Publishing of Science Literature

Shipman, Joseph C.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/1491 Copy

Description

Title

Publishing of Science Literature

Author(s)

Shipman, Joseph C.

Issue Date

1960

Keyword(s)

Libraries --Special collections --Science

Abstract

"The book in one form or another has always played an essential role in the development of the sciences, and only a slightly less significant part in the story of technology. Scientific knowledge and accomplishment are cumulative, and most creative scientists will agree with Newton, who said, ""I stood upon the shoulders of those who went before me. "" Greek science, and particularly Alexandrian science and mathematics, owed their survival to the manuscripts preserved and copied through more than 1,000 years in Byzantium and in Islam. The modern scientific rebirth which began in the sixteenth century, and reached its first peak in the seventeenth century, was transmitted by personal correspondence, by books, and finally by the journals --which were born in the seventeenth century, and which were eventually to become the most effective vehicle for scientific communication ever devised. The arts and crafts involved in technology owed more to oral tradition and to carefully guarded trade secrets, handed down from generation to generation, than did the sciences. However, once science and technology were wedded, and became increasingly interdependent, then the printed book and the journal became almost as important to technology. Almost, but not quite. There is still a realm of trade secrets, --a shadowy realm which is increasingly short-lived, because of the accelerated pace of new developments which tend to make such trade secrets obsolete in a short time. There are still restricted and classified materials made necessary, or thought to be necessary, in terms of national security. In the long run, publication of the results of research in both pure and applied science become absolutely essential for continued progress."

Publisher

Graduate School of Library Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Series/Report Name or Number

Allerton Park Institute (7th : 1960)

ISSN

0536-4604

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1491

Copyright and License Information

Copyright owned by Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 1959.

Owning Collections