bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Data capture devices and stock control in libraries: some recent trends
Authors: ALLRED JOHN
Published: March 2008

COMPUTERISATION of a library's circulation system should never be thought of as merely a highly mechanised loan system. Its potential lies in exercising full control over all stock movements, to binders, to branch or departmental libraries, as well as to borrowers. In addition, the collection and use of records of these stock movements can provide data to optimise the use of the bookstock and to give sophisticated aid to the provision of new and replacement stock. This process is similar to that already adopted by other stockholding institutions, such as automobile spare parts agencies or supermarkets. The library differs from these in its larger range of items and the re‐use of these items. The technical problems concerned with the collection and deployment of data about stock use are very similar.
Do be careful with whom you associate
Authors: ATKINSON FRANK
Published: March 2008

THE WALES AND MONMOUTHSHIRE BRANCH OF THE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION IS TO BE RECONSTITUTED AS THE WELSH LIBRARY ASSOCIATION—New library world January 1972.
Whatever happened to whatsisname?
Authors: SHALLOW ROBERT
Published: March 2008

Pseudonymous writing is not the most popular offering in library literature at the present time. Recent comments in this journal include: ‘braying like an ass’; ‘malicious, humourless direction of paper darts’ and ‘the cowardly, hit‐and‐run tactics of the anonymous scribe’. Robert Shallow is not listed in the LA yearbook and, if he exists, he certainly is not writing this column. So, here's another pseudonymous scribbler.
Librarians and their maps
Authors: Hyde Ralph
Published: March 2008

Until quite recently librarians on the whole were ill‐equipped for being custodians of maps. Even now one fears this is less rarely the case than it ought to be. Hair‐raising stories of early maps in public libraries, wrongly dated, wrongly ascribed, completely unorganised, accounts of antique atlases deposited with love by nineteenth‐century aldermanic benefactors, unguarded, rebound in buckram bindings with ‘912’ stamped on their spines — these and other horror stories are still being swopped by bemused researchers who have had the fortune to stumble on them. What makes this sort of thing the more disturbing is that the number of maps — thanks to natural wear and tear and exports to American universities — is constantly diminishing. Decreasing numbers and increasing demand spells soaring prices. A copy of Horwood's 32 sheet map of London 1792–99 went for £3 at the Gardner sale in 1924. Today one would have to pay something in the region of £250 for the same map. Just on financial grounds alone then we have something of a moral duty to know about our map stocks.
What future for carto‐bibliography?
Authors: HYDE RALPH
Published: March 2008

‘CARTO‐BIBLIOGRAPHY’ must surely be just about the ugliest term in a cartographer's vocabulary, but to its inventor, Sir Henry George Fordham, it represented something of the very greatest significance, and it is as well for us that it did. It was in 1896 that Sir George made his decision to compile a catalogue of Hertfordshire maps, ‘little conscious’, he was later to confide, ‘of the amplitude such a work could assume’. Can there be anyone who has undertaken a carto‐bibliography since who has not echoed at some point Fordham's confession? Working alone, and without guidance from any similar previous compilations, he had no choice but to devise his own forms, methods, and arrangements, ‘digesting my materials’, as he put it, ‘according to the lights they seemed to throw upon the subject’. The resulting compilation, the first real British carto‐bibliography to see the light of day, began to appear in the Transactions of the Hertfordshire Natural History Society in October 1901. Six years later, in September 1907, it was completed and published in volume form as Hertfordshire maps: a descriptive catalogue of the maps of the county, 1579–1900. A supplement followed in 1914.
Progress in the map world
Authors: TYACKE SARAH , WALLIS HELEN
Published: March 2008

500 YEARS OF THE PRINTED MAP: a forthcoming exhibition at the British Museum, June—December 1972.
Automated cartography in the Ordnance Survey
Authors: GARDINER‐HILL RC
Published: March 2008

WHEN THE PROBLEMS and possibilities of automation first started to be discussed seriously amongst cartographers, the thinking in the Ordnance Survey was largely concerned with the problems of deriving small scale maps by computer generalisation from large scale maps that had been digitised, Superficially, this is a most attractive proposition and specially so when it is remembered that the equipment and techniques available at the time did not permit an acceptable standard of automatic drawing at the original scale; but in fact, the more it is considered the less attractive it may appear to become. Probably the main reasons for this are first that, in so far as I am aware, there is no country in the world, not even Britain, which is covered completely by large scale mapping and has no small scale mapping. Indeed, the reverse is almost always the case. Thus if one is considering the economies of such a method it is certainly only fair to credit the automated method with the cost of the revision of the small scales maps and not with the cost of their initial production. Even then practical problems of an organisational nature arise. In an ideal world, it would undoubtedly be true that topographic revision was always carried out on the largest scale map that a survey department published and from this revision the smaller derived scales of mapping would be subsequently revised. In practice, this is difficult for very good reasons, perhaps the best of which is that there are 7,200 component maps at our largest scale of 1–1250 in a typical single map at the scale of one inch to one mile. the task of getting all of these components corrected up‐to‐date simultaneously would be a formidable one, scarcely justified by the relatively small number of lines from the component large scale maps that finally appear on the small scale one; most of them being omitted because of generalisation.
Staff deployment
Authors: JONES KEN
Published: March 2008

