bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
STANDARD COSTING FOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS: BACKGROUND TO A CURRENT STUDY
Authors: ROBERTSON S.E. , REYNOLDS R. , WILKIN A.P.
Published: February 2008

For some time past, interest has been developing within the Aslib Research Department in the problems of establishing standard costs for information systems. A literature search recently conducted by the Department (R. Reynolds) has revealed a scarcity of usable information on this subject: such data as is available is difficult to evaluate comparatively because of the differing definitions of the operations costed and of the terms used to describe them. It would seem, therefore, that a first step towards developing a costing method of widespread application would be the establishment of standard conventions for the analysis of information systems.
AN INFORMATION RETRIEVAL LANGUAGE FOR MARC
Authors: AUSTIN D.
Published: February 2008

I see from the programme that I am supposed to talk on an information language for MARC, and it is true that the work I have been doing for the past year or so has been under the auspices of the MARC Project. But the subject indexing system we have developed is concerned as much with BNB's plans for computer production from 1971 as with the MARC tapes as such, and I hope to show that we have also gone some way towards developing a compatible general system with even wider application. Before coming to this, however, it is necessary to describe briefly some of the day to day pressures of work which caused BNB to look to the computer for help. From this we can see how the computer forced us to reconsider our whole approach to subject indexing.
REVIEW OF The ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF RESEARCH
Authors: CLEVERDON CYRIL W.
Published: February 2008

My task in this second introductory paper is to attempt a review of the research that has been undertaken in relation to the retrieval of information. It is some twenty years ago that the term ‘information retrieval’ was first used, reputedly by Calvin Mooers, although it was several years later before it became a generally accepted term. It would be absurd to suggest that there was no such thing as information retrieval before the term was coined, but it is useful to consider it as marking a new approach to a problem that had always existed, but which had become very much more serious in consequence of the great increase in scientific and technical literature during and after World War II.
INFORMATION SCIENCE: DISCIPLINE OR DISAPPEARANCE
Authors: GOFFMAN WILLIAM
Published: February 2008

It is now some twenty years since the activity which has come to be known as information science had its discernible origin as one of the so‐called new interdisciplinary fields that emerged in the post‐war proliferation of scientific activity. This scientific revolution which also produced such new fields as operations research, game theory, systems engineering, cybernetics and so forth can for the most part be traced to the war itself in that they were attempts to develop general methods for dealing with problem areas, the likes of which were encountered during the conduct of the war. The origins of information science, for example, can be directly traced to the war during which the efficient and knowledgeable handling of masses of information was necessary. Because these tasks were generally assigned to undermanned staffs, it was natural for people to believe that the solution to problems relating to information processing lay in the supply of necessary manpower to carry out a sequence of clerical tasks. With the immediate post‐war proliferation of scientific publications which in no small degree resulted from the demonstration of the value of science in the war and hence the ensuing formation of new areas of activity, it was no wonder that scientists began to feel that (1) an information explosion was taking place and (2) critical communication problems were arising in the scientific community due to this information explosion.
METHODOLOGY IN RESEARCH
Authors: VICKERY B.C.
Published: February 2008

Research in library and information service I take to be any systematic attempt to investigate problems and arrive at solutions. The problems can be small‐scale, e.g. the best way to file pamphlets; or large‐scale, e.g. the optimum distribution of reference libraries throughout the country. They can be specific to one institution, e.g. the best method of providing current awareness to Members of Parliament; or of general import, e.g. the economics of micro‐filming. They can be short‐term, e.g. a brief study and recommendations concerning a specific indexing job; or long‐term, e.g. a continually deepening exploration of the functions and structures of bibliographic records in all kinds of library situations. They can be very practical, e.g. redesigning the layout of a library; or very theoretical, e.g. developing a linear programming model for resource allocation.
ANALYSIS AND ORGANIZATION OF KNOWLEDGE FOR RETRIEVAL
Authors: FARRADANE J.E.L.
Published: February 2008

In a university, the mode of research is usually what is called ‘pure’ or ‘basic’ research; since I am keeping in mind primarily the applications of information science, I will prefer the word ‘basic’, although there is not so much difference. In such research, and really in any good research, one should not be collecting data haphazardly. One must isolate and define a problem and, as far as possible, control other conditions so that interfering factors are eliminated. Preferably one will narrow down the problem to manageable proportions. It is then essential to approach the problem with some sort of hypothesis or theory of the situation, and to concentrate on obtaining evidence for or against that hypothesis. The important task is to devise just that crucial experiment which will give the answer as efficiently as possible. If the answer disproves the hypothesis, one has at least further evidence upon which to construct a different hypothesis; if it confirms the hypothesis, one is ready for a further step forward, and so on. Research is easier in a fully controlled and reproducible situation; in a biological or human situation one must often have recourse to statistical methods, but this does not alter the general methodology. On the whole, I find a clear methodology lacking in much that is being done in the field of information science today.
USER STUDIES A REVIEW OF The LITERATURE FROM 1966 to 1970
Authors: WOOD D.N.
Published: February 2008

