The collection of periodicals as an object of research. Part I.

Abstract

The author who heads the Periodicals Division of the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (a collection of nearly 5000 current foreign journals) is continually faced with the task of developing the periodicals collection, its processing and making it available to the public. To be able to carry out these responsibilities efficiently and in an up-to-date manner the author was prompted to study the literature on the handling and processing of periodicals literature with the purpose of gaining new insights which would aid her in her daily effort to raise the standard of librarianship within her division and to carry out surveys and analyais relevant to the collection in her care. The study enumerates and diseusses various topics selected from international literature sources.The present first part deals with general observations regarding the world wide production of periodical literature and the periodical as a communication medium. First it investigates how the periodical is evaluated by various authors as a source of scientific information.
The second chapter concerns the quantitative growth of the stock of periodicals and treats the folloning questions: the number of existing periodicals published all over the world and the rate of increase of the number of periodicals. The number of articles published annually in periodicals all over the world and the rate of increase of the number of articles. Different types of periodicals. Primary and secondary periodicals. The distribution of periodicals according to languages.The "half-life" of periodical-literature. Bradford's law of scattering. Abstracting of periodicals.
Besides enumerating the results of investigation on an international scale, the author confronts the differing opinions and attempts to meet a critical choice and to select the most objective arguments.