bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Job assessment and job evaluation
Authors: Dutton B.G.
Published: February 2008

Job evaluation in a Library and Information (L&I) environment is not the easiest of subjects to write about. It is not well documented; it is a subject which does not interest most people per se but only (like the Budget speech) if its application leads to a change in material conditions; and there are very real constraints on trying to go it alone—the unit will normally have to keep broadly in step with the parent organization. Nevertheless, an understanding of the principles can help considerably in ensuring adequate treatment for L&I jobs, and an internal job evaluation study can serve other useful purposes that I will come to later.
The effect of the British Library Lending Division on inter‐library lending
Authors: Plaister J.M.
Published: February 2008

The establishment of the British Library Lending Division, amalgamating as it has the work of the former National Central Library and the National Lending Library for Science and Technology and creating a comprehensive service for both science and the humanities, has had a profound effect on inter‐library lending services in the United Kingdom and a considerable influence on inter‐library lending throughout the world.
Physics conferences in the United Kingdom
Authors: Singleton Alan
Published: February 2008

‘Many though not all conferences and summer schools are also free holidays in the sun … Large conferences with many hundreds of participants are frequently almost useless from the point of view of disseminating information and the only positive aspect is that they act as hiring fairs for young people … the quality of presentation of the work is frequently appalling … many short talks are scheduled because speakers can have their fares paid only if they are actually giving a paper … unbelievable quantities of liquor are drunk at conferences. A good start is made by all the overseas participants bringing in their duty‐free allowances … some speakers never see their slides in focus.’
The Aslib Social Sciences Working Group on Social Welfare Information: a review of its development and current activities
Authors: Webley Maureen
Published: February 2008

The social services have seen big developments in recent years. The reorganization of local authority departments and the concept of corporate planning as outlined by the Bains report have created situations of growth and organizational change, and these in turn have given rise to new information problems.
Work study in a polytechnic library
Authors: Masterson W.A.J.
Published: February 2008

A study of the work of 47 polytechnic library staff was made during summer 1975. Data were collected on self‐administered diary forms and analysed to show the proportion of time spent on specific activities by staff at different grades, and to show the unit times required for certain operations. Results for individual departments are also given. The data are put to use to show how staffing levels may be set both in the long term, to process a given volume of business, and in the short term, to allow for varying staff availability. Comparisons are made with previous work elsewhere.
Self‐teaching and the development of the individual
Authors: Hills P.J.
Published: February 2008

The traditional concept of teaching places the emphasis and responsibility for teaching firmly on the teacher, casting the student in the role of passive listener and the library in the role of passive provider and collector of reference materials.
The distribution of community information: the role of the computer and computer‐based networks
Authors: Tague Jean , Walters Carolyn , Shepherd Michael
Published: February 2008

The concept of community information or social information is defined and related to other forms of information. The sources of information for residents of a specific community are determined. A ‘computer assistant’ (CACTIS) for a local community information centre is described. Different types of information networks are presented and related to regional characteristics. A networking study for community information centres, resource centres, and constituency offices in southwestern Ontario, with CACTIS as its focus, is described.
EURONET
Authors: Gray J.C.
Published: February 2008

In a sense this is one of a series of talks, starting with that which Cyril Giles and I gave back in 1975 and likely to continue as EURONET develops and there is new information to disseminate.
The centre for research on user studies: aims and functions
Authors: Wilson‐Davis K.
Published: February 2008

The Centre for Research on User Studies is in its simplest terms a group of people charged with the responsibility of becoming the UK national centre of expertise on user studies, a centre with the four principal and interconnected roles of research, education, advice, consultancy and information. What these imply will be made clearer in due course. First I will try to give the background to the creation of the Centre which will I hope simultaneously answer the query: ‘Why set up a user studies centre?’
The information function in relation to user departments: an excursion into the future
Authors: Saunderson Margaret
Published: February 2008

The majority of endeavours of merit are subject to continuing evolution and development. Although one may not always favour the results of such developments, nevertheless, frequently they transform the impossible of yesterday into the commonplace of today. In these regards the information function is no exception. The advances made to services, sources and systems during the past 25 years have been quite tremendous. There is no reason in fact to expect that the rate of change in the future will be any the less than that which we, or some of us, have experienced.
The London classification of business studies: further progress towards a revised edition
Authors: Bakewell K.G.B. , Lang Valerie , Vernon K.D.C.
Published: February 2008

