The USE OF TRADE LITERATURE

Abstract

In a paper by a then prominent member of the Northern Branch of Aslib, who is not unknown to many of us here, given to the Scottish Branch in 1953, the author deplored the use of what he called ‘a starting rail’ in the writing of papers and reports, alluding metaphorically to the early aeroplanes, to enable the writers to get off the ground, before embarking on what they hoped would be steady, level flight of fact or fancy. This he would probably apply to speakers as well, but I make no excuse for building for myself what almost amounts to a launching platform, and extending the metaphor to the more up‐to‐date rocket and IRBM and ICBM rather than the early aeroplanes, before letting go and venturing into unexplored space, which is in this case ‘The use of Trade Literature’, for that is the region I have been told to explore this morning. Unexplored it certainly is for, like all good research workers, my first reaction in starting to prepare the paper was to examine what others had written about the subject. Precious little! I found that most of the works on special library technique dealt with the subject in a paragraph at best and in two or three lines at worst. If I had strung all the extracts together and amplified and extended them I should not have occupied more than about five minutes of your time. So most of what follows is either original, empirical, borrowed from other practitioners, pinched in other words, or ad hoc. For the benefit of those who have not had a classical education, I will explain that ad hoc means in effect designed to fit a particular or peculiar set of conditions.

Citation

LINSTEAD, C.C. (1959), "The USE OF TRADE LITERATURE", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 98-101. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb049695