Science Service

Science Service, was established in 1921 as a news service to popularize science.

Science Service, was established in 1921 to popularize science as an independent, nonprofit source of accurate information on the latest news of science, medicine and technology. It was renamed Society for Science & the Public in 2008. Its name was shortened to Society for Science in 2021.

History

Science Services was created in 1921 to popularize science. It was sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Research Council. It was funded by E.W. Scripps, a newspaper publisher.

Edwin Slosson was the first editor of Science Services and became director in 1925. Then initial program was a service to newspaper reporters and editors. Interest from non-journals led to a wider program popularizing science for the general public and especially children. Watson Davis, an editor at Science Service, became director in 1928. Science Services offered a weekly science page, daily feature articles, short news items, and a feature series to newspapers and magazines. It started several publications including Science News. It also had a radio program series. It had a big impact especially in its early years.

In 1926, Slosson and Davis wrote "Plan for Film Record" discussing the possibilities for three new services utilizing microfilm technology. One of these services focused on using microfilm copies to fulfill interlibrary loan requests. This idea was expanded and became Bibliofilm Service in 1934. In 1936, Science Service took over operation of the Bibliofilm Service from the US Department of Agriculture. In 1941, Bibliofilm Service came to an end.

Contributions

Science Service issued numerous publications, held competitions, and sponsored clubs.

Science News

Science News was initially a mimeographed sheet known as The Science News-Letter. It was the vehicle for disseminating news of research developments, initially to newspapers, then as a magazine available to the public by subscription. It was skillfully written with alluring headlines. Copy was available in a format suitable for photographic insertion into newspaper layouts without transcription or editing.

The Bibliofilm Service

The Bibliofilm Service originated in an initiative at the US Departure of Agriculture Library to make microfilm copies of printed publications. Watson Davis had ambitious plans for Science Service to publish data and original scientific research on microfilm. A controversial decision was made to create a Documentation Division within Science Service and he raised funds for it to operate the service at the Department of Agriculture. He had ambitious plans for a non-profit "Auxiliary Publications Service" acting as a publisher on microfilm of original scientific date and writings and as well as scientific data for which print publication was uneconomical. Eventually these activities were absorbed by the American Documentation Institute that he co-founded in 1937.

Chemistry

In 1941 Science Service started to publish Chemistry leaflet. It was renamed as a magazine Chemistry in 1944 and transferred to the American Chemical Society in 1962.

Further reading

• "Society for science." Wikipedia [1]
• Marincola, Elizabeth. "Science Service Becomes Society for Science & the Public." ScienceNews [2]
• Farkas-Conn, Irene. From documentation to information science: The beginnings and early development of the American Documentation Institute—American Society for Information Science. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990. [3]

Papers

Smithsonian Institution Archives, Washington, DC. Dates ca. 1910 - 1963. 183 cubic feet. Includes: Consists of records documenting the daily activities of Science Service and the professional activities of Edwin E. Slosson and Watson Davis; Unarranged, with the following apparent divisions:

• • 1. Daily Mail Reports-Science Page;
  • 2. Executive Committee minutes and reports, 1923-1942;
  • 3. Edwin E. Slosson, personal files, circa 1910-1920;
  • 4. Director's files, circa 1921-1928;
  • 5. Managing editor, circa 1922-1925;
  • 6. Watson Davis, personal files;
  • 7. Manager of Science Service, circa 1921-1925;
  • 8. General correspondence, 1927-1963;
  • 9. American Documentation Institute, circa 1938-1946;
  • 10. Syndicated correspondence, circa 1954;
  • 11. Latin American translations, circa 1940-1950;
  • 12. National Inventor's Council, circa 1940-1949;
  • 13. Interlingua files;
  • 14. Knud Rasmussen Expedition, 1920;
  • 15. UNESCO, 1948-1951;
  • 16. Rockefeller Foundation Survey and Conferences;
  • 17. Photographs, posters, and cartoons;
  • 18. CBS radio talks, circa 1939-1959;

• Finding aid: No finding aid

Check https://siarchives.si.edu/collections

• Source: Guide to the Smithsonian Archives. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1978, pp. 228-229.