The staff structure at Glasgow University Library inherited afterR.O. MacKenna′s retirement in 1978 is described. Taking into accountautomation, information access, research…
Abstract
The staff structure at Glasgow University Library inherited after R.O. MacKenna′s retirement in 1978 is described. Taking into account automation, information access, research working patterns and changes in management technique, future developments in staff structure are envisioned, with particular reference to Glasgow′s special collections department.
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IT is heartening to librarians who begin a winter's work to read more personally a few recent conference utterances. In the changing pattern of contemporary life the library has…
Abstract
IT is heartening to librarians who begin a winter's work to read more personally a few recent conference utterances. In the changing pattern of contemporary life the library has become an indispensable ingredient and not merely an ornament or an amenity, although it may also be that. Such a phrase, uttered fifty years ago, would have been met with a curl of contempt upon the lip of most hearers—so we are told. But that was the effect of Sir Philip Morris's conference address, to which we have turned again with profit. Yet before our complacency grows we may also note his view that, while modern life without libraries is impossible, our tendencies hitherto have been unplanned and this is a source of strength not without its dangers. When such statements are made there seems a certain vagueness about them. We recall that young librarians were not admitted to the special abbreviated matriculation that was available to others after the first World War because they “were not an organized profession.” With our Association, Charter, Examinations, and Diplomas, which such a decision then ignored, many were left wondering what the word organized meant. If we are unplanned, or have been, in what way are we so? Every year, indeed, increases the appropriateness of our training and testing systems, and their difficulty. Every year sees the recognition of the unity in librarianship in spite of the superficial differences we deal with below; every year sees the development of library research, intercommunication and almost universal co‐operation. As for differences, Mr. F. C. Francis in his eloquent address stressed the need for a flexible, genial individualism in libraries. Probably our President was leading us to contemplate the views the Council advanced in its motion to the Annual General Meeting which, in the interests of efficiency, would transfer the responsibility for libraries to larger local government authorities. The postal ballot on the Council resolution demanded at Southport has now been declared. 8,502 members were entitled to vote, about 3,340 were excluded for non‐payment of their current subscriptions, and 3,538 returned correct ballot papers. The majority for the Council was 1,150. Such ballots are necessarily secret and no inferences can be drawn from the figures, except that the Council has a modest mandate to go ahead. We are sure that discretion will be observed in the choice of time and manner of doing that.
Nearly fourteen years ago my colleague at the University of Glasgow, R. O. MacKenna, wrote in the Journal of Documentation what is virtually the paper I am going to read today…
Abstract
Nearly fourteen years ago my colleague at the University of Glasgow, R. O. MacKenna, wrote in the Journal of Documentation what is virtually the paper I am going to read today (although perhaps I am in a position to translate into practice things which he could only, at that time, discuss in a theoretical way). He called reader instruction ‘a university library problem’; it is still a problem, but there are signs that it is one which is on the way to being solved, or at least one which we now know how to solve if we only had the financial resources to implement the solution.
