Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: sources and methodologies for the history of libraries in the modern era
- 1 Libraries and the modern world
- Part One Enlightening the Masses: the Public Library as Concept and Reality
- Part Two The Voluntary Ethic: Libraries of our Own
- Part Three Libraries for National Needs: Library Provision in the Public Sphere in the Countries of the British Isles
- Part Four The Nation's Treasury: Britain's National Library as Concept and Reality
- Part Five The Spirit of Enquiry: Higher Education and Libraries
- Part Six The Rise of Professional Society: Libraries for Specialist Areas
- 31 Libraries and information for specialist areas
- 32 The scientist and engineer and their need for information
- 33 Information in the service of medicine
- 34 Lawyers and their libraries
- 35 Spreading the Word: religious libraries in the ages of enthusiasm and secularism
- 36 Government and parliamentary libraries
- 37 Company libraries
- 38 Rare-book libraries and the growth of humanities scholarship
- Part Seven The Trade and its Tools: Librarians and Libraries in Action
- Part Eight Automation Pasts, Electronic Futures: the Digital Revolution
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
32 - The scientist and engineer and their need for information
from Part Six - The Rise of Professional Society: Libraries for Specialist Areas
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: sources and methodologies for the history of libraries in the modern era
- 1 Libraries and the modern world
- Part One Enlightening the Masses: the Public Library as Concept and Reality
- Part Two The Voluntary Ethic: Libraries of our Own
- Part Three Libraries for National Needs: Library Provision in the Public Sphere in the Countries of the British Isles
- Part Four The Nation's Treasury: Britain's National Library as Concept and Reality
- Part Five The Spirit of Enquiry: Higher Education and Libraries
- Part Six The Rise of Professional Society: Libraries for Specialist Areas
- 31 Libraries and information for specialist areas
- 32 The scientist and engineer and their need for information
- 33 Information in the service of medicine
- 34 Lawyers and their libraries
- 35 Spreading the Word: religious libraries in the ages of enthusiasm and secularism
- 36 Government and parliamentary libraries
- 37 Company libraries
- 38 Rare-book libraries and the growth of humanities scholarship
- Part Seven The Trade and its Tools: Librarians and Libraries in Action
- Part Eight Automation Pasts, Electronic Futures: the Digital Revolution
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
A variety of factors have affected the development of science and technology libraries over the past century and a half. The most important have been related to the growth in the number of publications appearing and in the number of people wishing to read them. Complaints about the proliferation of publications were heard well before the nineteenth century, but it was scientists in that century who had most reason for concern. Scientific knowledge was agreed to be cumulative. New research must always be built on the basis of what had gone before. This implied absorbing the relevant information in the literature before adding one's own contribution. By the nineteenth century, the growing number of scientific publications was making this ideal unattainable. Even so conscientious a researcher as Faraday was driven to complain: ‘It is certainly impossible for any person who wishes to devote a portion of his time to chemical experiment, to read all the books and papers that are published in connection with his pursuit.’
It became apparent during the nineteenth century that scientists' demands on libraries differed from those of most other readers. In good part, this was due to their emphasis on reading journals. Another difference was that scientists often required good subject-based catalogues, rather than the customary author-based catalogues. Moreover, the flood of publications meant that scientists had to become increasingly specialised in their interests in order to keep up with the research front. Libraries serving scientists, correspondingly, had either to become large, or to specialise. Inevitably, the typical library catering for scientists in the twentieth century has concentrated on acquiring those titles most required by its clientele.
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- The Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland , pp. 423 - 437Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006