bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Book Catalogues: Their Varieties and Uses
Authors: SEATON J.R.
Published: March 2008

The catalogues of printed books of the British Museum, the Bibliothèque Nationale, and, since the War, the Library of Congress, have become such indispensable tools for scholars, librarians and booksellers that it is difficult to imagine the situation before these fundamental works of reference appeared. Although Professor Archer Taylor, in his latest work, Book Catalogues, their Varieties and Uses (the Newberry Library, Chicago) covers the whole range of book catalogues existing in printed form he devotes a generous part of his survey to the catalogues that appeared before the mid‐19th century, most of which are today neglected except by a few specialists. Professor Taylor has convincingly argued that, when treated with due allowance for their limitations, these catalogues can still have much to tell us.
Books Will Become More Important
Authors: HARGREAVES E.M.
Published: March 2008

Despite the constant cries of the prophets of gloom, there is little evidence that television or rock ‘n’ roll or any other of the modern crazes has really stopped people reading. Indeed, much of the evidence appears to point the other way.
The General Library and the Specialist Reader
Authors: BLACK CHARLES W.
Published: March 2008

I must make clear to my readers that by the term “General Library” I am viewing my subject from the standpoint of a large public reference library, whose first and foremost duty is to provide a bookstock specifically designed to cater for all the requirements of the community whom it seeks to serve.
Some Facts About Libraries in the USSR: Impressions from a Recent Visit
Authors: GOTTLIEB W.W.
Published: March 2008

In the heart of Moscow, a few minutes' walk from the dark‐red walls and golden cupolas of the Kremlin, stand two buildings which immediately arrest attention. One is a graceful 18th century palace; the other, connected with it by a subterranean passage, symbolizes the present by its straight and soaring lines. About 400 miles away, in the centre of Leningrad, at the busy crossroads of the Nevski and Sadovaya Street, a whole corner is taken up by a white‐pillared, silver‐grey structure in classical style. These two widely differing blocks house the two principal State libraries of the USSR: the one bearing the name of Lenin in the capital, the other named after the famous writer Saltykov‐Shchedrin in the former metropolis. I have recently visited both and obtained some information on library matters in the Soviet Union.
Conversation Piece
Authors: GIVEN SMITH D.
Published: March 2008

I recall being in Port Moresby, capital of New Guinea, when a copra boat of around four hundred tons slowly entered the harbour, pushed along by a swarm of native canoes because the engine had petered out. The captain, it transpired, was in port to engage an engineer. He knew that it would be difficult to find the kind of experienced man he needed. His one hope would be in Tim Ryan's Hotel where the most intelligent beachcombers on the Coral Seas congregated when they had enough money to get a drink.
Books I Have Liked
Authors: BRUCE LOCKHART ROBERT
Published: March 2008

I have been a homeless wanderer all my life, and the books I have liked have helped to foster my Wanderlust, though I fancy heredity must have had something to do with it. My father was born in Canada, and my Macgregor mother was born in New Zealand.
Ranganathan's “Classified Catalogue Code”
Authors: AITKEN W.R.
Published: March 2008

Dr. Ranganathan is generally acclaimed as one of the most original and stimulating minds devoted to the science of librarianship. The fourth edition of his Classified Catalogue Code reinforces that judgement: it is a subtle and provocative book.
In the Interest of Bibliography
Authors: PLUMBE WILFRED J.
Published: March 2008

“Here are the literature references,” wrote Bernard. “As you are being paid for the article my typist, who has looked up most of the authors and titles for you, says she will want her cut.”
A Bookman's Browsings
Authors: BERWICK SAYERS W.C.
Published: March 2008

Almost every author is to some extent autobiographical in his writings, and if he be also a librarian, they are necessarily somewhat undramatic; indeed, were it not for books and the love of them, he would be better for being silent. When, however, one is a booklover, every day has its possible discovery or at least adventure.
The Plight of the Subject Bibliographer
Authors: WALFORD A.J.
Published: March 2008

The compiler of a subject bibliography may, like Dr. Johnson's lexicographer, be no more than a harmless drudge, but his problems —if he is conscientious—are real enough, and they also bring into play wider issues of librarianship and scholarship.
Public Libraries in Hamburg: a Survey
Authors: BLACK C.W.
Published: March 2008

During October, 1959, the British Council's representative in Germany asked for a team of experts from Glasgow to study and discuss with the German authorities the cultural life of the City of Hamburg, with special reference to the Volkshochschule system of adult education and including, if practicable, music, drama, the fine arts and the public libraries. The purpose of the visit, which was arranged as part of the British Council's programme of educational and cultural visits and exchanges, was to assess what is being done in the field of Further Education in Hamburg, to discuss post war developments and to give members of the delegation an opportunity to exchange opinions with their “opposite numbers” on common problems and possible ways of dealing with them.
Melvil Dewey And His Famous School
Authors: MACLEOD R.D.
Published: March 2008

