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Library services for the sociocrat
ht.
Libr.
Rev.
(1969)
1, 277-281
Library Services for the Sociocrat JOHN
E. PEMBERTONt
The public interest must hinders a full understanding free flow of men, knowledge side world’1
suffer from any exclusiveness or isolation which of contemporary problems or unduly restricts the and ideas between the (Civil) Service and the out-
Enquiring into the state of public administration in Great Britain, the Fulton Committee found the prevailing concept of the ideal administrator as a gifted layman able to take decisions in the light of his knowledge and experience of the government machine to have “most damaging consequences”.2 Particularly in view of the increasing involvement of the state with every aspect of the country’s life, a special need has now arisen for a new professionalism in the social departments of government. This, the Committee recommends, should be provided in the form of social administrators, whose training and experience in the social studies relevant to government should include “methods of social investigation and the technique of collecting and analysing information commonly used in public and private inquiries into social problems”.i Policy should henceforth proceed not from the acumen of the generalist but from the expertise of the specialist. The advent of the sociocrat is at hand. It is clear that the social administrator of the future will be expected to possess the ability to acquire new information and apply it to the solution of problems he confronts. His training will more closely resemble that provided by the Ecole Nationale d’Administration, where considerable emphasis is laid on the value of project work involving quantitative analysis. “La documentation,” writes Bernard Bournay, “est indispensable B l’execution de toutes les tdches administratives.“s t University of Warwick, England. 1 Lord Fulton (Chairman) (1968). ‘The Civil Service. Vol. 1: Report ofthe Committee, 1966 to 68. Cmnd. 3638, para. 51. s Lord Fulton (Chairman) (1968). The Gil Service. Vol. I : Report of the Committee, 1966 to 68. Cmnd. 3638, para. 15. 3 Bernard Gournay (1964). L’administration(Que sais-je? No. 1004), Paris, P.U.F., 2nd Ed. 1964.
278
J.
E.
PEMBERTON
Official recognition of the value of bibliographical skill in the process of social administration may add timely support to the pursuit of a national policy for the advancement of social sciences documentation.1 It should certainly prompt us, as librarians, to take a careful look at the resources we can offer to the social scientist and the means by which we can help him to exploit them. We must not allow ourselves to be overtaken by events as was our unfortunate experience when we were called upon to provide intensive bibliographical backing for the race into space. The “startling proliferation” of political studies in British universities recently proclaimed by Professor H. V. Wiseman of Exeter is but one manifestation of a world-wide upsurge of concern with the social sciences. It is as though there has been a sudden release from a decade’s preoccupation with science and technology. Cape-coloured now ranks with Cape Kennedy as a news headline, and computers predict electoral swings as eagerly as they plot the breaking point ofmetals. In the past year there has been a significant increase in the publication of both source materials and guides to the literature of the social sciences, and these must reflect an already insistent public demand. So great has been the need of libraries to provide adequate stocks of British government documents, for instance, that publishers on both sides of the Atlantic are now producing what amounts to an embarras de richesses. It seems that the complete microcard edition of Parliamentary Papers of the last century published by Readex Microprint of New York did not meet every need; moreover, we have been warned that in five years time “micro-opaque production will have largely or completely ceased and the present stocks in libraries will have attained a high nuisance value”. 2 There is in any case no escaping the fact that researchers still favour the paper text, and this has been recognized by the publishers of two reprint series, the Irish University Press and Frank Cass. I.U.P. have set out to reprint the entire range of nineteenthcentury Parliamentary Papers in subject sets, each of which will have a critical introduction and an index. Cass, on the other hand, are publishing the major documents on a selective basis and without the critical apparatus, and their policy of re-issuing these essential research documents in the form in which they originally appeared (thus keeping the price within reasonable limits) will make it difficult for librarians who already possess the microcard edition to resist the pressure from 1 John E. Pemherton (1968). Social library service. Libr. World lxx, 136. 2 R. J. S. Williams (1968). Microfilm 6, 7.
sciences
documentation
techniques,
applications
at Warwick
and
and systems.
