EMANUEL RUDOLPH'S ROLE D. FOR ABSTRACTS BIOLOGICAL BURK WILLIAM R. Biology Library North Carolina University of CB#3280 Hall Coker NC 27599-3280, Chapel U.S.A. Hill, The of Emanuel Rudolph (1927-1992), noted polar lichenologisc and hist life atany, was well documented by Ronald Stuckey. Rudolph's scholarly endeavors i; He vealed through his devotion to Biological Abstracts. accepted the intellecti when Henry Shaw nge of preparing abstracts in 1952 a graduate student in the S otany at Washington University. From then as a volunteer, he prepared 382 a irough 1977, a most exacting and time consuming task, perhaps an art. Sort round on procedures at Biological Abstracts is reviewed and Rudolph's role as a vi Abstracts/BIOSIS jstractor for Biological is assessed. RESUMEN Se revisan algunos antecedentes de los procedimi Rudolph como papel de voluntario en evaliia el 1; Abstracts/BIOSIS. logical ON BACKGROUND ABSTRACTING / The practice of abstracting emerged and developed after 1790, but its when were precede the advent of printing annotations placed in the roots summarize margins of manuscripts. Scientific journal abstracts articles in a manner and succinct so that researchers have a clear idea of their content, value them. one of the pre-eminent abstract- therefore to Biological Abstracts, December ing journals in the of biology, was published in 1926, field first formed by the merger of two existing abstract indexes, Botanical Abstracts and Abstracts Bacteriology (Manzer 1977). Some general background in the of production of abstracts explained in the preliminary pages of the January is volume The between 1955 oi Biological Abstracts. distinction Biological the and Biological Abstracts, the corporate name, was con- Abstracts, serial, fusing until the corporation was changed BioSciences Information title to Service of Biological Abstracts (BIOSIS) October 1964 in (Steere 1976). 1928 In the editors o( Biological Abstracts relied on 3,000 scientists throughout the world to provide abstracts on a voluntary basis (Biological At number Abstracts 1957). that time such a large of volunteers was needed because the inclusion of abstracts in journals was the exception rather than Due the rule. to financial difficulties, the publication o^ Biological Abstracts nearly ended in 1936. Following the reorganization of Biological Abstracts early in 1938, appeals to the biologists of the United States for volunteer support of the publishing venture were enthusiastically met. Although a new policy had been instituted in 1937 to compensate abstractors for their work in order to speed the preparation of abstracts, collaborators were now returning their monetary compensation. Nearly a year later collaborators "advocated a policy of gratis abstracting, and the payments abstracting for were therefore discontinued" (Flynn 195 By 1956 the number of volun- 1). who 50% 656 teer abstractors declined to people provided of the needed 30% abstracts, while of the abstracts were written by the authors of articles and forwarded by the journal editor in batches, and the remaining 20% of the abstracts were provided by office staff of Biological Abstracts or copied from published summaries abstracts or (Biological Abstracts 1957). mid In the late 1960s through the 1970s announcements appeared in the preliminary pages oi Biological Abstracts for the solicitation of abstrac- tors, especially for those willing to write abstracts for taxonomic publica- One number tions. can ascertain the of volunteer abstractors from 1959 to from the present the of volunteer abstractors which were published lists in the introductory pages of issues oi Biological Abstracts for these years. Only 45 volunteer abstractors were listed in 1995. John Schnepp, Chief, Litera- ture Analysis Section, Bibliographic Control Department, BIOSIS, related may that this list of abstractors be eliminated since the inclusion of author now by abstracts publishers standard practice, (phone conversation of is 7 July 1995). The value and impact of volunteer abstractors to the success o£ Biological Abstracts did not go unsung. Appreciative of the contributions of volunteer abstractors, the administration of Biological Abstracts maintained com- munication with these volunteers and extended gratitude in various its many ways. For years volunteers received Christmas greeting which sum- a marized the accomplishments and year's progress Biological Abstracts at and thanked Ann also the volunteers for their work. Farren, Associate Bib- liographer, Literature Acquisition Department, stated in her greeting of December 1961 "Our 15 that personal contacts with you have been rare, BAs usually confined to an occasional visit to booth