Now and again a book relating to library interests comes to hand that deserves special notice, and such a work is the New York State Library School Register, 1887–1926, which was published by the New York State Library School Association, Inc., in 1959. We might have received a copy for notice earlier, but Mr. Karl Brown, the Editor of the volume, writes that he “had not thought of sending copies outside the States feeling that it might be considered a provincial book, as London sometimes tells us!” Mr. Brown has been much too bashful. We personally were most happy to receive a copy from him following an enquiry the nature of which will be explained later. In this article we begin by reviewing the book, but at a later stage we indicate by a little study of one person the unusual interest of the work to librarians in terms of library history and of the movements of librarians from one land to another.
Library News from Kelso
Authors: KAUFMAN PAUL
Published: March 2008

“If ever I can afford to buy books”—. In this familiar strain the minister of the little parish of Stitchel wrote in his diary for 8 April, 1775. To the end of his life George Ridpath never was able to achieve his heart's desire—not on £80 a year. Yet this Scots parson (as it turned out) was infinitely more fortunate than most of his colleagues. For in 1751, only three miles away at Kelso, was organized the first non‐profit subscription library in Scotland. Nine years after Ridpath was presented to his living in 1742 the new era opened to him, when twenty gentlemen pledged £10 each to establish the new institution. From that moment until his death in 1772 his life was intimately dependent upon that library. How many books Ridpath borrowed during the first four years of this library's long history we can only guess: we must wait for the beginning of his diary in 1755 to follow the extraordinary chronicle, one of the most impressive reading records ever assembled.
James Duff Brown After Fifty Years
Authors: SAVAGE ERNEST A.
Published: March 2008

In the library field “who fears to speak of ‘ 98”—1898?, By that year 390 authorities had adopted the Libraries Acts. Public librarians had a permanent majority in the Library Association. The Library ceased to be the official organ, which it had been for a decade, though John Y. W. MacAlister owned it. MacAlister resigned the honorary secretaryship of the Library Association which he had brilliantly and gaily served for eleven years. The Library Association Record was planned to replace The Library in January 1899. Duff Brown founded The Library World. He published his Adjustable Classification. The first winter classes for course teaching in librarianship were inaugurated by Bishop Mandell Creighton. The Library Association became a chartered corporation. The Assistants’ Association founded The Library Assistant.
Confused Authorships
Authors: BAUER HARRY C.
Published: March 2008

When it comes to choosing names, man is at a loss for words. There are far too many Jones's to “keep up with”. Smith is decidedly the most popular surname in Britain and America, but Johnson, Brown, and Miller are prevalent, too. Since the United States of America is a great melting pot, it enjoys a superabundance of names but does not know how to apportion them. Elsdon C. Smith, author of The Story of Our Names, estimates that there are 350,000 different surnames in the United States, but that fifty popular names suffice for ten per cent of the population. Not even a thousand names are required for fifty per cent of the population. In England, fifty common surnames provide for approximately eighteen per cent of the population. So far as appellations are concerned, however, Scotland is the thrifty nation; one hundred and fifty surnames sufficing for more than fifty per cent of all native Caledonians.
A Literary Editor Looks Back
Authors: THOROGOOD HORACE
Published: March 2008

Since nearly everyone reads books, it follows that they must have a wide influence on public opinion calling, one would think, for close critical attention by the newspapers. For books are news: not only informative books that extend knowledge; but novels that diffuse fresh ideas destined, perhaps, to create important social changes—they, too, are news.
The Library Association Headquarters: A Historical Note
Authors: SAVAGE ERNEST A.
Published: March 2008

But for the firmness of its Executive Committee some thirty years ago and for the good offices of Salter Davies, a Carnegie United Kingdom trustee, the Library Association very soon might be homeless, back to the days of roughing it in one lodging after another. Col. Mitchell, the Trustees' Secretary, had promised a freehold site in Central London and a grant towards a building. So assured, and with his co‐operation, for months we had tramped in a widening circle round about the British Museum in search of a freehold where few remained.
The B.B.C. Libraries
Authors: COLLISON R.L.W.
Published: March 2008

The British Broadcasting Corporation has seven main library services:—a) Gramophone Library, b) Music Libraries, c) Recorded Programmes Libraries, d) Radio Times Hulton Picture Library, e) Film Library, f) Scripts Libraries, g) Reference Library, In addition there are certain other services of the Corporation that add to the sources of information, notably:—h) News Information Services, i) Registry, including Archives, j) Natural History Library, k) Engineering Training Library. All these services are autonomous, although day‐to‐day co‐operation is a matter of course. The main libraries are all based on London, but at each of the main Regional centres—Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol and Belfast—there are smaller counterparts of most of these services: these are the responsibility of the Regions, though very close liaison is maintained between the Regional and the London libraries. Thus the Midland Region Reference Library at Birmingham has a strong collection of books on agriculture which is constantly used by other Regions.
The Lenin Library
Authors: MILLER JACOB
Published: March 2008

During a recent visit of a few weeks to Moscow I made frequent use of the Lenin Library, and the Editor has asked me to supply a brief account of this institution from the reader's point of view. I am very happy to do so, as this affords an opportunity to express my appreciation of the very high standard of its organisation, the excellence of its services to readers, and the helpfulness of its staff. The library is open from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day, including Sundays, except on the last day of each calendar month, when most of its departments are closed for cleaning. Also, it is most conveniently situated, with a Metro station at its entrance and two others, on other lines, very near, while no less than fourteen bus routes have stops at its door. Thus, the fact that my use of the library had to be sporadic (often when only a free hour or less was available before, between or after the day's appointments) did not prevent me from getting through the complete back files of several publications which are not available outside the U.S.S.R.
A Booklover's Browsings
Authors: WILLIAMS A.R.
Published: March 2008

