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Magda Whitrow (1914–2011)
History of Science Society Newsletter
work in our field that continues to underlie both print
and electronic bibliographies today.
Further Information:
http://www.libsci.sc.edu/bob/isp/whitrow2.htm
Magda Whitrow, the editor of the first Isis
Cumulative Bibliography, which was published in
six volumes from 1971 to 1984, passed away in early
February of this year. Her bibliography indexed over
100,000 citations in over ninety annual and semiannual
bibliographies.
Whitrow recognized the significant role played
by the Isis bibliography in the discipline. Her
creation of the cumulative bibliography grew out of
a conversation between Whitrow, then a librarian at
Imperial College, London, and the editor of Isis at
that time, Harry Woolf. Instead of simply indexing
the articles in Isis as some people wished, the Society
embarked on this cumulation project with grants
from the National Science Foundation and the
United States Steel Foundation.
Whitrow carefully studied George Sarton’s
classification systems and then developed a much
more detailed, faceted structure from it as a basis
for indexing. The resulting product was original
and proved to be extraordinarily useful. Her
classification scheme became the basis of indexing
for all subsequent cumulative bibliographies, edited
by John Neu, and formed the core of Neu’s indexing
scheme for the HSTM database. The Whitrow
system turned out to be easily adaptable to the rapidly
developing digital database format.
By forging this new and much more complex scheme,
Whitrow laid the groundwork for bibliographical
Archbishop Józef Mirosław
Życiński (1948–2011)
Archbishop Józef Mirosław Życiński passed
suddenly away on 10 February 2011. Archbishop
Życiński was born on 1 September 1948 in Stara
Wieś (Poland). He was ordained to the priesthood
in 1972, completed PhD’s in theology in 1976
at the Pontifical Academy of Theology (Kraków)
and in Philosophy in 1978 at the Academy of
Catholic Theology (Warsaw); and in 1980 became
professor of philosophy at the Pontifical Academy of
Theology (subsequently also Dean of the Faculty of
Philosophy). In 1990 he became Bishop of Tarnów,
and in 1997 Archbishop of Lublin. He also became
professor of philosophy and later Grand Chancellor
at the Catholic University of Lublin. In collaboration
with Pope John Paul II he organized the “Science-
Faith” Interdisciplinary Dialogue in Kraków. He
published almost 50 books in philosophy of science,
relativistic cosmology, and the history of relations
between natural sciences and Christian faith, as well
as about 350 scientific papers. He was a founder of
the journal Philosophy in Science, and of the Philosophy
in Science Library series.
By Fr. Tomasz Trafny
20 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2011