My terms of reference when asked to prepare this review of user studies were to bring Fishenden's work up to date. This was published in the Journal of Documentation in September 1965 and in his paper he looks at a limited number of British use studies and draws some broad general conclusions relating to the development of a national information service. The present paper which covers the literature back to the beginning of 1966 is somewhat more detailed. It considers a wide range of investigations into the information gathering habits of scientists, engineers, social scientists and others, and reports results which it is hoped will provide managers with information on which to develop policies regarding library and information services at all levels. Although an increasing number of studies is being carried out in Eastern Europe and in the USSR there has been no major work reported and consequently the review considers mainly British and American investigations.
SUBCODES: AN EXAMINATION OF THEIR UTILITY WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO FEATURE CARD SYSTEMS
Authors: JONES KEVIN P.
Published: February 2008

A number of over‐lapping terms have been applied to coding techniques used in association with post‐co‐ordinate indexing. These include subcodes, which can be interpreted as the generic term; superimposed, graphic and random coding and Zatocoding, which are nearly synonymous; and partial or derived coding: the last named may be considered as a bridge between the second group (superimposed, etc.) and direct coding techniques. For the sake of consistency, the terms graphic coding and partial coding will be employed wherever possible. The general principles of coding have been adequately reviewed in C. P. Bourne's Methods of Information Handling and have been subjected to detailed analysis in J. L. Jolley's Data Study. Graphic codes have been studied in considerable depth in the above; therefore, a brief introduction will suffice.
DO SUBCODES HAVE A PLACE IN CO‐ORDINATE INDEXING?
Authors: PICKFORD A.G.A. , HAINES M. , KENDALL P.F.
Published: February 2008

In the previous paper, presented at a meeting of the Co‐ordinate Indexing Group on 19th November 1970, K. P. Jones (NRPRA) had concluded that subcodes were likely to be a hindrance rather than a help in a co‐ordinate indexing system. At a meeting of the Group held on 14th December 1970, discussion and experience were invited on this topic. The following are contributions submitted to the meeting.
MANAGING EFFECTIVELY: SOME TIPS FOR SPECIAL LIBRARIANS
Authors: KENNINGTON DON
Published: February 2008

There are many obvious dangers in attempting to pontificate in public on management. Not the least is that one is expected to practise what one preaches, especially if what one offers can be said to be, after all, only applied common sense! However, the fact remains that there is an urgent need for librarians to think about their problems—and how to solve them—systematically. Many of us are not in a position to arrange all our work for ourselves but we can always improve any situation to some extent. We may see some ways later in this paper. Actual results are hard to achieve, but it is certain that there is only one way to get them, and that is by effective management.
WORDS AND DOCUMENTS
Authors: COBLANS HERBERT
Published: February 2008

Those of us who look back on a lifetime of work in librarianship, documentation and education—what is nowadays called communication—are often tempted to try to define our terms. Subconsciously we are probably trying to separate the sheep from the goats. Precision in terminology is necessary, especially in the sciences. But what I am going to talk about is more akin to the arts. I would like to take a more general, broader view of our function, our stake in the continuity and the quality of civilization as a whole.
COST ANALYSIS OF A TECHNICAL INFORMATION UNIT
Authors: KLINTØE KJELD
Published: February 2008

A cost analysis programme is defined here as a project aimed at quantifying the balance of a working system by measuring the input in terms of resources allocated to the various parts of the programme and relating this to the output measured in terms of what has been accomplished. Cost analysis is primarily used when it is not possible to evaluate the benefits resulting from the programme.
SURVEYS OF RECORDS IN The BRITISH ISLES
Authors: ALLEN DAVID
Published: February 2008

In the last year or two the number of ad hoc record‐listing projects in this country has increased quite dramatically. After a long period during which any such initiatives were few and far between, the regular, long‐term work of the major libraries and of the various central and local government record‐holding or ‐listing institutions is now being massively supplemented by a network of non‐official efforts, already numerous enough to amount to a distinct para‐activity of their own.
COST‐EFFECTIVENESS
Authors: GILCHRIST ALAN
Published: February 2008