Previously in Aslib Proceedings, there appeared a short report of the proceedings of the first seminar for users of the London Classification of Business Studies (LCBS) and the steps being taken to prepare a revised edition of the scheme. Since then there has been a considerable amount of progress: the Working Party set up as a result of the first seminar has held several lively meetings; a questionnaire has been sent to users (and some non‐users) of LCBS to obtain their views on its good and bad points and the direction which the proposed revision should take. There have been two further seminars for users, one at London in 1974 and the other at Oxford in 1976. Most important, a grant of £6,000 has been awarded by the Social Science Research Council to Ken Bakewell, who will act as Executive Editor of the revised edition working in close collaboration with the original authors and helped by a Research Assistant, David Cotton, who will have the important task of testing the revised schedules and visiting major users so that their views and amendments can be taken into consideration in the revision.
Scientific journal budgeting: where does the money go?
Authors: Singleton Alan
Published: February 2008

The continuing debate on scientific journal price increases, photo‐copying and networking, if nothing else, at least serves to focus our attention on one thing: the paucity of collected and detailed financial information on UK libraries. Only in the academic sphere can we find anything other than fragmented and non‐comparable statistics and even there the information goes little further than overall expenditures on books, journals, binding and salaries. In the USA, the recent Fry study goes some way to filling a similar gap by collecting a large amount of data for a several year period and similar studies here would be useful.
Library liaison with social scientists: relationships in a university context
Authors: Horton John J.
Published: February 2008

A reassessment of the basic relationships between the university librarian and the library's users with particular reference to the social sciences. The interplay of the librarian's attitude and the reader's motivation is examined against the background of subject specialization, with special attention paid to the problems of the undergraduate dissertation (an experiment involving individual as well as group instruction is described). Increasing interdisciplinarity is seen as posing problems for relations between the social scientist and the librarian. Examples are drawn from experiences at the University of Bradford.
The impact of copyright on the future of scholarly publishing
Authors: Coleman Earl
Published: February 2008

I have been invited to write this piece in my role as publisher of some 130 scientific and technical journals. I do not know how to write such a piece from that point of view. It is true that many of us are blinded either by positions of power or achievement so that we think of ourselves in such a delimiting way. I can hold no brief for publishers qua publishers and try to think of myself as a philosopher‐humanist rather than as a publisher. It troubles me that in the realm of the subject that I will be discussing, namely, unbridled photocopying—which, in my opinion, will lead to the imminent demise of the already developed communications skein—we find that this subject has been most often dealt with by technicians (rather than philosophers) driven by their own egos and dreams of power, or by an overweening brashness that assumes that Technology can, of course, supply solutions to all our problems. Technicians have often been called upon to find the Final Solution and philosophers have had a hard time coping with what may seem, on the surface at least, to be something that technicians claim is the solution to the problem mooted. It is, unfortunately, rare that technicians can step back from their own dearly cherished pursuit of technical solutions to problems in order to ask the basic and searching Hegelian philosophical questions that need to be asked a priori. In a small sense, what I have said is unfair to technicians since, before they go to work on the problem, they are either asked to do so qua technicians (a mistake on the part of the askers) or seize their own opportunity without waiting for the invitation. And yet, technicians are not alone in this myopia; ordinary people often opt for what seems like the handy‐dandy rapid solution to all their half‐understanding of the ‘problem’ without giving due consideration to its long‐range consequences.
A co‐operative study of sources of information used by the motor industry
Authors: Robinson M.S.
Published: February 2008

Among the objects of the Motor Industry Information Group, founded in 1968 and currently numbering some 45 members, mainly from information units in the motor and associated industries, was the promotion of group projects whose results would be of direct value either to the information departments of members or to the industry as a whole. In this way, a newsletter is issued regularly, lists of books, journals and statistical publications and a thesaurus of automobile engineering terms have been prepared, and the personal contacts generated by the function of a group as a forum have unquestionably improved the effectiveness of the information services of its members.
The War Studies Library at King's College, London University
Authors: Shadrake A.M.
Published: February 2008