THE provisional programme of this year's L.A. Conference at Southport on September 20–23 is now in our hands. The theme, the library and the community, is the perennial one for…
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THE provisional programme of this year's L.A. Conference at Southport on September 20–23 is now in our hands. The theme, the library and the community, is the perennial one for our conferences and, in that, is blameless ; everything will depend on the handling of the subjects. No one who considers what is promised can accuse the Council of the L.A. of a partial view of the field, because whole areas are given representation in general sessions and if, as we expect from such writers as Messrs. R. O. MacKenna, W. S. Haigh, D. J. Foskett and F. C. Francis, the papers have the requisite range, the Proceedings will prove to be a comprehensive Statement of library practice today. All are well‐tried speakers and amongst them we anticipate, for example, a model paper from Mr. Haigh, who was frank in his view of the endurance required of the listeners at Hastings. The gifted Editor of The Assistant Librarian, Mr. A. C. Jones, who, unfortunately for us all, is relinquishing that office, is to occupy the A.A.L. with the assistant librarian in the community, and county libraries are to be represented by papers by Mr. B. Oliph Smith and Mr. H. Thompson at their own Section meetings. University libraries again come into the picture at theirs with a discussion opened by Dr. L. W. Sharp. Mystery is suggested by Mr. B. C. Vickery's “Tower of Babel: the language barrier in science” which seems to indicate some form of Interglossa or, possibly, since he is an enthusiast for Dr. Ranganathan, that teacher's Meta‐language. It certainly would be an achievement if whenever a scientist used a word it could be made to convey the same thing in every reader's mind. The Youth Section will listen to that practical teacher and thinker, Mr. J. F. Wolfenden; and the Annual Lecturer on Wednesday, September 21, will be by Mr. J. L. Longland, the chief education officer of Derbyshire, whose co‐operative sympathy and support was no doubt of great service to Mr. Edgar Osborne in the organizing of the most fully co‐ordinate county service in this country. Five British “internes” will render account of their experiences in America, under the chairmanship of Mr. J. C. Harrison, we hope to the encouragement of others of us “to go and do likewise.” Nothing better for the creation of fresh enthusiasms and for a high international level of library practice in all its variants can be imagined than this prolonged employment in the libraries of other countries ; every librarian should encourage it to the limit of his means and feel, as we do, gratitude to Messrs. Sydney and Harrison for acting as the selection committee so far as British candidate “internes” are concerned.
It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields…
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It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields but who have a common interest in the means by which information may be collected and disseminated to the greatest advantage. Lists of its members have, therefore, a more than ordinary value since they present, in miniature, a cross‐section of institutions and individuals who share this special interest.
Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).
The 28th annual conference of Aslib, held at Nottingham University from 11th to 14th September, 1953, proved to be the largest that Aslib has so far organized. A list of those…
Abstract
The 28th annual conference of Aslib, held at Nottingham University from 11th to 14th September, 1953, proved to be the largest that Aslib has so far organized. A list of those present is printed on pp. 254–260. Yet again Aslib was glad to be able to welcome a number of overseas guests and members, including Dr. and Mrs. Lancour and their small daughter from the U.S.A., Drs. and Mrs. van Dijk and Miss Rom from the Netherlands, Mr. M. S. Dandekar and Mr. J. V. Karandikar from India, Miss D. M. Leach from Canada, and Mrs. T. Collin from Norway. Mr. Walter A. Southern, a Fulbright scholar from the U.S.A. affiliated to Aslib during his year's study in the United Kingdom, represented the Special Libraries Association, and Mr. J. E. Holmstrom attended as an observer on behalf of Unesco.
I was asked to speak on ‘Information Service: the Contribution of the University’. I take that to mean specifically the contribution that a University library can make towards…
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I was asked to speak on ‘Information Service: the Contribution of the University’. I take that to mean specifically the contribution that a University library can make towards satisfying the information needs of industrial research: but I hope you will not think me irrelevant if I begin by discussing the nature and functions of a university library in general, for these determine the contribution which it can make, and must therefore be understood before that contribution can be assessed.
Ever since it became regular practice to allow undergraduate readers free access to the shelves, university and college librarians have been conscious of a responsibility for…
Abstract
Ever since it became regular practice to allow undergraduate readers free access to the shelves, university and college librarians have been conscious of a responsibility for offering them help and guidance in making the best use of the opportunities thus afforded them. For long, however, the problem was regarded as a purely domestic one, and each librarian sought his own solution to it according to his own lights, and in conformity with local circumstances.
BY mid‐September when these words appear there may be the first touch of frost in the mornings : summer is irrecoverably over. There is yet, a week ahead, the Library Association…
Abstract
BY mid‐September when these words appear there may be the first touch of frost in the mornings : summer is irrecoverably over. There is yet, a week ahead, the Library Association Conference and not a few older librarians, who have a life‐long memory of Autumn conferences, are happy that we no longer hold them in May, that adolescent, variable month, but are able to catch again in the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness the pleasures we have had in our summer holidays this perfect year. The irony of it lies in the fact that there is precious little holiday in today's conference week ; we do not even have an excursion on the Friday. Such frivolities are beyond the great gatherings of multilateral interests that assemble. Time, too, has become almost sordidly precious.