Information Bureaux and Special Libraries

Date:: 14 September - 17 September 1928

Reference:: WA/HMM/CM/Sal/37/5

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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

20/158 page 14

Reception and Opening Dinner. Dr. J. L. Myres, Librarian of New College, had kindly promised to address the members of the Conference at dinner. Unfortunately illness prevented Dr. Myres from attending. In his absence the delegates were received in the garden of New College by the Council of the Association, and, after dinner, short addresses were given by Dr. W. Rosenhain and by Mr. Angus Fletcher, representing the Special Libraries Association of the United States. Dr. ROSENHAIN said: “I feel in a very difficult position; I have not had the opportunity of attending previous conferences of this Association, and even the ptesent Conference I have only attended to the extent of the dinner which we have just finished. So that I am peculiarly qualified by inexperience to tell you all about ASLIB and all that it can do and ought to do. I feel that I am rather out of my depth in such a gathering as this, because | am rather one of the users of information (perhaps I am occasionally a contributor by trying to adda little to it) than one who deals with its dissemination. But both as a user of information and as, occasionally, a contributor, I feel, and I think we must all feel, that the dissemination of information is an essential and vital step towards the use of that information ; and, after all, that is where perhaps more in this country than any- where else we need progress. It is right, I think, to say that, at any rate so far as physical sciences are concerned (and I think it applies probably to biological sciences as well) that there is no country in the world which contributes more new know- ledge than does this country ; but so far as certain branches are concerned we are not in such a satisfactory position. ‘The reason is not, of course, solely a question of availability of information, but it is a question of that to some extent. Avail- ability, of course, means not merely knowing where to find it or having it thrust upon one’s attention—it has also got to be prepared for the consumption of the individuals who use it. If this Association does assist in the dissemination of that information in actually thrusting it before the eyes of those who ought to have it, and can also do something to render it, not more attractive, but more digestible, it would be serving a very great and real purpose. ‘The information with which it has to deal is not merely the facts and data, opinions and views being put forward in this country, but those put forward throughout the world. Because, after all, information is essentially a world-wide product, and we require to know, not merely what is said and done and thought in this country, but what is said and done and thought throughout the world. We can achieve that result if we can secure adequate international co-operation. From that point of view I was interested to read only two or three days ago in the last issue of a great German technical engineering journal a whole page article on ASLIB. It was really quite satisfactory and interesting to see how fully continental people were not only aware of what is being done by the Association, but how they appreciated it, and how thoroughly they were in sympathy with its aims and methods. In fact, the writer of that particular article went so far as to point out that representatives from Paris and Brussels regularly attend these conferences, and expressed the hope that German organisations should also send their representatives. ‘That, I feel, is a vety teal appreciation of the work which this Association has accomplished already, and if that work prospers and progresses as we all hope that it will and may, it should bear valuable fruit in many directions—among others, fruit of mutual understanding and appreciation of the work that is done by people throughout the world. In that hope, and in the hope that it will continue to do what it has begun and to do it in even greater measure, ] can only say that I wish that this Association may prove in the future even more successful than it has been already.” Mr. ANGus FLETCHER said: “I regard it as a great privilege to be able to convey to you a message of good will from the Special Libraries Association of the United States. I would like to feel that this is not a merely formal greeting ; 1 am sure that in no section of the community is the value of international understanding better appreciated than in the profession of the librarian.

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