A delightful moment was when one ceased reading juvenile literature and tackled adult books, able to do the mechanical reading and understand its content. With me that came early. In my teens I was romping, or ramping through Scott, Dickens, Lytton, Jane Austen, Reade and other Victorians, with Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress before that, back in my boyhood.
Four Publishers
Authors: SWINNERTON FRANK
Published: March 2008

Luck, altruism, shrewdness, parsimony, industry, generosity, and what some authors (and librarians, perhaps) call hardness of heart have always been the characteristics of a successful publisher. He has first of all been a man of energy, sure of his own judgement, ready to accept losses, and (after success) conceited about his flair. In early days ready to work until all hours and to read every manuscript submitted to him (although comparatively few unsolicited manuscripts are worth publishing), he has been forced with the growth of his business to accept advice from employees of a peculiar type—those who, with no wish for glittering rewards, can tell him exactly what he needs to know about the inevitable avalanche. He has made friends in all professions; and these friends, also disinterested, have lent him their brains, instructing him in all sorts of possibilities in their own fields. He has used these friends without scruple.
Looking Back on Aslib
Authors: DITMAS E.M.R.
Published: March 2008

These are personal reminiscences only and my connection with Aslib did not begin until May 1933. Nevertheless, to understand the situation as I found it, it is necessary to sketch very briefly an outline of the previous nine years of Aslib's existence.
Archives in Libraries
Authors: DARLINGTON IDA
Published: March 2008

Professional enthusiasm is always refreshing and in his article, “Archives in Libraries” in the Summer issue, Mr. Hepworth says much that is worth while, but in his desire to enhance the prestige of libraries he does less than justice to the responsibilities of another profession—that of clerks of local authorities—and he shows little appreciation of the true nature of archives.
More Publishers On Parade
Authors: THOROGOOD HORACE
Published: March 2008

“We are really a family concern,” said Mr. John Carter, referring to Routledge & Kegan Paul of which he is chairman; and the same, in different degrees, could be said of the three other London publishing houses which I have been visiting. Longmans and Murrays are eminent examples.
Paper Will Not Refuse Ink
Authors: BAUER HARRY C.
Published: March 2008

A writer who cannot coin a phrase soon learns that rhyme does not pay. This need not deter him, however. Lacking the ability to prey upon words, he can continue to play with words. In short, he can aspire to become Jack of all charades and good at pun. The imbecility of Jack of all japes was thoroughly exposed by Joseph Addison in several early issues of The Spectator. Isaac D'Israeli added further analyses and good illustrations in his Curiosities of Literature. A more comprehensive inventory of type vice is interwoven in the verses of the second book of Richard Owen Cambridge's satirical poem, The Scribleriad. Cambridge singled out for extinction acrostics, the amphisbaena, anagrams, antitheses, boutsrimés, centos, chronograms, conundrums, crambos, doggerels, echoes, fustian, lipograms, macaronic compositions, puns, quibbles, reciprocal verses (likewise known as retrograde or recurrent verses, including palindromes), the rhopalic sequence, riddle and rebus (“Riddle's dearest son”), and finally, rondeaus. He overlooked several other forms of literary laceration judged by Addison to be “tricks in writing as required much time and little capacity.”
The Fremont Rider Classification
Authors: FOSKETT D.J.
Published: March 2008

Members of the Classification Research Group have made a number of specialist schemes which are now successfully in operation, and a symposium of users' opinions, shortly to appear in the Journal of Documentation, shows that they are well satisfied. The CRG discussions over ten years have centred mainly on this type of scheme, but lately we have spent a lot of time on the problems posed by a general scheme and its relation to these specialist ones. We have keenly felt the need for a general scheme, mainly because all of our own schemes have to cater for marginal fields and related subjects outside the special field, but also because many of us are continually asked for advice on the choice of a classification by the librarians of newly‐established libraries. This puts us in the very difficult position of not wishing to recommend anything already existing, but having nothing to offer in its place.
Writing for the Public
Authors: SWINNERTON FRANK
Published: March 2008

The other day, a special correspondent of The Times repeated what he said was a familiar and general criticism of the Third Programme: “The Third (as a recent talk on Professor R. H. Tawney reminded us) must stop mistaking an Oxford accent for broadcast brilliance … In this greatly reduced but highly important programme there is less room than ever for the lacklustre broadcast, no matter who delivers it.” In other words, broadcasting, like writing, is an art; and it must be addressed to listeners, as books are addressed to readers, who are known as the Public. If talk or book condescends, it will alienate those who come eagerly to it; if it is dry, nobody will attend; and if it is too agreeable the more priggish critics will suspect the talker or writer of a hideous sin.
Edward Edwards in Retrospect
Authors: MUNFORD W.A.
Published: March 2008

