Search results

On its stated terms as “a descriptive conspectus” of the 550 titles registered in British Library publications 1988, together with the many newsletters and priced and unpriced ephemeral literature emanating from its multifarious services and agencies, this careful compilation will no doubt fulfil a need for students and teachers of librarianship and information science here and abroad. There is a select bibliography of two pages and a 28‐page index. Proof reading is excellent, just a few slips, e.g. the Dainton Committee was set up in 1967 not 1957, IOLR had c.400,00 books ands serials, not 4 million.

Circulation In the main library the university has installed a Plessey Satellite system for circulation control of normal loan stock, operating in batch mode and recording the data direct onto ½ inch magnetic tape. The transactions for the previous day are processed every morning, the library not having secure access to sufficient computer time to make online operation a feasible proposition. At the moment, for the great majority of items held by the library there is no bibliographic record available to the circulation system, though this is gradually being remedied and it is intended to use the mag. tape as part of the LOCAS service (see below) to build up automatically a short‐title file of all additions to stock.

The quotation from Henry Longfellow's The Arrow and the Song: first appeared in the Target 2000 column in the first issue of the relaunched Online & CDROM Review in 1993. Since then a number of arrows have been aimed at developments that could be expected by the turn of the century. As this column was envisaged as a “floating Delphi”, this seems an appropriate point in the run‐up to the millennium to review the projections made to date. Below they have been reviewed and grouped, and it is hoped that in the coming months the authors may wish to expand or revise their original thoughts. The year, volume, issue and page numbers for the journal reference are given after the author’s name.

In a recent issue of the Municipal Journal there appeared a short but apparently inspired article on the subject of London Government, in which is foreshadowed another drastic and apparently imminent alteration of the system of local administration at present in operation in the Metropolis.

THE central question of librarianship now and in the past is that which occupies some of our pages this month. Reading with purpose and with system, Matthew Arnold declared, was the last service to be rendered to education; and in various manner librarians and their committees have been endeavouring to do this for many years; it has indeed been a guiding principle of the best libraries that they presented to the community only good book's. Lately, however, more generous (or lax, according to the standpoint) ideas have been allowed to condition the admission of books; there are not wanting those who object to any exercise of judgment on the part of the librarian; if people want certain books they must be served, as they pay for them. This argument was exploded long ago, but its revival is justified if the librarians are unequal to their pretentions as guides to readers. And to be guides requires ever‐increasing knowledge, not only of all work done in bibliographies and reference books, but, as our writers indicate, of people and their manifold relations and reactions to books. This is enormously difficult in any community but is manifestly so in large cities. As a small illustration we may point to a librarian who, when a branch librarian was appointed to his staff, gave him a month of freedom from library work proper in which he was to walk every street of his branch area, interview the clergy, teachers, leading traders, and the secretaries and committees of local societies. He thus came to his work with at least an elementary notion of the community he had to serve. Such study must have its effect on book‐service; and this is the sort of study that must be pursued in the manner Dr. Waples has advocated and practiced (or some such manner) if we are to arrive at a science of book‐selection applicable to the areas a library serves.

In this century of enormous growth in medical knowledge and skill, and the wide public interest in medical conditions, we have seen a spate of special clubs and societies whose main object is to help sufferers from some of the intractible diseases and addictions which still beset man—the Hemophilics, Alcoholics, Diabetics, Poliomyelitis victims, Multiple or Disseminated Sclerosis sufferers. The interest taken in these activities may sometimes be morbid, but in the main these societies have helped those afflicted and occasionally have contributed something to medical knowledge. For instance, from the association of hemophilics for their mutual help, it was learned that this condition has a seasonal incidence. In more recent years, other groups have been formed whose aim is prevention rather than help to those affected. The anti‐smoking clinics springing up in many areas are an example. They seek to check the rising incidence of lung cancer by helping people to give up smoking cigarettes. The latest in this field would seem to be the anti‐coronary clubs, established in the U.S.A., where the rising mortality among relatively young males is causing as much concern as in this country.

ALREADY the reports that reach us show in many places that a general staking out of claims is in progress. The whole of municipal and other official life and almost every town seethes with the fervour of reconstruction. Most of the rumours concern projects which are of a rather nebulous kind but, so far as local government departments are concerned, the development of council work has become so extensive that new buildings or extensions of old ones are in prospect or are proposed, almost everywhere. Unfortunately in many instances we can discern the influence of those departments which are nearest to the routine council administration and only occasionally is the laudable plan adopted of giving consideration as a whole and as a unity to all the council services. In the clamour that follows libraries have a very low priority, even where education is recognized. Librarians would do well to be vigilant this winter. Even if they contemplate no immediate extension of their work, let them consider what ten or even twenty years may bring. After the first flush of victory—which, however appears to be a little further away than it seemed a month ago—there will follow a long lean era for all but the matters which are forced upon authorities. It is well then to have a considered plan ready.

Without aspiring to emulate Robert Browning's song thrush, we venture to repeat an admonition on smoking in the food trade of almost a decade ago. (The Smoking Habit, 1962, BFJ, 64, 79). The first time it coincided with a little research we had undertaken, which later saw the light of day epitomized in article form and was enthusiastically (sic) commented upon in sections of the press and then died as if it had never been born. (Tobacco and Lung Cancer, 1965, Med. Offr., 2955, 148). Now, it coincides with the most concentrated, officially inspired, campaign, so far, mounted against the evils of smoking. The most striking fact about all these national efforts every few years is the lack of success in real terms. A marketing organization achieving such poor results would count it a costly failure. It would be unfair to say that none have given up, but with a habit so ingrained, determination is required and in many, if not most, of those able to refrain, the craving is so great that they are smoking again within a week or so. Overall, the smoking population is enormous, including, as it does, girls and women‐folk. Once, it was undignified for a woman to be seen smoking. We recall a visit by Queen Mary to the village Manor House, just after the First War; she was an expert in antique furniture and came to see the manor's collection. When Her Majesty asked for a cigarette, the village rang with astonishment for days. Nothing as amazing had happened since Cavaliers and Roundheads tethered their horses beneath the three great poplars which stood on the green. “Queen Mary! 'er smokes!”

This article explores how within a climate characterised by a national moral panic and an institutionalised imperialist xenophobia school history textbooks in the early years of the 20th Century came to present an intensely hostile discourse of Germans and Germany. The approach is multi‐disciplinary as a single discipline approach would not provide a full and coherent understanding of the development of Germanophobia within school history textbooks. Consequently, the evidence base for this analysis is drawn from a variety of representations including political perspectives; popular culture; children’s literature; newspaper and magazine depictions. The purpose is to provide a framework through which to link cultural depictions of Germans and Germany with how history was taught, what was to be learnt and how this was mediated through school history textbooks.

These are personal reminiscences only and my connection with Aslib did not begin until May 1933. Nevertheless, to understand the situation as I found it, it is necessary to sketch very briefly an outline of the previous nine years of Aslib's existence.