The Library World Volume 6 Issue 12

Abstract

THE completion of the sixth volume of the Library World may not be a very important or remarkable occurrence in the annals of journalism, but when one considers the meagre and spasmodic support which is generally accorded to professional magazines, it may be allowable for us to indulge in a little self‐congratulation on having lived so long, on little more than the minimum encouragement usually bestowed on literary ventures connected with librarianship. For some reason, which it is very difficult to understand, librarians will not buy their own professional literature, whether offered as books or magazines. An author may reckon on a possible circle of purchasers ranging between 200 and 300 in England, and perhaps thirty in the United States, for any library book which is not more than 5/‐ or 10/‐ in price; and an editor may be certain of a constituency, perhaps, double those numbers, if his journal is not too dull and overpowering. But this is practically the limit of encouragement which anyone can expect for non‐official library publications. The Colonies, the United States, and all the European countries are collectively hardly worth counting in any estimate of possible supporters of an English literary venture in librarianship, and what is even more discouraging, only a few British libraries, and hardly any library assistants or committee‐men, ever buy professional books of any kind. In these circumstances we may be allowed a little pardonable jubilation at having survived at all under such adverse circumstances.

Citation

(1904), "The Library World Volume 6 Issue 12", New Library World, Vol. 6 No. 12, pp. 316-344. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb008868