Search results

The purpose of this paper is to present the initial relationship between the Classification Research Group (CRG) and the Center for Documentation and Communication Research (CDCR) and how this relationship changed between 1952 and 1970. The theory of normative behavior and its concepts of worldviews, social norms, social types, and information behavior are used to characterize the relationship between the small worlds of the two groups with the intent of understanding the gap between early classification research and information retrieval (IR) research.

This is a mixed method analysis of two groups as evidenced in published artifacts by and about their work. A thorough review of historical literature about the groups as well as their own published works was employed and an author co-citation analysis was used to characterize the conceptual similarities and differences of the two groups of researchers.

The CRG focused on fundamental principles to aid classification and retrieval of information. The CDCR were more inclined to develop practical methods of retrieval without benefit of good theoretical foundations. The CRG began it work under the contention that the general classification schemes at the time were inadequate for the developing IR mechanisms. The CDCR rejected the classification schemes of the times and focused on developing punch card mechanisms and processes that were generously funded by both government and corporate funding.

This paper provides a unique historical analysis of two groups of influential researchers in the field of library and information science.

DOUGLAS FOSKETT has accepted the nomination to the LA Presidency for 1976, a fitting seal upon many years of service, in a variety of offices, to the association and to the profession both at home and overseas.

THE FIRST MEETING of the LA Council in each year confirms the nomination of the new president by arranging his investiture with the badge of office by the outgoing incumbent. Last year Sir Fred Dainton had to buckle at the knees to allow Douglas Foskett to slip the blue ribbon over his head; this time he had to stretch up a little to negotiate Godfrey Thompson's ginger curls. The new president might have been only too willing to do the buckling but he was carrying the effects of a seasonal bug and once started on his way down, might never have stopped.

Library assistants were originally considered to be professional librarians in the making, and were trained accordingly. With the expansion of libraries and librarianship, Britain's “apprenticeship” system of qualification gave way to formal library school education, and a new category of “non‐professional staff” was created, of people who were unwilling or unable to proceed to graduate‐level qualification. The development of non‐professional certificates of competence in the UK is described against parallel developments in the US, Canada and Australia; the COMLA training modules are also examined. The theoretical and practical issues surrounding training are discussed, training schemes and qualifications in the four countries analysed, and the relative merits of in‐house training and external certificate programmes argued.

Herbert Coblans to whose memory this number of the Journal of Documentation is dedicated served for thirteen years as its editor and as a world‐wide spokesman of Aslib's cause. In character and intellectual make‐up he was an exemplar of Aslib itself: a highly professional exponent of the skills and techniques of recording and communication in, particularly, scientific fields. In this role he never allowed himself to be an extroverted propagandist but maintained his sometimes magisterial status as a highly attuned expert talking to experts. Thirty years ago he had been Head of the Chemistry Department in the University of Natal and it was certainly because of his scientific background that he was able to show to the scientific world a sense of the philosophies and techniques and sciences inherent in modern methods. What we are trying to show here, mainly in contributions from his professional colleagues, is more than just a record of his achievements at the summit of expertness in his profession but something of the social, cultural and moral character of a very remarkable man.

I HAVE SEEN no comments in our professional press on the notice given by the United States of intention to withdraw from Unesco at the end of 1984. Yet this decision concerns all of us who look beyond our own coastline, and take some interest in libraries throughout the world, because there can be no doubt that Unesco has been a major factor in their development. This is certain to suffer if the us contribution to the budget, some 25%, ceases. The decision has not yet come into effect, and there is still time to persuade the us not to implement it.

During the years following the end of World War II, there was a considerable expansion of library services in industry, and some of the scientists engaged in this activity sought to establish strong links with professional librarians, particularly in universities and city libraries with collections of scientific literature. Among them were Denis Arnold, Wilfred Ashworth and Brian Vickery, and it was at a conference of the London and Home Counties Branch of the Library Association that I first met both Arnold and Vickery. It was my good fortune to discover very quickly a community of interest with Brian, based on our industrial experience, and a similar outlook on a wide range of matters social and political.

The role of the public reference library today is unclear. As a result there is a loss of purpose, staff are confused and collections are being weakened or broken up. Examines the history of the large urban reference libraries and the aims and motivations of their protagonists and early librarians. Concludes that many of these aims are still valid. The decline of the reference library coincides with the rise of information science, new service philosophies, and the weakening of public access to our printed heritage. Argues that there is a need to develop regional book and information centres, a need therefore for regional reference libraries.

History teaching in a multi‐cultural society was one of the most frequently discussed topics in educational circles in 1990. Anybody who learned history in the pre‐1960 period would, however, have been surprised to learn that it was thought that “multi‐cultural society” was a new‐thing in the UK. To them the history of these islands seemed to be one wave of invaders after another with a sort of English only established as a universal language some 400 years ago. This strand in our history was matched by another in which brave Britons went off in search of fame and fortune, or to head off a foreign threat, overseas.