Hard Time For Library Yuppies?

“Who is the Adaptive Information Manager” ran the somewhat gnomic slogan on the cover of the A5 brochure I extracted from the breakfast time post. Below this early morning conundrum was portrayed a shorts beclad female behind with person attached striding purposefully into what looked like some latterday plate glass Grove of Academe. “Find out on 17–20 March 1987 …” was an exhortation I did not at once heed for an assiduous foreign guest thrust at me across the toast and marmalade the A4 prospectus of the University of Strathclyde's Department of Information Studies, its cover all VDUs and keyboards, a laser disc rampant against a background of a book or two. It reminded me that the Department was “one of the leaders in British information studies …” (Times Higher Educational Supplement). With this information I thought I knew the identity of the Adaptive Information Manager, but when 1 opened the A5 brochure it turned out to be about Aslib's 59th Annual Conference at the University of Sussex and Blaise Cronin wasn't down to give a paper. However, that Adaptive Something‐or‐Other Manager, Smith‐Sutton (as he is wont to identify himself in conference discussions) was down to give a talk on “Marketing the library”. The accompanying blurb notes that he “has been closely involved in the ambitious, highly innovative formation of the Central Library at Sutton”.