V. 2, NO, 8 OF THE U.B.'C, LIBRARY STAFF NEWSLETTER MAY 1966 Again this month the members of your roving Biblos staff have taken it upon themselves to bring you information on little known areas and departments connected with the Library. Areas that tend, to be just names on requisitions slips, figures on balance sheets or-signs on a wal 1 or door. BMB, Curric. Lab., Departmental, what do they mean to you? Probably only one person in three has the vaguest idea of what goes on In these departments, but with many others they form an integral part of the Library complex. Then there are the "Tenants" for want of a better name, in the main building. These too by token of their very proximity become of vital interest to us. We are most grateful to the many people who have spent time and effort to provide us with facts, information and interesting art icl es. Pat LaVac (Editor for this month) "THE ROOM DOWN UNDER" The Bindery, that room of mystery in the basement, placed very inaccessibly between the Men's washroom and the Prebindery and guarded zealously by the really not so formidable Percy Fryer. This most necessary division of the Library came into being in 1948 but really started to develop as a department in 1951 when Mr. Harlow from U.C.L.A. and Mr. Fryer from London, England - via Victoria - joined forces. With a personnel of four they went into the business of binding books and developed rapidly. In the first year of operation they doubled their output to 5,600 books and cut the cost from $7,50 to $2.30 per book. Also in 1951 the Bindery became the only Unionized department within the Library, a distinction that it still holds. This was of course of great satisfaction to Percy who is exceedingly proud of being a member of one of the oldest continuous Associations in the world, "The London Book Binders Association". It would be difficult to write of the Bindery without a few short lines on the background that it's "Head" brings to the department. Mr. Fryer learned his craft at the time when a seven years apprenticeship was only the first phase of becoming a master craftsman and when one left home at 6:30 in the morning not to return until 10:30 at night. With the thorough knowledge that he brought to the department there has developed an exceedingly competent team in the Bindery. This team now numbering eight is always trying to find ways and means to maintain the qualify of work whilst increasing the quantity. Of course there have been many changes since the early days. The floor area has grown, books are no longer hand sewn and over the years there have been numerous gadgets and machines improvised by the staff to handle a variety of jobs more rapidly. Anyone who has visited the Bindery can attest to their ingenuity particularly when viewing the press made from washing machine parts. At the moment the staff is eagerly awaiting the delivery of a new "building in machine" or hydraulic press. This will speed up the finishing by eliminating the "hand wringing down" when gluing the covers to the spines of the books. 3 As with other departments, the Bindery finds that there has to be an area of work that has priority. This lies in the binding of mainly journals, serials and paperbacked monos, The type of material that can be more easily damaged and therefore must be protected. Owing to the lack of labour, money and most of all space the repairing and rebind.ing of damaged books or the actual restoring of books is a dream of the far distant future, However the Bindery can take pride in the approximately 20,000 books it has processed this year at the unbelievably low cost of under. $3-00 per book, the numerous signs it has provided for desks, walls and doors and the multitude of other aids it provides to guarantee the more efficient operation of the Library. PAL : 4 &- 4 MEDICAL BRANCH LIBRARY (BMB) All branches of the main University Library are located on the U.B.C. Campus - evidently an article of faith amongst not a few library staff members and certain others. 'Tis a shame, for 'tis not true! Read on, for the mists of ignorance will shortly be dispelled. Since 1952, a branch of the Biomedical (now Woodward) Library has been located at the Vancouver General Hospital (V.G.H.) The foundations were laid in 1948 when the V.G.H. drew together its numerous small libraries into a central library called the B.C. Medical Centre Library - book and journal total = 300 volumes. This collection was given over to U.B.C. in 1952 and became a part of the U.B.C Library system. Since that time, the V.G.H, has continued to provide substantial financial and other support. It has been and continues to be a joint 1 i brary. Since 1957, the Library has been located in the U.B.C. Faculty of Medicine wing at the corner of Tenth Avenue and Heather Street. The main floor provides seating for forty-five readers, with the major portion of the book and journal collection, together with the reference works, shelved immediately adjacent. A much smaller basement floor provides limited storage for older journals. The collection numbers (quite approximate) some 7,000 texts and monographs together with 7,000 bound journal volumes. Present growth rate is about 1,000 volumes of all kinds per year. Current periodical subscriptions are now approaching 500. Total staff now numbers six - two clerks, three library assistants, one librarian. The original planners of the library foresaw a substantial increase of staff from the then two to a future three. Needless to say, the resulting collisions - against wall, desk and body have become cherished job satisfactions. Alas! Plans are already unloosed to expand our humble working area and thus remove