INTRODUCTIONDITMAS, E.M.R.
1952 Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives
doi: 10.1108/eb049429
In accordance with the custom of previous years, Aslib organized a series of meetings in London during the autumn and winter of 19512. The first of these was held on 7th November, 1951, at Chaucer House, when Mr. J. P. Torrie, Work Study Officer of the Work Study Section, Technical Department, Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd., spoke on Method Study. The Chair was taken by Mr. Bernard Ungerson, Staff Manager of the Distillers Co., Ltd.
SEARCHING CLASSIFIED PATENT SPECIFICATIONSBENNETT, E.M.
1952 Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives
doi: 10.1108/eb049432
It has been a great pleasure to have listened to Mr. Mathys' most interesting paper on the patent specification as a source of information, and I have the added pleasure of having been asked by Mr. Mathys to explain how a seeker after information contained in English patent specifications can track down the specifications he wishes to read. Mr. Mathys suggested that I should explain some of the principles of the Patent Office classification and some of the practical results obtained. However, I propose to alter to some extent this logical order of presentation. After reviewing three lines of attack for locating a specification, I shall briefly review the historical development of the Classification key, that is the book in which the scheme of classification is disclosed, then I will show how a hypothetical Mr. X can locate specifications that disclose inventions relating to fryingpans, and finally I will give a short resume of the principles underlying the scheme of and method of classifying patent specifications. I have adopted this inverted form of presentation because more people wish to use a classification system to find some specific item, than wish to study such a system as an abstract entity. No difficulty arises for a person who knows the patent number of a particular specification he wishes to read. He merely enters the Patent Office Library or one of the several provincial libraries that are supplied with copies of specifications, and quickly finds what he wants amidst an orderly numbered sequence. Alternatively, he can send 2s. 8d. to the Sale Branch of the Patent Office and obtain a copy by post.
INFORMATION SERVICES AT WORKBOODSON, K.
1952 Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives
doi: 10.1108/eb049433
In presenting this paper on Information Services at Work, I would like to stress that we are appealing very largely in this type of meeting to the younger members. While hoping that they will benefit by hearing of other people's experiences and methods, we still look to them for fresh ideas and even more for criticism of old ones. In due course these budding library assistants will have become blossomed and blown information officers and it will be too late like us, they will then have become convinced that there is no better way of doing things than their own. You will notice that I have presumed a development from library assistant to information officer. The library must be the foundation on which the information service is built, and to my belief, a library training is essential to anyone in information work. In any case, it is obviously not possible to draw a rigid distinction between the library service and the information service, nor to say where the one begins and the other ends. There is only one thing to be stressed that the guiding force, whatever the type of organization which is found, must be the requirements of the company, association or other concern served by the information unit. No theoretical ideals or rigid adherence in the application of library science should be allowed to jeopardize this prime consideration. One further introductory point. I have noticed that matters technical tend to dominate almost exclusively any discussion of the work of an information officer. This is perhaps natural enough, but I hope to suggest to you that there exists a much wider field of activity. Information services must be considered as covering the whole of the parent body's interests and not only those on the technological side.