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In spite of its sub‐title, Heading and Canons is not so much a self‐contained treatise as a new instalment in the author's continuous exposition of his thought about cataloguing. Its main purpose is to examine, in the light of certain general principles, the rules for headings of author and title entries given in Cutter's Rules for a dictionary catalogue, the Prussian Instructions, the Vatican Rules, the ALA cataloging rules, and Ranganathan's own Classified catalogue code. But it incorporates also a fresh statement of the ‘canons of cataloguing’, first enumerated in his Theory of library catalogue (1938); a general discussion of cataloguing terminology; a summary of a pioneer study (undertaken for UNESCO) of Indian and other Asian names; and a demand—which will have the heartfelt sympathy of all cataloguers—for the standardization of the information given on title‐pages. Each section—and particularly the ingenious and suggestive treatment of the problem of Asian names—would justify a separate review. The book will be considered here as a contribution to the current re‐examination of cataloguing rules.

It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields but who have a common interest in the means by which information may be collected and disseminated to the greatest advantage. Lists of its members have, therefore, a more than ordinary value since they present, in miniature, a cross‐section of institutions and individuals who share this special interest.

By Theodore Besterman's death on 10 November 1976 in his seventy‐first year, scholarship, bibliography and documentation and a wide range of esoteric subjects have lost a master of near fabulous achievement—how else, to note only two of his works, can one describe the 107 volumes of Voltaire's correspondence which he completed in twelve years as virtually a one‐man job, except for the help of an assistant for part of the time provided by the Swiss Foundation for Scientific Research, and the three editions of the World bibliography of bibliographies. To these great solo achievements as a scholar must be added his skill and discrimination as a collector, outstandingly of Voltaire editions and manuscripts and every Voltaire relic which he could procure as the material basis of the publications and activities of the Institut et Museé Voltaire in Geneva which was established solely through Besterman's creative efforts.

This paper is the first of what is intended to be an annual survey of the literature of documentation, covering both special librarianship and information work. Its aim is to select from the year's publications, whether books, pamphlets, periodical articles or any of the other miscellaneous items which form an important part of the stock of special libraries, those which are most likely to be of practical value in day‐to‐day work. It is designed specifically to help personnel in small libraries, and is directed particularly towards those who have not yet completed their library training or, in the case of information officers, those who have not yet had much experience.

It was a great pleasure to read your lucid exposition of the problem of our catalog and very profitable to reflect on your thoughtful solution. Your careful statement requires an equally careful analysis. Let me attempt one:

It is with great regret that we have to announce that Mr. Theodore Besterman, Editor of The Journal of documentation since its inception in 1945, has reluctantly been obliged to relinquish the work owing to his appointment as Counsellor, Bibliographical and Library Centre of Unesco.

The first quarterly issue of The Journal of Documentation was published in June 1945. In an introductory note the first editor, Theodore Besterman, defined a document as ‘anything in which knowledge is recorded’ and documentation as ‘any process which serves to make a document available to the seeker after knowledge’. His experience indicated that librarianship and bibliography, … classification and filing [and] photographic and mechanical methods of reproduction would be some of the channels of documentation which would guide knowledge to the enquirer. His foresight warned him that there would be many other channels. His ambition was that the new journal's attention would not be limited by national boundaries. His wisdom, acknowledging the unpropitious nature of the post‐war times, advised a quiet beginning for such a universal undertaking.

Mr. Theodore Besterman recently proposed the printing of a cumulative edition of the Library of Congress catalogue. The vision of his proposal provokes ideas of an even more comprehensive tool beyond the limitations of one great, but nevertheless far from universal, library. On the basis of a statistical sample developed by Mr. LeRoy C. Merritt for use in his part of Union catalogs, it was found that the Library of Congress held approximately 37 per cent. of the total number of titles listed in the U.S. national union catalogue in 1940. Of these about one‐sixth were not to be found in any other library in the United States. Presumably the situation has not been greatly changed by accessions at the Library of Congress since 1940.

Edith Margaret Robertson Ditmas — ‘E.D.’ to her staff and many colleagues, ‘Edith’ to her family and friends — was appointed General Secretary of Aslib in May 1933 in succession to Mr S. S. Bullock, and was redesignated Director in 1946. She retired from that post on 28 February 1950, being succeeded by Leslie Wilson. In June 1947 she took over the editorship of the Journal of Documentation with effect from the beginning of volume three, following the appointment of the founder editor, Theodore Besterman, as Counsellor, Bibliographical and Library Centre, Unesco. She continued this work until 1962. A note by Geoffrey Woledge in the June 1962 issue of the Journal informed readers that Miss Ditmas was being succeeded as Managing Editor by Miss Barbara Kyle ‘who has contributed to the Journal in the past and is now taking up a full‐time post on the Aslib staff’. It reminded readers that Aslib's establishment of the Editorial Board in 1947 had only been intended as a temporary measure (its membership in 1947 comprised F. C. Francis, D.J. Urquhart and G. Woledge) and with reference to Miss Ditmas continued:

This attempt to prick Colossus demands an apology and an explanation. The main suggestion outlined below has long revolved in my mind, but I would certainly never have had the temerity to set it down in black and white but for the encouragement received in the Library of Congress itself. During a recent visit to Washington I was invited by the Librarian of Congress, Dr. Luther Evans, and by several members of his learned staff, to express my views on the Library and its catalogue. Intellectual hospitality of this order invites and deserves a frank response. Here it is. It is hardly necessary to say that I alone am responsible for what follows, though I gratefully acknowledge both the encouragement and the information freely given me, especially by Mr. Herman Henkle, Director of the Processing Department of the Library of Congress.