Document 6bKJObB3a8xM00N2MX5B5BD4

o' ?Uv * \ JUJ *> 9 . 19** KETTERING LABORATORY COLLEGE OF MEDICINE University of Cincinnati C in c in n a ti, Ohio 45219 December 18, 1969 Mr. James C. Rouriias Lead Industries Association, 292 Madison Avenue New York, N.Y. 10017 Inc. Dear Mr. Roumas: In December 11964, Mr. Fowler advised us of the decision of Lead Industries Association to publish our abstracts of the lead literature, effective January 1965. As communicated to Dr. Kehoe, the Association planned to contribute to the Kettering Laboratory $7500 per year toward the abstracting program. Although, of course, the 2/earlv cost of the program amounted to more than the above figure, Dr. Kehoe was satisfied with it since it yould help toward our performance of the work. At the time of the initiation of this agreement, the volume of the literature was such that the abstractor, Mrs. Lange, working on a half time basis and Mr is. Borchelt (secretarial assistant) on a 607.,-time basis, were able to handle the current literature. The $7500 just about covered their salaries at the time, without any overhead. My time in directing the program, editing the abstracts and preparing the abstracts from the ^ Slavic languages (Mrs. Lange handled the Romance and German languages^" / was entirely a departmental contribution. : / I have been concerned for some time about the growth of literature pertaining to lead, which has seemed to mushroom on all fronts since 1965. The true situation has come to light dramatically through the consecutive numbering of the references added to our files, which was initiated for all abstracting projects in February of this year in preparation for the contract -with the NationaljAir Pollution Contrul Association involving the lead abstracts. Since that time, 1272 current references have been added to date. In com parison, in the first two years we averaged between about 500 and 600, The scanning of Chemical Abstracts, Index Modicus and other reference sources for pertinent literature, setting up references, securing the original if not available, typing completed abstracts, and performing related chores keep Mrs. Borchelt very busy constantly. As mentioned earlier, Mrs. Lange had decided to retire entirely in September 1968, and I was unable to find any replacement fcjr her until February of this year, when Mrs. liurgard joined our group to divide her time between the LIA and NAPCA lead projects. She can handle only the English literature, and I have been unable as yet to find someone with the necessary facility with foreign languages to be of real help. Mrs. Lange had been a fast worker and at the time she left us, had a store of r M r. Roumas page 2 i ; abstracts. These, with my own contribution, took care of two issues (October 1968 and January 1969). Since then, Mrs. Mergard and I have done as best we could. I have some information about two potential abstractors, and I hope that the situation can be righted. Meanwhile foreign articles to be extracted are collecting increasingly on my desk. Understandably, salaries have increased considerably since 1965, although ours do not nparly equal those of governmental and industrial positions of similar type. I doubt that we could find an experienced abstractor with ability to handle foreign languages under salaries of 8000-9000. From the volume of literature, it is clear that we need a full-time abstractor. This in turn means that the Department needs greater financial support for this phase of the work. I realize chat I am bringing you my tale of woe at a very bad time of the year. However, before writing to you (although I had hinted it to you on the occasion of some calls), I wished to consult with Dr. Kehoe who, as you know, just returned to the City. He suggested that I lay the problem before you. He has told me that the fund for experimental work had been reduced considerably for 1970, and that there is little likelihood of a surplus to be applied to the abstracting service. I should appreciate any suggestion which you can offer which might afford some solution 'of this problem. It seems most desirable that this service should not lapse or even decrease at this time.- And yet, we would not wish to make any mdve without your knowledge and approval. Sincerely, IRC :1jb cc: Dr. Robert; A. Kehoe Dr. Raymond A. Suskind Mr. Peter jCurtin (Mrs.) Irene R. Campbell Head, Division of Bibliographic Research