When, some fifteen years ago, I first became interested in public library history and decided that any subsequent literary endeavours of mine should be in this field rather than in those of practical administration and book selection which had primarily interested me hitherto, I formed the opinion that biographies of Ewart and Edwards ought to be written. Much later I decided that I ought to write them. In due course I tackled Ewart first because there had been no earlier biography; Thomas Greenwood's book on Edwards had appeared in 1902. It was only after William Ewart M.P. had been published in 1960 that I realized how fortunate had been my scale of priority. Ewart's many non‐library and non‐literary activities had encouraged me to make a detailed—frequently a day to day—study of early and mid nineteenth century social and political history that provided the stage on which Edwards could also act out his part.
Reading for Children and Teenagers
Authors: TOMLINSON NORMAN
Published: March 2008

In our public libraries, certain well‐defined reading trends have been evident in younger people. Children are enthusiastic readers and there is little difficulty in recruiting them if the public library is conveniently sited. Towards the end of school life, use of the public library declines, and it is said that a smaller percentage of teenagers are library readers, than of any other age group. Whether this is true or not, the subject of young people's reading is of topical interest, and it is not surprising that conference speakers have turned their attention to it. The following represents an amalgam of facts and opinions presented by three such speakers at recent conferences: Mr. S. Rowe, Honorary Secretary of the National Association of Youth Leaders and Organisers, addressed the Library Association on. “Libraries and Youth”; Mr. H. K. Gordon Bearman, County Librarian of West Sussex, gave a paper to the London and Home Counties Branch of the Library Association, incorporating the results of “An Enquiry into the Use of Books and Libraries by Young People”; and Mr. Norman Tomlinson, Borough Librarian of Gillingham, addressed the Northern Branch of the Library Association on “Book Selection and the Utilisation of Stock”.
Writing Behind Bars
Authors: DANE CHASE
Published: March 2008

Just before dawn the pharmacist in the hospital of the Federal penitentiary at Columbus, Ohio, finished the short story he had been working on most of the night. He flexed the fingers of his right hand, leaned back in his chair, and pushed up the green celluloid eyeshade which protected him from the glare of the gas lamp that spluttered over his desk. Then he picked up his pen again and wrote the title of the story at the top of the first page: Whistling Dick's Christmas Stocking. Under it he signed his name with a flourish: “O. Henry”.
The Afro‐Asian Library Position
Authors: PLUMBE WILFRED J.
Published: March 2008

Public relations departments have done their job and people coming to Africa and Asia no longer expect to find us living in mud huts, picking our way to work between pythons and puff‐adders, or speaking in words of one syllable to our local library staff. Instead, our large white concrete buildings, our well‐educated and multilingual local staffs—many of them now holding senior positions—our enquiry desks, batteries of microfilms, punched cards, and other gadgetry, and the comfort in which many of us live, are taken for granted by the increasing number of professional visitors who find their way to us from the Western world.
Standards of Public Library Service in England and Wales:
Authors: FORSYTH JOSEPH
Published: March 2008

Consequent upon the publication of the Roberts Report (1959), the Minister of Education set up two working parties to look into the state of the public library service in the light of the recommendations of that Report. Both the Reports—the other is pertaining to library cooperation—were published in December of last year. The major criticisms of this Report fall into three groups: firstly, the inadequacy of the survey carried out; secondly, the mildness of the recommendations; and thirdly, the fact that the working party seems content to allow small libraries to exist and provide a poor service— poor, that is, even if the basic standards recommended in the Report are put into operation.
Encounter in Detroit
Authors: MACLEOD R.D.
Published: March 2008

Some years ago I had a strange encounter in Detroit. Stealing away for an evening from hospitable friends, I wandered to the river and sat down on a bench fronting the Ontario shore. Shortly I became aware of another man at the far‐end of the bench. In the gathering dusk it was not possible to see him distinctly, but when he made a casual remark and lit a cigarette, I sensed a suggestion of style about him. The fact that his accent was British did not specially interest me; I was attracted by his personality.
My Golden Books
Authors: SWINNERTON FRANK
Published: March 2008

As I look back, I find that, for me, as for many old men, the book of greatest influence is the Book of Life; and as one who has been extraordinarily lucky in friendships I know that close contact with other minds has been of superlative value. From quite early boyhood I had friends of intellectual quality, and as I grew up I benefited from close association with such men as Arnold Bennett, H. G. Wells, A. G. Gardiner, and others, all my seniors, and all shrewd observers of history and the current scene. Nevertheless the love of books, and the constant reading of books, have partially made up for almost total lack of schooling.
What a History of the Encyclopaedia could Show
Authors: JACKSON SIDNEY L.
Published: March 2008

One of the most striking phenomena in the literature of bibliography is the absence of a comprehensive critical history of the encyclopaedia. Helpful summaries with supporting references can be found, as might be expected, in the 9th, 11th and 14th editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica and in Enciclopedia Italiana. Certain encyclopedic works have been treated perceptively in studies focussed on other subjects, such as Thorndike's classic History of Magic and Experimental Science. And for a few particular titles, notably the Encyclopédic of eighteenth‐century France, there is a rather substantial body of published discussion. Occasionally the monographic contributions reach the heights of critical acumen displayed in Hans Aarsleff's essay, “The Early History of the Oxford English Dictionary,” in the Bulletin of the New York Public Library September, 1962 (66: 417–439). But that is not characteristic.
ROBERT DUNCAN MACLEOD
Authors: HAY DANIEL
Published: March 2008

