The present paper is intended to form an introduction to the ideas of machine translation; it is in no sense a complete account of the work which has been carried out at Birkbeck…
Abstract
The present paper is intended to form an introduction to the ideas of machine translation; it is in no sense a complete account of the work which has been carried out at Birkbeck College and elsewhere and which interested readers can study in more detail in a book which is in course of publication.
‘Are you for or against microfilm?’ Alfred North Whitehead was once asked, and after a moment of reflection he replied in his high‐pitched voice, ‘What a curious question. Why…
Abstract
‘Are you for or against microfilm?’ Alfred North Whitehead was once asked, and after a moment of reflection he replied in his high‐pitched voice, ‘What a curious question. Why should anyone be either for or against a tool?’ One is not for or against a hammer or a spade. The only question is, will the tool do whatever needs to be done effectively and efficiently? Yet, a mechanical innovation can become a cause célèbre, and an emotional battle is joined between antagonist and protagonist, each with his own band of ardent followers.
It is indeed a pleasure to talk to you this evening about information retrieval in general and at the Center for Documentation in particular. Information retrieval, I suspect, is…
Abstract
It is indeed a pleasure to talk to you this evening about information retrieval in general and at the Center for Documentation in particular. Information retrieval, I suspect, is treated with some suspicion in Britain, and much of the outpouring of documentation literature is doubtless discounted as typical American excesses of enthusiasm and braggadocio. I hope that I can contribute something tonight towards putting our own efforts into a sensible perspective.
AFTER some unsuccessful negotiations during the period when the first full‐time schools of librarianship were being established, the Birmingham School was founded in the autumn of…
Abstract
AFTER some unsuccessful negotiations during the period when the first full‐time schools of librarianship were being established, the Birmingham School was founded in the autumn of 1950. Circumstances were not entirely favourable—the immediate post‐war generation of enthusiastic ex‐service students had already passed through other schools; the accommodation available was indifferent; the administrative support was bad; resources were weak, both in books and in equipment. There was, more importantly, a strong local tradition of part‐time classes in librarianship and little or no conviction that full‐time study was necessary or desirable.
The interrelationship between libraries and social development constitutes a basis for discussion of the most important contemporary problems of organization and functioning of…
The purpose of this paper is to present the initial relationship between the Classification Research Group (CRG) and the Center for Documentation and Communication Research (CDCR…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present the initial relationship between the Classification Research Group (CRG) and the Center for Documentation and Communication Research (CDCR) and how this relationship changed between 1952 and 1970. The theory of normative behavior and its concepts of worldviews, social norms, social types, and information behavior are used to characterize the relationship between the small worlds of the two groups with the intent of understanding the gap between early classification research and information retrieval (IR) research.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a mixed method analysis of two groups as evidenced in published artifacts by and about their work. A thorough review of historical literature about the groups as well as their own published works was employed and an author co-citation analysis was used to characterize the conceptual similarities and differences of the two groups of researchers.
Findings
The CRG focused on fundamental principles to aid classification and retrieval of information. The CDCR were more inclined to develop practical methods of retrieval without benefit of good theoretical foundations. The CRG began it work under the contention that the general classification schemes at the time were inadequate for the developing IR mechanisms. The CDCR rejected the classification schemes of the times and focused on developing punch card mechanisms and processes that were generously funded by both government and corporate funding.
Originality/value
This paper provides a unique historical analysis of two groups of influential researchers in the field of library and information science.
