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Article
Publication date: 1 July 1940

THIS issue opens the new volume of THE LIBRARY WORLD and it is natural that we should pause to glance at the long road we have travelled. For over forty years our pages have been…

Abstract

THIS issue opens the new volume of THE LIBRARY WORLD and it is natural that we should pause to glance at the long road we have travelled. For over forty years our pages have been open to the most progressive and practical facts, theories and methods of librarianship; our contributors have included almost every librarian who has held an important office; and we have always welcomed the work of younger, untried men who seemed to have promise— many of whom have indeed fulfilled it. In the strain and stress of the First World War we maintained interest and forwarded the revisions in library methods which adapted them to the after‐war order. Today we have similar, even severer, problems before us, and we hope to repeat the service we were then able to give. In this we trust that librarians, who have always regarded THE LIBRARY WORLD with affection, will continue to support us and be not tempted because of temporary stringency, to make a victim of a journal which has given so long and so independent a service.

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New Library World, vol. 43 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1947

H.V. MOLESWORTH ROBERTS

The article by Mr. Besterman in the March, 1946, number of the Journal (ii. 194–205), with its suggestions for recasting the form of the card for inclusion in A catalog of boohs

Abstract

The article by Mr. Besterman in the March, 1946, number of the Journal (ii. 194–205), with its suggestions for recasting the form of the card for inclusion in A catalog of boohs represented, creates a good opportunity for the consideration of the card as a whole, and especially of its layout. Although the form of the card has become established over a long period of years, and the cards themselves have become internationally familiar, these facts do not constitute an argument against future improvement, provided the use of existing cards is not vitiated. Whether any such improvement should be made on the cards or in the Catalog, and how far identity between the two is desirable, are questions beyond the scope of this study. The questions raised, however, relate, mutatis mutandis, to any kind of full catalogue entry.

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Journal of Documentation, vol. 3 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1944

OUR sympathies are with those who desire the Library Association Council to resume its functions, although we know these cannot be normal in abnormal times. Perhaps June of 1944…

Abstract

OUR sympathies are with those who desire the Library Association Council to resume its functions, although we know these cannot be normal in abnormal times. Perhaps June of 1944 is hardly the time to dismiss the Emergency Committee which, whatever its faults, has held the L.A. together and forwarded its best purposes. The invasion of Europe has begun, and before the month is out we hope that the great crusade of liberty will be well advanced. So we can afford to wait a few weeks longer. Indeed, it must take some time to hold elections—even if they are allowed—and there is the present ban on travel which, while it lasts, makes the meeting of any national body futile. Nevertheless, at the earliest possible moment now the Council, renewed if necessary, should assume the direction of its its own house. We believe the work of the Emergency Committee to have been good and its results will be fortified and made productive by the wider influence of the whole Council. In this we hope, indeed we believe, the members of the Emergency Committee, who have borne the burden and met the criticism of five years, are at one with us.

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New Library World, vol. 46 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Article
Publication date: 1 July 1944

WE open our new volume in circumstances of hope. The recent developments of the war give real encouragement to the expectation that a few more months of endurance may see if not…

Abstract

WE open our new volume in circumstances of hope. The recent developments of the war give real encouragement to the expectation that a few more months of endurance may see if not the end of war, at least its prospect. For many work has been pursued recently in circumstances of difficulty and, occasionally, of danger, but we do not know of any library which has closed for any length of time because of enemy action. Those in the South of England have had anxious hours; for a few days book issues went down, and thus the experiences of the autumn of 1940 were repeated. Such fluctuations are not likely to be permanent or even long‐lasting. For librarians, as for all our people, there is now evidence that before the volume we begin today is complete, we may be able to give undivided attention to libraries.

Details

New Library World, vol. 47 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1949

LIBRARIES are not a first priority in the building programme of the nation. It would be difficult to make them so. The Library Association Council, we are assured, have this…

Abstract

LIBRARIES are not a first priority in the building programme of the nation. It would be difficult to make them so. The Library Association Council, we are assured, have this matter under consideration continually and will lose no opportunity to urge the need for extensions of old buildings and for new ones. The demand for libraries grows, in the face of other needs, at a pace which is both a pleasure and an embarassment to librarians. Some authorities have made provision for new libraries this year in budgets which come under consideration this month, and we hope the Ministry concerned will allow some of these projects to be realized.

