journal article
LitStream Collection
THE ABANDONED SWITCHBOARD LIBRARYINFORMATION JOURNALS
1979 Library Review
doi: 10.1108/eb012688
More than archivists, museum curators or other informationrelated professions, librarians have always had before them in print the artefacts of communication systems designed by other men. They may always have tended to regard these as so many items to be stored, sorted and accounted for but external communication models have arguably not been without influence on the library profession. With the development of professionalism among librarians, at the point when individuals no longer worked in ignorance and disregard of what others elsewhere were doing, the creation of purposemade systems became a necessity.