Our occasional plea for more candidates, representing all sides of librarianship, for the Library Association Council, seems to have been over‐adequately satisfied this year. The…
Abstract
Our occasional plea for more candidates, representing all sides of librarianship, for the Library Association Council, seems to have been over‐adequately satisfied this year. The rotation system of election provides only five vacancies each year; for these there were seventeen candidates. The voters were as indifferent as usual. The entire number of votes for all candidates was 10,396, and this from a membership of well over 8,000, each with five votes to cast. Possibly this shows the proportion of members who are really active in their interest. The results, however, cannot be called unsatisfactory, although the loss of Mr. Seymour Smith is to be regretted on the London representation. His successor, Mr. F. C. Francis, is a welcome addition, as he increases our connexion with the British Museum, and thus recalls the early years of the Association. From the Country representation we have lost the chief librarians of Glasgow and Newcastle‐upon‐Tyne, and the County Librarian of Denbighshire. The three successful candidates, Miss F. E. Cook (Lancashire), Mr. Duncan Gray and Mr. E. A. Clough, merely return to the Council. This presents a sort of election puzzle, as those who were displaced were also on the Council last year. Possibly some of them formerly represented branches or sections; there is certainly a solution to the puzzle. We say with confidence that any one of the candidates, successful or unsuccessful, would be an excellent councillor. For examples, many would like to see Cambridge University Library represented by Mr. E. Ansell, and it seems impossible that Glasgow is not represented or that the work Mr. Paterson has done should not have kept his seat safe; while few men of recent years have done more for the education of librarians than Mr. Austin Hinton. But the difficulty is that much the same sort of eulogy might be made of those who have been elected.
In our Winter number we presented a symposium based on an article by Mr. J. C. Harrison which appeared in our Autumn, 1955, issue. Now we present further comments on the subject…
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In our Winter number we presented a symposium based on an article by Mr. J. C. Harrison which appeared in our Autumn, 1955, issue. Now we present further comments on the subject by Mr. Clough of Bristol, Mr. Hughes of Hampshire and Mr. Stokes of Loughborough.
DR D J URQUHART is to be President of the Library Association for the year 1972, with Mr E V Corbett as Vice‐President and Mr E A Clough as Treasurer. In the annual election for…
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DR D J URQUHART is to be President of the Library Association for the year 1972, with Mr E V Corbett as Vice‐President and Mr E A Clough as Treasurer. In the annual election for London councillors, Miss L V Paulin topped the poll, with Mr K C Harrison and Miss M J Lewis as the other successful candidates. Country councillors will be Mr K A Stockham, Mr P Hepworth, Mr W A Taylor, Mr A Longworth and Mr J N Allen. Councillors for national and university, college and medical libraries are Mr J Thompson and Mr P W Plumb. Councillors for special libraries are Mr D Mason and Mr F A Graham.
The problems of One‐Man‐Bands (OMBs) began to be taken seriously in the early 1980s when the Aslib OMB group was formed. The group received considerable attention in the…
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The problems of One‐Man‐Bands (OMBs) began to be taken seriously in the early 1980s when the Aslib OMB group was formed. The group received considerable attention in the professional press, and became the object of a study by Judith Collins and Janet Shuter who identified them as “information professionals working in isolation”. Many of the problems identified in the Collins/Shuter study remain — not least of these being the further education and training needs of OMBs. These needs are studied in this report. The author has firstly done an extensive survey of the literature to find what has been written about this branch of the profession. Then by means of a questionnaire sent to the Aslib OMB group and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (INVOG), training and education needs have been pinpointed. Some of these needs have then been explored in greater detail by means of case studies. The author found that the most common deterrents to continuing education and training were time, cost, location, finding suitable courses to cover the large variety of skills needed and lastly, lack of encouragement from employers. The author has concluded by recommending areas where further research is needed, and suggesting some solutions to the problems discussed.
