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THE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION'S worsening financial position is a matter of general concern, and any constructive suggestions will no doubt be helpful to the Honorary Treasurer and others who plan our finances. The present Library Association structure is workable in practice, but it is becoming increasingly expensive to maintain, and a little thought begins to show the possibilities of economy, without any loss of effectiveness. The most important associated factor at the present time is the possibility of drastic local government reorganisation in 1974, only one year after the earliest date when Library Association subscriptions can be increased. The effect of this reorganisation, as at present proposed, on Library Association structure, needs to be borne in mind.

As a follow‐up to a study carried out in 1984 of the constraints upon curriculum development in Schools of Librarianship and Information Science (SLIS), the British Library Research and Development Department (BLR&DD) commissioned a survey of other types of ‘information education’ in the United Kingdom. It was hoped, thereby, to recognise new challenges and opportunities for SLIS and whether serious competition was to be expected from other educational provision. There were some difficulties in recognising and categorising information education programmes. Most were found to be technology‐based with little interest in the user dimension of information provision. Those with such an interest had problems in securing resource provision. SLIS did not appear to be seriously threatened by other information education provision in their traditional roles as providers of personnel for institutionally based information activities. Credibility as providers of information technology‐based programmes required SLIS to develop radically different course programmes with substantial additional resourcing. The poor public image of library and information work and the lack of coherent measures to tackle this imply that SLIS will continue to have difficulty in securing the resource base to compete effectively in the information technology field.

Over the last several decades, individuals have had access to and encountered more data than ever before. Data can be used to persuade people how to vote, support policies, adopt arguments or agendas and buy products. Data directly relate to our everyday lives including our finances, careers, educational performance and health. Therefore, it is more critical than ever for individuals and students to become data literate. This article presents a study examining the use of data visualizations in K-12 history lessons from eight popular online curricular resources.

The method employed was content analysis of 1,356 lesson plans across the eight websites.

About a third of the history lessons reviewed contained data visualizations, but there were mixed results across websites as to whether lesson plans provided guidance on data literacy instruction.

Because online lesson plans frequently miss opportunities to use data visualizations to deepen students’ understanding and support data literacy skills, teachers need to be aware of missed opportunities and consider ways to enhance or revise the lessons.

This study provides insight into the likelihood that history lessons found on popular online curriculum websites will support data literacy instruction. The lack of pedagogical guidance in such curricular resources underscores the importance of including data literacy in teacher education and professional development.

IN DECEMBER 1969, I reviewed for the Library world the library literature of the 1960s'. I remember hoping, when I wrote that I might have the chance to perform a similar office for the library literature of the 1970s. The opportunity has come. But note: I have not used it to nominate the best publications of the decade. I would certainly like to think that I knew the best, and therefore also the worst, when I saw them, but after a swift reconnaissance of the decade's offerings I was appalled at what I had missed. There was a time when I could recite the names of every British librarian who had published at least one book on librarianship, and a fair number of American librarians besides. Who could do it now? Who would want to?

Data literacy – the ability to read, analyze, interpret, evaluate and argue with data and data visualizations – is an essential competency in social studies. This study aims to examine the degree to which US state standards require teachers to teach data literacy in social studies, addressing the questions: to what extent are US social studies teachers required to teach data literacy? If they are required to teach it, are they provided with guidance about competencies to address at each school or grade level and with respect to particular content?

The study used content analysis, using a variety of priori and emergent codes, to review social studies standards documents from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Findings indicate that although state standards suggest that data visualizations should play a role in social studies instruction, they provide poor guidance for a coherent, progressive and critical approach across grade levels.

Researchers currently know little about if and how teachers address data literacy in social studies education. This study provides a snapshot of guidance teachers across states are given for teaching data literacy, and by extension, the quality of data literacy instruction recommended for students across the USA.

ALTHOUGH the first Public Libraries (Scotland) Act was placed on the Statute Book in 1853, it was not until 1899 that the Corporation of the City of Glasgow was empowered to establish and maintain public libraries throughout the city. Between 1876 and 1897 four attempts were made to secure public approval for the adoption of the Public Libraries (Scotland) Acts, but when all these efforts proved unsuccessful, the Corporation decided in June, 1888 to include in a Local Bill for submission to Parliament, certain clauses conferring upon themselves the power to become a library authority. Promoted in 1899, the Bill became known as the Glasgow Corporation (Tramways, Libraries, etc.) Act 1899, and the library clauses passed through Parliament without opposition and received Royal Assent on 1st August, 1899. The powers conferred by this Local Act empowered the Corporation:

Norman Roberts and Tania Konn, Library Association Publishing, 1991, 208 pp., £24.50 (LA members £19.60), ISBN 0–85157–452–1

From delightful Aberystwyth word trickles through the Libraryland grapevine that Frank Hogg, Principal of College of Librarianship Wales, will retire shortly. Prompts a thought or three.

NORMAN ROBERTS, Senior Lecturer at Sheffield University school of librarianship, spent three weeks in Nigeria in November/December, running a British Council‐sponsored library management seminar at Ibadan University Department of Library Studies. Other travellers to Nigeria a week or two earlier were K C Harrison and Hugh Barry, for the inaugural meeting of the Commonwealth Library Association in Lagos. A visitor of longer standing, Ronald Benge, was due back at College of Librarianship Wales before Christmas, after spending last term as visiting Reader at Ahmadu Bello University Department of Librarianship in Zaria, northern Nigeria.

Information science has existed in an uneasy, suspended, state of becoming for an uncomfortable number of years. Yet, despite a stubborn refusal to be born whole, hope for the imminent emergence of a fully fledged ‘science’ remains as fresh as ever. Conferences willingly consider and reconsider the question—what is information science? While some are content to search for the essence that is information science, others are convinced that they have already found it; there is no shortage of teachers ready to assert that information science consists of a particular (usually their own) mix of subjects. It is not uncommon to meet wandering, rather bemused, physicists, chemists and engineers eager to argue that they, too, have discovered something called information science. Members of this latter group may be uncertain of the precise nature of their discovery but are willing to aver that whatever it is it is not librarianship. In this struggle to induce the registrable birth of information science comparatively little attention is paid to the distinct social science bias of this most eclectic of ‘sciences’. This comparative neglect has persisted, surprisingly, despite a shared characteristic of fundamental significance. Both areas are noted for their incredible looseness of terminology and their confused and confusing professional thought and writing.