The traditional pattern of public library professional staff activity and deployment may be characterised as follows.
Comment
Authors: ELLIOTT JON , CRAVEN AB , HOUGHTON BERNARD , ROWLAND GLYN , GRAHAM FISHER J , JOHNSON C , HALL AUDREY , DAY ALAN , DAVINSON DONALD , ATKINSON FRANK
Published: March 2008

IN YOUR rather emotional outburst on PLR (NLW 865) you made some serious errors of fact. PLR is not directed solely against public libraries. Section 5.12 of the Working Party Report states:
The subject specialist in polytechnic libraries
Authors: HOLBROOK A
Published: March 2008

ANALYSIS of the role of the subject specialist in polytechnic libraries must be first clarified by a definition of the term as used in this article. Humphreys, speaking in the mid 1960's about subject specialists in national and university libraries defined them as ‘members of the library staff appointed to develop one or more aspects of a library's technical or reference services in a particular subject field. Although he would normally already have some experience in this field and would have commonly obtained a first or research degree in the subject, it is not essential that he should have qualifications in the subject when he is appointed. Nor … would he necessarily spend all, or even the major portion, of his time on book selection duties. He could in fact have responsibilities other than those concerned with the acquisition of books …’
The shallow end
Authors: Shallow Robert
Published: March 2008

IT IS NOT OFTEN that we have a topic to discuss which is likely to be news to 90% of our readers. The Library Association's Periodicals Questionnaire was sent out to a so‐called random sample of the membership totalling 10%; so the 90% doesn't know how the other 10% has been living recently. As we were among those lighted on by random, we are more than prepared to let you know.
Industrial library news
Authors: ARMSTRONG ALAN
Published: March 2008

WHO WILL LEND HMSO PUBLICATIONS? Public librarians could really help special librarians in a practical way — by making HMSO publications available on loan.
Where have all the summers gone?
Authors: SHALLOW ROBERT
Published: March 2008

WRITING THIS in the cool of an August midday, I tell anyone who will listen that, in the 1930's, we had summer every year.
Comment
Authors: GALLAGHER ASHLEIGH , VERNON KENNETH , DYER CHRISTOPHER
Published: March 2008

NORMAN TOMLINSON'S article on publicity for International Book Year (NLW October), touches on a theme that is becoming more and more urgent in librarianship. As he so rightly points out, many isolated attempts are made to publicise one or other of the multi‐faceted aspects of librarianship today, but how many fellow librarians, let alone the public, have heard of these events. (Have you heard of IBY?)
Comment
Authors: ELLIOTT JON , HEPWORTH PHILLIP , JONES KH , THOMPSON GODFREY , DOVE JACK , REVILL DON
Published: March 2008

THE reorganisation chickens have come home to roost with the recent white paper Report of the Working Party on Association Services (the Harrison report). Its seven pages are a result of ten meetings held by messrs Harrison (Westminster), Ashworth (London), Clough (Southampton), Corbett (Wandsworth), Foskett (London University) and Plaister (London and SE Library Region), which indicates a wide choice of membership for the wp below the Chelmsford‐Bristol line. After the clandestine manoeuvring in local authority reorganisation, the la has learnt the lesson; for the second chapter of the report hastens to record that ‘while the report will be the main report of the wp, we envisage the need for a second and concluding report in due course when we have received the views of branches and groups …’.
A new library money spinner
Authors: HYDE RALPH
Published: March 2008

SUDDENLY, in these days of war‐waging against planners, developers, and demolition contractors, local history has come into its own. In almost any part of the country you care to name, local amenity societies are popping up to defend, conserve, preserve, and restore the little, if we are lucky, ‘they’ have still left us with. All of which is — or ought to be — very heartening for local history librarians.
Industrial library news
Authors: ARMSTRONG ALAN
Published: March 2008

LAST WEEK I was asked to go and buy two publications. This gave me a chance to visit GILLIAN CLEGG, librarian of the advertising trade paper ‘Campaign’. She had won the 1971 Sir Evelyn Wrench Travelling Fellowship and during her month in the us and Canada visited libraries providing business information particularly in publishing, advertising and marketing. Not a surprising choice for a girl who had previously worked for the advertising agencies J Walter Thompson and Lintas! I asked her about the visit.
Information, please!
Authors: ARMSTRONG ALAN
Published: March 2008

NOT ONLY the devotees of cricket will know why the game is recently revitalised and playing increasingly to capacity crowds throughout the summer. It is partly due to the £¼m brought into county clubs through sponsorship by large corporations.
Finland the good
Authors: DAVINSON DONALD
Published: March 2008

BOTH before setting out and since returning from a British Council‐sponsored specialist tour of Finland to look at libraries and library schools and give a series of lectures, friends have been either congratulating my bravery or castigating my foolhardiness in venturing behind the Iron Curtain. Even those few people who seemed aware of the unescapable fact that Finland is not occupied by Russians (or indeed anyone at all across vast, forest‐covered stretches of the country) wondered how I coped with the intense cold and the marauding bears believed to wander unchecked around the unmade streets of the log‐cabin settlements.
The Willie Worst controversy
Authors: SHALLOW ROBERT
Published: March 2008

