INTERNATIONAL SERIES OF MONOGRAPHS IN LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE Vol. 1. WHITE—Bases of Modem Librarianship Vol. 2. ANTHONY—Sources of Information on Atomic Energy Vol. 3. BLAUG—Economics of Education THE PROVISION AND USE OF LIBRARY AND DOCUMENTATION SERVICES Some Contributions from the University of Sheffield Postgraduate School of Librarianship EDITED BY W. L. SAUNDERS Director, University of Sheffield, Postgraduate School of Librarianship PERGAMON PRESS OXFORD . LONDON · EDINBURGH · NEW^ YORK TORONTO . SYDNEY · PARIS · BRAUNSCHWEIG Pergamon Press Ltd., Headington Hill Hall, Oxford 4 & 5 Fitzroy Square, London W.l Pergamon Press (Scotland) Ltd., 2 & 3 Teviot Place, Edinburgh 1 Pergamon Press Inc., 44-01 21st Street, Long Island City, New York 11101 Pergamon of Canada, Ltd., 6 Adelaide Street East, Toronto, Ontario Pergamon Press (Aust.) Pty. Ltd., 20-22 Margaret Street, Sydney, N.S.W. Pergamon Press S.A.R.L., 24 rue des Ιcoles, Paris 5* Vieweg & Sohn GmbH, Burgplatz 1, Braunschweig Copyright © 1966 Pergamon Press Ltd. First edition 1966 Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 66-27630 Printed in Great Britain by A. Wheaton & Co. Ltd., Exeter 2939/66 FOREWORD THIS volume originated from a suggestion by Dr. G. Chandler, an External Examiner to the University of Sheffield Postgraduate School of Librarian- ship. He felt that some of the special studies prepared as part of the require­ ment for the University's Postgraduate Diploma in Librarianship would be of interest to a wider audience of librarians and documentalists, and the contri­ butions which follow represent the work of seven diplomates supplemented by contributions from two members of staff. Deciding which studies were to be included was not easy. The idea of the special study is that it should enable each student to study in some depth an aspect of librarianship or information work which is of particular interest to him, and even with the modest total of twenty-three students which com­ prised the first, 1964-5, course at Sheffield, the result was an extremely wide range of subjects. Clearly certain contributions, such as one or two excellent bibliographies, were not suitable for inclusion in a symposium of this sort, and other studies, though rating high for the purpose of the course, were of largely domestic or otherwise restricted interest. The contributions which follow, then, cannot be taken to represent the full range of interests of the course of 1964-5. They are, however, linked by a theme which is in many ways the heart of the matter so far as the School is concerned: the interdependent considerations of use and service. It is particularly appropriate that the subject of the first study in this volume should be Mr. J. P. Lamb, a man whose work raised the Sheffield Public Library system to a position of national and, indeed, international leadership during the years leading up to his retirement in 1956. His de­ parture from active work is too recent for him to be described as a "giant of yesterday" and it is too early to see his work in full historical perspective, but Mrs. Melrose's "interim" assessment is a timely reminder of what this one man contributed to a British library scene which is still very fresh for many of us. Many of Lamb's former colleagues helped Mrs. Melrose with personal recollections, which she acknowledges in her study, but it is a particular pleasure to record the interest and assistance of Mr. Lamb's successor as City Librarian of Sheffield, Mr. J. Bebbington. Mr. Bebbington has been kind enough to read through Mrs. Melrose's study and has made many valuable suggestions, which are gratefully acknowledged. The contribution of Miss E. B. Smith is on a subject which is closely linked with Mr. Lamb's pioneering interest in commercial libraries: Trade Literature, The success of the short courses on this subject which Aslib offers vii Vlll FOREWORD from time to time is evidence of the importance of trade literature to industry, commerce and many other communities of library users, but in general this is an area which is curiously neglected by librarians and information officers. Miss Smith's study has stimulated at least one major library to bring trade literature within the scope of its acquisitions programme; there may well be others. She acknowledges with gratitude the information provided by the librarians and information officers mentioned in her bibliography. The next two studies provide further evidence of the range of needs for which present-day librarianship is providing and of the way in which libraries are responding to the requirements of two very different sections of the community. First of all, Mrs. P. A. Rowlinson surveys the provision and use of library services in four London