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Article
Publication date: 1 January 1984

Graham Credland

The most effective way we can communicate with each other is by face‐to‐face two‐way conversation. Apart from being able to obtain immediate feedback and having the ability to…

3951

Abstract

The most effective way we can communicate with each other is by face‐to‐face two‐way conversation. Apart from being able to obtain immediate feedback and having the ability to question and clarify, we are also able to observe a whole wealth of non‐verbal communication signs which can add to, or detract from, the verbal message.

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Education + Training, vol. 26 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0040-0912

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Publication date: 1 January 1992

Bob Duckett

The role of the public reference library today is unclear. As aresult there is a loss of purpose, staff are confused and collectionsare being weakened or broken up. Examines the…

66

Abstract

The role of the public reference library today is unclear. As a result there is a loss of purpose, staff are confused and collections are being weakened or broken up. Examines the history of the large urban reference libraries and the aims and motivations of their protagonists and early librarians. Concludes that many of these aims are still valid. The decline of the reference library coincides with the rise of information science, new service philosophies, and the weakening of public access to our printed heritage. Argues that there is a need to develop regional book and information centres, a need therefore for regional reference libraries.

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Library Review, vol. 41 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0024-2535

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Article
Publication date: 1 August 1915

Before the appearance of our next issue, the Annual Meeting of the Library Association will have taken place. In many ways, as indicated last month, it will be an interesting…

23

Abstract

Before the appearance of our next issue, the Annual Meeting of the Library Association will have taken place. In many ways, as indicated last month, it will be an interesting meeting, largely because it is in the nature of an experiment. International conditions, the state of national and municipal finance, the absence of library workers with the colours, and the omission of social events, all tend to influence its character. It is possible, however, that these very circumstances may increase the interest in the actual conference business, especially as the programme bears largely upon the War. The programme itself is formidable, and it will be interesting to see how the section on the literature of the war, for example, will be treated. Probably the Publications' Committee have in mind the book symposia which are a feature of the meetings of various library associations in the United States. These consist of a few minutes' characterisation, by an opener, of a certain book or type of literature, and a discussion after it. The experiment was attempted in London last year at one of the monthly meetings, but owing to a misapprehension the speaker gave an excellent lecture on Francis Thompson of more than an hour's duration, when he had been expected to give a brief description of Francis Meynell's biography of that poet. If any gatherings for a similar purpose are arranged, we hope the speakers will be primed sufficiently to avoid that error. As for social events, their omission is less likely to be felt in London than anywhere else in the Kingdom. London is a perennial source of social amusement in itself, and the evenings can readily be filled there—“chacun à son goût”—really better than by attending pre‐arranged gatherings.

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New Library World, vol. 18 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

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Publication date: 1 July 1902

It is not any part of my intention to open the much‐vexed question of the respective merits, or, should I not say, the respective demerits of indicators and of open access, in the…

25

Abstract

It is not any part of my intention to open the much‐vexed question of the respective merits, or, should I not say, the respective demerits of indicators and of open access, in the lending departments of Public Libraries. Whatever may be our individual views, it must be conceded that there are occasions in which one or other system is dictated by the local circumstances.

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New Library World, vol. 4 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

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Article
Publication date: 1 December 1906

WHEN the open access method of lending books was first introduced on safe‐guarded lines at Clerkenwell, over twelve years ago, a considerable amount of dolorous prophecy was set…

35

Abstract

WHEN the open access method of lending books was first introduced on safe‐guarded lines at Clerkenwell, over twelve years ago, a considerable amount of dolorous prophecy was set free, which sometimes formed rather depressing reading for those responsible for the experiment. As time went on, it became clear that many of the prophets based their vaticinations on imperfect knowledge of the actual arrangements in use, and it was then only a simple matter of allowing complete play to one's sense of humour, while the comedy of errors proceeded. One imaginative prophet pictured the time when painstaking librarians would be supplanted by a uniformed janitor, who would assume the functions of librarian, by the easy process of supervising the filtration of readers through a turnstile, like sheep through a hurdle. Another equally resourceful Quidnunc saw in his mind's eye, all the riff‐raff of London, filing through the little Clerkenwell wicket, like a Cup‐tie crowd at the Crystal Palace, without introduction, guarantee, or slightest degree of responsibility. Probably it was only a humorist, and not a prophet, who forsaw the introduction of weighing machines at both entrance and exit wickets, as a means of preventing wholesale thefts. These, and many other absurd misconceptions of the actual mechanical arrangements employed to overcome various anticipated difficulties, formed a considerable proportion of the prophetic utterances which advertised the open access system in its early days.

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New Library World, vol. 9 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

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Publication date: 1 December 1902

AT Oxford, on October 8th and 9th, was celebrated the tercentenary of the founding of the Bodleian Library by Sir Thomas Bodley, an Exeter man, who early realised the value of…

28

Abstract

AT Oxford, on October 8th and 9th, was celebrated the tercentenary of the founding of the Bodleian Library by Sir Thomas Bodley, an Exeter man, who early realised the value of books in the work of education. The occasion was made one of great importance, and there were gathered together distinguished representatives of literature and librarianship from all parts of the world. The list of delegates given below will show how extensive this representation was, although it will occur to some, as a somewhat remarkable circumstance, that not a single municipal library in London was represented, while many of the more important English towns were also ignored. Considering that such libraries are doing so much in the cause of popular education, compared to which the work of many of the colleges and institutions represented is microscopical, it does strike the outsider that the gathering would have been much more impressive and representative had there been more “Town” and less “Gown” in the celebration. The following is a full list of all but the Oxford representatives, who included practically every head of a college, professor, or college librarian, together with various local celebrities:—

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New Library World, vol. 5 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

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Article
Publication date: 1 September 1899

THE best description of this Indicator is published on a large folio four‐page statement written by Mr. John Maclauchlan, Chief Librarian of the Dundee Free Library, and issued on…

37

Abstract

THE best description of this Indicator is published on a large folio four‐page statement written by Mr. John Maclauchlan, Chief Librarian of the Dundee Free Library, and issued on September 22nd, 1879. This sheet is headed, “ Description and Method of using Kennedy's Indicator, invented for the Dundee Free Library in January, 1875, and constantly used therein since July of that year” and contains illustrations of the counter and details of the construction of the Indicator. The following description is abstracted from it:—“This contrivance consists of a series of upright glazed frames so placed as to be easily inspected by the public at the front, or glazed side, and by the library attendants at the back. … Each frame is divided into twenty vertical columns by slips of mahogany, and each of these slips is again sub‐divided into 100 sloping slits by pieces of stiff millboard [now zinc], tightly held in saw cuts made in the sides of the mahogany slips … As the lower edge of each piece of millboard is a little above that of the next one below it, sufficient space is visible of their lower ends in front, and of their upper ends at the back of the Indicator, to receive the catalogue number of each book in the library, printed in bold figures and pasted at the end of the millboard [zinc] strips with strong paste.” Each borrower is provided with a ticket measuring 5⅜ inches by 1 inch, ruled as follows :—

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New Library World, vol. 2 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

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