This conference is an information system—you are the users and I am one of the documents that has been retrieved by the system operators. Each of you will ‘read’ up to six documents and will, I hope, discuss them with each other. The cost to each one of you is the £14 conference fee plus incidentals. Few of you will have met this cost yourselves, having persuaded your employers to foot the bill as well as giving you a day off to attend the conference, making a total cost of the order of £25 per organization. The conference organizers have controlled the finances and, like you, have chosen to expend energy on this exercise rather than some other activity. Three groups of people, the conference organizers, your organizations and yourselves, all have individual expectations and when the conference is over will assess to what extent these expectations have been met. The conference organizers will heave a sigh of relief before becoming involved in planning next year's conference, when they will take into account those of your views of this year's conference that they come to hear about. Your views, I suggest, will depend to a considerable extent on chance: the conversation you happened to have with the person sitting next to you at dinner; a train of thought stimulated by a discussion of one of the papers and, in the even longer term, the unforeseen connection between something a speaker said and a problem encountered a month later. As for the people who actually paid the money—some organizations require delegates to present formal reports when they return to work, and must rely on this method of assessing whether their money was well spent. As conferences continue to be organized for the exchange of information we must assume that they are worth‐while. I personally think they are, and though I hate to say so at this particular moment, there is clearly a lot of truth in the often heard general assessment: ‘It's not the papers you listen to, it's the people you meet.’ Incidentally, if this assessment is accurate, it is worth considering to what extent conferences are organized to meet this primary objective.
ASLIB SYMPOSIUM ON PROBLEMS OF USING EXTERNAL INFORMATION SERVICES June 1971
Authors: MATTHEWS F.W.
Published: February 2008

The last two Aslib meetings which I have attended I found perhaps a little disturbing. The one before the last was the Annual Conference of the Chemical Group and, although I was not there for all of it, I did listen to the discussion. One speaker started out essentially bemoaning that librarianship was not what it used to be; it had gone to the dogs as far as he was concerned, and part of the blame—at least a large part of the blame—was that infernal machine, the computer. We can be thankful the discussion did not end on that note.
EXTERNAL INFORMATION SERVICES AND The SMALL USER
Authors: BATTEN W.E.
Published: February 2008

A plea that I heard during this morning's session was that nobody had really addressed himself to the small user; everybody had been talking about the big user of the data base. And I just wondered whether in the short time I have I can possibly say anything useful in that connection. So will the professionals please excuse me if I try to address myself to the small user for the moment, and in particular to the unfamiliar user—if there be such an animal.
The INTERNATIONAL FOOD INFORMATION SERVICE
Authors: NEWTON J.
Published: February 2008

In the previous papers, we heard some of views of the ‘large’ users and we heard something about the approach of the ‘large’ suppliers to both the ‘large’ and the ‘small’ users. I'm glad to have the opportunity now of saying a few words about the ‘small’ supplier. The International Food Information Service (IFIS) is very definitely not yet in the big league. We process and publish a mere 16,500 references per year, which is small fry compared with the 140,000–250,000 references per year dealt with so far.
The INFORMATION SCENE IN GERMANY AND BRITAIN
Authors: CREMER MARTIN
Published: February 2008

In June this year I and some of my colleagues had the opportunity to discuss the general situation in the information field with our opposite numbers in your country. We found many similarities and conformity and therefore I do not intend to give you a complete description of the organizational structure in the Federal Republic today. I prefer to discuss some outstanding problems:
1. WHAT EQUIPMENT AND SYSTEMS CAN WE EXPECT IN The 70s AND BEYOND?
Authors: Edwards B.A.
Published: February 2008

Before attempting a projection into the future it is probably best to discuss the framework of the present telephone network for the benefit of those without a background in telecommunications. We can then examine the direction of current technological developments as a basis for predicting the structure of the communications network of the future. The trend in terminal instruments is worthy of special examination since this is the point at which Aslib, as users, interface with the network. Finally we examine the actions required in telecommunication research, and the role the information worker can play, in order to further the introduction of some of these future equipments, systems and services.
2. The INTERNATIONAL NUCLEAR INFORMATION SYSTEM
Authors: Pelzer C.W.
Published: February 2008

As the peaceful uses of atomic energy became an accepted part of modern life, the veils of secrecy were removed from most aspects of nuclear research. Cautiously at first, the developed countries began to exchange nuclear information at scientific meetings and through journals and other media. However, with the widening range of peaceful nuclear applications came a corresponding increase in information, and the complexity of information storage and retrieval was suddenly a concern of paramount importance. National nuclear information centres were set up to satisfy the needs of scientists in their home countries, but a gap still existed in the exchange of information on the international level.
Printed ephemera in British libraries
Authors: Pemberton John E.
Published: February 2008

