Showing papers on "Resource Description and Access published in 1972"

The British Library.

Abstract: It is recommended that a national plan for the acquisition of foreign materials should be established in countries where no such plan exists. The national library is responsible for the bibliographical service of its own country. ... It is also the national library’s responsibility to undertake the production of current national bibliographies, and also of retrospective national bibliographies where needed.

The Shared Cataloging System of the Ohio College Library Center

Abstract: Development and implementation of an off-line catalog card production system and an on-lin e shared cataloging syst e m are described. In off-lin e production , average cost p e r card for 529 ,8 93 catalog cards in finished form and alphabetized for filing was 6.57 cents. An account is given of system design and equipment selection for the on-line system . File organization and pro gra ms are described, and the on-line cataloging system is discussed. The system is eas y to use , efficient, reliable, and cost beneficial.

The International Relations Program of the American Library Association

Abstract: THEREHAVE BEEN SEVERAL historical reviews of the international relations program and interests of the American Library Association. Customarily, they open with reference to the longstanding welcome ALA has accorded to foreign librarians, to the tradition of American attendance at conferences of the Library Association of the United Kingdom, to active leadership in the origin and development of the International Federation of Library Associations, and to direct and indirect assistance provided by the association to library programs in other countries. When that has all been said, there remains the cold fact that the association’s leaders who have sought international involvement have often done so with ill-informed and casual support or, in stormier times, with outright hostility and suspicion from the membership. Explaining and defending an international program is never an easy task. When the program competes with others more visible to the membership, the explanation and defense become heavy burdens indeed. The character of the leadership in the association has commanded the respect and the trust of the membership. When, over several generations, men of the caliber and prestige of Herbert Putnam, Ernest C. Richardson, Louis Round Wilson, William Warner Bishop, and Carl H. Milam encouraged interest in international library development, they were not always entirely understood or appreciated, but their enthusiasm and experience carried ALA into such enterprises as the American Library in Paris, the American influence in the development of the Vatican Library, and assistance to libraries in areas devastated by World War 11. During World War 11, the number of ALA staff engaged in the inter-

The Short Loan Collection in a University Library

Abstract: This article discusses some of the problems likely to be experienced by university libraries over the next decade in the provision of books for undergraduate reading; it examines the reasons for having short loan collections and describes the administration of one such collection; finally it raises some questions that ought to be the subject of discussion between library and academic staff.

Canadian Library Standards.

Abstract: LIBRARYSTANDARDS reflect the objectives and priorities of the nation that produces them, and change as the nation changes. Canadian standards show evidence of the shifting relationships between the federal, provincial and local governments, the leadership newly assumed by the federal government in the provision of information to citizens, the effects of urbanization, a developing consciousness of social responsibilities and, above all, the rapidly changing patterns of education. Surveys draw attention to the importance of a tangible base for comparisons and frequently lead to the preparation or revision of standards. The first major survey of Canadian libraries was carried out at the beginning of the 1930s by a commission of three librarians: John Ridington, chairman, Mary J. L. Black and George Locke. The objective of library service was clear to them, “that in Canada there may be equal opportunities for all, an equal chance for a person to make the most and best of himself-if he wants to-by having freer access to perhaps his greatest help-books.”l The three members of the commission were individualists, each of whom had built up an example of library service strongly oriented to his or her own community; yet as commissioners, they realized the need for commonly accepted standards by which to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the libraries they visited. In 1931 Canada, with a population of less than 10.5million, was divided into nine provinces-most of which gave little thought to library development. The commission found that: “Throughout eight of the provinces , , , public libraries have been abandoned by the governments to the municipalities, For city and town libraries no supervision is exercised, no standards of service set, no encouragement given.’’2 The report of the commission strongly recommended that the public library

The Library of Congress Abroad.

Abstract: FROM ITS EARLIEST BEGINNING the Library of Congress has been aware that to serve the needs of the government and the nation it must evolve a highly developed foreign acquisitions program. The effective founding of the Library might be said to date from the placing with a London dealer in June 1800 of the first order for an initial shipment of books. The first exchange of official publications with a foreign country, France, took place in 1837. However, foreign documents did not begin to arrive at the Library in quantity until after 1867, when Congress passed a resolution authorizing the exchange of public documents. The previous year, the acquisition of the 40,000-volume Smithsonian Institution Library gave the Library of Congress an outstanding collection of foreign scientific publications. The Smithsonian exchange system provided for its continued growth and also served as the mechanism for the exchange of official publications. As might be expected, the emphasis in the development of the Library’s collections concerning foreign geographic areas was on Western Europe. However, by the end of the nineteenth century, the Library had also accumulated a considerable Chinese collection (exchange with China started in 1869), and its acquisition in 1907 of the private library of Gennadius Vasilievich Yudin placed it among the foremost institutions in the Russian field. Collections covering other areas of the world were gradually developed but it was not until the 1940s that emphasis was placed on the prompt and comprehensive acquisition upon publication of all materials the Library might later require. The increased attention to publications from overseas is reflected in the “Canons of Selection” by the then Librarian of Congress, Archibald MacLeish, which read: “The Library of Congress should possess, in some useful form, the material parts of the records of other societies, past and present, and should accumulate, in original or in copy, full and

Research on Library Science in Poland.

Abstract: The controversy regarding library science as a separate branch of science has already been discussed for many years among librarians. After an interval of years it was taken up again in Poland in the Sixties. Two opposite points of view could be noticed during discussions and in scientific librarians' publications. According to one opinion, library science was an integral part of a broader discipline, namely the science of the book. Since it embraces a complex of technical and organizational problems, connected with the collection, scientific description and utilization of library material, it cannot be considered a separate university discipline. According to the other opinion, library science can be clearly distinguished as a separate branch from among other sciences, since it is related to library activity, its present-day and future social functions. It has already its own theoretical substructure, though it makes full use of the methodological achievements of other disciplines such as sociology, economy, statistics and philology. This discussion, though in essence unresolved, is quite symptomatic as regards the general feelings of librarian circles. The dynamic development of library science during the past 25 years has given rise to a multitude of problems, increasing every year, problems that require fundamental modifications, improvements and corrections. Foremost among these problems is the necessity to define in the next few years the organizational forms, on the basis of which is to be introduced the Law on the Libraries of April 9, 1968, which so distinctly stressed the principle of a uniform network for the whole of Poland. In this new legal situation it is indispensable to adopt a decision regarding the policy of accumulating collections, the system of providing access to them and of supplying information. Increasingly urgent is the need to start work aimed at a rationalization of compiling library material, at defining the necessary norms and indications regarding the planning of a development of library services in the future, the introduction of technical installations in libraries and the need to free skilled librarians from time-consuming routine activities.

Book Selection: An Approach for Small and Medium-Sized Libraries

Abstract: Book selection is an essential element of librarianship, and all librarians should participate. Approval plans provide one means of participation by all the staff, partkularly in the small and mediumsized library. The article is a description of the process of current and retrospective book selection in a medium-sized library. This process is a cooperative undertaking of classroom faculty and librarians. The problems raised and solved by library participation are discussed.