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Article
Publication date: 1 March 1907

MUCH has already been said and written upon the subject of the indicator: but in view of the general trend of advanced Public Library administration a little space may with…

Abstract

MUCH has already been said and written upon the subject of the indicator: but in view of the general trend of advanced Public Library administration a little space may with advantage be devoted again to the consideration of its value as a modern library appliance. Passing over (a) the decision of that curiously constituted committee formed in 1879 to consider and report on indicators, and (b) the support which it received in 1880 from the Library Association, it may be said that for the next fourteen or fifteen years the indicator system was the popular, almost the universal, system in vogue throughout the country. Of late years professional opinion as to its value has undergone a remarkable change. The reaction which has set in was brought about chiefly by the introduction of Open Access in 1894, with the many reforms that accompanied it, though much, doubtless, was due to the prevalence of a more exact and systematic knowledge of librarianship, and to the natural evolution of ideas. It is not, however, intended in this paper to compare the indicator with the open access system, but with others suitable to the requirements of a closed library.

Details

New Library World, vol. 9 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Article
Publication date: 23 February 2010

Helen M. Aucote, Anthony Miner and Peter Dahlhaus

The purpose of this paper is to gain an understanding of the public's beliefs, attitudes and knowledge regarding rockfalls, and to see whether these variables could predict…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to gain an understanding of the public's beliefs, attitudes and knowledge regarding rockfalls, and to see whether these variables could predict whether a person is likely to enter high‐risk rockfall areas.

Design/methodology/approach

A questionnaire was developed to measure beliefs (informed by the health belief model), knowledge, and previous behaviour in relation to rockfalls. Questions were also included to measure attitudes regarding rockfall caution signs. In total, 138 members of the general public completed the questionnaire.

Findings

High‐risk behaviour was more likely if the person was male and if the person had the belief that sign‐posted high‐risk areas were not dangerous. Further, believing that the sign‐posted areas were not dangerous was more likely among people who held negative attitudes towards cautionary signs; specifically, these participants were more likely to doubt the validity of the warning signs.

Research limitations/implications

The research was exploratory in nature. Further research should be conducted with a larger sample size and a more random selection of the general population. Ways of improving measurement of the variables are discussed.

Practical implications

Efforts should be made to increase the public's perception of the validity of rockfall cautionary signs. Doing so may decrease injury and death as a result of rockfalls. Suggestions on ways to increase the validity of signage are made.

Originality/value

It is presumed that this study is the first to attempt to gain an understanding of the beliefs and attitudes that may lead a person into engaging in high‐risk behaviour in relation to rockfalls.

Details

Disaster Prevention and Management: An International Journal, vol. 19 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0965-3562

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1922

FORTUNATELY few local authorities in recent years have distinguished themselves in the manner that Tunbridge Wells has done in the matter of the appointment of a public librarian…

Abstract

FORTUNATELY few local authorities in recent years have distinguished themselves in the manner that Tunbridge Wells has done in the matter of the appointment of a public librarian. Our readers are familiar with the facts that an advertisement for a librarian appeared for whom a salary of £300 yearly was offered, which is rather less than N.A.L.G.O. expects an ordinary municipal clerk of 30 to receive. When some fifty or more candidates had been put to the trouble, expense and jeopardy (in some cases) of making application for the post, a section of the Tunbridge Wells Council, of whom the spokesman was Sir Robert Gower, discovered that the salary was ridiculously too high, and actually persuaded the Council to disown the advertisement and to re‐advertise the post at £150! Not only so, but each candidate received a letter asking him if he wished his application to stand at the new salary. Comment is needless. As we say, it is fortunately rarely that ignorance and impertinence are so publicly flaunted; and we hope that no trained librarian or library assistant will be found willing to accept the starvation position offered.

Details

New Library World, vol. 24 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1974

Tom Schultheiss, Lorraine Hartline, Phyllis Rosenstock, Jean Mandeberg and Sue Stern

The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the…

Abstract

The following classified, annotated list of titles is intended to provide reference librarians with a current checklist of new reference books, and is designed to supplement the RSR review column, “Recent Reference Books,” by Frances Neel Cheney. “Reference Books in Print” includes all additional books received prior to the inclusion deadline established for this issue. Appearance in this column does not preclude a later review in RSR. Publishers are urged to send a copy of all new reference books directly to RSR as soon as published, for immediate listing in “Reference Books in Print.” Reference books with imprints older than two years will not be included (with the exception of current reprints or older books newly acquired for distribution by another publisher). The column shall also occasionally include library science or other library related publications of other than a reference character.

Details

Reference Services Review, vol. 2 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0090-7324

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1923

A LONDON and Home Counties Branch of the Library Association reached the stage of initiation at the meeting held at the Central Library for Students on March 28th. A committee was…

Abstract

A LONDON and Home Counties Branch of the Library Association reached the stage of initiation at the meeting held at the Central Library for Students on March 28th. A committee was formed and officers were elected, and application is to be made to the Library Association Council for a certificate creating the Branch. The movement has our sympathy, and it may do something to revive interest in library matters, which notoriously flags, amongst London librarians. We do not think the committee quite representative, but it will do for a start.