the national Pt. 1. Visual
LIBRARY
SERVICES
FOR
THE
SOCIOCRAT
279
scholars to acquire their paper copies. With the increasing vogue of microfiche, NCR Microcard Editions (Washington) are offering British and Foreign State Papers and other documents in this format. The needs of researchers working on more recent government documents has resulted in some improvement from the point of view of indexing services. There is, at last, a hope that production of the sessional indexes to British Parliamentary Papers will be speeded-up; and publication has now been commenced of a cumulative index to the House of Lords Parliamentary Debates.1 As regards departmental publications, however, one has to record the continued lack of an indexing service to cover those documents which are issued by the departments themselves and not through Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. What is worse, the situation is likely to deteriorate as the total volume of departmental publishing increases and as more departments acquire their own printing equipment. Even attempts to devise a system of collecting all such titles for recording in the British National Bibliography have so far proved abortive. On the other hand it is encouraging to note the inception of Statistical News published by the Central Statistical Office.2 Its aim is to report and index “all new happenings in official statistics”, and one looks forward to seeing its promised “comprehensive index (which) will make it easy to find items again, at any time”. This publication is a clear indication of the sustained demand of those working with official statistical sources for more information on what is available. Still in the area of British materials, several items have appeared which are relevant to the documentation of national elections. British Parliamentary Election Statistics 1918-1968, for example, compiled by F. W. S. Craig,3 contains over 100 tables and appendices covering 14 general elections and 800 by-elections-altogether more than 20,000 facts and figures have been assembled, many hitherto unpublished. Companion volumes giving detailed results in each constituency since 1918 will be published later. For the serious researcher facts of this sort must be studied in conjunction with such things as political speeches, party pamphlets and conference reports, and in this domain the two principal parties have shown some concern for the enquirer. The Labour Party has issued a bibliography of its publications,4 and the Conservative Party has rationalized its publishing policy; it claims, in fact, that the 1 Cumulative Index to the House of Lords Parliamentary Debates. The first index covers the session 1965 to 1966. London: H.M.S.O. 2 Statist.News. Issued quarterly, commencing May 1968. London: H.M.S.O. 3 F. W. S. Craig (ed.) (1968). British Parliamentary Election Statitfics ISIB-2.968. Glasgow: Political Reference Publications. 4 Labour Party (1967). Bibliography (of publications of the Labour Party and of affiliated and associated organizations).
280
J.
E.
PEMBEXTON
Conservative Information Service “today provides the most complete and up-to-date literature of any political party in the world”. Listing of government publications is causing as much concern in the United States as it is in Britain. The Monthly Catalog, valuable as it is, every year becomes less and less comprehensive as an increasing number of items escape its net. Leidy’s Popular Guide to Government Publications, now in its third edition,1 was joined a couple of years ago by Wisdom and Kilroy’s Popular Names of U.S. Government Reports: a Cataloguez which gives full bibliographical references for nearly 500 reports of U.S. executive, legislative and judicial bodies published over the last 75 years. These, however, are only selective. Demand for access to older documents is evidenced by the reprinting of such bibliographies as Poore’s Descriptive Catalogue of the Government Publications of the United States, September 5, 1774-March 4, 1881 and Brown’s Manual of Government Publications, United States and Foreign.3 As regards the availability of the official documents themselves, there must surely have been a considerable degree of pressure from scholars to warrant the completion by the Bureau of Public Records Collection and Research (at the University of North Carolina) of a microfilm compilation of Records of the States of the United States: it runs to 1765 reels of film! Invaluable though such a record may be, one hesitates to conjecture what might be the reaction of the majority of library users if they were obliged to use a microfilm reader to consult the publications of the federal government. The thirst for data on U.S. political life has stimulated publication of Bowker’s magnificent Who’s Who in American Politics and compilations such as Porter and Johnson’s flational Party Platforms, 1840-19644 and Richard Scammon’s America at the Polls: a Handbook of American Presidential election statistics, 1920-19645 which follows the same presentation as the well known America votes and gives detailed State and county results for the first time. A similar pattern of demand for official and quasi-official material is manifesting itself in other major countries. In France, for instance, the Association pour la Conservation et la Reproduction Photographique de 1 W. Philip Leidy (1968). A Popular Guide to Government Publications. New York: Columbia University Press. 2 Donald F. Wisdom and William P. Kilroy (Comps.) (1966). Popular Names of U.S. Reports: a Cataloxue. Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress. s These and many other relevant items are listed in the catalogues of the Johnson Reprint Corporation, New York. 4 Kirk H. Porter and Donald Bruce (eds.) (1966). YVational Party Platforms 1840-1964. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. 5 Richard M. Scammon (1966). America at the Polls: a Handbook of American Presidential Election Statistics, 1920-1964. Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press.
