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with a shorter list of non-European members of CIBgiving also
details of international organisations. The length of entries varies
considerably, but in many cases there are notes on senior staff,
field of work, structure, finance, information services, and publi
cations. There is also a useful account of the general pattern of
building research in each country.
1.2 Bibliographies
1.2.1 The best starting point for the investigation of any par
ticular subject is its bibliography. This, if it exists, may list prac
tically all the books and periodicals relevant to that field.
1.2.2 The best general guide to bibliographies is UNESCO's
'Bibliographical Services throughout the World'compiled by R. L.
Collison, 2nd ed. 1961.
1.2.3 As for specific subject bibliographies we mention Eldridge
'Bibliography of Property Surveying Literatureand the 'Bib
liographic Géodésique Internationale'published by the IAG.
1.2.4 Closely related to bibliographies are indexes and abstracting
services. The latter are more informative than indexes as they
give some indication of the contents of items. They are informative
enough to let the researcher know whether the original is likely
to be of use. Occasionally they give a summary of the actual data
in the article. Indexes and abstracts are published regularly and
although they may analyse the contents of books, they are usually
more concerned with articles in periodicals, reports, or other elusive
material. Abstracts take longer to compile, are more expensive to
publish and demand the employment of a staff who know something
of the subjects in question. Abstracts and indexes are designed for
use in two waysto keep the practitioner up to date with his subject,
and to provide a satisfactory means of tracing previous research on
a particular topic. The RICS 'Abstracts and Reviews' is probably
the best example of an abstracting service of this type prepared
especially for the use of the surveyor. Other examples are the
Bibliographia Geodaetica'published by the Zentralstelle fiir
Internationale Dokumentation der Geodacsic in Dresden, 'A
Magyar lrodalom Bibliogrdfidja 1498-1960', and 'Abstracts of Articles
on Geodesy and Related Fields' published bv the Army Map Service
(USA).
1.2.5 Some publications belong to neither of these groups, the
entries being little more than amplified index headings. The
RICS Technical Information Service 'Weekly Briefing' falls into
this category. It is concerned with very ephemeral literature
newspaper items, press releases, government circulars, etc. Com
prehensive information services on very limited subject-fields
designed to serve the precise requirements of a small group whose
personal interests are known eg departmental services to ministers
of state, are often of this type.
1.2.6 There are a number of guides to abstracting and indexing
