In admiration of Maurice Line

Citation

Hunt, C. (2005), "In admiration of Maurice Line", Interlending & Document Supply, Vol. 33 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilds.2005.12233baa.001

In admiration of Maurice Line

In admiration of Maurice Line

Maurice Line’s first article (1952) was, in retrospect very unexpectedly, on cataloguing – “The classification and arrangement of music scores”. It was an excellent discussion of a difficult practical problem, and showed signs of iconoclasm even then. His first substantial work was “A bibliography of Russian literature in English translation”. A professor of Russian history told me recently that it was one of the best English bibliographies of Russian culture, retaining its usefulness 40 years on. Maurice never returned to Russia in his writings – but his enthusiasm for Russian novels has persisted to this day. However, my academic friend’s comment on the quality of this work could have been made about almost any one of his nearly 500 published writings, on an astonishingly wide range of subjects many involving considerable research. This collection of essays in honour of Maurice Line is able to reflect only a tiny proportion of his professional interests and contributions.

Perhaps the fundamental point to make about this vast output is the lucidity of his written style and of his spoken English in both formal lectures and informal discussion. “ Managementspeak” is virtually non-existent, and obfuscation and puffing, of the type, which boasts, “how I run my library good” are absent. Jack Meadows draws attention to Maurice’s skill as a quantifier, basing all his arguments upon firm assemblage of data. Maurice does not like platitudes, particularly those backed by little or no evidence. “Is co-operation a good thing?” (1980, translated into German in 1981) is one of many deadly challenges to easy orthodoxy. “Library surveys: an introduction to their use, planning, procedure and pretension” (1967 and later editions), a textbook for librarians, remains valuable one-quarter of a century on with its emphasis on objectivity and avoidance of using measurement purely to support preconceived ideas and unacknowledged prejudices.

Alongside research-based studies and textbooks, particularly on social science information, the advance of computing, and the management of academic and national libraries, Maurice has produced many short articles, often under rather transparent pseudonyms – Moses, Eunice M. Blair – written to challenge prevailing ideas and pinprick the pomposity of “leaders” of the profession. Edward Dudley (himself no slouch in giving similar stimulation) describes some of them here. In a sense they are as important as the research-based publications in changing attitudes – and libraries – for the better over the last four decades. “ On the construction and use of white elephants” (1968) along with its successors was an important popularising predecessor to research which has transformed understanding of cataloguing principles, a crucial adjunct to the computer revolution on both sides of the Atlantic. “The joy of backlogs” (1988) reminded me of guilty pleasures of my own – all those lovely books which could be relied upon to be available (to the privileged librarian) in pristine condition because no library users knew of their existence.

Maurice was a practising librarian all his working life, latterly at the very highest level. His research and writing were the part time activities of a man of enormous energy, so much as to put overwhelming pressure on the most able and willing of secretaries, as Pam Maher describes. Joyce, his wife, with whom he recently celebrated their golden wedding, has put up with much, and her support has been crucial in underpinning his exuberance. He can be infuriating. His eagerness to change the world is matched by the energy of his walking. Whether in the streets of London or Budapest, or on the moors and dales of Yorkshire he always walks half as fast again as any companion wishes to do. He is often wrong; he is after all human (and his political views do not accord with mine!). But as a stimulus to cl5ear thinking about professional and other issues I have never met his peer. In argument he may not always convince one that he is right, but he always strikes sparks and makes one attempt to justify a contrary view by using the logical and quantitative criteria which he himself deploys so skilfully.

This collection of essays chiefly relates to Maurice, the professional man. In a credo published as a supplement to a portrait in Logos in 2002 Maurice described from whence he came:

• •

  Beliefs are shaped by background. Mine is working class and Christian non-conformist fundamentalist. My father was a postman. We were Strict and Particular Baptists who believed in the literal truth of the Bible … I had a bad stammer from the age of three to twenty-two … I won a scholarship to a public school, and later to Oxford.

In later life Maurice would not describe himself as a Christian, but his energy in using his talents instead of burying them in a napkin must surely owe something to that strict non-conformist upbringing in Bedford – this was after all the birthplace of John Bunyan.

The late Brian Enright’s portrayal of the mature man (1988) reprinted here, conveys his enthusiasm, intellectual power, energy, trenchant wit, social conscience, wideness of interests and personal kindness. Maurice Line is almost certainly the most widely known librarian of his generation; his writings, teaching and lectures continue to be influential throughout the world. Since retirement from the British Library much of his energy has been given to encouraging the development of information services in Eastern Europe and Africa. This is no obituary; in spite of his comment in the essay which he himself contributed to this festschrift (“This is almost certainly the last paper I shall write”) may he long continue to inspire and infuriate his colleagues.

Chris HuntEmeritus Librarian at the University of Manchester, Manchester, UK