LIBRARY
SERVICES
FOR
THE
SOCIOCRAT
281
la Presse (ACRPP) is pursuing a programme of making French official publications available on microfilm. The Journal Oficiel is published in seven principal editions: Lois et De’crets; De’bats de l’dssemblie Nationale; Dibats du Se’nat; Documents de l’ilssemble’e JVationale; Documents du Shut; Documents Administratifs; and Avis et Rapports du Conseil Ihonomique et Social. Of these the first five can now be obtained on microfilm back to 1881, the administrative documents back to 1905, and the Avis to 1947. In addition, the Tables are available back to 1871. This does not complete the range; there is, for example, a whole repertory of French parliamentary publications from 1789 to 1876 either available or in preparation. Examples of this kind could be multiplied many fold, but it is not our present object to compile an exhaustive inventory. All that is intended is to let a number of recent publications and publishing programmes reflect to some extent the sort of demand which is already emerging in the social sciences. For they are not speculative ventures. If Micro Methods Limited are microfilming the Annual Abstract of Statistics from 1840 to 1950 it is to meet a known demand; if the Johnson Reprint Corporation is reprinting such items as Documents on International Afiirs and the Statesman’s Yearbook it is to fulfil a need; if the computer-produced Universal Reference System series is being published it is because it has been shown to be imperative that greater access has to be afforded to literature and data in the social sciences. Primary materials in the social sciences have hitherto been a much neglected area of library provision; but this is a situation which can not be allowed to persist. Those who are responsible for shaping the policies of new libraries whether they may be the national librarians of developing countries, the librarians of new cities or new academic institutions-all would do well to take account of the demands which will inevitably be generated by the new breed of social administrators. In countries such as Great Britain where national facilities are cast in a traditional mould, nothing short of a major reappraisal of the functions of the national library institutions is considered necessary in order to create a system which will efficiently match the needs of modern society. Here, a National Libraries Committee, appointed by the Government, has been charged with just this task. And the extent to which it makes provision for the sociocrat will in large part be a measure of the perspicacity and vigour of the library profession of this country.
Libr.
Rev.
(1969)
1, 277-281
Library Services for the Sociocrat JOHN
E. PEMBERTONt
The public interest must hinders a full understanding free flow of men, knowledge side world’1
suffer from any exclusiveness or isolation which of contemporary problems or unduly restricts the and ideas between the (Civil) Service and the out-
Enquiring into the state of public administration in Great Britain, the Fulton Committee found the prevailing concept of the ideal administrator as a gifted layman able to take decisions in the light of his knowledge and experience of the government machine to have “most damaging consequences”.2 Particularly in view of the increasing involvement of the state with every aspect of the country’s life, a special need has now arisen for a new professionalism in the social departments of government. This, the Committee recommends, should be provided in the form of social administrators, whose training and experience in the social studies relevant to government should include “methods of social investigation and the technique of collecting and analysing information commonly used in public and private inquiries into social problems”.i Policy should henceforth proceed not from the acumen of the generalist but from the expertise of the specialist. The advent of the sociocrat is at hand. It is clear that the social administrator of the future will be expected to possess the ability to acquire new information and apply it to the solution of problems he confronts. His training will more closely resemble that provided by the Ecole Nationale d’Administration, where considerable emphasis is laid on the value of project work involving quantitative analysis. “La documentation,” writes Bernard Bournay, “est indispensable B l’execution de toutes les tdches administratives.“s t University of Warwick, England. 1 Lord Fulton (Chairman) (1968). ‘The Civil Service. Vol. 1: Report ofthe Committee, 1966 to 68. Cmnd. 3638, para. 51. s Lord Fulton (Chairman) (1968). The Gil Service. Vol. I : Report of the Committee, 1966 to 68. Cmnd. 3638, para. 15. 3 Bernard Gournay (1964). L’administration(Que sais-je? No. 1004), Paris, P.U.F., 2nd Ed. 1964.
278
J.
E.
