50 Years of Chemical Information
in the American Chemical Society
1943–1993

Preface

Information and Information Technology are becoming internationally recognized as resources critical to productive Research and Development and, ultimately, to national competitiveness. Today’s network environment has fueled growth in global collaborative research with shared information being the essential ingredient and key success factor. Indeed, information, as a result of technological advances, has evolved into a valuable commodity and a buzzword of the nineties.

Yet chemistry, perhaps more than any other scientific discipline, recognized the value of information in the development of practical applications of theoretical concepts well before the advent of computer technology. Indeed several of today’s chemistry journals and reference indices have their roots deeply embedded in the 17th and 18th centuries. To quote Harry Collier from the April 1993 edition of Monitor, “Traditionally, chemists (like stock and commodity traders) have been in the forefront of information matters”. [Collier, H. “As Usual, Chemical Information Leads the Way”, Monitor 1993 (April), (146), 9.]

This statement is true, but it owes its truth to the determination, dedication, and vision of individual chemists who, throughout the years, recognized the intrinsic value of information, actively strove to promote it, and worked tirelessly to leverage the technology of their era to improve information access, retrieval, utility, and dissemination.

Examples of such Chemists are the Founders of the Division of Chemical Literature who elevated the importance of information within the American Chemical Society; the author of the Division history who has well and selflessly served the Division and the field for many years and who has been a role model for me and for countless others; and all Division members and supporters who in their daily work continue to enhance and develop chemical information and related technology. This history of the Division is a testimony to their efforts; the continued success of chemistry is a tribute to their lives.

I. Introduction

A 50th anniversary is an unusual milestone for the ACS Division of Chemical Information. While there are countless new members who joined relatively recently, there are still among us those who founded the organization and guided it through its formative, most difficult, years. This history pays a tribute to those pioneers and visionaries who early foresaw the importance and significance of chemical information to all the chemists and chemical engineers as well as to the general public, and who knew how to forge ahead and to take advantage of the modern technologies from punched cards, KWIC indexes, and simple inventories of chemical structures in the 1940’s and 1950’s to laser disks, artificial intelligence, expert systems, and three-dimensional manipulation of structures in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Equally important was the early perception of the international nature of all the aspects of chemical-information generation, transfer, and utilization. International contacts and recognition, which the Division has pursued through the participation of speakers from many countries, the organization of international symposia and conferences, and the availability of its awards worldwide, attest to that.

Although the Division of Chemical Information (Division of Chemical Literature till 1975) was formally established in 1948, we have decided to relate our 50th anniversary celebration to the formation of its predecessor, the Chemical Literature Group of the ACS Division of Chemical Education in 1943. At that time the ACS recognized chemical literature (documentation, information) as being a separate branch of chemistry, worthy of special attention and research.

Writing and publishing the histories of the ACS and of its Divisions are not new activities. The ACS published its history at the 75th and 100th anniversary in 1952 [Ref. 5] and 1976 [Ref. 17], respectively. More recently, two Divisions published their histories, the Division of Inorganic Chemistry (by John C. Bailar, Jr.) in the Journal of Chemical Education in 1989 [Ref. 31] and the Division of Polymer Chemistry (by Jesse C. M. Hwa) in the Polymer Preprints in 1991 [Ref. 35].

A brief history of the Division of Chemical Information (by W. Val Metanomski) was published in the Spring 1990 issue of the Chemical Information Bulletin [Ref. 32].

This more comprehensive history of the Division of Chemical Information has been organized into groups of main activities such as goals and mission, organization and membership, symposia and sessions at various meetings, educational activities, publications, awards and recognitions, social events, and financial aspects.

In this introduction, on the other hand, it might be of interest to list chronologically some major “first” accomplishments and milestones in the first fifty years:

While many facts and events have been listed, this history is primarily about professional chemists who in the early days worked on chemical problems in laboratories, plants, or offices, and while using literature for their own work became interested in the organization of that past knowledge and its utilization. From that group grew a new profession encompassing literature chemists, chemical librarians, and eventually chemical information specialists, and even information brokers and consultants. In today’s environment, the history repeats itself, and the so-called end users are becoming the same practicing chemists and chemical engineers of the old days who did their own searching. Today, so many chemists rely on various computer programs at their workstations that the distinction between using information and doing own research becomes blurred in the application of artificial intelligence, expert systems, and molecular modeling.