at national and inter- may national meetings. Sometimes you even think that we have forgotten We me reminded and 'thank you. Believe this never true. are say a quiet is Among you' each time a group of your abstracts are received." the senti- ments of thanks that were echoed on numerous occasions by BIOSIS ad- BIOSIS, were ministrators, those of Phyllis V. Parkins, Director of espe- when touching she stated that "on behalf of biologists, [we] declare cially all our deep gratitude and appreciation to our Abstracters for the contribution make communication they continue to in the of biological information. BA When May the sun never set on Abstracters!" (Parkins 1965). volun- received updated, revised instructions for the preparation of abstracts teers new were or were given or additional assignments, expressions of gratitude usually made. Through the years volunteers were offered publications as a which token of appreciation, such retaining issues of journals for as: (1) abstracts were being prepared, and receiving a complimentary subscrip- (2) tion to different publications produced by Biological Abstracts, through a (BA); B.A.S.I.C, choice of either: a sectional edition oi Biological Abstracts STANDARD PROFILE BA; the subject index to one topic of the Services; TODAY BIORESEARCH member BIOSIS annual one of the or the series; List of Serials. While a graduate student in the Henry Shaw School of Botany at Wash- Garden ington University and the affiliated Missouri Botanical in St. Louis, Rudolph volunteered an abstractor Biological Abstracts in 1952. as for first who Perhaps his major professor, Carroll W. Dodge, was editor of the Biog- raphy, History and Bibliography section of Biological Abstracts since its be- ginning, influenced Rudolph's decision to write abstracts. Because of the many broad scope of most of the journals in the 1950s and 1960s, abstrac- were assigned their work on a journal basis rather than by subject tors Emanuel Rudolph, however, was given abstract assignments specialties. and His for articles in botanical antarctic research journals. first assign- ment was to write abstracts for the Spanish language, botanical journal, Lilloa, most likely because he could read Spanish, was a student of botany, Missouri Botanical Gar- and had access to this journal in the Library at the May Rudolph John Flynn, Editor-in-Chief den. In a letter to (l4 1952), E. commended him October In of Biological Abstracts, for his fine abstracts. him 1952, Dr. Flynn again wrote to Rudolph, complimenting for his ex- and such superb work was helping build cellent abstracts stating that to and Biological Abstracts into an instrument of greater utility better scholar- He volumes 16(1949)-31(1962) of ship.' prepared abstracts for articles in Rudolph Coinciding with the completion of his assignment, Lilloa. first was offered, as a token of appreciation, a complimentary subscription to a Whether Rudolph Sectional Edition of Biological Abstracts. or not accepted 246 SiDAl7(l) An one unknown. number of these sections itemization of the of ab- is Rudolph stracts prepared by for Lilloa and other serials listed in Table is 1 by and volume. serial title Upon accepting a teaching position in the Department of Botany at m Wellesley College, Massachusetts the 1955, Rudolph wrote the edi- fall tor of Biological Abstracts to relate that he no longer had access to Lilloa. After repeated correspondence to the publisher oi Lilloa, the editor o^ Bio- logical Abstracts succeeded in obtaining issues so Rudolph could continue to write abstracts for this journal. In fact, Rudolph was allowed to keep any issues sent to him. In June 1958 Rudolph became concerned that he had not received any copies of Lilloa for a long time. Apparently this was a him new turning point for to accept a abstracting assignment, for yet an- other Spanish language botany journal, Anales del Instituto Botanico A.J. commencing Cavanilles, with volume 17 (1959) and later concluding with volume 21 (1963). In the 1960s significant changes occurred in Rudolph's professional life and in Biological Abstracts' reorganization. In the Spring of 1961 Rudolph new started a career as an Assistant Professor of Botany at The Ohio State University, Columbus, where rigorous research and an active teaching sched- much ule occupied of his time. These academic responsibilities would even- tually diminish available time writing Considerable for abstracts. reorga- nization occurred at the offices of Biological Abstracts in the 1960s. Its Department Literature Acquisition saw expanded due abstracting services to the exponential increase in scientific journal publications and the com- Ann puterization of operations. Farren asked Rudolph December 1961 in would if he accept an additional assignment. Documentation lacking is whether Rudolph when accepted another journal for abstracting he returned from his Antarctic research expedition the end of February 1962. Ex- at Rudolph actly three years later, took on additional serials for abstracting. The new assignments began, and subsequently ended, with the following & volumes of serials: British Antarctic Survey Bulletin, numbers 3 4(1964)- 13(1967); Commonwealth Mycological numbers Miscellaneous Papers, Institute. & 17 18(1964); and Kirkia, volumes 4(1963-64) -6, Part Soon 1(1967). new after these assignments were made, another Commonwealth My- serial, CMl which cological Institute, Mycological Papers, was a successor to the Miscellanous Papers, was added, commencing with number 99(1965) and number concluding with 141(1977). Rudolph's busy teaching schedule and research work contributed to de- lays in his preparation of abstracts in the late 1960s. In fact he was unable to complete two abstracts for the Spanish language journals, Anales del Institute and Botanico A.J. Cavanilles Lilloa because the extra time required to read these foreign language journals was not available. Rudolph reluctantly wrote BuRK, Emanuel D. Rudolph Robert BIOSIS to Sutcliffe, Associate Bibliographer at (25 February 1969), that he had to return any outstanding issues of these two journals. Accord- own ing to Rudolph's admission, his desire to complete abstracts was greater than his ability to write them at that time. During this same time more were beginning journals provide author with to abstracts articles, a prac- becoming more commonplace. Because emerging tice of this practice Rudolph's abstracting assignments were cancelled Bnttsh for Antarctic Sur- vey Bulletin (July 1968) and Kirkia (April 1969). Little documentation on Rudolph's abstracting 1977 role after avail- is John Schnepp wrote Rudolph September able. (22 1982) to ask he was if "still available to provide [abstracting] service in the future either for the same or for another journal." Rudolph's answer must have been affirmative name as his continued to appear in lists of volunteer abstractors in the preliminary pages of each issue oi Biological Abstracts for 1982-1992. Even may though he not have been actively writing abstracts from 1978-1992, he was available needed. if In the preparation of abstracts Rudolph was required follow high to standards established by the editorial staff of Biological Abstracts. Through the years guidelines, along with abbreviating and rules for acceptable ab- were breviations, issued to aid the volunteer Except few abstractor. for a unsigned abstracts written in the late 1960s, Rudolph's abstracts were signed, E.D. Rudolph, and varied in length from one sentence whole to a column of text. Emanuel Rudolph's role as an abstra^ctor provided esse ntial volunteer when time assistance at a Biological Absirracts was seek ing stability still as A a self-sustaining organization. search in B/ologiccil Absti: for articles :n-ts appearing in the serials for which Rudol]jh prepared abstrai located 382 Lts Through abstracts written by him. Rudolph these abstracts served his fel- , low and commur biologists the scientific iity. Museum cal Abstracts/BIOSIS are housed in the Herbarium, of Biological The Ohio Diversity, State University, 1315 Kinnear Road, Columbus, Ohic 43212-1 192 and curated by Dr. Ronald L. Stuckey, Professor Emeritus and Curator Emeritus, Department The Ohio of Plant Biology, State Univer- Columbus, Ohio. sity, W. John Schnepp for reviewi c inuscript. Special gratitude is biology, a symposium in celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of i Museum, Biological Abstracts, held at the University University of Pennsylvania, on F( ruary 17, 1956. [Biological Abstracts, Philadelphia, PA). A 95 history of Biological Abstracts. [The Author], Philadelphia, PA. (Que i.YNN, J.E. 1 1 . [an/.ek, B.M. 1977. The abstract journal, 1790-1920: Origin, development and dif Metuchen, NJ and London. Scarecrow sion. Press, Inc., BA PV. 1965. The sun never on abstracters. Biol. Abstr. 46(20):xii. ARKiN.s, sets lEERE, W.C, with the collaboration of PV. Parkins and H.A. Philson. 1976. Biologi Abstracts/BIOSIS, the first fifty years, the evolution of a major science information s New Plenum York and London. vice. Press, lUCKEY, R.L. 1994. Emanuel David Rudolph (1927-1992): Polar lichenologist and h torian of botany. Bryologist 97:437-446. [Appendix. Publications and reports of Eman^ D. Rudolph (Arranged chronologically), 443-446, with William R. Burk]. pp. 1995. Emanuel David Rudolph (1927-1992): Book collector and libn Michigan 34:4-23. Bot. .