Foreign exchange of astronomical serials as a means of developing a collection at the Purple Mountain Observatory is discussed.

Daniel Bell, of Harvard, has said that “The world society is like a set of giant Calder mobiles, shifting in uneasy balance in accordance with the winds of change, but the exact configurations are difficult to capture - especially for twenty-five years from now.” Twenty-five or thirty-five, the number is not important - any look into the future is difficult and risky. In order to get a sense of what the future of astronomy libraries may be, I want to talk about some of the changes that are beginning to take shape and then look at the effect those changes are likely to have on all libraries including those that concern us today — astronomy libraries.

Attributed to Archytas by Christian Huygens

Even in Antiquity such records were the foundation for the advance of astronomical knowledge. Thus the Chaldean Tables of the Babylonian had a great influence on the development of Greek astronomy. And in 130 B.C. Hipparchus discovered the precession of the equinoxes by comparing his own observations with those of Timocharis a century and a half earlier. Later even Copernicus himself used the results of Timocharis, Ptolemy, and al-Battani.

For the scientist working on a research problem, books and journals serve mostly as archival records documenting what has been done and who did it. But the researcher usually has difficulty when he wants to determine what areas are currently being researched. Personal communication is a widely-used method of obtaining information, but one which is often inefficient and incomplete, especially as the number of colleagues working in a particular area of interest expands. Beyond this, current awareness of research in progress is available only by consulting an array of sources: preprints and lists or indexes of preprints, newsletters and annual reports, letters journals, reviews of research, directories of research grants, directories of graduate faculties or research facilities and their interests, indexes of theses and dissertations, indexes of progress reports, papers presented at conferences and lists and indexes of these papers, and lists of articles submitted or accepted for publication.

We have established a library collection of documentation for software used in the reduction of astronomical data. We make some recommendations to the authors of documentation in addition to discussing the future directions of this collection. Instructions on how to contribute to and access this collection are provided.

The importance of physics and mathematics in astronomical research has been growing for the last twenty years; yet, the volume of book acquisitions in the relating fields has been decreasing in most french libraries specialized in astronomy (graph 1).

Great are the consequences of the physics book high prices (graph 2) on the acquisition volume and more drastic is the selection when the total amount of acquisitions is low, i.e. in small libraries (graphs 3 and 4). Yet, the restriction of acquisitions has not generated increasing inter-library loans in the relating fields and national service (CADIST) acquisitions in physics and mathematics have also been dropping. This point, connected with the concomitant general growth of astronomical book accessions, leads us to explain the contradictory observations as mentioned above here from the astronomical publication contents.

The development of the library science marks the progresses of science and culture in a country or a district. The study courses and results of a research institute are strongly reflected by its library and information work. The development of the astronomical research, the collection of astronomical observations, and the manufacture of astronomical instruments and equipments, etc., are all being made progress by library and information services to consult scientific foundation, to seek method, and to derive needed nourishment. The astronomical library and information service system is growing and expanding with continuously providing information to the astronomical study. In this paper I shall give some introductions about the Libraries and Information Divisions of astronomical observatories in our country.

The American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) is the largest organization of variable star observers in the world that coordinates observations, and evaluates, compiles, processes, publishes, and disseminates them to the astronomical community. The organizational structure of the AAVSO, i t s visual and photoelectric observing programs, data management, publications, and services to the astronomical community are discussed.

A questionnaire about astronomy libraries was distributed in June 1988. The returns from 54 libraries are summarised; they show a large range in size, scope and procedures. Many libraries are connected to networks that give access to bibliographic databases, but only a small number use local computers for cataloguing. Some comments on the returns are given.