274 L’organ isation de la docu m en tation en h istoire des sciences
on a tte in d ra aussi dans une grande m esure u n e larg e possibilité d’in itiativ e d e recherches, car c ’est à trav ers l’inform ation su r les sources qu ’on p eut form er des suggestions s u r la direction déterm inée des recherches.
D. J. de Solla Price v
I should like to add th ree v ery b rief p ractical footnotes to th e problem s raised b y P rof essor Taton in th e docum entation of th e H isto ry of Science.
1) If th e H istory of Science is to begin to p lay its n ew rode as p a rt of th e “Science of Science”, th e n w e shall need docum entation fo r this topic. O ur prim e desideratum is for some in tern atio n al agreem ent on definitions, statistics, m ethodology etc. for a ll th e studies of th e fairly recen t h istory of science a n d technology. We m ust w ork tow ards an in tern atio n al com pilation of data in our field, such as one now had for m any yearis (from U.N. an d Unesco) in P o p u latio n Statistics an d in Economics. We hope to arran g e a smaill m eeting n ex t sum m er in Yugoslavia under the leadership of S tefan D edijer to take prelim inary steps in th is direction.
2) It becomes evident th a t H istorians of Science do not yet form a cloise intern ation al com munity. It is n o t too difficult to find mono graphs in special subjects, or even original docum ents an d in strum en ts in o th e r countries. It is how ever most difficult to fin d o u t the am bient ideas th a t are p a rt of background education of our colleagues in o th er lands.
To help us know each o th e r b e tter w e m u st 'know our basic books, an d I therefore suggest th a t at th e n e x t In tern atio n al Congress w e should in v ite a special exhibition from each co u n try of its textbooks for schools a n d universities — stan d ard w orks as w ell as professional monographs. I for one w ould be moist in terested to see w hat so rt of literatu re w as behind th e papers read to us by Soviet and Polish H istorians of Science.
3) F u rth e r to th is end I w ould like to see, p erh ap s u n d er the aegis of the In ternatio nal Academ y for th e H istory of Science, some selection of basic books of each co u n try (to be proposed by th e country), w hich m ight w ell be tra n slated an d published in o th er countries. There m ig h t w ell be national and international financial support available for such* desirable desiderata. It seems a p ity th a t each cou n try should h av e to discover a new p ath s in o u r field, th a t have long been fam iliar elsew here. I t is also a pity if we continue w ith such different back grounds th a t such su b jects as “Classification” a n d “Periodization” a re triv ial in some land and fundam ental in others. ' _