THERE'S ONLY one topic for 1973. In the pubs and in the papers. On the telly and in the train. Bus queues are buzzing with it. Launderettes are loud with it. From Curzon Street to Coronation Street the question on everyone's lips is:
Selling yourself to industry
Authors: ARMSTRONG ALAN
Published: March 2008

Younger librarians in the industrial rat race dare not seek the leisurely and quietly secure job: an absence of ambition and drive does not enhance the security of industrial librarians. To be in the rat race of one's own choice, is to want, above all, to win, and those who do win, do so with no illusion of contentment and security, but with a strength and determination to market a personal and professional ability, fulfilling the demands placed upon them. In this article, I submit that a well thought out marketing strategy is essential to the ambitions of younger librarians.
Comment
Authors: HEPWORTH PHILIP , TOMLINSON NORMAN , LOCKETT DON , FINNEY JON , DARVELL MICHAEL , RIDLER‐INNES AP , WILLIAMS‐WYNN BRENDA
Published: March 2008

NLW is to be congratulated on its promptly‐secured interview with Harold Hookway in a sparkling March number which compares very favourably indeed with the January LAR that I happened to be reading at the same time. Generous though it was of NLW in an earlier issue to lament Edward Dudley's passing (temporary no doubt) from the LA Council, surely here was a massive vote of no‐confidence in an editorial job universally admitted to be badly done. How can the head of a great and successful library school find time to edit his profession's official journal? I have previously suggested that the LA should try to establish some business relationship with the only current English library publication for all staff levels in all types of library that comes close to what the membership wants. Let the LA stick to those publications that it does very well and that enhance its reputation—Library history, and the Journal of librarianship, and pass the buck for a newsy popular magazine elsewhere.
University library buildings: a view from Greece
Authors: PANAGIOTOU EVLAMBIA
Published: March 2008

AFTER a university education in Greece, the English university scene comes as something of a surprise. English universities are small by Greek standards; Manchester, the biggest provincial university, has 12,000 students, while Oxford and Cambridge have 11,000 each. Athens, on the other hand, has 25,000 students, and the University of Salonika (at which I am a lecturer) has 30,000. In England almost a fifth of the students are postgraduates, in Greece they are almost all undergraduates, though the courses generally are of five years' duration, and not three. University libraries of the kind known in England do not exist. As elsewhere in Europe there is a central closed access library, but each professor (university teacher) has his own personal collection for which funds are allocated by the university.
Industrial library news
Authors: ARMSTRONG ALAN
Published: March 2008

THREE simple and low cost methods to improve the supply of books are proposed in a recent article by John Prime, a King's Lynn bookseller.
Who's who?
Authors: SHALLOW ROBERT
Published: March 2008

WHO IS in Who's who—and why? For every reader who replaces this considerable fistful on the shelves with a satisfied air, there are a dozen or so who look disappointed or downright disbelieving. How could their old Headmaster, or the faith‐healer Aunt Edith swears by, or that really famous chap we shared a taxi with, or the woman who writes those terribly amusing books, be overlooked?
Industrial fringe benefits
Authors: DARE GILLIAN , ARMSTRONG ALAN
Published: March 2008

THIS SURVEY was undertaken by the authors as private research because of the apparent lack of awareness in the profession about employment conditions. It was not paid for or sponsored by any organisation.
Comment
Authors: STEELE COLIN , ELLIOTT JON , DAVINSON DONALD , SMITH JOHN , SMITH DAVID , BROOK GEOFFREY , GIBSON GA
Published: March 2008

IN THE March 1973 issue of NEW LIBRARY WORLD Dr H T Hookway commented that the new head of the British Library must be first and foremost an administrator and a manager, a man for whom the intricacies of book selection or ‘class and cat’ would hardly be of much use. Few would doubt the validity of this first statement, but surely a grounding in any of the traditional library disciplines could do no harm whatsoever and might indeed be a positive advantage.
Reaching out to the disadvantaged
Authors: MARTIN WILLIAM J
Published: March 2008

A RECENT public opinion poll placed politicians and estate agents bottom of a list of professions ranked in terms of public esteem.
Planning information: an interim report
Authors: WHITE BRENDA
Published: March 2008

PEOPLE WHO are involved with information in relation to the practice of town and country planning in Britain, have to beware of a dichotomy which exists in the planner's meaning of the word ‘information’. While the average librarian thinks of information mainly (though not exclusively) in terms of the printed word presented in some sort of documentary format, the average planner, in speaking of information, is referring to raw, quantified data relating to the spatial unit over which his planning activities extend, which he feeds into a computer, and which forms the basis for projections and forecasts and, ultimately, strategies. To the planner, this process, of storage in a data bank and processing, constitutes the planning information system; and the design and operation of efficient systems in local planning authorities throughout Britain is, with a few exceptions, no more effective than is the totally inadequate provision of libraries and information services which exists (also with a few exceptions).
The no‐library association
Authors: SHALLOW ROBERT
Published: March 2008

THERE WAS a lot of tutt‐tutting among librarians in January when the Times and the Guardian reported the breakup of the libraries of the miners' institutes. The philistine abandoning of these collections, and the unhappy involvement of some county libraries, led to much holier‐than‐thou headshaking in the profession. This would have been more convincing if it were librarians who had drawn attention to this deplorable state of affairs and were doing something to mitigate it. The salvage operation was, in fact, the inspiration of the sociologists of University College Swansea and whatever is rebuilt out of the shambles will be due to their efforts.
Comment
Authors: CAVE ERIC , DAY ALAN , SNAPE WH , DOVE JACK , TOMLINSON KR , POCKLINGTON PETER , PLIMSOLL PETER
Published: March 2008

THE RECENT DECLINE in issues has been noticed fairly generally over the country; many librarians have been considerably concerned about it, and your April comments in ‘Off the cuff’ are relevant. I have not felt concerned to a great degree, though previously I had enjoyed seeing constantly increased use of the city libraries service in my 20 years in Cambridge. The final figures for 1972/73 together with comparisons for the previous year are as follows:
Public lending right: the story so far
Authors: DAY ALAN
Published: March 2008

IN THE LIGHT of their subsequent close harmony, it is strange to recall that it was an impending royalty dispute between authors and publishers that provoked John Brophy's article, ‘A proposal to increase authors' incomes through the libraries’ in the summer 1951 issue of The author. His premise was simple: the book trade, supporting printers, binders, publishers, book‐sellers and librarians, was conspicuously failing to support more than a small minority of authors upon whom all the others depended.
Finding out in Brazil
Authors: McCARTHY CAVAN
Published: March 2008

‘To hell with comparative librarianship!’ I groaned, as I writhed in agony on the pitching deck. The captain's pet leopard cowered under the table, spitting and snarling as the tropical rainsqualls smashed into the minute, overcrowded launch. I was learning a few things during my year's leave of absence to do research; for instance, when going down the Amazon, travel on a big boat: it's more comfortable, cheaper and there are no leopards under the tables. Also, every single time before you clamber into your hammock, check to see that it is securely hooked. Otherwise you hit the deck with a back‐breaking thud. Simple things, but you only learn by experience.
Comment
Authors: REVILL DON , SILENCE ABRAHAM , CODLIN RONALD D , RAY SHEILA
Published: March 2008

FOLLOWING ON from Roy Tomlinson's article (NLW July), while agreeing with much that he says I would like to enlarge on some points. I had hoped that the educational technology argument had been laid to rest after the publication in the Times higher educational supplement of correspondence occasioned by the Library Association's statements on resource centres.
American libraries 1973
Authors: COLLISON ROBERT L
Published: March 2008

IT CAN hardly be regarded as a coincidence that 1876, the first centenary of America's independence, was a notable year in American library history. It was a year that saw the foundation of the American Library Association, the launching of the Library journal, and the first publication of Melvil Dewey's classification: three events that have had a worldwide influence on the development of libraries. With only three years to go before the occasion of the second centenary, it is not difficult to imagine that it may also witness the maturity of a new phase in American librarianship. When we consider that less than 125 years ago there were scarce six libraries in America of any considerable size, the fact that—according to the latest issue of the ALA directory—there are now well over 30,000 libraries in North America, makes it clear that American library provision has since developed at impressive speed. Certainly, to anyone like myself, who had the good fortune to see American librarianship in action some 20 years ago, the remarkable strengthening in professionalism in American libraries during the past quarter of a century is astonishing—and it shows no signs of slowing up.
Libraries and leisure
Authors: GERARD DAVID
Published: March 2008

Ars est celare artem seems to be an appropriate motto for the library publishing world. At least that is the sour conclusion reached by one unsuccessful editor in search of a publisher, his MS—the text of a week's conference on the relationship between public libraries, the arts, and the community of no apparent interest to our professional communicants. The rich thesaurus of thought, word and even deed lay, a battered typescript in the bottom drawer of his desk, no temptation whatsoever to the moguls of publishing; not even to the college which begat it. The cover was stained, not with the Tears of the Muses, but with the coffee cups of readers unmoved by the prospect that their terse rejection might be the murder of a gallant enterprise. They were as lachrymose as those Muses in their regrets, but firm in the conviction that symposia were not selling this year.
Information centres and their uses to business
Authors: ARMSTRONG ALAN
Published: March 2008

EVERY DAY, more and more external influences bear upon decisions taken inside companies. Our entry into the eec is the simplest example.
Comment
Authors: WHITE BRENDA , WILSON SHEILA , MCNEILL ELLA , LAYZELL WARD PAT , FRANSELLA MURIEL , BURT DOROTHY , BEALES SUSAN
Published: March 2008

FIRST THINGS FIRST. A self‐respecting research project must be baptised with a good acronym. Indeed, without this attribute it cannot be taken seriously, and it is not stretching facts too far to suggest that in some cases someone has thought up a snappy acronym and then evolved a research project to hang onto it. My own research projects have been singularly unfortunate in this respect. The first had the initials TCP, and it was not long before this was translated into the ‘antiseptic project’. The current one is known as OIP, and this combination of letters, if said properly with the tongue placed against the tonsils, resembles the mating call of the lesser black‐backed gull. Since the project is not directly concerned with birds (or even with ornithology), the relevance of the acronym seems doubtful. However, a firm of consultants is now working on the problem, and the next project should be suitably labelled.
New professional literature
Authors: SHALLOW ROBERT
Published: March 2008

