Industrial Research and Development In Metropolitan Areas - The Library Environment

Royer, George L.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/1538 Copy

Description

Title

Industrial Research and Development In Metropolitan Areas - The Library Environment

Author(s)

Royer, George L.

Issue Date

1965

Keyword(s)

Libraries and metropolitan areas

Abstract

The research laboratory in most companies has grown out of the technical operation. In the chemical industry with which I am best acquainted, the technical activities centered on the production, control and testing of the products being manufactured. In many cases, this know-how was brought to this country from Europe where, most specifically, organic chemical manufacture had started prior to the first World War. After 1918 there was a rapid development in the synthetic chemical industry, and it was at this point that many of our earlier research laboratories were established. During the last forty years there has been a marked increase in research activities and many of our current industries have developed as a result. The first research laboratory was located at the manufacturing plant but its activities gradually became separated from the manufacturing operation. In this separate environment, research scientists were able to develop new products and processes which justified the research expenditures. Before World War II, research had progressed to the point where many of the larger organizations felt that it was desirable to form separate central research laboratories where scientists could devote their time to new products and new areas separate from their current fields of endeavor. Laboratories like that of Cyanamid at Stamford were established completely independent of a manufacturing location. In seeking a site for such a centralized laboratory, locations were investigated which were either close to the corporate office in a metropolitan area, close to a university, or both. During and after the second World War, there was an additional desire on the part of many large companies to expand their research activities into products related to government activities and also to expand in activities which had come out of work for the government.

Publisher

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

Series/Report Name or Number

Allerton Park Institute (12th : 1965)

ISSN

0536-4604

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/1538

Copyright and License Information

Copyright owned by Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 1965.

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