more of life's hard knocks. Library services are provided for the following groups - third and fourth year medical students, faculty and staff of the Medical School, medical and nursing staff of the V.G.H. - in all totalling in excess of 1,000. Specialized services are extended principally to those who are actually treating patients and/or engaged in the teaching of medicine, especially clinical or bedside medicine. The range of information sought is considerably broader than the confines of traditional medicine e.g. does shaving of the upper lip cause a deterioration in eyesight or how's this - please supply immediately full information re: dress, duties, etc of the bride's father. The normal varieties of questions and problems provides the staff with challenge aplenty and often with a case of acute sat i sfact ion. P.S. In mid 1964, the library was renamed the Medical Branch Library; prior to this, it had been called Bio-Medical Branch Library, or for short, BMB. BMB remains Main Library shorthand for the Medical Branch Library. Hope this clears the confusion surrounding a non-existent Library which does exist - OFF CAMPUS. BMB STAFF - John Cummings - Librarian ASSIGNMENT Early in January, I received the call. It was brief, cryptic somewhat enigmatic The Librarian wanted to see me. Something about an assignment. A personal favour. Would I come over that afternoon. I swayed slightly. Could we be doing another special issue? My God! Perhaps it was the fiftieth anniversary of the Morgue. But no, that was impossible. The Morgue was gone. Or was it...? I sank into a chair and idly tore a shelflist card into tiny bits. What could he mean? My mind ranged wildly over the possibilities. Had the MacMillan cheque bounced? Had something in Special Collections turned out to be Something Special? Then slowly, very slowly it began to sink in. Obviously this was something that couldn't be revealed over the Centrex Telephone System. Assignment! That spelled danger, intrigue, something beyond the call of routine reference service. I managed a grim smile, Maybe this was what librarianship was all about. Quietly I slipped into my trench-coat, found a slouch hat (in the pamphlet file under GARBO), synchronized my date due stamp, and tiptoed unobtrusively across campus. 6 He was in his office, Playing golf. Looking just the way I knew he would. Tough and confident. Except for his mouth. It was moving, moving, moving. He was trying to stop it, but I knew that he couldn't. I leaned forward to catch what he was saying. Something about departmental budgets, faculty requests. Every now and then some strangled reference to a 'reading room'. Obviously things were out of bibliographic control. I glanced over my shoulder. Did Audre Dewar really know what was happening on the other side of that door? And then suddenly, without explanation, a paper was thrust into my hand. I opened it carefully and glanced over the contents. So that was it! He lit a match to destroy it, but I stopped him. Maybe he could read microprint. I couldn't. "Reading Rooms", he said. "This is a list of reading rooms. Go out and find what's in them". And there were tears in his eyes. After five months I think I know why. Scattered in small pockets, within a radius of one-half mile from the Main Library, lie twenty-six departmental collections. Almost all of them hold duplications. Almost all of them have growing pains. Today - 22,000 volumes, 530 journal titles, quantities of report items. Tomorrow - who knows? Perhaps the world. I knew my duty. Find the pattern. Solve the riddle. Armed with a detailed questionnaire, I penetrated the faculty strongholds. And although departmental brows furrowed and departmental eyes narrowed I boldly asked and carefully recorded, quite oblivious to possible physical harm. At first, a mass of unrelated facts. And then, quite suddenly, almost unexpectedly, the pattern became quite clear. There was no pattern! Absolutely none! In some reading rooms only honours and grad. students had privileges; in others, all who were enrolled in departmental courses. For many, keys could be rented which opened not only the room itself but also the building. A larger number could be used only when departmental secretaries were present to unlock the door. These were obviously the most strictly watched. But some had student supervision. Others had none. Fascinated, I plunged relentlessly on. Revelation followed revelation. In many there was absolutely no borrowing allowed; in others, books were allowed out for Xeroxing, even for a weekend. Some signed them out on a time-request basis. Although there were a few admissions of loss, several departments lacked even the simplest listing of their holdings. How then, I asked myself, could they tell what they didn't have? Any myself didn't seem to know. One secretary blushed to admit that she didn't really remember the number of their reading room although she thought there was one. And one departmental report stated, without apparent emotion, "No one really knows much about this budget, or who controls it or what". In fact, it was in only this one aspect of their operations that there was complete unanimity: the need for more money. And I think this explains those tears in the Librarian's eyes. Oh, there are many more things I could tell. Such as the name of the reading room which is currently used as a fire exit; the one Which houses an enormous bust of Abraham Lincoln; even the one that has absolutely no books. But only I and the Great Librarian In The Sky know about these. And my lips are sealed, Tom Shorthouse CURRICULUM LABORATORY Education Complex. Centre Block University of British Columbia, Vancouver 8, B. C. More affectionately known as "CURRIC, LAB," (ed.) BACKGROUND The Curriculum Laboratory grew out of the Vancouver Normal School when the latter closed in 1956 and the College of Education opened on the U.B.C. Campus.