Though lectures in military studies were given at King's College in the mid nineteenth century and again in the inter‐war period there was virtually no library to support them and history further records that towards the end of the Second World War military studies ceased and were not revived until 1953 when a Lectureship in Military Studies was established in the King's History Department. The holder of this lectureship was Michael Howard, who has since achieved wide renown in military history and strategic studies and is at present Chichele Professor‐Elect of the History of War in the University of Oxford. When he was appointed Reader in War Studies in 1961 and Professor of War Studies in 1963 the subject may be said to have finally got off the ground and in token of this it was organized as a separate Department of the College in 1961. I may add that, in common with higher education in general, the 1960s was a period of great expansion in the Department and between 1965 and 1971 four other lecturers were appointed to the staff. The growth of the War Studies Library kept pace with this expansion, for as early as 1953 when London University voted a special grant Michael Howard began to build up the Library on the surest foundations, so that as regards numbers there were approximately 2,500 volumes by the end of the 1950s and by 1977 it has grown to some 11,000.
Unit times in studies of academic library operations
Authors: Revill D.H.
Published: February 2008

In recent years various articles have described the results of work study exercises in libraries. Smith and Schofield see one of the advantages of these studies as offering inter‐library comparisons. This article is offered as a further contribution towards this end.
Government‐funded information resources: a critique of government policy in providing and co‐ordinating information
Authors: Meadows A.J.
Published: February 2008

As the opening speaker at this conference, I shall take the opportunity to range rather widely over the topic. In particular, I shall be looking briefly at the whole question of government involvement in a national information policy. This will allow me to link together some of the areas that will be dealt with in detail by later speakers.
The local authority input
Authors: Charlesworth R.G.
Published: February 2008

My contribution to this conference will be an attempt to outline the part which local government—and that means principally, the public library—can play in a national information plan. This implies a need to look at the effectiveness of such services, their relationship with others, and indications for the future, bearing in mind the economic climate which is likely to prevail for several years yet.
The information service at the Institute of Offshore Engineering
Authors: Myers Arnold
Published: February 2008

The Institute of Offshore Engineering, IOE, was founded at Heriot‐Watt University in Edinburgh in 1972 and from the start the provision of information has been one of its main activities. The first Information Officer was appointed in 1973, at the same time as the first engineers and clerical staff.
Leo Jolley: a short appreciation
Authors: Jones Kevin P.
Published: February 2008

Using his Information Scientist pseudonym of Icarus, Alan Gilchrist once called the Aslib Co‐ordinate Indexing Group (CIG) (now Aslib Informatics Group) a bunch of free‐thinkers—the hippy fringe of the information profession. As the leading light of this Group (Leo Jolley was its Chairman from its formal inception in 1970 until his death on Christmas Day 1976) one might have expected him to epitomize these alleged qualities, but this was not so. Leo was neither long‐haired, figuratively or otherwise, nor was he a particularly free‐thinker. His work relating to information retrieval tended to be highly formalized: for a time he was unjusdy criticized for his attempt to rigorously define the fundamental nature of feature card systems. Later he had to suffer similar criticism from the present writer when he attempted to define and standardize the vocabulary relating to co‐ordinate indexing and thesaurus construction. Leo was a highly individual thinker, however, and he certainly existed at the fringe of the information profession. His contacts with the profession appear to have been limited to the CIG and to the Classification Research Group. He was neither a member of the Institute of Information Scientists nor of the Library Association, and was affronted if accused of being a librarian. Thus, he formed a part of that limited band who have contributed much to the profession without really being a part of it. This must be qualified, however, in that he had established a company (J. L. Jolley and Partners) which operated a range of services from consultancy to punching holes in feature cards.
The potentialities of the holotheme
Authors: Parker‐Rhodes A.F.
Published: February 2008

The intention of this paper is to present an assessment, strictly from my own standpoint, of the material given in Leo Jolley's book The Fabric of Knowledge. It will be concerned mainly with two aspects: first, certain points about the mathematical structure of the classification of knowledge which he called the ‘holotheme’, which in my opinion calls for comment and secondly, sundry criticisms of the system of ‘integrative levels’ which form the backbone of the whole scheme. To summarize my conclusions in one sentence, Jolley's work contains a challenge—or alternatively a temptation—to extend and improve it; but the attraction lies more in the structure than in the content, and past experience warns us that this may be illusory.
Major integrative levels and the fo‐so series
Authors: Pettersson Max
Published: February 2008

The term ‘integrative levels’ was introduced by Joseph Needham in 1937. He recognized a series of eight levels. Others have since proposed various different and often longer series. Now, by the rigorus application of two ad hoc rules or criteria for the discrimination of ‘major integrative levels’, the number of such major levels (on present knowledge) is found to be nine. Short terms are available for designating the members of the different levels. Having performed the formal classification of objects, according to integrative level, several new quantitative generalizations become apparent. For instance, there is now clear evidence of a general long‐term acceleration throughout most of the period of biological and social evolution.
Some problems in the provision of market research information
Authors: Henry Harry
Published: February 2008