Details
Keywords
In our media‐orientated, image‐conscious contemporary society the librarian may very well seem particularly unfortunate, reflected in the imagination of the general public as a…
Abstract
In our media‐orientated, image‐conscious contemporary society the librarian may very well seem particularly unfortunate, reflected in the imagination of the general public as a fussy old woman of either sex, myopic and repressed, brandishing or perhaps cowering behind a date‐stamp and surrounded by an array of notices which forbid virtually every human activity. The media, for whom the librarian is frustration personified, have reinforced this stereotype, hitherto transmitted solely by superstition and hearsay; its greatest impact has no doubt fallen on the two‐thirds of the population who never use the library. One of its effects will be to ensure that they never do so in the future. As Frank Hatt has pointed out: “The controllers of the new media of communication … have shown a tendency to limit choices by using the considerable power of the media to limit their audience's established attitudes, simply because such limitation is good business.” The popular BBC television series, The last of the summer wine, portrayed a librarian whose vicarious sex‐life through the pages of D. H. Lawrence led to inevitably frustrated attempts to act out his fantasies in occasional under‐the‐counter forays with his similarly repressed female assistant. A Daily mail leader on an appeal against unfair dismissal made by a London Deputy Borough Librarian reiterates this concept:
Information and special library work is at present a profession that is in the process of formation and struggling for recognition, and entry into it is entirely uncontrolled…
Abstract
Information and special library work is at present a profession that is in the process of formation and struggling for recognition, and entry into it is entirely uncontrolled. People with the most varied backgrounds and levels of education find themselves made responsible for setting up or running library and information services, without any previous knowledge of the work. Often they are in remote places and without any contact with more experienced colleagues who could give them advice, and their only means of getting the knowledge necessary for the efficient carrying out of their duties is from reading. But, owing to the unsettled state of the profession, the literature is voluminous and scattered, and much of it is of a low standard, or occupied with pure theorizing or polemics. Moreover, the literature that the novice is most likely to see, namely the articles on documentation which are occasionally printed in technical journals, is not always the most helpful for a person who has no background of experience against which he can evaluate it. In these circumstances the new entrant needs a guide to the literature if he is not to be discouraged or adopt practices and systems which are not really suitable to his circumstances. It is to meet this need that this annual review of the literature, now in its sixth year, has been written. It attempts to select those books and papers which are most likely to be of direct help in running a small information department or library, eschewing all pure theorizing and polemics, and only including literature on large libraries where it is felt that it contains ideas capable of application in smaller organizations. To these are added a selection of the most important works of reference, including some that the information officer may wish to know about and consult in other libraries, even though his own library does not possess them. The list is not restricted to work published in 1957, but is intended to be representative of items received in British libraries during the period under review. Owing to restrictions in space, the selection has to be rigorous, and is inevitably, to a certain extent, a personal one. No two people would probably agree on all the omissions, but it is hoped that all the items included will be of positive value to the type of reader for whom the review is intended.
New President and Vice‐President. Mr. F. C. Francis, M.A., F.S.A., Keeper, Department of Printed Books, British Museum, has been elected President of Aslib for the year 1957–58…
Abstract
New President and Vice‐President. Mr. F. C. Francis, M.A., F.S.A., Keeper, Department of Printed Books, British Museum, has been elected President of Aslib for the year 1957–58, in succession to Sir Raymond Streat. Mr. Francis has been a member of Council since 1952 and a Vice‐President since 1954. He is also Chairman of the International Relations Committee, and a member of the Executive and Finance Committee and the Journal of Documentation Editorial Advisory Board.
When I received your Honorary Secretary's invitation to speak at this conference I was naturally very flattered—because nobody had ever asked me to speak at a library conference…
Abstract
When I received your Honorary Secretary's invitation to speak at this conference I was naturally very flattered—because nobody had ever asked me to speak at a library conference before—and the choice of subject suited me, since it has been my concern over the last seven years of my professional career and since I was already about to prepare a contribution to another work on much the same topic. So I accepted the invitation with eagerness. But that was several months ago, and in the interim I have been getting progressively more uneasy. The other assignment I mentioned—a survey of the last five years' production in library science literature for our new reference work BLIS—had been completed, not without a struggle, and far from thinking afterwards that I could incorporate the same material into this talk, I was led further into doubt about what I should say, doubt about why I was being asked here at all, and what my qualifications were for saying anything at all to anyone. I thought back over the conferences I had attended as an all‐too‐silent observer these last seven years and asked myself what common characteristic the speakers had that I could now lay a claim to. They seemed, many of them, to be full‐time research workers, or recipients of grants, people with a lot of ideas about the future of the profession, library school lecturers, educationists with a discerning or a patronizing interest in libraries, political figures dragooned into giving their set speeches to, for a change, library audiences, and quite simply, people talking about their day‐to‐day work. Only the last category was open to me, and you will be pleased to hear that I do not intend to talk about my work at the Library Association, except incidentally.