Repository: UIHistories Project: SWE - Proceedings of the First International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists [PAGE 47]

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eventually furnish him with a list of the articles and books from all over the world that are relevant to his problem. In the meantime, most journals already classify their own contributions, and there are publications entirely devoted to publishing classified titles with a synopsis or even a digest of the content of the articles in a number of publications. In the meantime it would be helpful if classification systems could be standarized all over the world and indices worked out, so that each author, or at least each publisher, would be able to classify each article published in a uniform way.

ADVERTISING An important field in technical literature is provided by advertising. It is easier to cover, since the number of firms producing various articles is finite. But it remains a formidable task all the same to gather and classify advertisements — quite sufficient to keep any librarian busy. Technical advertising is an art. The advertisement must be sufficiently striking to arrest the attention of the reader, it must be really informative, and it must be pleasing. It must also be repetitive, so that the "image" of the producing firm becomes easily identified with the product advertised. But the operative word should be "informative".

EXHIBITIONS Another source of information which may be mentioned here are Exhibitions. It is quite a different thing to see something in the flesh than to only read about it. Particularly for the young engineer and scientist and the trainee, a well organized exhibition can provide a quite unique experience. The wide variety of exhibits, even in a comparatively narrow framework in which an exhibition may be set, is awe-inspiring for somebody who sees it for the first time. To be able to see how many possible solutions there can be for the same problem, how each firm uses a different approach, to acquire first-hand knowledge of the feel and touch of various materials, to be subject to the different sales techniques employed by different sales representatives, to learn to ask the right questions which will elicit really informative answers, all these are thrilling and exciting experiences. The young engineer and scientist is less likely to forget a piece of equipment or machinery which he has seen in action or been allowed to handle himself, than to forget something he only reads about. The stand attendants for an exhibition should, therefore, be very carefully chosen. The salesman who is only a good salesman may be successful in selling his firm's products to men who already know all about his products. But he will not be a success with the clients of the future, the young engineers and scientists, who mainly want information and knowledge. The same may apply to visitors from the developing countries, who, whilst they may

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