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The debate on the proper place in the job structure for newly qualified librarians is of long standing. In the days when the normal route to professional qualification in Britain was via Library Association examinations, perhaps, there was less of a problem. The training of those who qualified in this way was to a large degree in‐house and their promotion into professional posts was facilitated by their being acquainted already with the systems in which they worked.

Considers relevance of AACR to on‐line library catalogues. Surveys the history of cataloguing rules in relation to the code′s relevance in the state of librarianship at the time. Stresses the need for a code taking account of the actual and potential benefit of computerized catalogues and discusses various relevant aspects.

The last few years have seen considerable advances in the field of computerised bibliographic control. In addition to the mainframe‐based systems such as MARC, there has been increasing interest in mini‐ and microcomputer systems for both technical processing and information retrieval. With these developments has come a re‐examination of the usefulness of bibliographic standards which have emerged since libraries started facing the needs of interlibrary communication. This reconsideration of standards has prompted among many librarians the idea that the advent of computerised systems means the end of the need for standardisation. There is a general feeling that it is no longer necessary to require cataloguers (if they figure at all in the argument anyway) to create records in the rigorous way demanded by the likes of the Anglo‐American cataloguing rules (AACR). The power of the computer, it is felt, obviates the sophisticated and resource‐wasting processing that goes on in cataloguing departments; and features such as boolean searching, truncation, etc, can get over the need for accurate specification of authors' names or the titles of documents.

THE Reference Department of Paisley Central Library today occupies the room which was the original Public Library built in 1870 and opened to the public in April 1871. Since that date two extensions to the building have taken place. The first, in 1882, provided a separate room for both Reference and Lending libraries; the second, opened in 1938, provided a new Children's Department. Together with the original cost of the building, these extensions were entirely financed by Sir Peter Coats, James Coats of Auchendrane and Daniel Coats respectively. The people of Paisley indeed owe much to this one family, whose generosity was great. They not only provided the capital required but continued to donate many useful and often extremely valuable works of reference over the many years that followed. In 1975 Paisley Library was incorporated in the new Renfrew District library service.

Reflects on a paper extolling teaching cataloguing and indexing at library school written for Library Review in 1980.

Reflective debate on the content of the original paper.

The sentiments of the original paper were supported, with the added proviso that nowadays the ability to organise information is a basic skill everyone needs.

May be of interest to practitioners and library educators interested in this long standing debate.

Paper carries a response by the original author to the reflections on his paper.

Explores the confusion between main entry and main entry heading and attempts to finally lay the ghost to rest by shifting the emphasis onto the problem of work authority – the problem with which the theory of main entry is actually concerned. Concentrating on the second function of the catalogue as defined in the “Paris principles” of 1961, the paper examines various contributions on main entry including those delivered at the Toronto conference on AACR in 1997. Proposes the establishment of a global work authority file in which each individual work is primarily identified by a modified version of the uniform title, a departure which would restore the title (as opposed to the author) as principal identifier of the work.

It is generally accepted that cataloguing and classification should be included in the core subjects in any course leading to the award of a professional library qualification. In Britain the professional examinations of the LA have included the subject at both first and final levels, and all library schools currently offering degree or diploma courses set it in its conventional place. Indeed it could be said that any school failing to offer such instruction would be unlikely to receive accreditation for registration purposes.

To reflect on the importance of information storage and retrieval in the library curriculum in the 1980s.

The article provides a reflective viewpoint.

That cataloguing and classification was a vital skill for librarians to have, and that any moves to reduce it from the library school curriculum should be avoided.

Should be of interest to anyone interested in the historical competencies of librarianship and how they have been debated.

Offers an interesting insight into historical discussions relating to an aspect of library education.

Criminal proceedings can only follow the commission of an offence, made so by statute. If an act is not unlawful, it matters little with what motives a person commits it or the consequences; he is outside the law, i.e. criminal law; civil law might have a remedy, but criminal law does not. Even when a criminal offence is committed, it may contain ingredients without which, what would otherwise be a punishable act, becomes guiltless. Most qualifications to guilt are of longstanding, used by parliamentary draftsmen in a wide range of statutes and have acquired reasonably precise judicial meaning. Most relate to intention—wilfully, intentionally, knowingly—and in a few, judicial extension of the popular meaning and usage of the term has occurred to prevent an innocent stance being simulated by a guilty party. “Knowledge” is such an example. The term has been deliberately widened to cover persons who “shut their eyes” to an offence; where a person deliberately refrains from making enquiries, the results of which he would not care to know, this amounts to having such knowledge— constructive knowledge.