My invitation to contribute a paper owes something to the fact that I was one of the ‘founding fathers’ of market research in Great Britain. But things have moved a long way since, in 1947, the score of us who then constituted the whole of the industry got together to form the Market Research Society, and I am not entirely sure that all developments since then have been for the good.
Public libraries
Authors: Campbell Malcolm J.
Published: February 2008

In assessing the results of Judith Collins's questionnaire it should perhaps be noted that less than 50 per cent of respondents claimed to spend all or most of their time ‘dealing with economic or business or commercial information’. One can only speculate whether a higher proportion of full‐time business librarians would have revealed a greater degree of satisfaction due to a deeper knowledge of sources, or of dissatisfaction through a higher level of expectation.
Educating the special library user
Authors: Malley Ian
Published: February 2008

A common definition of user education (otherwise known as reader instruction or library instruction) is:
Choosing between manual and on‐line searching—practical experience in the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
Authors: Johnston Susan M.
Published: February 2008

At the beginning of the 1970s it became apparent to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food that the use of computers for information work merited serious consideration. We had taken part in investigations which indicated that the technology was well developed and reliable. We knew that large scale commercial services were available. What we did not know was the real value of these external services to the Ministry. All the databases concerned were derived from very familiar printed secondary journals. Did mechanized operation offer substantial advantages? Was the cost justified? How could mechanized operations fit into the present library activities? If the use of computers did offer improved facilities, what administrative arrangements were necessary? It was decided, therefore, to attempt to answer these questions by the evaluation of external computer‐based bibliographic information services under practical conditions.
The politics of knowledge
Authors: Clark Charles
Published: February 2008

I am a practising publisher and I approach the task this afternoon very much with that kind of bias. I am not an academic and I am not a real lawyer. I am a practising publisher with an interest in copyright. One of the most fascinating things that has happened over the last five to ten years is the way that interest in copyright, from being a rather arcane minor hobby of one or two people like myself in publishing, has suddenly become a central battlefield in the book world. What I want to do is to sketch in very broad terms some of the major battle sites.
Growing user information dependence and its impact on the library field
Authors: White Herbert S.
Published: February 2008

The now widely accepted description of the new post‐industrial society as defined by Daniel Bell clearly points to an emphasis on the provision of services rather than on the production of goods. In part this is true because improved technologies for agricultural and industrial production allow a smaller and smaller proportion of the population of the Western world to supply even the increasing demands for the food, the clothing, the shelter, and the material goods which at one time took all of our strength and all of our energies. The growing emphasis is on the provision of services—in part because having others do things for us is an indication of our growing affluence—in part because the number of potential services increases as our imagination and desires constantly stay one step ahead of what we have—and in part because increased efficiency and increased performance have also brought with them increased complexity.
The impact of the British Library on the national and international scene
Authors: Higham Norman
Published: February 2008

When the standing Conference of National and University Libraries was formed in 1951, its purpose was to bring together a group of libraries supporting research, especially in the academic field. All the libraries, whether national or university, were separate, independent bodies, autonomous in varying degrees. Twenty years later, Command Paper, Cmnd 4572, announced the intention of the Government to amalgamate certain of those libraries.
The information service of the National Institute for Research in Dairying
Authors: Bone B.F.
Published: February 2008

Some four years ago I was instructed to set up a selective dissemination of information service for the Institute, on the grounds that highly paid research scientists devote too much time to keeping up with the literature. Our Director envisaged a weekly delivery of cards or reference lists tailored to the needs of the individual researcher; in the event, we found it practical to group the projects constituting the total research effort into about thirty subjects, and to make these available on demand.
ESC A information awareness and retrieval service
Authors: Lilwall N.B.
Published: February 2008

ESCA awareness and retrieval service deals exclusively with the ‘intermediate’ agricultural literature—that is the literature falling between the popular weeklies and the academic journals. It includes such publications as ADAS Quarterly Review, Arable Farming, Midland Bank Review, leaflets and bulletins from MAFF and the Scottish Colleges, and annual reports from research establishments.
A review of information research in agriculture
Authors: Craig Gillian
Published: February 2008