prisons. Few people today would question the value of such services, but progress has not always been as rapid as might have been hoped. It is therefore particularly encouraging to read of the great improvements which can be brought about in a comparatively short space of time when enlightened public library authorities bring their resources and professional skills to bear on this important branch of library activity. The literature on prison library services is not very plentiful and Mrs. Rowlinson's study should be of interest not only to librarians but to all concerned with the administration of our prisons and with penological developments in general. A very different kind of library user is then considered by Mr. M. W. Moss, who has traced the emergence of specialized service to undergraduate users of university libraries. His study is inevitably concerned in the main with conditions in the United States, for it is that country which has pioneered the development of reader service in the university library and, in more recent years, the provision of special services, in special buildings, for the undergraduate members of their universities. Mr. Moss's study of the American scene has particular relevance in the post-Robbins years of rapid expansion which most British universities are now facing, for present library provision is rarely likely to be adequate for the campuses of up to 10,000 students for which many of our universities are now planning. In considering the extra library provision which such populations will require, the possi­ bility of special arrangements for undergraduate members is likely to be considered by many university librarians, and it is not without significance that the first undergraduate library in this country is at present being built for one of the most progressive of our university libraries, the Brotherton Library at Leeds. It was from the University of Leeds, too, that the first large-scale survey of borrowing from a British university library appeared, and the report by Mr. B. S. Page and Mr. P. E. Tucker on the Nuffield Pilot Survey prompted me to plan the similar survey for Sheffield which forms the next section of FOREWORD IX this symposium. Soon after the raw material was collected I went to Uganda for a year on an unexpected UNESCO secondment, and shortly after my return from Africa, a term in the USA occasioned a further delay in the analysis and interpretation of the survey material. I was therefore particularly pleased when Mr. E. W. Roberts and Miss L. J. Wickison undertook as their special studies two distinct sections of the survey, the borrowing of higher degree students in the case of Mr. Roberts and that of undergraduates in the Faculty of Pure Science in the case of Miss Wickison. Mr. Roberts sub­ sequently carried out further work on the postgraduate part of the survey and Miss Wickison extended her work to cover the whole of the under­ graduate population. The postgraduate part of the survey, then, is largely the work of Mr. Roberts, the undergraduate section of Miss Wickison. Mr. J. E. Toisσn, the Sheffield University Librarian, has been kind enough to read through the survey and thanks are due to him for many valuable suggestions. The surveying art is not new, of course, and it has perhaps been directed with special force to the problems arising from the proliferation of scientific and technological literature with which the present generation of librarians and information officers is depressingly familiar. The use which scientists themselves make of libraries and literature has attracted particular attention, so much so that we are at the stage where a "survey of the surveys" is called for, and the contribution of Mrs. A. S. Barber to this symposium is a revealing and informative review of the surveys of scientists' use of libraries. Her occasional astringent observations about surveys and surveyors provide a salutary check for those who incline to think that a survey is the remedy for all ills. The Sheffield School has a particular interest in scientific and industrial information work, a field in which it offers a specialized course for science graduates and in which it is developing a substantial research programme. The effectiveness of research in this field, as in any of the branches of science and technology which it serves, is dependent to a considerable extent on support from efficient bibliographical services. Amongst the largest and most interesting of such services is Referativnyi zhumal, published for the benefit of Soviet science and technology, and the product of a massive, centralized and systematic effort to abstract all the relevant literature on a world basis. For the last few years a special section of the journal has been devoted to scientific and technical