In January of this year I was engaged by the Social Science and Government Committee of the Social Science Research Council ‘to carry out a broad review of the present position regarding the provision of printed ephemera in the social sciences in national, university, public and specialist libraries in Great Britain’. In this paper I should like to give an account of some of the more important findings of my research and to offer for discussion a number of recommendations designed to rationalize the acquisition of these important primary sources, to improve access to them, to provide an effective means of acquainting researchers with their existence and location, and to ensure that future library policies are compatible with the known and potential needs of social scientists.
The London Classification of Business Studies and management literature
Authors: Vernon K.D.C. , Lang Valerie
Published: February 2008

In this paper we are concerned with two related topics—management literature and The London Classification of Business Studies. To understand the purposes and structure of the Classification it is essential first to consider the scope and content of management literature. But management literature would not exist, certainly in its present form, without the business schools, and so it is appropriate to begin by attempting a very brief answer to the question—what is management education? This fine new building in which we are meeting, with its lecture theatres, seminar rooms, computing facilities, its important library, its excellent residential accommodation, helps to provide a visual answer. But it is necessary to consider a broader perspective.
The foreign language and translation problems of the social sciences
Authors: Saunders W.L.
Published: February 2008

By one of those coincidences that seem to abound in academic life and are probably not coincidences at all, we have recently found ourselves, quite suddenly, in possession of a very great deal of information about the language barrier and about the information requirements of the social sciences. This is a consequence of two recent publications: the Sheffield report on two years of intensive work on the language barrier in an academic community and Bath University Library's INFROSS report. The former looks at the language barrier from the point of view of all disciplines, including the social sciences; the latter looks at the information requirements and problems of social scientists from a very comprehensive point of view and includes amongst the problems that of the language barrier. The two reports therefore complement one another very well, and in my paper this evening I propose to draw on both of them, in an attempt to look at the language barrier from the social scientist's point of view. I shall normally draw more heavily on the Sheffield report than that of Bath—mainly because it is the one with which I am most familiar—though when I came to look at possible solutions, the Bath findings will certainly carry a good deal of weight, as you will see.
Patents as a source of technical information
Authors: Saunderson K.M.
Published: February 2008

I must start my paper with two disclaimers. Firstly, I will not be concerned with the legal aspects of patents other than as these may arise in the context of a discussion of the reasons why patents are an important source of technical information and the ways in which the information that they contain can be utilized.
Financing a library/information service by operating a cost recovery system
Authors: Cook J.
Published: February 2008

Recent events resulting from mergers, takeovers, etc. in industry have clearly indicated that libraries and information units cannot continue to exist by divine right but must justify their existence as viable, essential and economically balanced units. Varying circumstances determine which methods are to be adopted to achieve this and the method described in this paper is not put forward as being possible under all circumstances but as a system operated successfully in the environment of my own company. It should be emphasized that it is not a theoretical view but a practical demonstration of applying a system which has been accepted by management and has survived two merger operations between this company and others.
Teaching costing techniques to librarians and information scientists of the future
Authors: Sturt R.
Published: February 2008

I little thought, when our mutual friend, Leslie Patrick, led me last June towards the giving of this paper on costing techniques, that my standpoint would have changed to the extent that it has. As a teacher lot nine years in the sphere of library management or administration, as it was for so long called, my outlook had been tempered by the Library Association's policy, rigorously maintained, that library education aimed to afford the novice the broadest possible view of librarianship. This meant that the descriptive—no matter how lyrical—was in; the evaluative or critical—using techniques or tools—was out.
Use, efficiency and cost of external information services
Authors: Kabi A.
Published: February 2008

In this paper I will deal separately with the three main headings of use, efficiency and cost, and where possible compare them with ‘in‐house’ information retrieval services. It would also be convenient and more realistic if we examine the above factors in terms of an existing operational service. Perhaps I will be forgiven for choosing the services offered by the UK Chemical Information Service (UKCIS) since I have some knowledge of that service. For those of you who are not acquainted with UKCIS activities, a very brief résumé seems appropriate.
The British Museum Library and the social sciences: Reference services
Authors: Spinney G.H.
Published: February 2008