- At that time a definite division of services was determined. Books relating to campus courses became part of the Main Library collection and books generally referred to as "public school books" (prescribed texts, school issues and a growing number 8 of supplementary text-books) together with several thousand pictures became the nucleus of the present Curriculum Laboratory collection. At first the "Curric. Lab," was housed in the Main Library. It later moved to the old Faculty Club and ultimately to its present location on the third floor of the Education Building where it provides material and services to over 3,500 education students and faculty members. As a division of the Main Library, it orders through the Acquisition^ Division and since 1962 all of its supplementary and reference books have been catalogued by the Cataloguing Division. The Curriculum Laboratory also works in close co-operation with the Audiovisual Centre and the education methodology laboratories. Together they form what is now frequently referred to as the "Materials Centre". PERSONNEL In addition to the Director, a member of the Faculty of Education, there are five full time staff members, supplemented by part-time student assistants throughout the academic year (as many as 25 at peak periods). COLLECTION 1) Prescribed textbooks: 8,000 volumes (approx. 290 titles) Grades 1-7 grouped by grade: Grades 8-13 grouped by subject. 2) Supplementary textbooks: 12,000 volumes (approx. 5,500 titles) arranged by L.C. classification. 3) B. C. Courses of Study (circulating and reserve) teachers manuals and periodicals. 4) Reference: a basic collection of encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, handbooks and anthologies. 5) Vertical File: approx. 2,400 individual items arranged by subject, with subject heading cards in colour interfiled in the main catalogue. 6) Pictures: a collection of miscellaneous mounted pictures, picture sets, travel and general posters, art reproductions and maps, numbering over 21,000 individual items. We have reason to believe that this collection is unique. Particularly noteworthy are the Social Studies classroom sets of 48 different pictures. (36 - 40 copies of an individual picture can be circulated at a time among the pupils,) CIRCULATION The total number of individual items circulated in I965/66 was almost 100,000 of which 35,000 were visual aids. Posters and art re-productions are circulated in specially designed tubes and pictures are carried in fibre board carrying cases. CATALOGUE AND INDEXES The main catalogue is an index to the supplementary and reference books of the "Curric.Lab." as well as complete cataloguing for all "j" books (juvenile collection) added to the Main Library since 1362. It includes cards distinguished by colour for the Curric. Lab. Vertical File. Other key tools include: subject card catalog (colour coded) for the mounted picture collection and educational posters, master accession index to all mounted pictures, book indexes to travel posters, maps, art reproductions and the classroom sets of multiple copies. SPECIAL FEATURES Some of the specialized activities unique to the "Curric. Lab." 1) The laminating of book jackets for the supplementary books. 2) The organization, processing and circulating of multiple copies of prescribed public school texts. 3) Perhaps the most unusual feature. The processing and classifying of the picture collection. A definite plan for standariza- tion of equipment, furniture and mounting was set up at the beginning and consistently maintained. This has clarified selection, circulation and administration procedures. IN CONCLUSION Now that you know who and what the "Curric. Lab." is we hope that many of you will come and visit one day. There is much to see. The "Curric Lab." staff 10 Librarian Behind the desk, behind the shelf, She seems the shyest sort of elf, Or, mingled in with cabinets And catalogues and books in sets And paste and shears and rubber bands, A small machine with human hands. Her tread is light as down or feather. Her shoes can hardly be of leather. She speaks a muted sort of speech; Her words, half whispered, barely reach. But out of hours, who knows? Perhaps She stamps her feet and shouts and claps Her hands and goes on quite a buzz-- At least, one rather hopes she does. Source Unknown. 11 Librari an Oh where has she gone this mythical maid Perhaps in a corner the computor mislaid Her hands all aflutter, her world all awry As she watches the new generation stride by For sure, she's not the type we see Around the Library at U.B.C. Who rush all about clutching papers and books Tracing bothersome details at which nobody looks All purpose and polish, potential and poise Creating at times the most God awful noise But perhaps they rest when day is through s#SS'»'""'^'Mrc^rrp£-!t Note for the perplexed. The most frequent question asked by a visitor to the rare-book gallery was not "what edition is this?" or "where is the second printing, of that?" but rather "What are all those little dishes on the shelves for?".- most disconcerting LOOK FOR INFORMATION ON OUR "TENANTS' Next month HELP! Oh where have all the Poets gone? Don't forget your Biblos staff eagerly await those poetic gems. Those who wait ! Kathy Kent, Ed,; Diana Cooperj, Brett Osborne, Cartoonists; Isabel Godefroy, Proof Reader, etc; Pat LaVac, Jean Molson, Pat O'Rourke, willing workers;. Lynne Maclver, Ultra patient typist. (Typist?!?)