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DISCUSSION ON THE BIBLIOGRAPHY 83 
By the way, I was recently told by a well- 
known librarian that our bibliography is the 
only one in the world — as far as he knows — 
which provides this service for its subscribers, 
preparing it completely. 
About the subscription: the edition of this 
bibliography is intended as a contribution to 
photogrammetry. The screening and abstracting 
which are carried out by our colleagues in the 
various countries, and the translation, classifica- 
tion and editing carried out by the ITC, are 
available free of charge to anybody. Subscrip- 
tion is limited to the nominal cost of reproduc- 
tion and shipment. 
This cost, which consequently makes the 
rate of subscription, is the equivalent of United 
States $9.00 per 500 titles — approximately 
1,500 cards — for all countries. In order to 
simplify the administration, the subscription is 
pre-paid. On receipt of the subscription form 
and of the subscription fee, those card abstracts 
which are already published are mailed to the 
subscriber immediately, and those which are 
being edited will be mailed as they become 
available. 
So far, Mr President, this is a more official 
statement from our side to the International 
Society in regard to Commission VI's resolution 
four years ago at Stockholm. I should now like 
to comment on the amendments which are made 
by you in the report. They will be read to you in 
German. 
Herr Professor BARVIR: An Vorschlägen sind 
lediglich eingelangt: 
l. auf das DIN A6 Format überzugehen, wo- 
durch die mechanische Verkleinerung des 
Textes entfallen kónnte, 
2. für die Karteikarten dünneres Material zu 
verwenden, um rasches Anwachsen der Kar- 
tei zu vermeiden, und 
3. für die ,,Airmail Sheets" lichtpausfähiges 
Papier zu verwenden. 
Mr F. L. CORTEN: In this respect, I should 
like to make a remark about the size, which is 
international library size. I fully agree with the 
proposal that a larger size — it is now rather an 
international card index size — would be more 
favourable, because it would improve the read- 
ability which, I realise, is now just about on the 
Verge of what is tolerable. I would even say that 
this is what I myself proposed in 1957 at the 
start, but at that time our American friends op- 
posed this idea because this size — the A series 
of sizes — was not yet internationally accepted, 
and because of standardisation reasons they 
were reluctant to accept this one. Actually, they 
said, for the same reason as they did not accept 
the A series they could not accept the biblio- 
graphy in the A series. Therefore, the only solu- 
tion to that at the time was to switch over to the 
international library size, although I realised 
that this library size was intended for author and 
title and bibliographic indications as is carried 
out in libraries, and not for abstracts. 
A certain sarcastic aspect is that this A series 
is now proposed and accepted internationally, 
so this would not be a drawback any more; also, 
in the United Kingdom and the USA. 
The problem of what to do arises. Of course, 
it is better to change now and to improve the 
readability than later. If the International 
Society, and also our English and American 
friends, so wish, we are prepared to see whether 
it can still be done. If it is to be done, it must be 
done now and not after a few years. It would 
improve the readability if we could switch over 
to the larger card index size. 
My second remark concerns the thickness of 
the cards. I checked various card index systems 
before I chose this thickness, and I must say that 
I found this the minimum thickness to be suffi- 
ciently sturdy as to avoid their being damaged, 
particularly at the corners, whilst being handled. 
We chose this one and I think we should stick 
to this weight and thickness. It is the minimum 
we can use to avoid their being rumpled and 
crumpled. 
On the airmail sheets, the third remark: these 
were intended for the following purpose: the 
cards are shipped by ordinary mail, and this 
is intended as soon as possible after publication. 
However, in order to avoid people in such 
countries as, say, Japan or Australia waiting 
for these abstracts for several weeks before the 
ordinary mail arrives, we printed airmail sheets 
on thin paper which were sent by airmail. That 
was the purpose. In my opinion, they have to 
be discontinued for three reasons: first, a few 
subscribers only subscribed to it, and fewer 
still actually used them, so that already shows 
that there is hardly any justification for keeping 
them; second, due to the very organisation of 
the bibliography as it is now, and as it will be in 
the near future, when we shall be editing the 
cards in batches of 100 or sometimes 200 a 
time, we shall be shipping them four times a 
year, which makes it approximately a quarterly 
edition. Therefore, for those subscribers in far- 
away countries it makes a difference of at the 
most a few weeks, and for most other sub- 
scribers only a few days. Therefore, there is