At the Agricultural Extension and Rural Development Centre (AERDC) in the University of Reading, work has been in progress on a project entitled ‘A Review of Information Research in Agriculture’. The project, which ran from October 1976 to September 1978, is one of a series of reviews of information research in selected sciences supported by the British Library Research and Development Department. Other reviews have been in the fields of physics, chemistry and biology.
The potential of the microprocessor in library and information work
Authors: Williams P.W.
Published: February 2008

The advent of the microcomputer has changed dramatically the cost of computing power. Not only has the cost for a specific capability decreased substantially but also the cost for a small system is now measured in hundreds of pounds rather than many thousands. The cost and capability of these new systems are reviewed and suitable applications are discussed. The use of a microcomputer for assisting effective use of public on‐line information systems is described. Possible applications in a library environment are surveyed and recommendations are given on the tasks which are most suitable for the use of microcomputers.
The librarian/information officer as a consumer
Authors: Haywood Trevor
Published: February 2008

At this conference, librarians and information officers tried to discover whether they could be more efficient and effective through acquiring a better understanding of their relationship with those who supply them with products and services. The conference was structured into sessions which looked at particular relationships, e.g., with the publisher, retailer, data base provider, information service. Representatives of technical and commercial services gave brief presentations and fielded questions in discussion groups. Trevor Haywood, the theme speaker, visited each group, and as part of his final presentation, published here, brought together general conclusions emerging from the groups.
Tracking down translations
Authors: Birch B.J.
Published: February 2008

Many scientists encounter foreign‐language publications whose subjects are of particular relevance to them. Their problem then lies in finding whether a translation is available and if not, where linguistic help may be found. The most useful sources of information about translations have been surveyed with particular emphasis on their strengths and weaknesses, and with examples pertinent to the metals industry. It has been demonstrated that very little effort is required to be 95 per cent certain of the availability, or otherwise, of a translation of a particular paper.
Co‐operating for economy: international co‐ordination of information services
Authors: Page John
Published: February 2008

Scientific and technical information (STI) systems, in the wider sense of the term, have a long history of internationalism. The communication of research results has, from the earliest days, necessitated some form of international co‐ordination through, for example, learned societies and international publishing enterprises. However, it would be impracticable here to try to review the whole process of scientific communication, ranging from primary publication to alerting services and the like; instead, it is proposed to concentrate on a sample of secondary services for the creation of machine‐readable and printed versions of STI data bases on the one hand, and some of the more general aspects of the economics of use of such data bases on the other.
User valuations and resource management for information services
Authors: Whitehall T.
Published: February 2008

Being able to show a benefit for information services to balance against their cost, and knowing what criteria to use for choice among the options for their provision—these are needs which loom large for information people. This paper reviews what techniques have been found useful, and tries to show how valuations from the clients of information services can be brought into the equation.
One‐man‐operated—running an information unit for management in the public transport industry
Authors: Lee Don
Published: February 2008

As one of a small number of information people in Britain's public transport industry, the author feels that he has made innovations in the investigative outlook that he has introduced to his work. Following a general introduction to GMPTE he mentions some aspects of this work—such as arranging contacts, compiling surveys and co‐ordinating ad hoc investigations. He concludes by speculating on what the future might hold for a one‐man band information field‐worker like himself; the information unit itself may become an unstaffed DIY contact point, run on basic principles anyone can use.
Developments in word processing systems and their application to information needs
Authors: Whitehead J.B.
Published: February 2008

Many years ago, when I was a young student, I remember listening to an eminent librarian of the day relating the story of a visit he had received from a work study team. After studiously checking all the library systems and processes they very seriously suggested that the librarian would save time and money if he stopped the typing of catalogue cards and hand wrote each one. That team, needless to say, was never invited back.
Training social services staff to make better use of information: two practitioner‐training courses and their implications
Authors: Streatfield David , Clark Daphne , Hill Helen
Published: February 2008

Project INISS is a Sheffield University‐based research project originally established with funds from the British Library to investigate information needs and services in local authority social services departments. Further funding, from the Department of Health and Social Security, enabled the project to undertake a programme of information innovations in departments. One of these involves developing training courses in information handling and related skills.
The library, teletext and the 1979 general election
Authors: Cochrane Clive
Published: February 2008

On 4 May 1979 Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minster. For the first time general election results were disseminated by teletext. On the same day the use of a teletext receiver was observed in Belfast Public Library. This article indicates the behaviour of user groups, the range of information obtained and the problems users encountered, and ends with a brief analysis of the election day news broadcast by Ceefax and Oracle respectively. The need for further research in this area by librarians and information scientists is stressed.
The two cultures: an examination of the factors inhibiting the provision of effective, library‐based information services to social welfare practitioners
Authors: Blake Bill , Morkham Trevor , Skinner Alison
Published: February 2008