When we are young a year is a long time, and ten years an eternity. It is only at a later stage when someone we have loved and admired for many years accepts well‐earned retirement that we realize how quickly the years slip away.
The Adjacent Islands
Authors: BURGESS MOIRA
Published: March 2008

Though the county of Bute has a long and honourable literary history, its associations with song and story are not all likely to be familiar to the man in the street. If his street is located in a town in the industrial West of Scotland, this mythical arbiter may indeed be able to produce from a kind of race memory the rollicking strains of “The Day we went to Rothesay—O”, or, if he inclines to the sentimental, the plaintiff Victorian ballad “Sweet Rothesay Bay”. He may also know about the minister in Millport who prayed for “the Great and Little Cumbraes and the adjacent islands of Great Britain and Ireland.”
COPING SUCCESSFULLY WITH NON‐PROBLEMS
Authors: SHERMAN JOHN
Published: March 2008

Politicians, statesmen, administrators and other authority‐role occupants who hold actual power in states and organizations often have need of the kind of men who are known loosely as intellectuals. There are times when such men may find answers to problems which if not solved might literally wreck the organization. Intellectuals are usually recognized by the unfathomable ability to think. As a matter of fact, thinking is actually the art of such men.
PROOF‐READERS AT THE CROSSROADS
Authors: KATIN LOUIS
Published: March 2008

Two years ago I wrote to the production manager of a well‐known firm of London publishers, virtuously pointing out that in one of his firm's latest non‐fiction nurslings, written by an educated man, and presumably read in galley by an educated proofreader, the subjunctive “have” was rendered as the past‐tense “had” no fewer than nine times. For example: “It should be so arranged that they had plenty of room.” Further, I pointed out patriotically, I had encountered this manifold lapse of civilized grammar in a public library in Canada, a dominion semantically torn between the pull of the adjacent United States and the long‐distance traditional influence of the Motherland. Was there not, then, a responsibility laid upon British publishers and printers to maintain the highest standards of proof‐reading, and so keep the well of Miltonian English pure and undefiled in their crates of literary exports?
HUGH MACDIARMID IN HIS CONTEXT
Authors: Daiches David
Published: March 2008

WHAT HAVE THE CONSEQUENCES of the Union of 1707 proved to be? What has Scotland become, culturally, nationally, psychologically? Is there a viable Scottish identity available to nourish the artist and to provide a vantage point from which to look out on the world? How is Scotland's present related to her past and to her future? And what sort of Scottish future do we want anyway? If Scotsmen of intelligence and imagination have been asking these questions, and other questions of the same kind, more and more fiercely throughout the last forty years, Hugh MacDiarmid must take a considerable share of the responsibility. His work for a Scottish Renaissance was not simply a literary endeavour: it was bound up with questions of Scottish identity which had for the most part been slumbering for nearly two centuries when he came upon the scene. And not only with questions of Scottish identity, for the question of the quality of modern industrial democratic society, which prevails over the whole western world, is also involved. The Anglicization of Scotland is part of the general Gleichschaltung of all western culture, and an investigation of its nature and causes is therefore bound up with social and political—and economic—ideas. Arguments about the use of Lallans or the relative merits of Burns and Dunbar or the place of Gaelic in Scottish culture could not therefore, in the context of any adequately conceived Scottish Renaissance movement, be merely arguments about a literary trend or skirmishes preliminary to the emergence of something parallel to the Pre‐Raphaelite movement or the publishing of the Yellow Book. They were in the last resort not only about the meaning of culture, of nationality, or history: they were, to put it quite simply, about the meaning of life. And that is what Hugh MacDiarmid's poems are about.
AN ITALIAN HOLIDAY IN THE LIBRARY
Authors: Agelasto Charlotte P.
Published: March 2008

NO ONE WOULD ALLEGE that reading travel books can entirely take the place of real travel, but it is a very delightful substitute. The country I love most and wish to know better is Italy, a country which has always held a particular attraction for the English, who have been said to be ‘born with two ineradicable loves — one for the England that breeds them, and the other for the Italy that lures them’, and the result has been a number of fascinating travel books, which I have gradually discovered, and obtained from the library.
COLLECTING BOOKS
Authors: Kirkham Michael
Published: March 2008

BOOK COLLECTING is certainly an addiction. At least it is hard to find a rational explanation for the extreme covetousness with which the collector regards all reading‐matter that even remotely interests him. Take me, for instance. I am addicted to second‐hand bookshops, and I believe this is a common form of the ailment. As one after another closes down, so the frenzy of my addiction mounts. A tour of a town's booksellers is the only form of tourism that I can tolerate; far from exhausting or boring me, the eternal optimism of the search seems to generate unlimited energy. My eyes are the sharper for peering into the gloom of remote corners and my back the stronger for stooping under the low ceilings of musty basements. The buying of new books rouses in me nothing like the same enthusiasm.
THE TONGUE‐TIED BRITANNICA
Authors: Einbinder Harvey
Published: March 2008