PEMBERTON
Official recognition of the value of bibliographical skill in the process of social administration may add timely support to the pursuit of a national policy for the advancement of social sciences documentation.1 It should certainly prompt us, as librarians, to take a careful look at the resources we can offer to the social scientist and the means by which we can help him to exploit them. We must not allow ourselves to be overtaken by events as was our unfortunate experience when we were called upon to provide intensive bibliographical backing for the race into space. The “startling proliferation” of political studies in British universities recently proclaimed by Professor H. V. Wiseman of Exeter is but one manifestation of a world-wide upsurge of concern with the social sciences. It is as though there has been a sudden release from a decade’s preoccupation with science and technology. Cape-coloured now ranks with Cape Kennedy as a news headline, and computers predict electoral swings as eagerly as they plot the breaking point ofmetals. In the past year there has been a significant increase in the publication of both source materials and guides to the literature of the social sciences, and these must reflect an already insistent public demand. So great has been the need of libraries to provide adequate stocks of British government documents, for instance, that publishers on both sides of the Atlantic are now producing what amounts to an embarras de richesses. It seems that the complete microcard edition of Parliamentary Papers of the last century published by Readex Microprint of New York did not meet every need; moreover, we have been warned that in five years time “micro-opaque production will have largely or completely ceased and the present stocks in libraries will have attained a high nuisance value”. 2 There is in any case no escaping the fact that researchers still favour the paper text, and this has been recognized by the publishers of two reprint series, the Irish University Press and Frank Cass. I.U.P. have set out to reprint the entire range of nineteenthcentury Parliamentary Papers in subject sets, each of which will have a critical introduction and an index. Cass, on the other hand, are publishing the major documents on a selective basis and without the critical apparatus, and their policy of re-issuing these essential research documents in the form in which they originally appeared (thus keeping the price within reasonable limits) will make it difficult for librarians who already possess the microcard edition to resist the pressure from 1 John E. Pemherton (1968). Social library service. Libr. World lxx, 136. 2 R. J. S. Williams (1968). Microfilm 6, 7.
sciences
documentation
techniques,
applications
at Warwick
and
and systems.
the national Pt. 1. Visual
LIBRARY
SERVICES
FOR
THE
SOCIOCRAT
279
scholars to acquire their paper copies. With the increasing vogue of microfiche, NCR Microcard Editions (Washington) are offering British and Foreign State Papers and other documents in this format. The needs of researchers working on more recent government documents has resulted in some improvement from the point of view of indexing services. There is, at last, a hope that production of the sessional indexes to British Parliamentary Papers will be speeded-up; and publication has now been commenced of a cumulative index to the House of Lords Parliamentary Debates.1 As regards departmental publications, however, one has to record the continued lack of an indexing service to cover those documents which are issued by the departments themselves and not through Her Majesty’s Stationery Office. What is worse, the situation is likely to deteriorate as the total volume of departmental publishing increases and as more departments acquire their own printing equipment. Even attempts to devise a system of collecting all such titles for recording in the British National Bibliography have so far proved abortive. On the other hand it is encouraging to note the inception of Statistical News published by the Central Statistical Office.2 Its aim is to report and index “all new happenings in official statistics”, and one looks forward to seeing its promised “comprehensive index (which) will make it easy to find items again, at any time”. This publication is a clear indication of the sustained demand of those working with official statistical sources for more information on what is available. Still in the area of British materials, several items have appeared which are relevant to the documentation of national elections. British Parliamentary Election Statistics 1918-1968, for example, compiled by F. W. S. Craig,3 contains over 100 tables and appendices covering 14 general elections and 800 by-elections-altogether more than 20,000 facts and figures have been assembled, many hitherto unpublished. Companion volumes giving detailed results in each constituency since 1918 will be published later. For the serious researcher facts of this sort must be studied in conjunction with such things as political speeches, party pamphlets and conference reports, and in this domain the two principal parties have shown some concern for the enquirer. The Labour Party has issued a bibliography of its publications,4 and the Conservative Party has rationalized its publishing policy; it claims, in fact, that the 1 Cumulative Index to the House of Lords Parliamentary Debates. The first index covers the session 1965 to 1966. London: H.M.S.O. 2 Statist.News. Issued quarterly, commencing May 1968. London: H.M.S.O. 3 F. W. S. Craig (ed.) (1968). British Parliamentary Election Statitfics ISIB-2.968. Glasgow: Political Reference Publications. 4 Labour Party (1967). Bibliography (of publications of the Labour Party and of affiliated and associated organizations).
280
J.
E.