This article stems from the work of the EISSWA Research Project, which has been using an action research approach to explore the information needs of social welfare practitioners. It is argued that the research carried out so far has revealed a significant area of information need on the part of this particular user group which is not being met by existing support services, and that the library‐based information services in particular have either failed to appreciate that this gap exists or, being aware of it, have not taken the initiative to respond to it. A possible explanation for this is put forward, special attention being paid to the cultural context in which information work of this kind takes place, and an alternative model is proposed by which library‐based information services could be adapted and developed to more effectively meet the information needs of their practitioner clients.
A bibliographic system for solar energy information on the Middle East
Authors: Chen Pah I. , Borovansky Vladimir T.
Published: February 2008

A bibliographic system has been developed at the University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, for gathering, organizing and disseminating the solar energy information pertaining to the Middle East. This paper presents the structure of the system, and some facts and findings on solar energy information based upon analysis of the bibliography.
The National Poisons Information Service
Authors: Wiseman Heather M.
Published: February 2008

The function of the National Poisons Information Service is to operate a round‐the‐clock telephone service to the medical profession to provide them with information on the acute toxicity of substances in common use, and to offer advice on treatment of the poisoned patient.
Reckitt & Colman poisons information system
Authors: Engler Eric F.
Published: February 2008

Reckitt & Colman Ltd is a very large company with an extensive international operation. We manufacture literally hundreds of widely differing products which fall into the following main categories:
Information in industrial relations
Authors: Smart Carol
Published: February 2008

Everyone understands what is meant by the term ‘industrial relations’ in a generalized way, but it seems that there is no formal definition which can be said to be universally agreed. Several alternative definitions are analyzed in A. I. March's Dictionary of industrial relations: Bain & Woolven in their Bibliography of British industrial relations say ‘the subject of industrial relations is defined as the study of all aspects of job regulation—the process of making and administering the rules which regulate or control employment relationships’. Perhaps a simpler definition which appears in an older work may be preferred: J. H. Richardson in his Introduction to the study of industrial relations says ‘it is concerned with relations between the parties in industry, particularly with the determination of working conditions. No advantage would be gained in attempting a more precise definition of the boundaries, as there are considerable areas of “no man's land” with other subjects’.
Metallurgical information—past, present and future
Authors: White Martin S.
Published: February 2008

Second Leslie Patrick Memorial Lecture presented in Birmingham on 8th November 1919 at a meeting jointly organized by Aslib Midlands Branch, the Birmingham Metallurgical Association, and the College of Librarianship Wales. The role of the British Non‐Ferrous Metals Research Association, the Zinc Development Association and related bodies in the development of non‐ferrous information in Britain from the 1920s to the present day is viewed in relation to the information staff involved and the abstracting services provided. Future developments applicable to this field are viewdata services and video‐disc storage, and their potential is considered.
Library and information services of the International Tin Research Institute
Authors: Croft Gill
Published: February 2008

The library of the International Tin Research Institute houses a unique collection of material on all aspects of tin. The wide range of subjects covered, from 18th century tinplate production to modern organotin biocides, and the information explosion of recent years, has necessitated the introduction of a new, hierarchical, indexing system. Lack of storage space in the library has been overcome by the use of a microfilm reader/printer and by storing abstracts obtained from abstract journals rather than obtaining full copies of papers immediately. The other information services of the Development Department include the production of a quarterly journal, an annual report, various technical publications and technical films. A free and confidential advisory service is offered to industry by the Institute.
The British drug information service
Authors: Hibberd P.L.
Published: February 2008

This paper describes the type of drug information service available in the UK, its scope, limitations and possible future development. A survey was carried out in which information pharmacists in the sixteen major drug information centres in the UK were interviewed. All centres have access to a large number of information resources and, in addition, have developed a resource which reduces the delay before published information is retrievable from their own system. Some centres receive large numbers of enquiries and have little time for active dissemination of information whilst other centres with few enquiries actively disseminate information to hospital staff. Some centres send bulletins to general practitioners, retail pharmacists and community nurses. Most information pharmacists refer enquiries concerning drug therapy in patients with which they may have difficulties to clinical pharmacologists or other medically qualified personnel. General practitioners use drug information services less often than hospital doctors. Most information pharmacists plan to extend their services to medical and paramedical staff in the community. In the future, information pharmacists plan to use improved technology to provide a more efficient service, open for longer hours, provide clinical opinion with the help of clinical pharmacologists and increase the functions of drug information centres (e.g. adverse drug reaction monitoring).
CAB Abstracts: a global view
Authors: Cronin Blaise
Published: February 2008

