The Library World Volume 57 Issue 10

Abstract

IF we devote this page largely to the Library Association we believe our readers, who are the most active workers in librarianship, will think us justified because the Association is the central fact in our lives. Its Annual Report for 1955 has reached us. It is a document to be read, appreciated and criticised; we only wish we could say that it always is, for then surely some of the tart utterances about the inactivity, even uselessness, of our organization would be evaluated at their real worth or want of it. The Association does not work by means of press campaigns, or illegal dismissal of members who do not fulfil all its professional ethical codes. It has more direct access to the Government than is usually known. It was not quiescent when the Post‐master General increased book and newspaper postage; with other folk of influence it went to see him. It is not idle when posts are advertised at rates unsuitably parsimonious; it protests to the authorities issuing them invariably, and it makes it clear to chartered librarians that in applying for such posts they undersell and betray us all. Unfortunately these, the only lawful methods open to the Association, do not influence certain members. In fifteen cases, twelve were filled by those who will remember all their lives that they “let down the side” and probably at least five times as many were also their competitors. This is merely an explanatory word to those who complain of inaction.

Citation

(1956), "The Library World Volume 57 Issue 10", New Library World, Vol. 57 No. 10, pp. 185-204. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb009401