These two books are reviewed together here because it would seem unnatural not to do so. Over the years they have been linked in the minds of thousands of librarians and students; Backstep and Crossbar go together—in fact they have gone together for almost as long as Morecambe and Wise.
Industrial library news
Authors: ARMSTRONG ALAN
Published: March 2008

Having played a very minor role by suggesting part of the conference content, I am really ineligible to evaluate it. However, my friend, Julius Pikenpack, has suggested that the following six points be mentioned.
Comment
Authors: ROWE AUSTIN , CODLIN RONALD D , ENGLISH STUDIES TEAM LEEDS , ATKINS JACK , HEPWORTH PHILIP , JONES GRAHAM , LINDLEY DAVID , JORDAN PETER
Published: March 2008

NOW THAT the British Library is in being, it is up to the library community to consider whether it is playing its full role in the library life of the country. After all, the powers vested in it by the British Library Act are considerable. It is up to every librarian to work out and put forward his own ideas; I wish here to make two suggestions.
Behaviour in libraries
Authors: JORDAN PETER
Published: March 2008

THERE APPEAR TO BE two ways in which librarians approach the question of behaviour in libraries and, in particular, reader behaviour. On the one hand there is the view that things happen instinctively and the ‘correct’ behaviour is discovered without the interference of anybody else—‘things sort themselves out’. If you take this view you would hardly believe the question is worth discussing and would only think about it if very obviously deviant behaviour such as rowdiness, discussed recently by the Branch & Mobile Libraries Group, took place in the library. Compared with the need to sort out specific problems such as those thrown up by computerisation or local government re‐organisation, reader behaviour seems to be of little interest and of no urgency—indeed esoteric—the sort of thing a library school lecturer would be thinking about!
Industrial library news
Authors: ARMSTRONG ALAN
Published: March 2008

AS INDUSTRIAL LIBRARIANS we are conscious of increasing efforts being made by the major public libraries to serve information to all those executives whose companies pay substantial rates towards the maintenance of local library services. LESLIE SMYTH, Commercial Librarian at Manchester Public Library spoke recently of the efforts being made to serve industry better. It is with his kind agreement that his talk is published here.
Behaviour in libraries—2
Authors: JORDAN PETER
Published: March 2008

In the first part of this article on behaviour in libraries, published in the January issue of NLW, Peter Jordan discussed librarians' approach to readers' behaviour in libraries, identifying two main ways—the instinctively correct behaviour to be expected, and the examination of the phenomenon as worthy of sociological study. Dominant and subordinate behaviour were considered, together with social reasons for them, attitudes to noise in the library, and the effects of physical contraints presented to readers by a particular library environment. In the conclusion to his article, Peter Jordan looks at the face‐to‐face contact between librarian and reader, reader service, and common regulations. The references cited are in a single numerical sequence from part one forward.
Industrial library news
Authors: ARMSTRONG ALAN
Published: March 2008

THE CHANGeS which have taken place in the United Kingdom's system of industrial statistics, have presented problems of linking statistics published in the old style census of production reports and business monitors with the new statistics. Librarians have been critical of the complexity of compiling long run statistics without a conversion key, also of the delayed appearance of the new quarterly publications and the absence of an index.
Industrial library news
Authors: ARMSTRONG ALAN
Published: March 2008

FROM conversations it is clear that many of us are not familiar with the sources of help to which we can turn for salary advice.
Industrial library news
Authors: ARMSTRONG ALAN
Published: March 2008

Advance notice of Aslib's 50th anniversary conference in Cambridge this September outlines four main sessions on these topics: Publication today and tomorrow—national and international publishing in relation to the dissemination of information in all disciplines: compiling and presenting information for maximum impact: access to information, resources of the uk: access to information—international co‐operation for foreign resources. This is a most welcome continuation of the policy set at Bath last year, whereby every delegate can find interest in the academic content of the conference. Jargon should be at a minimum.
The diary of Digby Slingsby, author
Authors: SHALLOW ROBERT
Published: March 2008

MONDAY. Hateful morning. Wife made a hell of a racket getting the kids off to school and herself off to work. Spite. Impossible to get to sleep again, so just dozed for a while then switched the radio on. Hoped to borrow an idea or two from that chatty after‐breakfast programme, but was horrified to hear the morning service in full moan. Can't stand it. It's totally unfair to us writers—no script, just some out‐of‐copyright hymns and psalms plus a bit of ad‐libbing. Must get the Society of Authors to sort that out and, while they're in that area, they can look into the lending of hymn‐books in churches. Ten‐thirty. Couldn't get comfortable, so got up. Kitchen in a mess. Dishes washed and left to drain, although she knows I like them dried straightaway. Sheer bloody idleness. No bacon in the fridge; none in the freezer either. Those articles about authors needing Public Lending Right so that they can eat properly don't exaggerate one little bit. Had a miserable four‐egg omelette.
Industrial library news
Authors: ARMSTRONG ALAN
Published: March 2008

IN LINE with the general aims of the World Trade Centre movement, the London WTC information centre will serve the international trader at every level. It will provide both on‐the‐spot information from the library and a detailed referral service leading to sources of specialised information.
More than skin deep
Authors: SHALLOW ROBERT
Published: March 2008