As there is a great deal of ground to be covered in the present Session, I have only about half‐an‐hour in which to tell you what kind of services the British Museum Library is now offering to social scientists, and what plans it has for the future. This is a very short time indeed, but perhaps it is just as well, for in my investigations in preparing this talk, I found that very few concrete plans have as yet been formed. There are recommendations, hopes, preferences and prejudices, but nothing cut and dried. So what I have done is to include all of the more persistent rumours, and filled in a few gaps out of my hopeful imagination. I will try to make it clear which is which.
The British Library of Political and Economic Science: Reference services
Authors: Clarke D.A.
Published: February 2008

BLPES was founded by the Webbs in 1896 to be, in the words of the initial appeal for funds, ‘a new laboratory of social research’. Though entirely dependent for finance on LSE, which is its sole trustee, it remains a separate legal entity, and gives a high priority to its services to the world of scholarship generally. In the five months ending 29th February 1972, for instance, permits were given to 1,205 non‐members of the School wishing to use the Library for sustained research, and a further 1,434 day tickets were issued. In the year ending 31st July 1971, 2,574 volumes were lent to other libraries, and 2,295 other requests were fulfilled by the provision of photocopies.
Retrospective bibliographical services in the social sciences
Authors: Christophers R.A.
Published: February 2008

A retrospective bibliographical service is defined as one compiled for permanent retention and for a general use. Because of its reference and retention functions a library such as BML will always be a source for older material and while seeking contemporary coverage as part of its reference functions, it will not always be in the position to give current service of a quick turnover, specialized documentation centre, much as we should like to do so. Our strength will continue to lie in the wide range of material held and in our long back files, and while compilation is based upon works held in the BML, the roots of an adequate bibliographic service are in a wide ranging acquisitions policy.
Information sources about the EEC in Europe
Authors: Henderson George P.
Published: February 2008

It is convenient to consider company information enquiries as falling into three groups:
2. ROLES AND SYSTEMS: The NEED FOR CHANGE
Authors: Stern B.T.
Published: February 2008

During the rest of this decade there will be substantial changes in the type of activities carried out by information workers, both as a result of improvements in technology to provide more effective information systems and also because the users of information will have more sophisticated requirements. Some of these changes are discussed below.
SRC: UNVERIFIED ASSUMPTIONS
Authors: Newcombe D.
Published: February 2008

The speaker explained that the stimulus for the SRC proposal came partially from the UNISIST study report in which the working group responsible for subject specification had drawn attention to the need for better tools for the control and conversion of information retrieval languages, such as UDC and to the need for further study and experiments. The working group had already considered a study undertaken at their request by a team from the Aslib Research Department under Mr B. C. Vickery in which, however, only the term content of different schemes, mainly in the English language and including UDC, were compared. When this investigation was carried out in 1969, only twenty of the expected one hundred parts of the English Full edition were available, whereas now there are eighty. Even so, UDC was less defective (including over 80 per cent) in content of terms than the other major general schemes of classification studied, i.e. BC, CC and DDC. The study also included a comparison between the classificatory relations used in some major thesauri, i.e. the EJC/TEST, NLM/MeSH and EURATOM thesaurus, with those used in the general classifications already mentioned. As far as UDC was concerned, this did not compare as favourably as more recent studies by Kara, Öhman and Ölivecrona, and Stueart, and Wellisch. This was partly because the Aslib study did not take into account the well‐known synthetic characteristics of UDC, i.e. the use of colon combinations and of common and special auxiliary subdivisions. He maintained that FID should not have embarked upon a programme of radical revision based upon the proposals for an SRC (see Aslib Proc., Vol. 24, no. 4, April 1972, p. 222–5) because:
WHAT IS REALLY WRONG WITH The UDC?
Authors: Smith J. Roland
Published: February 2008

The right people to say what was wrong with the UDC were the users of the UDC. They had invested in it. Now the FID had authorized preparation of the Standard Reference Code, one of the intentions of which was to be the future framework of a more balanced and logically‐constructed ‘UDC’. But would it correct the defects of the present UDC? The purpose of the present paper was to put forward the views of five practising librarians on what were the most serious of those defects, and to try to see whether the SRC was likely to remedy them.
CONCLUSIONS
Authors: Foskett A.C.
Published: February 2008

The discussion may be summed up under four headings, only one of which is classification; the other three are Politics, Finance and Management. We may begin with Politics, for many of the problems have their basis in politics. There is a sense of dissatisfaction with UDC among a number of important people: important, that is, in the sense that their views carry weight in international circles. In 1948 the Royal Society's Scientific Information Conference came to the conclusion (as a similar meeting did in 1896 in relation to Dewey's classification) that there was no satisfactory classification for science and technology, and that they would easily solve the problem by devoting a little thought to it; we are still awaiting their results. The UNISIST meetings were again largely meetings of scientists; Dr Coblans has assured us that they did not in fact come to any definite conclusions, but one gets the feeling that many of those present did not favour UDC. There is already some feeling—stemming I believe largely from ignorance—in the United States that UDC is not the scheme they are looking for; very few libraries there use it, and there is no guarantee that it would become popular even if the full English edition became available. The Eastern Europeans use UDC, but would they welcome the suggestion that the English edition should become the key edition?
Analysing industrial information service costs: a simple check list
Authors: Armstrong Alan
Published: February 2008