Details

New Library World, vol. 25 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1976

These are the days of falling standards and sagging morale, nowhere more apparent than in the one‐time efficient public service. The division between management and workers in the…

Abstract

These are the days of falling standards and sagging morale, nowhere more apparent than in the one‐time efficient public service. The division between management and workers in the field in the large public enterprises has grown wider and wider and we tend to blame the lower strata of the structure for most of the ills which beset us, mainly because its failures are more obvious; here, the falling standards of work and care speak for themselves. The massive reorganization of the National Health Service and local authorities has made evident, especially in the first, that the upper strata of the colossi which dominate our everyday lives have their ills too. Local authorities have been told “The party is over!” and the National Health Service has been told of the urgent need for the strictest economy in administration; that the taking over of personal health services from local authorities was wrongly attributed to “managerial growth” instead of a mere “transfer of functions”, but, nonetheless, new authorities were created, each with fast‐growing administrative organs operating services—doctors, nurses and patients—which had remained unchanged. Very large local authorities, with many functions lost to others, one would have expected to have resulted in economy of administration, has all‐too‐often been the opposite. Hardly surprising that those who pay for it all, distinct from those who receive of its largesse, are being stirred to rebellion, when they have been overtaxed, ill‐used and what is more important, ignored for so long.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 78 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 December 1906

EVERY librarian in his inmost heart dislikes newspapers. He regards them as bad literature; attractors of undesirable readers; a drain upon the limited resources of the library;…

46

Abstract

EVERY librarian in his inmost heart dislikes newspapers. He regards them as bad literature; attractors of undesirable readers; a drain upon the limited resources of the library; and a target against which the detractors of public libraries are constantly battering. From the standpoint of the librarian, newspapers are the most expensive and least productive articles stocked by a library, and their lavish provision is, perhaps, the most costly method of purchasing waste‐paper ever devised. Pressure of circumstances and local conditions combine, however, to muzzle the average librarian, and the consequence is that a perfectly honest and outspoken discussion of the newspaper question is very rarely seen. In these circumstances, an attempt to marshal the arguments for and against the newspaper, together with some account of a successful practical experiment at limitation, may prove interesting to readers of this magazine.

Details

New Library World, vol. 9 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1909

A classification scheme by its notation does not do more than locate the subject; therefore, after the books are classified according to the scheme adopted, a secondary…

Abstract

A classification scheme by its notation does not do more than locate the subject; therefore, after the books are classified according to the scheme adopted, a secondary arrangement must be provided for the shelves, whereby books in a given class may be arranged in some order to accelerate finding and to differentiate one book from another. There are several methods in vogue of so arranging books in a given class, but one's choice will be, to some extent, determined by the System of issue in use. The usual methods are by:—

Details

New Library World, vol. 11 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1927

RECENT investigation has led us to wonder if the remuneration of librarians has made anything like the progress which sanguine people are wont to say it has. Or, since it is…

Abstract

RECENT investigation has led us to wonder if the remuneration of librarians has made anything like the progress which sanguine people are wont to say it has. Or, since it is always distasteful to harp on payment for work, we ask: has librarianship advanced, as shown in the salaries paid, in a manner commensurate with the services rendered? If the librarian were receiving the acknowledgment that his position, from its nature, ought to command, his salary should compare in some way with the salaries of his municipal colleagues. Does it? It is true the salaries of librarians have advanced, but does not the pre‐war ratio of difference between them and the salaries of the borough accountant, the medical officer, the borough engineer, remain constant? We believe it does. An example occurs to us, where the pre‐war salary of the town clerk was £1,000 and the borough engineer's was the same, while the medical officer received £800. The librarian had £400. To‐day the town clerk has £2,000, the doctor £1,300, and the engineer £1,750, but the librarian has £750. He is still in the same, if not in a worse, position, relatively, than he was before the war. And £750 is not a low salary, as library appointments go now‐a‐days. The simple truth is that municipalities do not, and frankly say they do not, regard librarians as professional men. So, in this line alone, much remains to be done.

Details

New Library World, vol. 29 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1926

AT the last meeting of the London Branch of the Library Association Mr. James D. Stewart dealt in a suggestive manner with the problems of co‐operation as they affect the…

Abstract

AT the last meeting of the London Branch of the Library Association Mr. James D. Stewart dealt in a suggestive manner with the problems of co‐operation as they affect the metropolitan area. There is some hope that the Council of the Branch may now give definite attention to the one thing in modern library administration that really calls for it. The problem is by no means limited to London, but London ought to be able to show the way. For twenty‐five years at least the subject of co‐operation has been discussed, but rather fitfully, and never with sufficient force to convince librarians generally. To take one instance only: there always has been a fear that if we have a co‐operative catalogue some library assistant somewhere or other will find his occupation gone. This is typical of the bogeys that have hindered progress. The London area can promote co‐operation on lines which have all the advantages, and none of the disadvantages, of central control. Central control stifles almost every form of local initiative, especially such control as we are wont to get in this country.

Details

New Library World, vol. 28 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

11 – 20 of 27