A plea for annual lists of state-papers and annual reviews of state-papers, as being essential preliminaries to state-paper catalogues / by F.B.F. Campbell.

  • Campbell, Frank, 1863-1906.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A plea for annual lists of state-papers and annual reviews of state-papers, as being essential preliminaries to state-paper catalogues / by F.B.F. Campbell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ing. And this knowledge is just as necessary to the student also, for a report is sometimes valuable or valueless, according as it is published by one Department or another. For, although written on the same subject and with similar title, it may be written from quite a different point of view, with quite a dif- ferent object, and arranged on quite a different system. Again; it is of no small value to know the name of the immediate compiler of a given report, since in many instances it makes all the difference, for the official and historian alike, to know that the opinions expressed in a certain report or series of reports were those of a man of eminence and reliability or the contrary, thus enabling them to trace back the reports of the one and avoid those of the other. Furthermore, inasmuch as the names of Departments are often so general as to afford little or no help to the cataloguer, and since Departments are so liable to constant reorganisation with consequent changes in the reports, it is often necessary for the cataloguer to know the official description both of the officer who has compiled the report, as also of him to whom it is transmitted, as indicating what Branch of a Department it belongs to. Next, since Departments and Subjects are not necessarily consistent or reciprocal, we wish to know something definite concerning the matter of the report. To what general subject does it relate? To what division of that subject ? Next we shall wish to know to what territory the report relates—whether to a whole territory, or to certain parts, of it, and if so, to which parts. We shall then ask what period of Time the report covers. A year or a century ?—and if it be an annual report, it is necessary to know whether it relates to a calendar, financial or agri- cultural year, and when those years begin and end, since the two latter ones are always liable to change. Want of attention to such points may easily affect the accuracy of statistics which are based upon periods of time. And if a report be Biennial or Triennial, this also should be clearly stated in order to save fruit- less labour in searching for annual reports which do not exist. Next—the Edition and Date. Does the report supersede all previous ones ? Is it the first of a series of “ Occasional ” reports, on the first of a series of “ Annual ” reports; or, is it only an experimental report which happens to relate to a whole year, but will not be repeated again ?