Every history reflects the historian’s biased grouping of subjects, preferential selection of highlights and milestones, perhaps undue emphasis of some events, and even a glaring omission of others. This history is no exception. On the other hand, since this has been a first attempt to compile a fairly exhaustive and comprehensive history with as many details recorded as possible, it might be regarded as experimental and even preliminary to some extent.

The author is very grateful to Robert E. Buntrock, Bonnie Lawlor, Jean G. Marcali, Peter F. Rusch, Peter F. Sorter, Ben H. Weil, Lucille M. Wert, and Barbara G. Wood for their careful reading of the manuscript, correcting the errors, and providing most useful suggestions to improve the history.

The readers are invited to send comments to the author. As is evident from the chronology of events, the “real” 50th anniversary of the formation of the Division will occur in 1998. We hope that for this second 50th anniversary celebration we will be able to provide an updated version of the Divisional history.

II. The Chemical Literature Group, 1943–1948

1. Pre-History

In the 1976 book “A Century of Chemistry” [Ref. 17], celebrating the 100th anniversary of the formation of the American Chemical Society, Herman Skolnik observed:

“From the time chemistry became a science, knowing the chemical literature has been an essential obligation of the professional chemist. Practitioners of no other science have been involved as chemists in working with their literature, establishing journals, setting up indexing and abstracting systems and services, systematizing nomenclature, and correlating data.”

and added:

“Thus, like Moliere’s bourgeoise gentilhomme, who spoke prose without knowing it, chemists have been working as literature chemists without knowing it since chemistry has been a science.”

The American Chemical Society was formed in 1876. The Society from the very beginning has been concerned with the encouragement of the advancement of chemistry in all its branches and the promotion of scientific interests and inquiry through meetings, reports, papers, discussions, and publications. On August 25, 1937, the Society obtained the National Charter, enacted by the 75th U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Charter reaffirmed as one of the Society’s objectives the increase and diffusion of chemical knowledge, and emphasized meetings, professional contacts, reports, papers, discussions, and publications as proper means to accomplish this.

Citing a few dates related to the beginning of some of such activities and to some anniversaries would help to put them in a proper historical perspective:

At the Society’s early National Meetings, papers were presented on various aspects of chemical literature. The first ACS symposium on “Bibliography” took place at the World’s Congress of Chemists in Chicago on August 23, 1893. The Congress, partially organized by the ACS, was attended by 182 chemists, 83 of whom were members of the Society. The honorary chairman of the symposium was G. Thoms of Riga. The opening symposium address was given by H. Carrington Bolton of New York, a notable historian and bibliographer of chemistry.

The first literature-oriented symposium at an ACS National Meeting was on “Chemical Libraries and Their Problems” in Buffalo in April 1919. In later years, the topics covered and presented before the various ACS Divisions ranged from undergraduate courses in chemical literature to scientific journalism, patents, and nomenclature of specific fields.

Table I lists a few typical papers from the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. One interesting comment in a 1939 paper on “Opportunities for Women as Research Bibliographers” reflects the opinion of the times:

“Temperamentally women are well equipped to undertake such work and should be superior to men carrying it out.”

2. The Group

The last paper in Table I deserves special attention, because it created such interest in problems connected with chemical literature and library research that it led to the organization of related symposia and the formation of the Chemical Literature Group. The paper on “Problems of the Scientific Literature Survey” was presented at the 105th ACS National Meeting in Detroit on April 12, 1943, by Gustav Egloff, Mary Alexander, and Prudence Van Arsdell. Gustav Egloff, a noted petroleum scientist, research director at Universal Oil Products Co., was involved in many activities of the Society, patented over 300 inventions, and authored numerous papers. Mary Alexander was also to become very active, especially in the area of organic nomenclature.

A few excerpts from its abstract illustrate well the then existing problems:

“The problems of chemical literature survey have not received the deserved attention and chemists without proper background waste valuable time in the laboratory duplicating work already published.”

“The difficulties encountered in complete surveys are appalling.”

“The need of such procedure [governing library work] may be attributed to lack of fundamental training in the use of chemical literature as well as inability to foresee the outcome of carelessness.”

Following that paper, Norman C. Hill discussed with Gustav Egloff the possibility of organizing a group to sponsor programs devoted to the study of library and literature problems. As a result, he organized a series of symposia, “Technical Library Techniques”, held under the sponsorship of the ACS Division of Chemical Education.