THE PUBLICATION in 1964 of my book, The Myth of the Britannica, fulfilled a promise made in the spring of 1960 in the Columbia Forum that I would write a book which would ‘demonstrate how an inadequate reference work has been elevated into a national legend’.
CHURCHILL—AND A SCOTS POET
Authors: Cruickshank Helen B.
Published: March 2008

WHILE WATCHING ON TELEVISION RECENTLY the impeccably‐organized funeral procession of Sir Winston Churchill pass through streets well‐known to me during my ten years' residence in London shortly after the turn of the century, I could not help regretting that so little of the memorable proceedings had been assigned by the organizers to anything pertaining to Scotland. It came as a relief, therefore, to hear the wild notes of the bagpipes blown on the wind during the embarkation of the flag‐draped coffin at Tower Pier. I find that this reaction has been shared by other Scottish listeners.
PROBLEMS OF A HALL OF RESIDENCE LIBRARIAN
Authors: Mackerness E.D.
Published: March 2008

IT WOULD BE GENERALLY ADMITTED that among the various amenities of a university hall of residence, the library performs a very important function. It is that part of the building where students can be sure of finding quietness and the atmosphere in which calm relaxation can be enjoyed away from the more restricted scope of the private study‐bedroom. Yet the successful organization of such a library presents certain difficulties which do not occur in other institutions offering library facilities. For one thing, it is virtually impossible to enforce regulations with the same degree of strictness as obtains in, say, a public library: in most cases the hall library has to be staffed by voluntary helpers, and this rules out the introduction of an elaborate checking‐out system. The library can, of course, be locked and unlocked at the discretion of the tutor in charge: but students always resent what they take to be restrictions on their liberty, and any recourse to prohibitive measures is distasteful in a community where a fair degree of individual responsibility is taken for granted. A certain number of regulations are obviously essential; but they can seldom be observed with absolute punctiliousness. Apart from purely technical details, however—such things as hours of opening, general access to books, and so on—there are several other matters which the hall of residence librarian has to face up to, if he is going to make the library a congenial centre of enlightenment rather than a mere storehouse for a growing accumulation of volumes.
GREATEST OF THE MEDIEVAL SCHOOLMEN
Authors: Hay Daniel
Published: March 2008

WRITING on ‘The Personality of John Scotus’ Fr. Vincent Fochtmann, O.F.M., says:
HUGH HALIBURTON
Authors: Holmes W.K.
Published: March 2008

DO THE GIRLS of the Mary Erskine School in Edinburgh remember that the teaching staff once included—in the days when it was known at Queen Street Ladies' College—a writer of considerable distinction? James Logie Robertson was his name, but his works appeared with the pen‐name ‘Hugh Haliburton’.
THE CHILD IN SCHOOL
Authors: Merson Jessie G.M.
Published: March 2008

I AM GOING TO BE TALKING about the library of Niddrie Marischal School in Edinburgh, because I feel very strongly that a school library has to fit its school, has to fit the needs of its pupils. What is a good school library for one school may not be only inadequate but calamitous for another school. The school librarian—whether a teacher or a trained librarian—the staff, the pupil‐librarians, and succeeding classes of pupils have to work together over many years to build up a library and a tradition—for a library is more than books. Moreover, there must always be room for improvement. The librarian must always be open to new ideas.
THE ROMANTIC APPEAL OF A CATALOGUE
Authors: Kidd James
Published: March 2008

THIS DOES NOT PURPORT TO BE an apologia for the old guard‐book style name‐catalogue, but, forgetting mere canons of stream‐lined efficiency, let us admit that there is some character, some romantic appeal about it that a card catalogue cannot rival. Cards just haven't got personality or colour: they are unitary and strictly functional, a jumble of unconnected parts without a common link to make them a homogeneous entity. The guard‐book catalogue, for all its problems of maintenance and often cumbersome inefficiency, does, I contend, make life more interesting for the cataloguer—and the imaginative user.
WORDS WITH A BIBLIOGRAPHIC PROVENIENCE
Authors: Bauer Harry C.
Published: March 2008

WORDS COINED BY IMAGINATIVE WRITERS are nothing more than highly cultured pearls of thought. Though they never come into existence spontaneously or naturally, they truly adorn the language and help to perpetuate the works of novelists, playwrights, and poets. Better still, they prolong indefinitely the popularity of many novels, plays and poems that probably would otherwise slip into oblivion. If Henry Carey had never nicknamed Ambrose Philips Namby Pamby, the two eighteenth century poets would probably long be forgotten, and the English language would lack a choice verbalism as well as the humorous lines:
ISLANDS STYLE
Authors: Pearce Robert
Published: March 2008

AT DAWN on May 7th, 1789, just over a week after the famous mutiny, the Bounty's launch sailed close to a reef between some uncharted islands in the South Pacific. Captain Bligh noted in his log: ‘We now observed two large sailing canoes coming swiftly after us along shore, and, being apprehensive of their intentions, we rowed with some anxiety, being sensible of our weak and defenceless state … I imagine these to be the istlands called Feejee’.
THE QUEST FOR CAMUSFEARNA
Authors: Ross Napier W.
Published: March 2008

