Congress proceedings

Abstract

Meetings and reunions – as oral information sources – are more and more fashionable novadays. The number of occasions as well as of participants and organizing bodies is constantly growing. Congresses and their publications create many troubles in the work of special libraries and information centres. One problem is e.g. the lack of standardized names. The “meeting” denotes most comprehensively the various types of reunions nevertheless “congress” and “conference” are the most widely used terms in all the languages. Differences among various reunions are defined by competent bodies as follows;
Congress: reunions of broader character with more than 100 or 1000 participants;
Conference: reunions with more professional character than congresses;
Symposia, colloquia, seminars: discussions of experts with restricted character.
The various meetings and concerning publications are international or national. According to the publishing date the following differentiation is usual: Documents published before the opening of a congress (invitation, programme, theses of lectures, preprints, etc.); Documents published during the congress (minutes, list of participants, resolutions). The most reliable documents are published after the conference in book form or as serials. Preprints and reports are considered the quickest distribution forms. Recently tape records are regarded as optimal solution of disseminating congress materials. In that way all the communications of a meeting could be recorded, the number of the lost information is reduced.
In processing work of libraries the congress publications – irrespective of their publication forms – are to be handled as a special collection. To make information work (the final scope of processing) possible the following data of congress proceedings are to be registered: Title, sub-title, place of the congress, date of the congress, organizing body or bodies, serial number and volume number. Speciel and complementary catalogues are frequently applied in connection with congress proceedings. These are: Subject heading catalogue, topographical catalogue, catalogues in chronological order. Visual punched cards are very efficient in multi-aspect retrieval.
Acquisition lists of large libraries are also frequently compiled by mechanized methods exploiting so the favourable possibilities in connection with congress publications. The Hungarian Central Technical Library and Documentation Centre (OMKDK) has issued similar publications:
Congress Proceedings in the OMKDK. 1945-1968
Vol. 1. Bibliography, 1970.
Vol. 2. Indexes, 1971.
Congress Proceedings in the OMKDK, 1969-1970
Vol. 1. Bibliography, 1970.
Vol. 2. Indexes, 1975.
One of the most important world-collection has been built within the British Lending Library since 1964. Its quarterly “Index of Conference Proceedings Received by the BLL” is a current awareness service in this field.
The “Information zur Kernforschung und Kerntechnik. Referatezeitschrift mit Register” of the Zentralstelle für Atomenergie-Dokumentation (Leopoldshafen) sets a good example for special libraries In processing of congress proceedings (papers, reports).