information, and Mr. H. Schur, one of the School's lecturers in scientific and industrial information work, has contributed as the final study in this symposium a critical assessment of this section. Though it is too early for effective assessment of its value for retrospective searching, Mr. Schur has some revealing information to report about its value for current awareness, and its coverage, particularly in comparison with the principal abstracting services produced in the West. χ FOREWORD Most of the studies in this symposium include an acknowledgement of assistance and advice from various quarters. In concluding this foreword it should be mentioned that Mrs. Melrose, Miss Smith, Mrs. Rowlinson, Mr. Moss, Mr. Roberts, Miss Wickison and Mrs. Barber all wish to acknow­ ledge assistance received from members of staff who supervised their re­ spective studies. As editor I wish to make my own acknowledgement of criticism and advice received from colleagues and others, too numerous to mention individually. W. L. SAUNDERS 1. J. p. LAMB, MA, FLA ELIZABETH A. MELROSE University Library^ Sheffield "He is indeed out of the ordinary and what he has done for libraries in Sheffield and, by extension, throughout the country, is beyond the achievement of most."<^) These words were written in 1956 on the retirement of Mr. J. P. Lamb, MA, FLA, City Librarian of Sheffield. They seem to sum up the work and personality of that forceful man and to give a hint of his many-sided character which enabled him to attempt so many things with success—from short-story writing and a taste for amateur dramatics to a full study of librarianship. Lamb was Chief Librarian of the Sheffield public libraries for 29 years. He had come to the city as deputy chief at a time when public libraries throughout the country were at a low ebb. Library service had existed for many years on the penny rate and was in a sad state of decay. It has been suggested that the badge of the Library Association should have been Cruikshank's drawing of Oliver Twist asking for more. Lamb himself said that "It took thirty years to bring down a good system to the level of Sheffield in 1920; and precisely that time has been needed to re-build it".<2> Lamb's own achievement can be seen in the library service of Sheffield today, for he was instrumental in its creation. And this was only one result of the tremen­ dous energy which the man possessed. Joseph Percy Lamb was born at St. Helens, Lancashire, on 19 June 1891. Much to his own surprise, he succeeded in gaining a place by scholarship at Cowley Grammar School. There were only twelve scholarships for the whole town. His school reports, in extreme contradiction to his later years, reported that he was "agood boy but lacking in energy".<'^) Like all schoolboys, Joe and his friends took great pride in dodging work of any kind. As a result of this, perhaps, he found in later life that although German conversation was incom­ prehensible to him, he could never be cheated over the price of his German beer. He had had to recite the German multiplication tables too often for this. Although he was too young at this stage to be thinking of his future life. Lamb used the experience of his early youth to draw up some of his own principles of librarianship. He was a member of a large family and one of his 1 ι LIBRARY AND DOCUMENTATION SERVICES brothers and one of his sisters had encouraged him to read by their own example. From fairy stories which many a time made the small boy scamper up the dark stairs to bed Joe graduated to the Boy's Friend and the Bofs Herald, He and his brother were such enthralled readers of some of the serials in these papers that they were quite content on the evenings before publication to walk the two miles from their home to the shop of an obliging newsagent who would let them have advance copies. Joe became an en­ thusiastic reader. In contrast to the dislike in which he held Shakespearian drama because of his forced study at school—he only recovered from this in middle age—Joe developed a life-long interest in palaeontology from his reading of a certain story in one of the "Boy's papers". He always considered that it seemed to matter very little what a child read so long as it did read. This he surmised from his own experience. Because of it, he planned and directed those junior libraries under his care in the way he did. His policy was not to direct the child's reading by forcing it to read those books that adults thought might be good for it. Jast's statement of "Freedom of choice in an atmosphere of beauty"<*) was one that most appealed to Lamb and, in this tradition, he preferred to entice children to read in pleasant sur­ roundings without attempting to give an air of formal education or to classify books into age