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New Library World, vol. 51 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1945

THAT we devote the greater part of this number to memories of Louis Stanley Jast will surprise none of our senior readers. He was the embodiment of the public library, and for…

Abstract

THAT we devote the greater part of this number to memories of Louis Stanley Jast will surprise none of our senior readers. He was the embodiment of the public library, and for that matter other library, movement in its best characteristics for the past fifty years. He was also one of the founders of THE LIBRARY WORLD and found in its pages for years the effective medium in which his technical studies could be expressed. We acknowledge with thanks the help that several of his former colleagues have given in the preparation of this memoir and we gather from Mr. Berwick Sayers that it may be the precursor of a biographical study that he will write in which what it is only possible to indicate here may be made more complete. The unanimity of opinion in our writers, none of whom has seen the work of the others, on the importance of Jast is remarkable. Incidentally we may note that the best portrait of Jast, showing his Strong, meditative and enquiring genial personality, is that which forms the frontispiece of his Libraries and Living; a selection of his essays and verses which we hope our readers will turn to again.

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New Library World, vol. 47 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Article
Publication date: 1 September 1945

Already there is evidence of activity in library circles that was difficult or impossible during the war. A.S.L.I.B. did continue its conferences and the successful one held last…

Abstract

Already there is evidence of activity in library circles that was difficult or impossible during the war. A.S.L.I.B. did continue its conferences and the successful one held last month was a useful member of the series. This month the London and Home Counties Branch of the L.A. meets for a week‐end conference at Brighton where some interesting matters are on the programme but, what is more useful, we are able to resume again the pleasure of lounging and discussing together for a more extended time than we have been able to do lately. The South‐Eastern Regional Library System has held its Annual Council Meeting at which some important organization matters were settled and Mr. McColvin continued his missionary work on post‐war possibilities. The School of Librarianship duly began its resumed career on October 3rd. The Library Association Council has held its first officially correct meeting, having been released to do so by the Privy Council. Up and down the country there is evidence that the profession is stretching itself as a preliminary to awaking to activity.

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New Library World, vol. 48 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1941

DAMAGE to libraries has assumed dimensions which make it unlikely that any private beneficence alone will be able to effect restoration. Nor is it probable that we have reached…

Abstract

DAMAGE to libraries has assumed dimensions which make it unlikely that any private beneficence alone will be able to effect restoration. Nor is it probable that we have reached anything like the end of the destruction. Libraries are in the nature of things in great centres of population which are main targets of the enemy and they suffer accordingly. There is every hope that after the war the most determined effort will be made to repair every form of loss, and the libraries must be kept well to the fore by those who have charge of them; but the effort, in which we certainly hope such benevolent institutions as the Carnegie and similar trusts will assist, must be a universal one. It will also be considered a state obligation, we hope, based partly upon the State Insurance Scheme. In connexion with this, some librarians have had difficulty in persuading their authorities to insure books for anything like the money it would cost to replace them; it is curious that public men appear to think that books cost little or nothing! A reflection of this from the other side was the remark of a District Valuer on a claim for damage which certainly could not replace the lost books, that it was “excessive.” Cover should certainly be adequate.

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New Library World, vol. 43 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1946

THE relinquishing of the Presidency of the Library Association by Dr. Arundell Esdaile must of course receive the attention it deserves. This will probably be when the new…

Abstract

THE relinquishing of the Presidency of the Library Association by Dr. Arundell Esdaile must of course receive the attention it deserves. This will probably be when the new President, Mr. Cashmore, is inducted into the office at Birmingham—an event which we understand will take place early in February.

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New Library World, vol. 48 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1941

WE begin a New Year in circumstances far removed from those in which any former year began. We were at war last January, it is true, but the actuality of it had not advanced over…

Abstract

WE begin a New Year in circumstances far removed from those in which any former year began. We were at war last January, it is true, but the actuality of it had not advanced over our own threshold as it has since done. The history of 1940 from our library viewpoint must await the assessment of more tranquil times, but in the cardinal tests to which libraries have been subjected we are convinced that they have been proven good. Fortunes have varied from the total destruction—except for 20,000 salvaged reference books—of the Gulson Library at Coventry to the loss of some glass or ceilings in other towns, but everywhere there has been remarkable resilience and an attempt, nearly always successful to restart the library service with little or no interruption. And the public has been most appreciative as letters we have seen prove: Richmond even received a congratulatory telegram from a reader. The contrast in this war between the desire for libraries and the continuous spurious economy “council” and “press” attacks upon them in the last one has been a significant social phenomenon.

Details

New Library World, vol. 43 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

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