The first such symposium was presented at the 106th ACS National Meeting in Pittsburgh on September 7, 1943. It included 18 papers, among them Part II of the “Problems of the Scientific Literature Survey” by Egloff, Alexander, and Van Arsdell, “The Importance of Technical Writing in Chemical Education” by Florence E. Wall, “Publications — Pitfalls and Problems” by Melvin G. Mellon, “Abstracting and Indexing” by E. J. Crane, and “Literature Service for Fuel Chemists” by Julian F. Smith. The luncheon, held at the Pittsburgher Hotel, cost $1.40 only. The symposium was well attended and generated an enthusiasm that resulted in the formation of the Chemical Literature Group of the ACS Division of Chemical Education.

Papers on related topics continued to be presented before other Divisions. This is exemplified by a paper on “Information Services and War Effort” by Ben H. Weil before the Division of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry at the same National Meeting.

Appendix 4 lists the symposia organized by the Group in the period 1943–1948. The breadth of topics was impressive. They covered many areas such as information sources, chemical patents, nomenclature, abstracting, indexing, classifications, and punched cards. The last topic signaled the beginning of the application of mechanized tools to handling chemical information. The attendance was excellent. A “sardinelike” situation was reported for James W. Perry’s paper on “Chemical Russian — Self-Taught” at the 107th ACS National Meeting in Cleveland on April 4, 1944. This was part of Part II of the symposium on “Technical Library Techniques”.

It is worth noting that these were war and post-war years. Difficulties to travel, to meet, and to communicate were experienced. On August 10, 1944, the ACS President, Thomas Midgley, Jr., the inventor of tetraethyl antiknock additive, noted that the major aim of every American was to win the war in the shortest possible time and that the 108th ACS National Meeting in New York in September 1944 should be limited to discussing war production needs or research. He appealed to the members:

“This is not a time when anyone should travel solely for pleasure or sociality. If this meeting would be purely a social event for you, stay at home.”

A couple of comments on the September 1944 meeting are worth citing as proof that some conditions and experiences never change:

“Inclement weather combined with a somewhat unfortunate location undoubtedly limited attendance at the symposium.”

“Because the divisional luncheon meeting was unavoidably scheduled at a hotel many blocks beyond the divisional meeting room, only half the usual number attended.”

In 1945, owing to immediate post-war conditions no ACS National Meetings were held, only meetings-in-miniature and meetings-in-print. A paper on “Punch Cards for a Chemical Bibliography” by Gerald J. Cox, C. F. Bailey, and Robert S. Casey, scheduled for the April 1945 meeting, had to be published in the Chemical and Engineering News on September 25, 1945.

The Chemical Literature Group became active again in earnest with the presentation of Part III of the symposium on “Technical Library Techniques” at the 109th ACS National Meeting in Atlantic City in April 1946. The attendance at its two sessions ranged from 250 to 300. The interest in punched-card techniques was so great that after hearing the papers by Casey, Bailey and Cox, and by C. D. Gull at the regularly scheduled symposium, a group of some 75 to 100 persons spent the following evening at an unscheduled meeting arranged to facilitate further discussion.

This was followed by Part IV at the 110th National Meeting in Chicago in September 1946. That symposium and another on “Chemical Patents” attracted 350 to 400 attendees. Both symposia “carried over” into unscheduled dinner and evening meetings for more discussion.

At that meeting, a more formal organization of the Group took place. An Executive Committee was formed:

At the 111th ACS National Meeting in Atlantic City in April 1947, the topic of punched-card indexing continued to draw attention. James W. Perry presented, for the first time, an informal report of the ACS Punched-Card Committee, of which he was the chairman.

At the 113th ACS National Meeting in Chicago in April 1948, J. G. Tolpin presented a paper on “The Highlights of Present Day Russian Chemical Research”, which attracted much attention. At that meeting an informal discussion on chemical literature problems was formally scheduled for 8 to 11 pm.

In the 1946–1948 post-war period, 15 symposia consisting of 106 gapers were presented before the Group. In the six-year period of the Group’s existence (1943–1948), a total of 149 papers were presented. Of these, 62 were published in the Journal of Chemical Education, 14 in the Chemical and Engineering News, eight in the ACS Advances in Chemistry Series, four in the first edition of “Punched Cards”, and three in two other journals for a total of 94 publications or 63% of those presented.

© 1993 American Chemical Society, Division of Chemical Information