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OUR various accounts of the Portsmouth Conference, and the official record of it which is now in the hands of readers shows that it may be regarded as a successful one. It was…
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OUR various accounts of the Portsmouth Conference, and the official record of it which is now in the hands of readers shows that it may be regarded as a successful one. It was specially notable for the absence of those bickerings and differences which must inevitably come to the surface at times. There may be something in the suggestion of one of our writers that the weather was a main factor. However that may be, there was uniform good temper, and we came away with the belief that a good week's work for librarianship had been done.
IN December, 1964, Messrs. A. G. Sheppard Fidler and Associates, of Epsom, were commissioned by the Epsom and Ewell Borough Council to prepare a project design for a new building…
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IN December, 1964, Messrs. A. G. Sheppard Fidler and Associates, of Epsom, were commissioned by the Epsom and Ewell Borough Council to prepare a project design for a new building on a six‐acre site in Ewell, to house:—
AT THE PUBLIC LIBRARIES CONFERENCE at Dublin in 1967 my paper entitled ‘What should we provide?’ included an appraisal of where we stood in the matter of book expenditure, and…
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AT THE PUBLIC LIBRARIES CONFERENCE at Dublin in 1967 my paper entitled ‘What should we provide?’ included an appraisal of where we stood in the matter of book expenditure, and this appraisal was based on the Public Library Statistics 1965–66 issued by the Institute of Municipal Treasurers and Accountants and the Society of County Treasurers. As is generally known, these statistics are compiled with the help of the Library Association and are recognized as the official statistics for public libraries by the Department of Education and Science. What is apparently not so widely known is that these statistics are published after the lapse of about a year from the end of the period they cover. This seems to me to be perfectly understandable but it did result in a good deal of criticism that the figures I had used in Dublin were out of date.
ONE or two recent pronouncements in public on librarianship revive matters that some are inclined to think have been discussed enough. On another page reference is made to the not…
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ONE or two recent pronouncements in public on librarianship revive matters that some are inclined to think have been discussed enough. On another page reference is made to the not altogether novel suggestion, made lately at Hastings by Mr. E. A. Baker and now more forcibly perhaps at the Annual Meeting of the Greater London Division by Mr. Hoy, that the L.A. should be composed of a series of divisions each representing a type of library and librarians ; and that the Council should be of nominees from each of them and therefore more uniformly representative of modern library activity. A somewhat stale platitude, which we remember reading in an early volume of the LIBRARY WORLD, says “Branches are always foci of disunion” and it must be agreed that the purpose of sections is to advance their specialities, and justly. It follows that many non‐public librarians feel aggrieved at the dominance of Demos in the shape of public librarians and their assistants ; they should be confined within a section. It seems reasonable. It would however mean radical constitutional changes ; the L.A. was not primarily founded for the benefit of librarians, at least not openly, although its charter provides for the care of the training and conditions of librarians. It was to unite those who desired to advance the number and efficiency of libraries. And lay members were, and we believe still are, as entitled to membership as are library workers who are qualified, or desire to qualify as, librarians. There might, of course, be a non‐librarians section. Could there be a Local Authorities Section ? That would tidy up matters.
THE article which we publish from the pen of Mr. L. Stanley Jast is the first of many which we hope will come from his pen, now that he has release from regular library duties…
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THE article which we publish from the pen of Mr. L. Stanley Jast is the first of many which we hope will come from his pen, now that he has release from regular library duties. Anything that Mr. Jast has to say is said with originality even if the subject is not original; his quality has always been to give an independent and novel twist to almost everything he touches. We think our readers will find this to be so when he touches the important question of “The Library and Leisure.”
DONCASTER'S new Central Library was formally opened on 29th December 1969 on precisely the 100th anniversary of the opening of the first public library in Doncaster. Conforming to…
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DONCASTER'S new Central Library was formally opened on 29th December 1969 on precisely the 100th anniversary of the opening of the first public library in Doncaster. Conforming to tradition, the Library was opened by the Mayor of Doncaster, Councillor Marcus Outwin. The President of the Library Association, Mr. Wilfred Ashworth, addressed the assembled guests, his last official appointment before relinquishing the office.