PEMBEXTON
Conservative Information Service “today provides the most complete and up-to-date literature of any political party in the world”. Listing of government publications is causing as much concern in the United States as it is in Britain. The Monthly Catalog, valuable as it is, every year becomes less and less comprehensive as an increasing number of items escape its net. Leidy’s Popular Guide to Government Publications, now in its third edition,1 was joined a couple of years ago by Wisdom and Kilroy’s Popular Names of U.S. Government Reports: a Cataloguez which gives full bibliographical references for nearly 500 reports of U.S. executive, legislative and judicial bodies published over the last 75 years. These, however, are only selective. Demand for access to older documents is evidenced by the reprinting of such bibliographies as Poore’s Descriptive Catalogue of the Government Publications of the United States, September 5, 1774-March 4, 1881 and Brown’s Manual of Government Publications, United States and Foreign.3 As regards the availability of the official documents themselves, there must surely have been a considerable degree of pressure from scholars to warrant the completion by the Bureau of Public Records Collection and Research (at the University of North Carolina) of a microfilm compilation of Records of the States of the United States: it runs to 1765 reels of film! Invaluable though such a record may be, one hesitates to conjecture what might be the reaction of the majority of library users if they were obliged to use a microfilm reader to consult the publications of the federal government. The thirst for data on U.S. political life has stimulated publication of Bowker’s magnificent Who’s Who in American Politics and compilations such as Porter and Johnson’s flational Party Platforms, 1840-19644 and Richard Scammon’s America at the Polls: a Handbook of American Presidential election statistics, 1920-19645 which follows the same presentation as the well known America votes and gives detailed State and county results for the first time. A similar pattern of demand for official and quasi-official material is manifesting itself in other major countries. In France, for instance, the Association pour la Conservation et la Reproduction Photographique de 1 W. Philip Leidy (1968). A Popular Guide to Government Publications. New York: Columbia University Press. 2 Donald F. Wisdom and William P. Kilroy (Comps.) (1966). Popular Names of U.S. Reports: a Cataloxue. Washington, D.C. : Library of Congress. s These and many other relevant items are listed in the catalogues of the Johnson Reprint Corporation, New York. 4 Kirk H. Porter and Donald Bruce (eds.) (1966). YVational Party Platforms 1840-1964. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. 5 Richard M. Scammon (1966). America at the Polls: a Handbook of American Presidential Election Statistics, 1920-1964. Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press.
LIBRARY
SERVICES
FOR
THE
SOCIOCRAT
281
la Presse (ACRPP) is pursuing a programme of making French official publications available on microfilm. The Journal Oficiel is published in seven principal editions: Lois et De’crets; De’bats de l’dssemblie Nationale; Dibats du Se’nat; Documents de l’ilssemble’e JVationale; Documents du Shut; Documents Administratifs; and Avis et Rapports du Conseil Ihonomique et Social. Of these the first five can now be obtained on microfilm back to 1881, the administrative documents back to 1905, and the Avis to 1947. In addition, the Tables are available back to 1871. This does not complete the range; there is, for example, a whole repertory of French parliamentary publications from 1789 to 1876 either available or in preparation. Examples of this kind could be multiplied many fold, but it is not our present object to compile an exhaustive inventory. All that is intended is to let a number of recent publications and publishing programmes reflect to some extent the sort of demand which is already emerging in the social sciences. For they are not speculative ventures. If Micro Methods Limited are microfilming the Annual Abstract of Statistics from 1840 to 1950 it is to meet a known demand; if the Johnson Reprint Corporation is reprinting such items as Documents on International Afiirs and the Statesman’s Yearbook it is to fulfil a need; if the computer-produced Universal Reference System series is being published it is because it has been shown to be imperative that greater access has to be afforded to literature and data in the social sciences. Primary materials in the social sciences have hitherto been a much neglected area of library provision; but this is a situation which can not be allowed to persist. Those who are responsible for shaping the policies of new libraries whether they may be the national librarians of developing countries, the librarians of new cities or new academic institutions-all would do well to take account of the demands which will inevitably be generated by the new breed of social administrators. In countries such as Great Britain where national facilities are cast in a traditional mould, nothing short of a major reappraisal of the functions of the national library institutions is considered necessary in order to create a system which will efficiently match the needs of modern society. Here, a National Libraries Committee, appointed by the Government, has been charged with just this task. And the extent to which it makes provision for the sociocrat will in large part be a measure of the perspicacity and vigour of the library profession of this country.