industrial information/library units, using structured interviews to collect data; a questionnaire study of the literature‐searching methods used by research scientists was undertaken, and a number of library procedures and problems were quantitatively surveyed. These latter included delays in binding, borrowing costs, inter‐library loan patterns and the effectiveness of translation indexes. Another subject investigated during this same period was conference proceedings: duplication of publication, their lack of subject indexes, and their coverage by abstracting services.