This paper summarizes the findings of a recent survey of user reactions to the abstracting services produced by The Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux (CAB). The study was carried out by the Aslib Research & Consultancy Division and funded entirely by the Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux.
Trends in bibliographic publishing in the United Kingdom, 1974–78
Authors: Taylor Peter J.
Published: February 2008

‘The value of bibliography has only been noticeably increased to the extent that the needs of the times call more pressingly than ever before for rearrangement of the economics of intellectual work. The final result is that the method of doing bibliographic work must be regulated so that the simplest possible methods will be applied most suitably, and so that nothing will be done that is not absolutely essential—this is in order that the essential work may be accomplished.’
The Agricultural Information Review Committee Report and afterwards: a summary
Authors: Martyn John
Published: February 2008

During recent years the British Library Research and Development Department and its forerunner, the Office for Scientific and Technical Information, have, in addition to normal funding of research projects on specific topics, supported the work of a series of Review Committees. The Review Committees have been set up to review past and current information research in the United Kingdom in various areas of knowledge, and to recommend topics for further research and development in those areas. The subject areas so far covered include Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Medicine, Metals Information and Agriculture. The Agricultural Information Review Committee, with which this report is particularly concerned, was set up in October 1976, and its Report was published by the British Library (BLR & DD Report 5469) in May 1979.
Between GIN and TWIN: meeting the information needs of the Third World
Authors: Sardar Ziauddin
Published: February 2008

A hard‐fought victory for the developing countries at the UN Conference on Science and Technology for Development is the accord on the establishment of a Global Information Network (GIN). However, due to the lack of interest on the part of the industrialized countries and absence of financial support, it seems that GIN will remain a paper agreement. But even if GIN was established, it would do little to fulfil the real science information needs of the Third World. A better alternative for the developing countries would be to share locally produced science and technology information amongst themselves and develop a Third World Information Network (TWIN) to meet their specific needs and requirements. There are indications that such a system is randomly evolving in the Middle East.
Interview methodology—comparison of three types of interview: one to one, group and telephone interviews
Authors: Goldie Judith , Pritchard Jacki
Published: February 2008

Project INISS was established on July 1st 1978 with a grant from the Department of Health and Social Security, and completed its work in October 1980. The aim of the project was to evaluate a number of small‐scale experimental innovations for the improvement of information services in social services departments. Three interviewing techniques were used: one to one, group and telephone interviews. This article describes these methods and offers guidelines for their suitability in particular situations.
MeSH—the subject heading approach
Authors: Norris C.
Published: February 2008

Should one use natural language or a controlled vocabulary to handle the names of organisms appearing in the scientific literature? At first sight the use of natural language seems attractive. One can take names straight from the text of articles and use them as descriptors in an information retrieval system. The taxonomic information is then as specific as the text itself.
The classification of biological literature
Authors: Mills J.
Published: February 2008

Taxonomy in biology is concerned with the definition of classes or organisms in the furtherance of our knowledge of these (whatever the ultimate purpose served by this knowledge). It uses systematic grouping as a prime instrument, since all definition implies classification (and vice‐versa) and classification provides an orderly arrangement which facilitates the handling and comprehension of the vast body of data involved.
The UDC and a botanical collection with special reference to the Botanical Library, British Museum (Natural History)
Authors: Edwards P.I.
Published: February 2008

The choice of a classification scheme is never entirely objective. One's past acquaintance with one or more of the major schemes, while training as a librarian, and/or in a work situation must have some influence on one's final decision. Before embarking on classing a library collection one should consider the relative merits of the various major schemes in relation to your user's requirements.
Taxonomy and the Science Reference Library Classification
Authors: Dron Elizabeth M.
Published: February 2008

The Science Reference Library Classification was developed during the middle of the 1960s as a scheme to arrange books on the shelves of a large open‐access library integrating the whole of Science and Technology in a single collection. It is intended to help in the retrieval of information which is not indexed elsewhere, by abstracting and bibliographic services, and to make ‘browsing’ by the large number of readers (one‐third, according to the National Libraries Committee report) who enter the library without a specific reference in mind as fruitful as possible.
Recent developments in information for planning
Authors: White Brenda
Published: February 2008

