JOHN ALLEN, PHILIP HEPWORTH, K LI PLUMRIDGE, KD MILLER, CHRISTOPHER DYER, TERRY HOUGHTON, ARTHUR MALTBY, JS BURDEN, GEORGE BERRIMAN and SETH MANAKA
THERE ARE something like 4,700 qualified librarians in the local government service in this country and for most of us April 1 1974 is a date seldom far from our thoughts.
Jennifer Brice, Nick Childs, Roger M Shrigley, George Berriman, Janina S Morris and Alan Day
ANY GOOD DICTIONARY will define its terms, and this is a good precedent to follow. What is meant by ‘the affability factor’ comprises many elements which act together to create a…
Abstract
ANY GOOD DICTIONARY will define its terms, and this is a good precedent to follow. What is meant by ‘the affability factor’ comprises many elements which act together to create a favourable environment for a) first use of the library, and b) for the encouragement of repeat visits.
Clive Bingley, Helen Moss and Clive Martin
AS THIS ISSUE OF NLW appears, the Library Association begins its Centenary Conference in London. I am delighted to have been invited to attend the inaugural session on October 4…
Abstract
AS THIS ISSUE OF NLW appears, the Library Association begins its Centenary Conference in London. I am delighted to have been invited to attend the inaugural session on October 4, and I shall do so full of goodwill towards the association and the profession, both for the short term of this conference and for the outset of the new century in British library affairs. Mind you, and present gravity apart, I expect we shall still get plenty of fun out of the la before its bicentenary turns up.
Clive Bingley, Edwin Fleming and Sarah Lawson
I WAS lunching recently with a friend who reckons he has about ten more years to go in libraries before retirement, and he raised an interesting question. Given the realisation…
Abstract
I WAS lunching recently with a friend who reckons he has about ten more years to go in libraries before retirement, and he raised an interesting question. Given the realisation that one will not, at his age, now be likely to make chief, what can a senior and experienced librarian do by way of interesting alternative to just serving out time?
DAVID HOUSE, JACK DOVE, T SMETHURST, JON ELLIOTT, JAMES G OLLE, ER LUKE, IAN WILKES and SJ TEAGUE
SINCE LEAVING NORWICH, where I had lived and worked for eight years, I have been interested to read Philip Hepworth's periodic bulletins in NLW, the latest being Defeat (NLW…
Abstract
SINCE LEAVING NORWICH, where I had lived and worked for eight years, I have been interested to read Philip Hepworth's periodic bulletins in NLW, the latest being Defeat (NLW, January, pp 7–9). I have come to the conclusion that it must quickly have become a far wickeder and less hospitable place than I remember it. I don't recall the world of librarianship in that fine city being a battlefield, with winners and losers. Indeed, unless I am mistaken, PH was always quick to imply that county library services were very much second rate affairs, and am somewhat surprised that he subsequently became very keen to join one—not like him at all.
The large scale and far reaching functions of local government in the United Kingdom today are eloquent proofs of the universal demand for local services of high quality and wide…
Abstract
The large scale and far reaching functions of local government in the United Kingdom today are eloquent proofs of the universal demand for local services of high quality and wide coverage extending into almost every sector of life from literally the cradle to the grave. In the cities of Britain local government is often found to employ more people than any other single organisation. There are some 25,400 councillors in Britain and around 2,500,000 employees. The total expenditure of local authorities in England and Wales for 1984–85 was estimated at £24,323,000,000.1 The services provided include departments for development and planning, art galleries, libraries, museums, engineers, building surveyors, environmental health, architects, estate surveyors, housing, leisure and recreation, social services, economic development, education, transport, highways, trading standards, fire brigade, and police. In addition each local authority has departments mainly concerned with services to the other departments: the chief executive or secretary, personnel and management, solicitor, treasurer, and central purchasing services. Each of these departments has several important subdivisions, and clearly all require a constant inflow of information, and increasingly it is recognised local authorities generate large quantities of important information which can be used more widely with benefit within the authority, as well as outside.
Brian Griffin, Fazlul Alam, Alan Duckworth, Don Revill and Bernard I Palmer
FOR GOOD and ill, most of my first adventures with books—the events that really started me off on the Great Paper Chase—happened thanks to some local library or other. Things…
Abstract
FOR GOOD and ill, most of my first adventures with books—the events that really started me off on the Great Paper Chase—happened thanks to some local library or other. Things really started happening during my twelfth year, when a friend of mine at the Grammar School (I was a ‘Technical Hitch’ myself at the time) lent me a book he had borrowed from the school library: a collection of stories by H G Wells. I've never really been the same since reading that book: for one thing, I've never been able wholly to believe in the Two Cultures controversy. But Wells was my first ‘god’. Searching for my own copy of the stories—shyly, hesitatingly—was like searching for the milk of Paradise.
Clive Bingley, Helen Moss and Clive Martin
THE EDITORIAL in New society for June 23 last was headed ‘The attack on libraries’—and a robust piece of pleading it was, as well as heartening support for a public library system…
“FORMAL classes on how to use a library would be an insult to the intelligence of the student.” This was an extreme reply mentioned in the Report of the Committee on Libraries…
Abstract
“FORMAL classes on how to use a library would be an insult to the intelligence of the student.” This was an extreme reply mentioned in the Report of the Committee on Libraries, with reference to a questionnaire to academic staff about instruction in library use. This view of the teaching activities of librarians with students must be familiar to all librarians whether they are concerned with formal teaching activities or not. Nevertheless it is suggested that, in the current climate of change in the nature of sixth form studies, and the need for bibliographic training as part of a general education leading to informed library users in the academic and professional world, there is now a strong case for an examined course of study at “A” level G.C.E. incorporating the principles of bibliographical knowledge for users.
In 1886, Thomas Greenwood had been rightly critical of the lack of public libraries in London. Eight years later, he was able to describe a changed situation. Following further…
Abstract
In 1886, Thomas Greenwood had been rightly critical of the lack of public libraries in London. Eight years later, he was able to describe a changed situation. Following further adoptions of the Acts purpose‐built public libraries were to be found at Battersea, Bermondsey, Camberwell, Chelsea, Lambeth and St. Martin‐in‐the‐Fields, for example. Greenwood wrote appreciatively of further developments: