ABSTRACT
The growth of economic research has meant that a great deal of time and attention must be paid by alt of those attempting to keep up with the whole field by simply scanning and reading the literature on the subject. In most other branches the process of abstracting literature has been carried much farther, and so has the development of other forms of secondary information processing. This chapter discusses the effectiveness of the use of various secondary information media in scientific and technical fields in the United Kingdom. It describes the reactions of scientific and technological research workers in a number of British industries. A number of British industries were selected for special study: chemicals, aircraft, and electrical engineering were selected for their high R&D content, textiles because of its traditionally low R&D effort, and agriculture. Because it is not a manufacturing industry in the same sense as the others but does have a certain amount of research and development.