In a journal article some years ago, I compared the planning profession to the profession of librarianship, both seeking a body of respectable theory with which to support a fundamentally practical activity. I think that that parallel is still true, although in many ways we are all now looking for a respectable and viable practical activity. Planners, like librarians, are still in search of an identity; even, in many cases, in search of a recognisable professional job. There are rumours that the new technology, the micro, the chip and so on will render librarians unnecessary: a recent paper by Dr Dennis Lewis of ICI Plastics Division asserts that ‘ … the days of the information officer and library worker as we know them are numbered’. ‘ … in the year 2,000’, he says, ‘the information scientist and the librarian will have gone the way of the brontosaurus’. Clearly, librarians need to re‐examine their role in the developing world of information technology and to adapt and change to meet changing circumstances and needs. It is perhaps not quite so obvious, but it is equally necessary, that they should change and adapt to meet changing patterns and sources of information and to accommodate new developments in the structure of the information they are accustomed to handling.
Towards a Code of Professional Ethics
Authors: Usherwood Bob
Published: February 2008

At the risk of sounding like an over‐cautious civil servant I should make it clear that any opinions or interpretations I give in this paper are mine and not necessarily those of the Library Association. The Draft Code of Professional Ethics—the green paper that appeared in the October L.A.R.—is not yet L.A. policy. Indeed as far as our members are concerned, the consultation that is now taking place is an integral part in the formulation of a code of professional ethics. It is my privilege as a Chairman of the Working Party to listen to, and respond to members' views and then to communicate them to our working group.
Self‐paced exercises for library orientation
Authors: Fjällbrant Nancy , Kihlén Elisabeth , Malmgren Margareta
Published: February 2008

This paper points out the need for economical and effective methods for library orientation. Objectives and factors affecting the learning process are briefly stated. Various teaching methods are examined in relation to these factors. The use of one method—the self‐paced tour—is described in some detail, together with evaluation of an experimental use of this method for 205 mechanical engineering undergraduates. It is concluded that the self‐paced tour with exercises is an excellent method for library orientation. The programme has subsequently been used for a wide variety of new users and proved time‐saving for library staff and popular with students.
The availability of Marc records for cataloguing
Authors: Davis R.J.
Published: February 2008

This paper, written to follow a recent article in this journal on the processing of current acquisitions, reports that the amount of original cataloguing having to be done at Stirling University Library has been found in practice to be significantly less than was forecast by a survey made before automation was introduced. The use of American catalogue records has also been higher than predicted. The recent introduction of shared cataloguing among members of Scolcap has not yet produced any change in the amount of original cataloguing, but has made the library much less dependent on centrally produced records made available through the British Library.
LASER and Prestel
Authors: Plaister Jean
Published: February 2008

The majority of librarians and information officers are uncertain about Prestel. As yet, they are probably wise to be wary but not I maintain, chicken‐hearted. We do not yet know the effect Prestel could have on the traditional services provided by libraries and information centres or the potential it could have for widening and expanding services. There is every reason to find out, however, and in talking this evening about LASER and Prestel I also want to deal with the insight our work has given us into the implications of Prestel.
The IAP Library at King Abdulaziz International Airport
Authors: McMurdo George
Published: February 2008

The scope and activities of the library of the International Airports Projects (IAP) office of the Ministry of Defence and Aviation, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, are described. The IAP Library has favoured the application of technology‐intensive techniques, including the development of a computerised Library Administration System (LAS), which makes use of UK and LC MARC tapes. Future developments may include interfacing with a computer‐indexed automated microfiche retrieval system. It is suggested that library and information provision in Saudi Arabia may be entering a period of rapid expansion.
The work of the Aslib Research Department
Authors: Vickers P.H.
Published: February 2008

The purpose of this paper is to review recent and current work of the Aslib Research and Consultancy Division, with special emphasis on its research funded by the British Library Research and Development Department (BLRDD). In particular, the aim is to explain why we do the work we do, and to bring out its essentially practical nature.
The communications revolution
Authors: Ploman Edward W.
Published: February 2008

Since I first heard it I have been very fond of an expression coined by a Swedish MP. She said: ‘If Karl Marx were living now, he would not have written Das Kapital; he would have written Die Information’. This expression well captures the importance we suddenly attribute to issues of communications and information. It serves well to indicate how these issues have invaded the social, economic and political agenda, nationally and internationally.