In theory, classificationists always avoid critical classification: that is, the introduction of their own bias and prejudices into the schemes they compile. In practice, all the schemes available to librarians reflect to a greater or lesser degree the prejudices of their origins. In some cases it is difficult to see any justification for this; for example, the peculiar attitude toward women shown by many schemes. In other cases schemes reflect perhaps too closely the culture on which they are based. No solution is proposed, but it is important that librarians be aware of the problems.
The treatment of the American Indian in the Library of Congress Classification: Class E-F is inadequate and out of date. The American Indian is segregated from the United States, the American Indian history is arranged with bias, and the American Indians appear frequently as a savage people. In the last decade, the civil rights movement has gradually changed the nation's attitude toward minorities. The E-F Class needs reasonable revision to reflect this current thinking. This revision could be done in a simple way by adding a few more classes and changing some wordings.
Acquiring out-of-print books has long been a problem for college and university libraries. This article discusses a plan developed by the Acquisitions Department at San Fernando Valley State College for acquiring o.p. books and for evaluating the dealers who supply them. By establishing a dealer's specialization file by subject, a transaction record, and a summary performance evaluation, it is possible to in-crease appreciably the volume of o.p. titles obtained each year and to purchase them at reasonable prices.
A telefacsimile network links most of the Pennsylvania State University, Commonwealth Campus libraries, which are located throughout the state, with the main library at University Park. These libraries have limited teaching-oriented collections not intended to support individual research. The telefacsimile network enables users of the libraries to have access to the large research collections at University Park. This article discusses the operations of the network for the year 1968-1969, equipment used, problems involved, and costs. It was originally presented at a meeting of the RTSD Telefacsimile Committee at the 1970 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Chicago.
This article describes the conversion of catalog records to machine-readable form. The Library of Congress card and classification numbers, author entry, title entry, and serial record indicators were key-punched from the shelflist to create the file. Why each of these elements was used is discussed. The conversion system is outlined. Conversion costs and actual and contemplated results are listed.
Documents librarians were recently informed of a significant modification in Superintendent of Documents classification. The notations for all FS classes were changed to HE. In addition, new number designations were assigned to Public Health Service publications. The magnitude of these revisions makes it imperative for documents librarians to develop suitable methods for dealing with this problem. The most satisfactory procedure for handling changes is the complete reclassification of old and new publications to conform with newly assigned notations. This method insures that the publications for each agency will be located together on the shelves and that closely connected series will not be split.