‘I am intrigued by growing old… It is as if I was walking down Shaftesbury Avenue one evening, thinking the kinds of thoughts I thought sixty years ago and suddenly I am seized, rushed through a stage door, made up with wrinkles and a wig and pushed out on the stage with a stick and a husky voice.’
Comment
Authors: GRIFFIN BRIAN , DAY ALAN , FOREMAN LEWIS , ASSER MIKE , CHESHIRE DF
Published: March 2008

I MUST THANK David Gerard for responding so warmly to my review of Mr Murison's The public library in Human world 13; and I must thank Mr Murison for responding to the double onslaught (in NLW March) so effectively. (It was not, by the way, a concerted attack, though Mr Murison might be excused for thinking so, especially in view of his other trials.) And if I gave the impression of thinking of him as rather dim and unquestioning, I must simply apologise; this was not my intention. I chose to review his book because it typifies some of our vast social problems in an exceptionally clear‐cut way; because it demonstrates, through the clarity of its presentation, both the virtues and the limitations of socialised thought. This is not, I think, an insult.
Interview
Authors: BINGLEY CLIVE
Published: March 2008

AS WE REPORTED last month, successor‐designate to Hugh Barry as Secretary of the Library Association is R P Hilliard, at present the association's Finance Officer, who will take over on August 1.
Industrial library news
Authors: ARMSTRONG ALAN
Published: March 2008

THERE IS a very old opening, usually to bad jokes, which goes something like: ‘What do you want first, the good news or the bad news … ?’ Sad to say, this format has appeared in the latest circular from the Local Government Staff Commissioners for England (LGSC 19/74). In many ways it is a pity it is not a joke.
Comment
Authors: SYKES PAUL , BAKEWELL KGB , TALBOT JOHN , REVILL DON , EVANS JENNY , PEMBERTON JOHN E , SCOTT EDWIN P
Published: March 2008

AFTER AN ABSENCE of some months I returned to the pages of NEW LIBRARY WORLD, half expecting to find a mixture of ‘How I did reorganisation good’ and ‘The penny has just dropped’, depending upon the luck and/or influence of contributors. I was not disappointed, but, in a class apart, it was sad to read Philip Hepworth's account of humiliation and unfair treatment. (‘Defeat’, January NLW). He was not alone. One's faith in the essential fairness of the local government appointment system, built up over many years, was shattered in weeks. It is to the eternal discredit of the Library Association that during the agonising months of 1973/74 the dubious practices of certain local authorities were not challenged.
Nigeria—with qualifications
Authors: McCARTHY CAVAN
Published: March 2008

ON ONE SIDE of the road there is a giant new university, sprouting dozens of new buildings, new lecture theatres, even a jumbo‐sized new library. It is fringed by rows of neat little boxes, housing the Polish and Pakistani PhDs who will teach here until their students take over. The campus of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Northern Nigeria, has the brash, modern, unfinished atmosphere of new campuses all over the world. Then you notice the little groups of men in loose black or blue garments who sit around the campus, their faces hidden by black headcloths. They carry swords; they are the Touaregs, the legendary nomads of the desert. Destitute, they have come south to escape the drought and do the only job modern society can offer nomadic herdsmen whose animals have died of thirst: they guard the university at night.
Industrial library news
Authors: ARMSTRONG ALAN
Published: March 2008

Will move to Cardiff. Peter Shore, incoming Secretary of Trade received the proposal and upheld the decision. City Road will have improved facilities, which have been urged on the department since the decision to move was put to users for ‘consultation’. This has by no means mollified the opponents to the move, vociferously led by Peter Wilsher, editor of the Sunday times business news. Whilst this move does seem predominantly to the user's disadvantage, as librarians we may however gain some benefit. Whereas before there was only one hard copy file, in the future there will be six fiches available for viewing. Simply this means that there will be no waiting for a file, as six searchers will be able to review a company's files at once. Additionally, we who have fiche readers will appreciate the facility to purchase Companies House fiche, more than other searchers without inoffice readers. At least one fiche will be held back from the public search rooms. This means anything which previously tended to ‘disappear’ from hard copy files, can now be replaced instantly by processing more fiche copies. Without making much ado about this, Companies House may have put an end to some highly questionable user practices concerning the files of companies in the takeover arena.
Continuing the case of the co‐opted committeeman
Authors: SHALLOW ROBERT
Published: March 2008

LAST MONTH this column was devoted to discussion of a bitterly‐complaining article in New society (28 March 74), with particular emphasis on its intemperate style and self‐righteous tone. In fairness to the author, E P Thompson, and to the public librarians whom he attacked, we should now consider some of his complaints.
Punch a public librarian or two
Authors: SHALLOW ROBERT
Published: March 2008

THERE HAVE ALWAYS been nuisances to blight the lives of those who work in public libraries. Every service point has always had its quota of the nasty‐natured—the short‐tempered, importunate, illogical, belligerent—and the downright nutty. They have usually formed but a small proportion of the total membership and have been readily identified. The behaviour of the others, the vast majority of the readers, has been reasonable and predictable.
Comment
Authors: OLLÉ JAMES G , BINGLEY CLIVE , GARDNER FRANK , NYANDAK AKAR TINLEY , BARNES MELVYN , BRYON JFW , CHAVNER BILL , JONES KEN , SKILLING BRIAN C
Published: March 2008

