Local Government Literature: An Abstracting Service for Councillors and Officials
| Published date | 01 June 1965 |
| Date | 01 June 1965 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1965.tb01612.x |
Quarterly Notes
Local Government Literature
:
An Abstracting Service for Councillors and Officials
Information now available for those cngaged in local government adminis-
tration is
so
vast that to try to cope with it without the guidance of
a
systematic approach would require more time than the average councillor
or
official has at his disposal. Any scheme, therefore, that can provide a
key to assessing the relative importance or relevance of articles in local
government periodicals merits attention. One such publication is
Local
Government Literature
which is published by Gateshead Public Libraries.
This
is
a
modest attempt to abstract and index suitable articles from
a
basic list of seven periodicals, namely
Contract Journal, Local Gooernment
Chronicle, Municipal Engineering, Municipal Journal, Municipal Review,
Ofiial Architecture and Planning
and
Public Adminirtration.
Whilst the staff of Gateshead Public Libraries have designed this publi-
cation with the needs
of
an industrial county borough in mind, the prin-
ciples on which
Local Government Literature
is produced can readily be
adapted by any public library for the requirements of its own local
authority members and officials.
Primarily the articles abstracted and indexed are general rather than
specialist
in
scope. The latter are largely devoted to the technical details
of interest to the expert and are generally given greater prominence in
specialist periodicals. General articles usually provide information on new
developments in local government policies without going too far into
technical details, and as such are
of
prime importance to the councillor
responsible for deciding policy.
The value of such articles to the officer is that it enables him
to
keep
in
touch with the broad developments
of
local government
as
a whole, and
gives him
a
greater understanding of problems in other departments which
may ultimately affect
his
own.
For example, whilst town planning is a specialist function of thc Town
Planning Department, most other officers would be well advised
to
be
informed about general trends in town planning.
Local Government
Literature
thus helps to promote
a
more informed approach to the problem
of
local government efficiency and progress.
Qualified staff under the general direction of the Reference Librarian
scan the seven periodicals listed above, on publication, and mark articles
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