THERE WERE FOUR CARS cars parked by the side of the road. This may at first sight seem a very prosaic remark, but all the vehicles were out of the ordinary. Together they formed a very unusual and puzzling group.
THE LOST LIBRARIES
Authors: Ollé James G.
Published: March 2008

THE RECENT CLOSURE of the last of Boots' Booklovers' Libraries has seemingly brought us near the end of a long and fascinating chapter of library history. I call it a ‘chapter’ strictly in the figurative sense, as the story of the commercial circulating libraries remains virtually untold, largely because much of what we would like to know about them has been irretrievably lost, or else lies buried in the archives of the firms which operated them.
HOSPITAL LIBRARIES: THE STATE OF THE ART
Authors: Start Ronald
Published: March 2008

THE PATTERN OF LIBRARY PROVISION in hospitals in this country has for over half a century followed the traditional double‐track of one service for medical staff and a second for patients. Medical libraries range from the great teaching and research collections to the handful of basic works and journals; it is probable that every hospital would claim to have a collection of medical literature: a library. Not all hospitals provide books for patients, possibly three out of four, but many of those that do extend the patients' library service to members of hospital staff.
‘When found, make a note of’
Authors: Bauer Harry C.
Published: March 2008

THE PRAYERFUL UTTERANCE, ‘May we never want a friend in need, nor a bottle to give him,’ has been widely publicized on a poster celebrating a rare Scotch whisky. The man who originated that delectable expression, however, was Captain Edward Cuttle, the delightful old mariner in Dombey and Son, who spoke in riddles and made a practice of winnowing moral precepts from the good Book for the guidance and edification of his young friend and protege, Walter Gay.
Norman Nicholson
Authors: Hay Daniel
Published: March 2008

THE LOOMING MASS OF BLACK COMBE, and the sky‐line of the central fells that he can see from his window—Scafell, Scafell Pike, Great End, Harter Fell, Bowfell, Crinkle Crags, Coniston Old Man—are among the great shaping influences in the work of Norman Nicholson. The fells, the rocks that make the fells, the becks and the rivers that flow down the fells all speak to him and through him. The other great influence on his writing is his religious belief. As he himself said recently in a radio broadcast: ‘The universe is not just a huge mechanical coffee‐grinder, ticking over and over without aim or purpose. It works to a pattern; it works to a plan. And part of the sheer enjoyment of being among mountains comes from our sometimes feeling swept up in the plan, where every end is a new beginning and every death a new birth.’
O'Casey's Dublin Critics
Authors: O'Riordan John
Published: March 2008

THE IRISH, it would appear, are not a romantic race ! They do not appreciate their works of art, neither do they revere their great writers. As James Joyce so aptly put it—
The Stripdex Catalogue
Authors: Stephen Peter
Published: March 2008

THE Library Association Record of April 1962 carried an article describing an interesting experiment with the ‘stripdex’ form of catalogue in the library of the University of Malaya. Since then there has been no further contribution to the subject, as far as I can discover, and librarians have yet to read a dispassionate appraisal owing less to enthusiasm and more to practical experience in the production and use of the stripdex catalogue as a working tool.
The Library at Abbotsford
Authors: Day A.E.
Published: March 2008

NO MAN OF LETTERS has ever more closely identified himself with his country's historical lore and traditions than Sir Walter Scott: as poet and novelist his place in Scottish literature is secure. Abbotsford, the house he transformed into a replica of a medieval Scottish baronial castle, all turrets and gables, weapons and armour, is a national literary shrine. The memoirs of his life and work written by his son‐in‐law, John Gibson Lockhart, are widely acknowledged as a biographical tour de force. All this is well known and needs no emphasizing here. It is therefore all the more strange that the library he built at Abbotsford and the sizeable collection of books he amassed there have received very little attention in recent years. He has rarely been mentioned as one of the great book collectors, yet many of the books and broadsheets to be found in his library are now almost unprocurable elsewhere. A study of an eminent author's library always proves rewarding and the library at Abbotsford is no exception. Indeed, perhaps even more than usual, this particular library reflects the literary interests of its owner. Certainly, Scott's love of books very quickly emerges.
Revelation by Subscribers
Authors: Kaufman Paul
Published: March 2008

NO ONE WOULD BE SURPRISED by the assertion that John Bunyan made a deep impression among the devout Welsh for a century or more after his unique career. The standard evidence for such a statement is of course the number of editions of the author, and for Bunyan a special compilation of all his works printed in Wales alone between 1677 and 1931 shows the impressive total of 188 titles (no fewer than 58 of Pilgrim's Progress) in various languages. For a land with only a little over a half million inhabitants and with only two cities with over five thousand population in 1800, this is a record hard to equal, demonstrating an extraordinary devotion to a single author. Yet beyond such eloquent numerical summary another particular witness emerges from an unsuspected quarter. In the 1767 Welsh translation of The Doctrine of the Law and Grace Unfolded is dutifully included the ‘Names of the Subscribers’ underwriting the publication. This particular list is so unusual as to merit perpetuation in its entirety:
Another Appraisal of the Stripdex Catalogue
Authors: Plumbe Wilfred J.
Published: March 2008

