Search results

DURING the three years I have attended the meetings of this branch association, papers of so interesting a character have been read that I am well aware of the difficulty each paper reader must have in keeping up the standard. But as my subject seems a good one, you may be inclined to overlook an indifferent treatment of it.

[There are thousands of lists of books on special subjects, and nothing more is attempted here than to indicate the most useful. For other lists and bibliographies, reference must be made to the works in Section I. The catalogues of special libraries and the numerous lists of books on special subjects contributed to professional magazines must also be sought for there.]

THE following abstract in tabular form has been prepared by some junior members of the Islington Public Libraries staff for the use of candidates in Section V. of the Library Association Examination. It does not pretend to do more than set out the chief provisions of the various Public Libraries Acts in a clear manner, as an aid to the memorization of the principal powers and duties conferred upon library authorities. The whole of the Acts can be purchased through any bookseller for 1s. 4½d., and every student of librarianship is advised to procure them.

GLASGOW was later by about one hundred and thirty years than some of the Scotch towns in establishing a printing press. Three hundred years ago, though Glasgow contained a University with men of great literary activity, including amongst others Zachary Boyd, there does not appear to have been sufficient printing work to induce anyone to establish a printing press. St. Andrews and Aberdeen were both notable for the books they produced, before Glasgow even attempted any printing.

Sex has increasingly been constructed as a problem for men with learning disabilities. Research has focused on their vulnerability to abuse and their capacity to exploit. There are also the additional fears of their sexual activity leading to HIV infection or pregnancy. Notions of sexual rights and sexual pleasure are lost in such a discourse. This paper looks in detail at the actual experience of sex for men with learning disabilities, based on qualitative interviews. It paints a very uncomfortable picture, leading to the title question: is sex a good thing for men with learning disabilities?

THE 31st annual meeting of the Library Association passed off very comfortably at Brighton, and if nothing particularly momentous occurred affecting librarianship, everybody enjoyed the various entertainments and the breezy weather. Brighton certainly deserved the title to breeziness which it claims, because it was stormy nearly every night or early morning during the run of the Conference, and members must be congratulated on the lucky manner in which it was found possible to dodge the showers.

EVERYONE interested in the British library movement will learn with sorrow and regret that one of its greatest friends and strongest champions has passed away, in the person of Thomas Greenwood, the kind‐hearted and generous advocate of libraries, who won the respect and regard of every English libiarian. From one of his own periodicals the following particulars are abstracted:—

“WHAT a place to be in, is an old library! It seems as though all the souls of all the writers, that have bequeathed their labours to these Bodleians, were reposing here, as in some dormitory or middle state. I do not want to handle, to profane the leaves, their winding sheets… I seem to inhale learning, walking amid their foliage.” Thus wrote Charles Lamb, of the Bodleian Library, which is the largest library to bear the name of a private benefactor, and amongst British libraries, is second only in importance to the British Museum.

Books and periodicals on aeronautics: A buying list