groupings—this to Lamb was an obnoxious habit common in many American libraries. Unfortunately for Joe, his appreciation of literature came just as he was obliged to leave school. Before this, he tells us, he had seen "no use in poetry", although, in comparison with his other classes, he had enjoyed the English lessons. When he was 14 years old, he suddenly realized the joys of literature taught by Mr. Hanley, and for his last months at school he eagerly looked forward to this teaching. But on 4 December 1905 Lamb's schooldays ended. He began work at the public libraries of St. Helens, his home town. Each week he took his earnings of 4J. to his family at 16 Cowley Hill Lane. It may have been this early start in life that gave him the belief that suitably qualified non-graduates should have equal chances with graduates in obtaining posts in public libraries. He, himself, came up the strict, hard way. His father had died the very week that Lamb received his scholarship news. The family was left in poor circumstances and Lamb's inability to raise the fee for the Oxford "locals" meant that he never obtained the language qualifications required for the L.A. examinations. The ease of further education in later years may have contrasted with his own struggle. At the time, however, the Public Library of St. Helens was in his eyes a dull, dreary place with great stacks of dirty books, screened from the profane public gaze by a long Chivers Indicator. After consulting out-of-date printed catalogues, the hopeful reader found the number on the indicator and if it was underlined by the end of the white ivorine tab, he claimed the book at one of the three openings in the in­ dicator wall, behind which the staff lurked, reluctant dragons, who, to the disheartened J. p. LAMB, MA, FLA 3 reader seemed to delight in saying "Sorry, a mistake" . . . mistakes were more common than "found" books. W Lamb wrote this description within a few months of retirement after he had seen the delights of a cheerful open access system which was also efficient. In 1905, however, the work would have been new and exciting to a 14-year- old boy and Lamb would not have been so critical. The hours at the library were extremely long, 9.30 a.m. to 9.0 p.m. every weekday except one, when staff would be permitted to leave at 1.0 p.m. Every third Sunday the assistants took a rota turn from 2.0 p.m. to 9.0 p.m. without overtime pay or extra time off in its place. But there were compen­ sations—there was time for reading on duty. On Sundays, staff were not expected to work, but merely to superintend the reading rooms. Also, no clerical work had to be done in the evenings. Lamb took advantage of this when he was on one of the three open counters. He read all the articles in the monthly reviews and from these developed a strong interest in international politics and foreign affairs which lasted throughout his career. He became one of a circle of acquaintances who discussed their problems and interests together. With Tom, a special friend, Lamb sharpened his mind by practising literary writing and by inventing epigrams "full of brilliant wit". One of their amusements was to pretend to be connected in a far-off manner to some man of letters. Lamb decided to invent a relationship with Charles and Mary hamh until Tom crushed the idea with heavy humour by saying that he had not believed the story until he had found out that there was insanity in the author's family! During Sunday spells of duty in the Reference Library, Lamb began to read the works of many writers such as Ruskin and Rousseau. When he was about 16 he became a keen admirer of Boswell through the latter's Life of Johnson, This led to what Lamb considered the most outstanding book that he ever read. It took him 6 months of Sunday reading and half-days to journey through Gibbon's Decline and fall of the Roman Empire in "a shady nook in the town cemetery" (·)—his favourite spot for outdoor reading, as he later tells. Every minute spent this way seemed worth while, and if Gibbon bequeathed to him an unlucky taste for lengthy sentences in his own writing, he found great pleasure in the majestic phrases and the magnificent irony of the Decline and fall. Before attempting the works of Gibbon, Lamb had been told of the Library Association examinations as the way to promotion in librarianship. He had obtained the syllabus and had chosen to study classification. It is interesting to note that although Lamb, on his own evidence, began to examine the prescribed texts for the classification examination in 1907, he did not pass until 1911, in the same year that he passed library history but aßer he had gained the certificate in cataloguing and library routine in 1910. He passed library routine with merit. The recommended material for