CRANV2 preface preface Cyril Cleverdon Michael Keen Cranfield An investigation supported by a grant to Aslib by the National Science Foundation. Use, reproduction, or publication, in whole or in part, is permitted for any purpose of the United States Government. PREFACE It was intended that this should be the final volume of the Report on Cranfield If. This may still be the case, but as the results were being prepared for publication, we were continually aware of the gaps that needed to he filled. The delay in the appearance of this volume is partly due to attempts to obtain some of the missing data, but a great deal still remains to be done. The detailed analysis of the reasons for failure to retrieve relevant documents or for the retrieval of non-relevant documents was an important part of Cranfield I, but so far in this project it has only been attempted in a superficial manner. It is most desirable that such analysis should be done, the more so because of the completely unexpected test results. To the acknowledgements already made in Volume I, I would also wish to include Professor Salton and Professor Wilkins. It was a most happy chance that the National Science Foundation should fund two projects which, when they started, appeared to have quite different objectives, but which, as they progressed, were seen to be closely related. Cooperation with Professor Salton has enabled us to go much further than would otherwise have been the case, and I am most grateful for his continued assistance over the past two years and for providing data on his work which we have been able to present briefly in this report. It was on the recommendation of a colleague that I read 'Social Deviance' by Professor L.T. Wilkins. Although dealing with a different subject, the author's opinions on what should be done in his particular field were entirely in line with my views on what is required in the field of documentation. For his agreement to allow me to include a series of short extracts from his book, I am most grateful to Professor Wilkins. [i i i Cranfield December 1966 Cyril Cleverdon