BY NOW, many readers of NLW will have made a pilgrimage to Birmingham to see the new central library, and many others will have resolved to do so at the earliest opportunity.
Industrial library news
Authors: ARMSTRONG ALAN
Published: March 2008

A READER kindly sent me a recent patent in which Xerox Corp claim a dramatic break through to prevent unauthorized photocopying. JANET SHAW of the Hertis industrial unit at Hatfield has summarized it for NLW:
Lady Chatterley's little bastards
Authors: SHALLOW ROBERT
Published: March 2008

TWO RECENT NOVELS—Love : all, by Molly Parkin and The innocence has gone, daddy, by André Launay—will no doubt return considerable sums of money for their begetters. The only reward that anyone concerned with their production and distribution could have expected a few years ago would have been a stretch in jail.
Towards the education of librarians
Authors: HOOKWAY HT
Published: March 2008

WHAT SHOULD A keynote speaker say on an occasion such as this? Particularly a speaker such as myself—almost totally ignorant of every subject to be discussed in your later sessions? Have I, I wonder, quite innocently given the organisers the same impression, in agreeing to talk at this dinner, as Dr Johnson gave his friends when he said he could repeat a complete chapter of the Natural history of Iceland from the Danish of Horrebow? The chapter reads: ‘Concerning snakes, there are no snakes to be met with throughout the whole island’. But I think I can manage a few more sentences than that, and since I have not been altogether unconcerned with library planning, with research, the role of management, and with education in its broadest cultural sense I think we can find sufficient common ground to justify my appearance tonight. Indeed as head of a library staff of 1700 how could I not be concerned with library education?
The Highfield Community Library, Belfast
Authors: MARTIN WJ
Published: March 2008

During the past five‐and‐a‐half years of civil strife in Northern Ireland, the entire social fabric has been subjected to enormous strain. No one, man, woman or child, has escaped the pressures of living in this stricken province, and just as this is true of the people it is true of their institutions. Like other institutions, public libraries have come under fire, both literally, and in the sense that like shops, pubs and other places of entertainment they have suffered grieviously from a decline in custom. Not that the picture is an entirely gloomy one, and indeed there have been considerable achievements in the life of the province and its libraries in recent years. As is so often the case here, a great deal depends upon location, upon where one lives, works or indeed, just happens to be at any particular time. Hence, for librarians fortunate enough to be situated in less‐troublesome areas, life can go on almost as before, even if it is never quite normal. It is in the towns, particularly in Belfast, and again in certain districts, that the difficulties are most acute. Under the circumstances the performance of the public library system is greatly to be admired. Moreover, where circumstances have prevented the operation of normal public library services, the co‐operative and flexible attitude shown by Belfast Public Library has greatly facilitated the provision of alternative library facilities. Certainly without its aid the Highfield Community Library could scarcely have developed as it has done.
‘Scribble, scribble, scribble…’
Authors: SHALLOW ROBERT
Published: March 2008

THE Writers directory 1974–76 ‘lists more than 18,000 living authors of fiction and/or non‐fiction in English.’ It is something of an achievement to receive 18,000 completed questionnaires and sort them into order. To get £7 or $25 for them printed and bound (even with indexes) is quite admirable.
Industrial library news
Authors: ARMSTRONG ALAN
Published: March 2008

THE BRITISH LIBRARY (Lending Division) and (Research and Development) have both issued new newsletters. The intention is that they will be occasional newsletters conveying information about BL activities. These first two are very sensible, typed and printed in a concise, appealing and constructive way. They will be well received, for sure. I think that they may be available free on request by users If the British Library Science Reference Library are thinking of doing the same, that would be very interesting to receive too!
In the beginnings…
Authors: SHALLOW ROBERT
Published: March 2008

SOMETIMES WHEN the printer is waiting for an article which really should have been sent to him the day before, I sit at my desk and wonder if there is any subject in the whole world upon which I can possibly find anything to say.
Let's not be beastly
Authors: SHALLOW ROBERT
Published: March 2008

SPITE IS a sterile emotion. It is natural, understandable and, at times, unavoidable; but it is definitely non‐productive.
Comment
Authors: JEFFERSON GEORGE , STOCKHAM KA , SMART INIGO , REVILL DON , PALMER BERNARD I , MUNFORD WA
Published: March 2008

COMPARATIVE STUDIES, whatever the subject, can bring enlightenment and new thoughts on old ideas. To investigate, and to find from written evidence, different approaches to similar problems or familiar practices in a new setting, engenders a feeling of professional kinship and often the pleasurable discovery of some original application or circumstance. The advantages of the academic pursuit of comparative librarianship are sufficiently well known. They have their most comprehensive summation and exposition in J Periam Danton's recent The dimensions of comparative librarianship.
Industrial library news
Authors: ARMSTRONG ALAN
Published: March 2008

LAST MONTH the Industrial Library Group held a one day conference on ‘Book and journal acquisition’. The result was an informative insight into the real problems of bookselling and publishing to industry. Speakers included Philip Kogan, the publisher, and Tom Woolston, the bookseller. As might be expected, a fair amount of abuse was politely exchanged concerning standards of service.
The theft problem in libraries
Authors: REVILL DON
Published: March 2008

