Search results

To a certain extent the history of women's poetry in America is a tale of confinements,” writes Alicia Ostriker in the opening chapter of Stealing the Language: The Emergence of Women's Poetry in America. I would argue that it is less a tale of confinements than a tale still untold. Ostriker's own book on the topic, for instance, covers the entire period of women's poetry from 1650–1960 in a single chapter.

Almost anyone can organize a conference but to do it well is difficult because of the intractable material involved.

THE Fifty‐First Conference of the Library Association takes place in the most modern type of British town. Blackpool is a typical growth of the past fifty years or so, rising from the greater value placed upon the recreations of the people in recent decades. It has the name of the pleasure city of the north, a huge caravansary into which the large industrial cities empty themselves at the holiday seasons. But Blackpool is more than that; it is a town with a vibrating local life of its own; it has its intellectual side even if the casual visitor does not always see it as readily as he does the attractions of the front. A week can be spent profitably there even by the mere intellectualist.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the concepts of social enterprise (SE) and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Both terms are regarded as pivotal but somewhat related when discussed in scholarship. Despite this few attempts have been made to isolate the manner in which they connect.

In this paper the authors attempt to unpack these two terms in order to isolate key areas of overlap in their use and operationalization. In doing so, the authors address the call for work to synthesize the highly fragmented literature.

The paper demonstrates that, while SE and CSR retain a unique place in the business-society landscape, there is indeed an overlap between the two. The generation of value – social, collaborative, or strategic – appears to be a central theme that connects the two concepts.

The authors offer a detailed discussion of how SE and CSR have contributed to scholarship, and demonstrate that the two terms are indeed interrelated on many levels.

WE publish this issue on the eve of the Brighton Conference and our hope is that this number of The Library World will assist the objects of that meeting. Everything connected with the Conference appears to have been well thought out. It is an excellent thing that an attempt has been made to get readers of papers to write them early in order that they might be printed beforehand. Their authors will speak to the subject of these papers and not read them. Only a highly‐trained speaker can “get over” a written paper—witness some of the fiascos we hear from the microphone, for which all papers that are broadcast have to be written. But an indifferent reader, when he is really master of his subject, can make likeable and intelligible remarks extemporarily about it. As we write somewhat before the Conference papers are out we do not know if the plan to preprint the papers has succeeded. We are sure that it ought to have done so. It is the only way in which adequate time for discussion can be secured.

SYD and the disabled ‐ Do you remember the International Year of Disabled People? I know we have had Information Technology Year since then and are now in Beautiful Britain Year (which we shall be able to appreciate as soon as the weather lets us), but the good work started during IYDP in 1981 didn't end there. I was reminded of this recently when I received a copy of a remarkable document called the SYD squad report published by Nottinghamshire County Council's Leisure Services. SYD squads (SYD means Survey for the Year of the Disabled) were composed of equal numbers of physically handicapped and able‐bodied young people, engaged under the government backed Youth Training Opportunities Programme, to take a long hard look at everything that affects the lives of disabled people in Nottinghamshire, from personal relationships and access to buildings to leisure, education, employment and welfare. Using questionnaires, disabled ‘guinea‐pigs’ and incognito researchers, the youngsters set out to survey the current ‘state of play’ for the disabled. Their report takes opinion and fact to paint a complete picture of disabled living and prospects for improvement in Nottinghamshire—though its findings are likely to have a much wider impact. Libraries on the whole come out well, though there were difficulties with heavy doors, high counters and use of card catalogues. The height of bookshelves was also mentioned but it was recognised that there was no easy solution to this problem. The report, which is excellently produced and illustrated with photographs and cartoons, is a mine of sensible and practical information that should be of benefit to all whose services are used by the disabled. Copies cost £5.50 from Nottinghamshire County Council, Leisure Services Department, Trent Bridge House, Fox Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham NG2 6BJ.

OWING to the comparatively early date in the year of the Library Association Conference, this number of THE LIBRARY WORLD is published so that it may be in the hands of our readers before it begins. The official programme is not in the hands of members at the time we write, but the circumstances are such this year that delay has been inevitable. We have dwelt already on the good fortune we enjoy in going to the beautiful West‐Country Spa. At this time of year it is at its best, and, if the weather is more genial than this weather‐chequered year gives us reason to expect, the Conference should be memorable on that account alone. The Conference has always been the focus of library friendships, and this idea, now that the Association is so large, should be developed. To be a member is to be one of a freemasonry of librarians, pledged to help and forward the work of one another. It is not in the conference rooms alone, where we listen, not always completely awake, to papers not always eloquent or cleverly read, that we gain most, although no one would discount these; it is in the hotels and boarding houses and restaurants, over dinner tables and in the easy chairs of the lounges, that we draw out really useful business information. In short, shop is the subject‐matter of conference conversation, and only misanthropic curmudgeons think otherwise.

CHESHIRE County Libraries has been running a ‘dial‐a‐story’ service for the last year, enabling children to listen to a selection of 5‐minute stories recounted by library staff. As many as 5000 calls have been received in a single week, and Alex Wilson, Cheshire's Director of Library Services, is very pleased with the success of the scheme. Does the Post Office pay a commission, I wonder?

THE BIAS towards the shires in the rate‐support grant for the next fiscal year has brought benefit, albeit of a negative kind, to one county librarian to whom I was chatting recently, who has to face a cut in his budgets of ‘only about £60,000’, which is some 3% of his total. We agreed ruefully that in real terms public libraries have had to live with annually reducing expenditure for at least a decade, and that 3% next year was at least manageable, if no great stimulus to morale.