Many of us younger and less experienced information officers flounder hopelessly (some in a delightful feminine helplessness) when asked to present an analysis of the cost of the information service we run.
External sources of information: the kinds of services and facilities offered and criteria for evaluation
Authors: Vickery B.C.
Published: February 2008

Every library or information service is at bottom wholly dependent on sources of information external to it. It must acquire from outside all the documentary information that it transmits to users. But at this conference we are thinking more particularly of external agencies that provide material or services that might and could legitimately be provided internally.
The use of external data bases to extend current awareness services based on internal resources at AERE Harwell
Authors: Terry T.E. , Jones P.J.
Published: February 2008

Most of us in the last few years have been faced with providing information services with reduced staff and smaller budgets. I will describe how we have met this problem in an information service operating in a large research establishment, particularly by introducing a computerized SDI system, partly to replace, partly to extend, a current awareness service based originally on an extensive visual scanning of the literature.
Pitfalls and problems
Authors: Townley Helen M.
Published: February 2008

My originalthis paper was to take, from the literature, examples of successful solutions of practical problems found in using external information services. This would have been fine if there had been any examples in the literature, but there were none that I found. No one has said in print what happens when tapes are held up for three months in a dock strike, or how much it costs to re‐profile when the thesaurus is revised without consultation with the user, or how much extra work is involved when the record format is changed at short notice. No one has actually stated in public that he allowed two hours per profile and it actually required ten, or that the programming costs were three times as large as his (and his Computer Department Manager's) estimate. These things happen—but one naturally does not admit to them in print, even though by so doing one could be of inestimable value to one's professional colleagues.
Technological changes that may affect newspaper libraries in the future
Authors: Montague P. McC.
Published: February 2008

When I was asked to give this paper today I felt somewhat fearful. My direct involvement in newspaper libraries had comprised downing pints of beer with Ken Murphy at The Guardian, being appalled by the problems of moving The Guardian's and Manchester Evening News' libraries in Manchester over one long weekend, and discussing staffing problems in Birmingham with Geoff Adams.
Towards a follow‐up care program for ad hoc translations
Authors: Knul C.M.A.
Published: February 2008

In his book The foreign language barrier in sciences and technology (Aslib, 1962), C. W. Hanson wrote about ‘the desirability of using one international language for scientific publication, whether it be an existing natural language or a constructed one’. ‘This global approach to the language problem has some support,’ he continues, ‘but even if international agreement were achieved progress would be slow and it would probably be several decades before the international language was in anything approaching universal use.’ Exactly ten years later, Prof. A. I. Mikhailov, director of the All Union Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (VINITI) concludes, speaking about ways to overcome linguistic barriers: ‘the final solution of the problem lies in developing a universal language of science which will develop into a single language common to the world scientific community’ (Invited Papers of the 36th International Congress of FID, Budapest, 1972). After ten years the problem of overcoming linguistic barriers in international exchange of information by means of introduction of a universal language appears to be as vivid as a full decade ago.
Sociology and librarianship
Authors: Smith Gerry M.
Published: February 2008

The Aslib Social Sciences Group was established in 1969 to promote the study of two distinct subject areas: (a) the bibliography and handling of the literature of the social sciences; and (b) the application of social science methods to librarianship and information work. The major effort of the Group has, rightly in my opinion, been centred on bibliographical issues; the aim of investigating the social sciences for their relevance to librarianship has been served by two excellent papers, on the relevance of psychology and politics to librarianship. I want to try to add to the valuable insights of these two papers by looking at the potential contribution of a sociological perspective to our understanding and effectiveness as librarians. I am using the definition of sociology used in Worsley's introductory textbook: ‘A way of looking at man's behaviour as conditioned by his membership of social groups.’
Translations in the UK
Authors: Information Department Aslib
Published: February 2008

Since 1966 translations into English from all languages have been collected and there is an extensive collection of pre‐1966 material, mainly from East European, Russian and Oriental languages. The total number of translations now held is over 200,000. Additions per annum: 18,000 from US sources; 1000 from NLL's own translation service; 5,000 from other British sources. In addition 290 cover‐to‐cover translated journals are taken, 14 of which are produced with financial support from the NLL.
Countryside Information: a Literature Review
Authors: Ardern R.J.
Published: February 2008

