HC Deb 04 February 1958 vol 581 cc159-60W
101. Mr. Willey

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Works, as representing the Lord President of the Council, what steps are currently being taken by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research to enlarge and improve the arrangements for translating and abstracting Russian scientific literature.

Mr. H. Nicholls

As the House will be aware, the D.S.I.R. Lending Library Unit is actively building up what is already a considerable holding of Russian scientific and technical periodicals and books. So as to make the existence of this literature as widely known as possible, the D.S.I.R. is informing all the organisations in the United Kingdom concerned with scientific abstracts about the material which it is receiving. The D.S.I.R. is making special arrangements when requested to do so to lend Russian material to abstracting organisations.

As previously explained to the House, the D.S.I.R. already has in being a small co-operative translation scheme, under which the cost of a translation of a Russian scientific paper is shared by those interested. Ways and means of extending the arrangements for translation are being considered, but large-scale translation of Russian scientific literature must inevitably be expensive.

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