BARBARA KYLE
| Published date | 01 April 1965 |
| Pages | 227-235 |
| Date | 01 April 1965 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb026368 |
| Author | LESLIE WILSON |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
ESSAYS PRESENTED TO BARBARA KYLE
THE
Journal of
Documentation
VOLUME 21 NUMBER 4 DECEMBER 1965
BARBARA KYLE
LESLIE WILSON
Director
of Aslib
AS HER MANY friends and colleagues all over the world already know,
Barbara Kyle retired prematurely at the end of June from her twin posts on
the staff of Aslib: Research Librarian and Editor of this Journal. Thus ill
health has interrupted a career of singular
eclat
in the realm of librarianship
and imposed a burden of rest and recuperation on one whose capacity for
living is everywhere a legend. And 'everywhere', it must be said, contains
in this context no hint of poetic licence, for rarely can the British docu-
mentalist abroad have engaged in converse with
his
colleagues without the
name of Kyle being mentioned with respect, admiration, or personal affec-
tion—frequently the rare tribute of all three.
Miss Kyle joined the headquarters staff of Aslib as recently as June 1962.
Before that she had worked at the Paddington, Fulham, and Islington
Public Libraries, been Librarian of the Royal Institute of International
Affairs, spent some years in research into the documentation of the social
sciences, and made
a
brief incursion into the world of publishing
as
Assistant
Director of the National Book League. To each in turn she brought not only
the sparkling personality that caught every eye and ear in any
assembly,
but
an array of gifts that ranged from intellectual brilliance and technical mas-
tery of her job to an intuitive judgment of people and situations and the
fervour of totally undivided loyalties. Yet there can be little doubt that it
was in Aslib that she found the true setting for her talents.
The reasons are not far to seek. In the first place, the very purposes for
which Aslib stands are basic to her concept of human progress: as know-
ledge is the key to man's advancement, so is the ordered arrangement of
knowledge the key to its understanding and
use.
In the second, research and
education, forming together
the
keystone of Aslib's structure, serve only to
227
To continue reading
Request your trial