This promises to be a most interesting meeting on Information and the Environment. We are all vitally concerned. Most of us live, if not in conurbations, at least in towns and thus the countryside is our antidote; our escape. So, we are all interested in the countryside, we are all interested in planning because it affects us all, and most of us are concerned about pollution if only because we hear so much about it.
Information for Environmental Planning
Authors: White Brenda
Published: February 2008

I traditionally begin a paper with one or more definitions. This is not pedantic but a matter of necessity if one is to communicate efficiently, particularly nowadays when loose terminology and imprecise usage of words is very much in evidence. Ask ten people what they understand by planning, and you will get ten variations on a theme; ask ten people what they mean when they talk about ‘the environment’—which everyone does—and you will find not ten variations on a theme, but ten themes.
Sources of Information on Environmental Pollution
Authors: Harvey Nigel
Published: February 2008

Environmental pollution is defined, essentially, as the discharge by human action into the environment of something undesirable, for example, a gas, a chemical, oil, a noise. So the phrase ‘environmental pollution’ covers an immense variety of types of pollutant, an immense variety of types of environment polluted, an immense variety of consequences, and an immense variety of methods of investigation, monitoring and control. The subject is vast, fragmented, incoherent and expanding. So is its literature.
The London Classification of Business Studies
Authors: Bakewell K.G.B.
Published: February 2008

The London Classiffcation of Business Studies (LCBS) has now been published for 3 years and is used by at least 17 British and 11 overseas libraries. Twenty‐eight users might not seem a great many, but for a specialist scheme it really represents a significant impact. The first impression of 400 copies was sold out within a year, and 200 copies of the second impression (June 1971) had been sold by the end of March 1973. It is reasonable to suppose that these 600 copies are having some influence on the organization of business literature throughout the world, and that more libraries are considering adopting LCBA than the six known to the London Business School.
Public relations: the soft sell
Authors: Hoey P. O'N.
Published: February 2008

Within the framework of the subject ‘promoting industrial library and information systems’ it is logical to examine the role which public relations plays. Public relations may be described as a short term solution but it should also be part of a long term strategy.
A device for recording the process and result of manual search of inverted files
Authors: Diggle G.E. , Townley Helen M.
Published: February 2008

We have recently been concerned with devising a search tool for a group of geographically spread workers, concerned with searching through records of sone 10,000 items. The data base is held on computer and we considered both the use of an output punched tape to create feature cards and of an output dual dictionary. The arguments against each were, however, not inconsiderable.
Library manpower planning
Authors: Broome E.M.
Published: February 2008

Jobs squeeze hits librarians. More than 2,000 young men and women filed job applications at the annual convention of the American Library Association in Chicago last week.
Short loan collection
Authors: Woodward W.B. , Hird M.
Published: February 2008

Among the more serious problems recognized in the last five years by our library staff were those arising from a time‐hallowed practice of lecturing staff. This practice is to suggest that undergraduates should read either the complete text or some part of those texts which the lecturer considers may enhance his lectures. It follows that relatively large numbers of students can try to read a relatively small number of actual copies of publications during a relatively short space of time. When this happened we recognized that:
Some deprived information users
Authors: Grose Daphne
Published: February 2008

I set out to find the people we have neglected and instead found what I think may be the beginnings of a long quiet revolution. A year ago I did not know how many developments and experiments were taking place in information fields that until recently have not been explored. The title of my paper was often a source of embarrassment as I talked to enthusiastic pioneers who did not consider their clients to be deprived. Nevertheless they were pioneers.
The information worker in his environment
Authors: Gee Ralph D.
Published: February 2008

My brief for this paper was ‘the information worker in his environment’. The best thing I can do at this early stage is to convert that ultra‐modish word into something a little more emotive. I prefer commitment, or involvement. I am thinking of the social condition of which the information worker is an individual part.
Map conservation in an academic geography department
Authors: Bird A.J.
Published: February 2008

Time‐saving procedures and avoidance of material replacements due to damage and loss are the problems which must be appreciated in an academic department administering a collection of maps. The system adopted by this Geography Department, after much preparatory thought on issues of policy and administration, has proved that such problems can be obviated efficiently. Backlog of work inevitably builds up periodically, but opportunities to cancel this regularly occur during vacations. The capital expenditure is a long‐term investment, but the outlay per cabinet is a reasonable amount for a thousand maps, which will not depreciate appreciably for many years. This would not be so with maps kept in drawer units of wood or steel, where one would also need more floor‐space. The criterion is, therefore, to file vertically all maps and atlases possible, in the same way as a book library. This short paper deals with the various operations in administering such a collection.
Management advisory services for the small firm
Authors: Wood E.G.
Published: February 2008

