COLLEGE & RESEARCH LIBRARIES NEWS

Fallacies of Librarianship

A British librarian of many talents and much experience has devised the following list of erroneous but commonly-held beliefs maintained by some library professionals. The list has recently been published by New Library World, a London publication.

1. Users can find their own way around a library.

2. Users are completely helpless at all stages of library use.

3. Gift books are free.

4. Cooperation between libraries, of whatever kind, saves money.

5. Holdings are more important than service.

6. The case for well-funded libraries is selfapparent.

7. A library that receives no complaints is a good library.

8. Library education is a useful preparation for library practice.

9. A research library should give the unknown needs of the future priority over the known needs of the present.

10. The catalog is the key to the library.

11. Interlibrary borrowing is expensive.

12. Interlibrary borrowing is a cheap substitute for acquisition.

13. Interlibrary borrowing is no substitute for acquisition.

14. The distance between a lending and a borrowing library affects the speed of supply.

15. It is possible to devise a classification scheme that organizes knowledge in a coherent, useful, and intelligible way that is and will remain acceptable.

16. Existing classification schemes can be improved by local modifications.

17. No system devised for one library can be adopted by any other library.

18. A love of books is a useful prerequisite for a librarian.

19. All that is needed to improve a library service is more money and more staff.

20. A library building that wins a prize for architecture is functional.

If C&RL News readers wish to add further fallacies to the list, or if something has been included which perhaps should not have been, write George M. Eberhart, ACRL/ ALA, 50 E. Huron Street, Chicago, IL 60611.