Remark in Regard to Bidelman's Data-Bank Project

Extract

The concept of a general stellar data bank is not a new idea, but the desirability of this project at the present time has been emphasized by a number of astronomers (Bidelman, Jaschek, Cayrel, Hauck and others) and work is proceeding both in the United States and elsewhere. The status of my own activities in this direction is as follows:

The general stellar data file now at the Warner and Swasey Observatory is continually being updated and much more of the astronomical literature is being systematically searched and the resulting data and references entered into the file. However this project is still largely unfunded and progress is far slower than desirable. In particular the file is still not available in machine-readable form, though several of the newer large data catalogues, such as the Warner and Swasey southern OB-star survey of Stephenson and Sanduleak, will be entered into the file in IBM card-form rather the entire file will be converted to punched cards.