THE CAUSES of losses of library books may include restrictive loan policies, insufficient copies of in‐demand items, the configuration of the library building—especially secondary exits, high fines, or a general feeling that library books belong to no‐one: ‘property is theft’. It is possible that users have no intention of permanently depriving the library of the item. Books are fair game.
Don't worry, it's all being looked into
Authors: SHALLOW ROBERT
Published: March 2008

IT IS SAID that the more management research and management theory develop, the worse everything is managed. Before long, someone is sure to suggest that vandalism and other manifestations of delinquency are steadily increasing only in order to accommodate the ever‐growing multitude of social researchers. I prefer not to see it that way, but cling to the belief that things would not be significantly better even if sociology had never been invented.
Comment
Authors: PEARCE MIKE , HARRIS KGE , BENGE RONALD , HILL MW , DUCKWORTH A , DUFFY MAUREEN , BARNES MELVYN
Published: March 2008

IT WAS THE then Duke of Gloucester who, observing the said Mr Gibbon (of Roman Empire fame) writing, said, to quote as accurately as my reference source will allow, ‘Another damned thick square book! Always scribble, scribble, scribble, scribble! Eh! Mr Gibbon!’
Three libraries in the Comtat
Authors: CALMANN MARIANNE
Published: March 2008

THE COMTAT is an area of France which stretches from Avignon to the Mont Ventoux eastward, down to Cavaillon in the south, and north to Vaison‐la‐Romaine. It has not existed as a separate entity since the French Revolution, when it ceased being Papal territory, but the locals have a strong sense of history, and the Comtat has kept its identity. In this small area—about twenty‐five miles across and about forty from north to south—there are three libraries of importance.
Tic‐tac technical · industrial and commercial library news
Authors: KEMPSON ELAINE
Published: March 2008

YOU ARE probably wondering what has happened to Industrial Library News. In taking over from Alan Armstrong I should like to broaden the coverage of these columns to cover current technical and commercial library news in general. So if you feel that the services you run, committee you serve on or publications you produce would be of interest to others I should be delighted to hear from you at Lambeth Reference Library, Brixton Oval, London SW2 Tel: 01–274 7451 ext 32.
Comment
Authors: TOMLINSON NORMAN , STOCKHAM KEN , DAY ALAN , PRIESTLEY ALMA , FOGG SIMEON , HAVARD‐WILLIAMS P
Published: March 2008

THE MAY 1975 meeting of the Library Association Council was noteworthy for bringing to a conclusion the series of twenty‐four meetings held by the Working Party on Association Services. It is literally true to say that the association will never be quite the same again. It is therefore useful to summarise the main decisions.
Multi‐site polytechnic library problems
Authors: REVILL DH
Published: March 2008

IN MAY 1970 The library world carried a special issue on ‘Libraries in polytechnics’. Don Davinson, in that issue, said, ‘with little chance of achieving consolidation on one site for many, many years their difficulties in providing coherent library service will be truly formidable’.
Tic‐tac technical · industrial and commercial library news
Authors: KEMPSON ELAINE
Published: March 2008

The new British Institute of Management Information Centre was officially opened on June 5 by Viscount Watkinson, the institute's president.
Comment
Authors: COOPER ANDREW , FLETCHER JOHN
Published: March 2008

K G E HARRIS has given us some excellent reasons for not co‐operating (NLW July 1975), but fails to mention the following syndromes (also 13, curiously enough) which explain why we should co‐operate.
The Finnish library scene
Authors: HIRN SVEN , TÖRNUDD ELIN , NUOTIO SAMULI , HÄKLI ESKO , TAMMEKANN EEVA‐MAIJA , PERÄLÄ KEIJO
Published: March 2008

FINNISH ARCHITECTURE has won fame and honour. This applies to the best of it, of course, the achievements suitable for export and as a trade mark. Our world image tells nothing of our middling, ordinary buildings. Finland probably has just as many deficiently planned and poorly implemented monstrosities as most other countries. But it is probably characteristic that the end product is technically quite polished. The building regulations are exceptionally precise, partly because of our harsh climate, partly because of the bureaucratic tradition of our administrative machinery.
Conversation with Candida
Authors: SHALLOW ROBERT
Published: March 2008

Candida Shallow: What's that nice blue book you've got there, Daddy?
Comment
Authors: MURISON JOCK , GRIFFIN BRIAN , DUCKWORTH ALAN , AMAD NAZIR , REVILL DON , MIEKKAVAARA LEENA
Published: March 2008

THE August issue of NLW excelled itself, perhaps because it seemed to highlight what is the root cause of the malaise in library service and probably the reason in public libraries for our miserable public image, viz, our continuing failure to recognise that the most important elements in our service are people, the contacts we have with the community and the working relationships among the staff, both posing problems of communication.
Commonplaces
Authors: BINGLEY CLIVE , KEMPSON ELAINE , BUCHANAN JOHN
Published: March 2008

WHAT WITH the new LA Record apparently determined at least to set off down the runway—layouts and plans are due to be unveiled at SPEX 75, the day after this issue of NLW appears—we thought we'd better stir ourselves from summer somnolence and do a little gentle tinkering with NLW to reawaken your interest, and to show the LA that we, too, can move with the times, ha‐ha, even if not very far.