Hearing

Information analysis centers were developed to help the scientist and practitioner cope with the ever- increasing mass of published and unpublished information in a specific field. Their establishment resulted from a further extension of those pressures that had brought about the formation of the specialized primary journal and the abstracting services at the turn of the century. The information analysis center concept was greatly advanced by the 1963 report of the Presidents Science Advisory Committee Panel on Science Information. This report stated: " . . . scientific interpreters who can collect relevant data, review a field, and distill information in a manner that goes to the heart of a technical situation are more help to the overburdened specialist than is a mere pile of relevant docu- ments. " Such specialized information centers are operated in closest possible contact with working scientists in the field. These centers not only furnish information about ongoing research and dis- seminate and retrieve information but also create new information and develop new methods of infor- mation analysis, synthesis, and dissemination. The continually expanding biomedical literature produced by scientists from the worlds laboratories, research centers, and medical centers led the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke in 1964 to initiate a National Neurological Information Network of specialized centers for neurological information. The Centers are designed to bring under control and to promote ready access to important segments of the literature.