BOOK ISSUE CONTROL BY COMPUTER WITHIN A LOCALLY INTEGRATED SYSTEM Available to Purchase

Before we attempt to assess the merits of any book charging system, we have to be clear about what we regard as a merit. Ideas on this subject are by no means fixed, but have changed a good deal over the years. During the nineteenth century most librarians would have considered the security of public property as the most important attribute. Ledger charging, closed access and the Cotgreave indicator all followed logically from this attitude. The mass use of public libraries which developed from universal education led to a change in the librarian's values. For nearly half a century the first question to be asked about a charging system was: ‘How fast is it?’ Open access was a necessary change for this and other reasons and with it came the need for a rapid counter service, a need which dominated all thinking on the subject until quite recently. So much importance was attached to a speedy service that some librarians accepted systems which involved an increase in the total work to be done in their libraries for the sake of reducing the delay to readers at the counters. The Dickman system and, indeed, most delayed‐discharge systems are expressions of this obsession.