IN our Autumn 1967 issue we published an article, ‘The Stripdex Catalogue’, by Peter Stephen, deputy borough librarian of Middleton (LIBRARY REVIEW, vol. 21, no. 3, Autumn 1967, p. 137–9). We have now received from Wilfred J. Plumbe, University Librarian, University of Malawi, Limbe, Malawi, the comments which follow.
Life is a Luminous Halo:
Authors: Green Muriel M.
Published: March 2008

VIRGINIA WOOLF'S FIRST TWO NOVELS (The Voyage Out and Night and Day) are fairly conventional in form, the characters revealing themselves by their conversation and action. Even her third novel (Jacob's Room) only breaks two conventions—it eliminates plot, and it abolishes the omniscient author, thus Jacob is seen through the eyes of the other characters. This, however, was not an innovation.
Escape from the Public Library
Authors: Ledgard Doreen
Published: March 2008

ONE OF THE NEWER FIELDS of librarianship is that of the hospital librarian. It is advancing rapidly. My special province was a psychiatric hospital, until I resigned for domestic reasons. I found several differences almost immediately in this work as against the public library in which I had been trained.
To Survive or Not To Survive
Authors: Ellis Anne
Published: March 2008

IN ANY TYPE OF LITERATURE it is easier in retrospect to pick out the notable writers of a period from the mass of lesser writers. With any type of current literature it is almost impossible to assess what will still be read or valued by later generations. This is as true of children's literature, and particularly of a more specific branch such as the family story, which tends to date rapidly. This is confirmed by the new book list for children, published by the Library Association: First Choice, which has been eagerly awaited. Praise should be generously lavished on the compilers, who have had to decide courageously which authors have to go overboard and have also had the arduous task of selecting a representative twenty‐one authors of family stories, approximately ten per cent of the list of fiction for older children.
Desalting Bibliographic Borrow Pits
Authors: Bauer Harry C.
Published: March 2008

WHATEVER MAN PERPETRATES, the printing press indelibly perpetuates. The salting of bibliographic borrow pits with glittery falsehoods is therefore a reprehensible imposition on posterity. When hoax, forgery, mischief, and fraud are buried in tomes, they enjoy an immortality seldom accorded truth. Tricks may, perhaps, be more illustrious and diverting than truth; they certainly are more difficult to crush to earth. They have one salutary utility, however. They can be used to test the credibility of books and reference sets.
Prayers at Highgate
Authors: Ollé James G.
Published: March 2008

WHEN NEXT YOU FIND YOURSELF IN LONDON with nothing in particular to do, take a walk westwards from the Archway underground station and along Chester Road until you reach the southern entrance to Highgate cemetery. Resist, if you can, the peculiar and varied attractions of this hallowed plot and turn your attention instead to the building which stands opposite the cemetery gates. It was erected a little over sixty years ago and is a fascinating example of its period. I would not care, on oath, to say what particular architectural style it represents, but diffidently suggest that it might perhaps be ‘Carnegie eclectic’. You may now guess what purpose this building serves. It is a public library.
Women Librarians at the College of the Sea
Authors: Barrett Marjorie
Published: March 2008

‘THERE'S NO DOUBT that seamen love to read a good book, especially an adventure story,’ said Mrs Murial Rossiter, deputy librarian at Mansbridge House, Balham. ‘In an average day we dispatch 1300 books to ships all over the world.’
Books of Words
Authors: Mackenzie L.D.M.
Published: March 2008

ON TUESDAY, 3 December 1878, there was held within the premises of Mr Dowell at 18 George Street, Edinburgh, an auction of the library of Andrew Jervise, Esq., F.S.A.(Scot.). Jervise, a bachelor, had died almost eight months before at the age of 58. In his library was a two‐volume edition of Jamieson's Dictionary of the Scottish Language, edited by John Johnstone, published by Wm. Tait in 1840–41, and printed at the University Press (Messrs. Stevenson's), then in Thistle Street. This was sold for the sum of £3 3s. to an unnamed buyer. In 1967 in ‘The Book Cellar’, a newly‐opened secondhand bookshop in Dundas Street, Edinburgh, it was to appear again. This time it was broken‐backed and apparently of undistinguished origin.
Life in the Archives
Authors: Clay Kathleen
Published: March 2008

ANY DAY in the archives department of a public library could bring a fascinating discovery, either by the archivist, or by a student engaged there on research. To the layman our records are just a collection of dusty old papers. He little realizes the wealth of human interest they contain.
J. B. Priestley: Man of Letters
Authors: Day A.E.
Published: March 2008

THIS SEPTEMBER marks the seventy‐fifth birthday of J. B. Priestley, the ‘old rhinoceros of English letters’ as C. P. Snow once described him, probably the last of the old‐style writers, professionals to their finger tips, ready at an instant to write whatever was required of them, often at very short notice. More than thirty years ago Priestley outlined his ambitions in this direction. ‘I have a restless nature, easily bored,’ he confessed, ‘and so I flit from one kind of work to another, partly sustained by a very genuine interest in the technical problems of all forms of writing.’ He continued: ‘I have always wanted to be an all‐round man of letters on the eighteenth‐century plan, which allowed or commanded a man to write essay or poem, novel or play, just as he pleased.’
The Librarian's Life: Four Sketches
Authors: Groom Edwina
Published: March 2008

‘I LIKE YOUR dress, Miss.’