QUARTERLY DOCUMENTATION SURVEY

The ideal in information storage and retrieval is a computer so specialized and so perfect that scientific writers would be compelled to write so as to conform to its input demands. Before this is achieved, however, existing documentation systems should be evaluated to see whether they are put to their optimal use. In the field of electronic machine translation, both visual and aural input have serious drawbacks. Output can be in the form of rapid print‐out, automatic composition and photography with a cathode grill or baffle‐plate, or ultrarapid aural dispersement. The disadvantages of present‐day language‐language dictionaries coded for machines are discussed. The two main difficulties in the production of abstracts, the time‐lag and the need for subject‐specialists, can be overcome with author abstracts, evaluations, and analyses by the editors at time of publication, and better titles and sub‐titles. Seven types of existing memory machines are compared from the point of view of input and storage, methods of retrieval to compare items of stored information, cost, problem‐solving time, and size.