Library Review

SAVAGE, ERNEST A.

1949 Library Review

doi: 10.1108/eb012139

A NEW L.A. exam syllabus is now in force. Some faults of the old headscrew remain. Notably that bag o' bones which has rattled dryly down the wind ever since our exams began Eng. Lit. from Beowulf to the Sitwells in one threehour paper with ne'er a scrape of marrow. Chartered liberians with no more Literature than a Hottentotto celebrate our centenary Another fault is the division into unequal periods of Literature for the Final. But perhaps Chaucer House would lack character without a grinning hoodoo to bedevil Literature. On the whole the syllabus has more strength and accommodation. Signs are that sense does penetrate for examples, examining classification and cataloguing together, the study of named reference books, and encouragement to more varied librarianship.

BUSHNELL, GEORGE H.

1949 Library Review

doi: 10.1108/eb012140

DURING the past thirty years or so most of our university libraries have developed systems of administration and organisation closely resembling those of large industries. Even in the older foundations today, while that atmosphere of calm which is essential to the contemplative mind is still evident, behind the scenes there pulsates a most efficient organisation, as busily active as any in the most uptodate factory. That this is not apparent to the average readerwho, as we all know, believes that books select, order, purchase, bind, accession, catalogue, classify and shelve themselvesis a tribute to the selfeffacing modesty of our business efficiency which advertises not itself, makes no display of its drivingforce, nor does it use the presumptive jargon of the traveller in useless commodities. On the contrary, our efficiency must create and maintain a most accessible Tower of Prigord in which the receptive minds of the Montaignes of our day, no less than those of the Marconis, may follow their bent with only unobtrusive help and guidance. That this is so competently achieved in our university libraries is the finest testimonial to the present staffs of those libraries. It was one thing to administer a university library two hundred years ago, when books and readers alike were comparatively few and when the demarcation of the whole field of university education was clear it is quite another matter today, when elimination of circumscribed education is the order. And so, with a limitless field to cover, a vast and evergrowing organisation to control, university librarians have wisely taken over, modified, and improved systems of organisation originally planned by economists for other ends.

MCCOLVIN, LIONEL R.

1949 Library Review

doi: 10.1108/eb012141

ELSEWHERE I have said in effect that we have, at some centres, so developed our work with children that we have created a vested interest which is, maybe with the best intentions in the world, often keeping children from real books rather than encouraging them to use them and further, I would add that I have often wondered whether in our children's libraries we do not strive to inculcate in the young people precisely those reading habits that we deplore when they grow up. These two ideas require elaboration.