Information Bureaux and Special Libraries

Date:
23 September - 26 September 1927
Reference:
WA/HMM/CM/Sal/37/4
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Information Bureaux and Special Libraries. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    nical schools of the district as to the books in actual use. This may be an unsatisfactory course to follow, but it is preferable to placing upon a librarian the responsibility of selecting the best text-books from scores which are equally serviceable. The ten- dency in school text-books is towards consideration of everyday things and away from the purely academic attitude, so that some books of this class are as acceptable to many readers as are books written in what is conceived to be a popular style. The classified and annotated catalogue of “‘Some Modern Books for the Teacher and Parent,’’ prepared by Mr. C. Nowell for the Coventry Public Libraries, thus includes the titles of a number of books used in schools and colleges as well as those intended for general read- ing. While useful as a catalogue, it represents only an indi- vidual selection without any obvious standard of preference, so that some books are included which might have been omitted and others are omitted which should have been included. (3) Standard Works.—An attempt is made to provide a guide to what books are of value to students of science and technology in Sonnenschein’s monumental work ‘‘The Best Books,’’ the third edition of which appeared a few months ago. Three-quarters of the volume comes under the head of science understood in a broad sense, and there are signs by which works of outstanding importance may be distinguished from others. Such a work, however, soon gets out of date, and what librarians want 1s a periodical list in which scientific works are evaluated on a standard plan. Almost every week sees the publication of a num- ber of books on various topics of science and technology, and to decide which are of permanent value and which negligible puts too great a strain upon the capacity of a librarian or a library committee. What, for example, determines the works of reference which ought to be in a library and those which may be omitted? Every department of science and technology is now minutely specialized and for most of the many aspects of them there are special books. Probably the chief means by which the worth of these is measured are reviews in leading journals devoted to science and technology, but such notices are often long delayed ; and even the best reviewers have different standards of value. When, however, a work is actually purchased for the library of a leading scientific or technical society, or accepted from one of its members, this fact provides positive evidence of its substantial quality. If, therefore, arrangements could be made to compile a monthly list of such purchases, librarians would be provided with titles of works of outstanding importance from which to select what would be most suitable for their reference shelves. SUMMARY. Books on science and technology may be divided into three classes :—(1) popular works for general readers, (2) text-books for students, (3) works of reference. Though in each class the style or authority of the author is an important factor in selecting the best books, assistance would be given to librarians by the publication of a monthly list of new books with brief explanatory
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