The subject of small firms has aroused increasing interest in recent years, particularly since the Report of the Bolton Committee of Inquiry on Small Firms, published in November 1971. On one topic, namely, management advisory services for small firms, there are conflicting opinions about the need for such services, the type of service, the methods of operating and staffing and the financial implications.
Information services for a multi‐disciplinary unit
Authors: de Geus Lod. Adr.
Published: February 2008

Accent is something delicate. It may change meaning. This is an important fact, which our profession has been particularly aware of; it cannot afford not to give heed to it. The phrase in figure 1 provides evidence. Accent can turn bits of information (and bytes of it) into pieces of information. It can turn, as Boulding suggests, ‘a bit into a wit’.
Rationalization of serial holdings in special libraries
Authors: Houghton B. , Prosser C.
Published: February 2008

This paper describes progress which has been made towards the development of a procedural model intended as a code of good practice to enable special librarians to effect economies in their journal holdings by systematically planned use of the BLL. A theoretical model suggested by B. C. Brookes was tested on various sets of usage data from seven special libraries but the results proved to be unrealistic in terms of immediate provision to the user. A new experimental approach has now been developed based on the total use versus total cost of a journal collection.
British official publications
Authors: Holland David
Published: February 2008

I have accepted the task of presenting a paper on British official publications because the House of Commons Library, in which I have had the advantage of working during the last 28 years, provides a good base from which to survey the whole field. We are strong in the older publications. During the last century, the main initiative came from Parliament, and in particular from the House of Commons. A hundred years ago the Civil Service was relatively small. Nearly all official documents were published by the authority of Parliament. Parliament was concerned with the pre‐legislative stage, identifying problems, examining witnesses, and bringing dark areas into the full glare of publicity. Much has changed. Our Civil Service is now large and powerful. It is for that reason that, like many other legislators, British Members seek to arm themselves against the Executive. Their Library plays a small part in the struggle. Because we are all librarians, it may be of interest to let one of my predecessors, Thomas Vardon, speak for himself:
French official publications
Authors: Honoré Suzanne
Published: February 2008

The proliferation of administrative publications presents an acute problem to public authorities as well as to librarians whose job it is to keep records of them. The widening of the fields covered or controlled by government departments is a phenomenon common to all countries. They are producing an ever‐increasing number of publications for their own needs as well as to keep the public informed, which is of primary importance in a democracy. However, the Government and Parliament have been trying for a long time to avoid an excessive and disorganized proliferation of publications which are a drain on the state budget. As for the librarian, he has to keep on top of this rising tide. He has to trace, record, file, store and place at the disposal of the public documents which represent a privileged source of information, particularly in the field of social sciences, but which are often difficult to obtain.
Publicity and promotion for information services in university libraries
Authors: Hall John
Published: February 2008

A survey of information services in university libraries also obtained details of the methods used to publicize these services. A distinction is made between active and passive forms of publicity, and it was found that the latter predominated. Active publicity was used most frequently by the technological university libraries and less by those of the civic and new universities, although the former compared favourably in some respects. The lowest level of publicity was found in the libraries of the London colleges.
Effective presentation of information in a dynamic situation
Authors: Hoey P.O'N. , Harris P.
Published: February 2008

The need to communicate information effectively to a diverse, technically based audience is discussed. The fange of media available is surveyed, extending from formal verbal exchanges, through memos, computer printouts and films, to research reports. The importance of weighing required impact against costs is stressed. It is necessary to assess new office systems and communications methods as they become available, to identify relationships with existing proven operations and to consider the desirability of changing the latter. The influence of customers' changing needs and the problems in commissioning new systems while phasing out old ones are included. No one mode of communication is best for all users. Therefore a complete repertoire of systems should be developed in an information department and then the optimum medium sought for each user. This will ensure that vital information always reaches its target. Selective reference is made to the past and present methods used at J. Lyons, where it is possible to trace the evolution of the present Group Scientific Information Service from a small laboratory library over a 7‐year period.
The European Connection: international co‐operation in the use of information resources
Authors: Appleyard Raymond K.
Published: February 2008

Some current trends, problems and principles of co‐operation in the use of international information sources as seen from the viewpoint of the European Communities, together with some of the Commission's plans to: set up or improve Community information systems; develop a Community‐wide network for scientific and technical information; advance the technology of information handling.