David Wood: a personal appreciation
Maurice B. Line is now an independent consultant. He was Director-General of the British Library Lending Division (later named the Document Supply Centre), then Director General, Science Technology and Industry, between the years 1974 and 1988, covering much of the time that David Wood was at the British Library.
David Wood: a personal appreciation
My first encounter with David Wood was in 1963 or 1964, I think. I was then at Southampton University Library, and we were about to provide a course in information use for postgraduate engineers. This was something of an innovation;short courses in library use (sometimes euphemistically called "user education") for undergraduates had been common for years, but not until the then National Lending Library for Science and Technology (NLLST) put on its courses for academic librarians did we think of something more than that. I went to the first of the NLL courses, which gave me the confidence, as a mere humanist, to realise that while I might know little of science or engineering, I probably knew quite a lot more about searching and using the literature than most scientists or engineers.
So we decided to put on our two-day course, for which I as sub-librarian in charge of reader services was responsible. To assist and guide us, we asked Dr Wood, then in his first years at the NLLST, to come and work with me. I frankly do not remember much about the course, except that it worked and we did several other such courses thereafter. (I do recall an engineer in his last year,nearing the writing up of his doctoral dissertation, who discovered that his topic had already been fully covered by a US student two or three years before;I never found out what he did about it.) David stayed at our house, and we pondered what to do one evening. Looking at the local newspaper, I found that some wrestling was on in the town, so never having seen wrestling before (or since) we tried that. The crowd, consisting largely of screaming middle-aged women, was rather more interesting than the clearly programmed wrestling.
My next meeting with David was in 1971, when I was librarian at the National Central Library (NCL), planning its coming merger with the NLL. The staff of both libraries were in quite close contact, not least in preparing for the move to Boston Spa of the NCL's stock of a few million volumes. When the creation of the British Library finally came into being in July 1973, I moved up as deputy director general of the then Lending Division, succeeding Donald Urquhart as director general in July 1974. From then until my retirement in June 1988,contact between us was almost daily.
David's main job (of several) when I was there was acquisitions. This inevitably led to dealings with publishers, especially the serial publishers who were seemingly convinced that the Lending Division was robbing them of vast sums of money by supplying photocopies of articles. During the later years of my predecessor's reign, lending of serial parts had gradually given way to the supply of copies as the xerographic revolution took hold, and the conflict became quite intense. David and I wrote together an article (Line and Wood,1975) showing that publishers' concerns were misplaced (the serials most commonly copied were those most commonly held by other libraries), but this did little to pacify them – they probably did not read it anyway. David was very much our front man in discussions, and did a great deal to soothe angry publishers with his combination of a firm knowledge of the facts and their tactful presentation.
There is a great deal more I could say about David's contributions to the BL during my time: so much that it is better to say simply that they were numerous and effective. Perhaps it is because they were largely unobtrusive that he was less well known to much of the library profession than his work for it deserved.
His leadership of the UK Serials Group in its early years is covered by other contributions to this issue, as is his editorship of this journal from its very beginning. I stayed on as a member of the Editorial Board of Interlending and Document Supply after my retirement, and so had the pleasure of maintaining regular contact with David. I shall miss these contacts. More important, ILDSwill miss him.
Two other things, hardly contributions to the BL or the profession but much appreciated by me: the table tennis games we had (which he usually won), and a supply of jokes to add to my collection.
It is a pleasure to have edited this issue in David's honour. I hope he will enjoy it as a tribute to him as much as those who have had dealings with him appreciate David.
Maurice B. Line
Reference
Line, M.B. and Wood, D.N. (1975), "The effect of a large-scale photocopying service on journal sales", Journal of Documentation,Vol. 11 No. 4, pp. 234-53.
