Search results

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:

IN 1972 the Public Libraries Research Group (PLRG) was presented with a discussion paper on public libraries and long range planning. The group had recently published its public library aims and objectives statement and was looking for ways to assess future developments in these areas of management. Wennerberg in Sweden had just published a paper in the Unesco Bulletin on the Delphi technique as applied to special libraries, and reading this had stimulated the discussion paper. A search of the literature had revealed some references to the use of Delphi in industry, urban planning and professional areas such as medicine and higher education and, after considerable discussion, the group decided to accept the offer of the author and a colleague, Gordon Pratt, to attempt some research using this approach. The project organisers combined substantial and varied experience in a number of libraries with statistical knowledge and this combination proved to be highly desirable producing a truly multi‐disciplinary approach to the work.

SCHEMES FOR the national library services of developing countries make the British library world seem positively victorian by comparison. Two factors, however, are likely to be agents of change in the next few years. At the apex of the pyramid, the proposals for the British Library will rationalise the British Museum, the National Central Library, the National Lending Library for Science and Technology and the British National Bibliography complex. At more local levels, the re‐organisation of local government in England will ensure more effective provision of public library services under unitary control.

“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.

STRAWS IN THE WIND seem to be moving shakily towards the prospect of a tax on books. Official noises are being made about ‘bringing the UK into line’ with EEC countries by VAT‐ing books—taxes range from 5% in France to 15% in Denmark. There was also a veiled hint in Mr Denis ‘Soak‐em’ Healey's speech to the Labour Party's Blackpool conference about extending VAT to a number of zero‐rated commodities.

THE re‐organisation of local government in Greater London and the resultant amalgamation of library authorities is viewed by many with considerable misgivings. The upheaval of staff, the loss of status for some senior officers, the general uncertainty for the future—these are very real consequences of the Act and they cannot be ignored. Many chief librarians will see the work of a lifetime, perhaps spent in building up a comprehensive and unified system, made virtually meaningless overnight.

The re‐organisation of local government in Greater London and the resultant amalgamation of library authorities is viewed by many with considerable misgivings. The upheaval of staff, the loss of status for some senior officers, the general uncertainty for the future—these are very real consequences of the Act and they cannot be ignored. Many chief librarians will see the work of a lifetime, perhaps spent in building up a comprehensive and unified system, made virtually meaningless overnight.

The ‘interview’ undergone by the young prince in W F Yeames' well known painting shown on our front cover this month, was more painful than most. But job interviews are more often than not rather harrowing—at least in prospect—and we have asked four authors, each representing a different part of the interviewing spectrum, to give us their views about the process, its importance, and how best to approach something which happens to most of us at least once in our professional careers.

THERE is a danger in reviewing developments in the reprographic field that one will merely degenerate into giving a catalogue of the recent hardware. Yet the hardware is important. One is reminded of Verner W. Clapp's remark regarding the effectiveness of the American Council on Library Resources that at the end of 11 years, $10 million and 413 grants, contracts and projects, the work of the Council on Library Resources had brought about a great many improvements but that, on the whole, the state of the art was just about where it was when they started!.

ALTHOUGH the first Public Libraries (Scotland) Act was placed on the Statute Book in 1853, it was not until 1899 that the Corporation of the City of Glasgow was empowered to establish and maintain public libraries throughout the city. Between 1876 and 1897 four attempts were made to secure public approval for the adoption of the Public Libraries (Scotland) Acts, but when all these efforts proved unsuccessful, the Corporation decided in June, 1888 to include in a Local Bill for submission to Parliament, certain clauses conferring upon themselves the power to become a library authority. Promoted in 1899, the Bill became known as the Glasgow Corporation (Tramways, Libraries, etc.) Act 1899, and the library clauses passed through Parliament without opposition and received Royal Assent on 1st August, 1899. The powers conferred by this Local Act empowered the Corporation: