Fénix 16, 212-242

PROBLEMAS DE ORGANIZACION y ADM!NISTRACION DE BIBLIOTECAS 225 if it were functioning efficiently, perhaps one would only need to telephone the personnel of the uriion catalog and ohtain the information that was being re– quested. Note that 1 am assuming that not only would the national union catalog eontain information concerning the Iocations of books in Perú, but also that there would be facilities for Iihruriana to ohtain this information, be it by means of a telephone conversation 01' by means of purchase of copies of the union catalog in i;ard format 01' in printed volumen. Neverthelcss, Perú does not have a national union catalog, in a11Y formo Even if it had, a national union catalog is not the point frorn which to start. As we did hefore, we will start at the beginning, in this case with a desirc, and we will develop possihle consequences of this desire. Let us suppose, then that Iibrary A, a library in Lima, for reasons of its own, reasons which are quite justifiable, has a clientele which must know, at various times, information that is no! obtainable in Iibrary A. The information that is not available in Iihrary A could he particular books that library A do es not have 01' it could be complete areas of information that are beyond the esta– lished purpose and scope of the collection of library A. The students, for example, must present reports concerning their own interests 01' training. Since there is a diversity of student backgrounds, inevitably sorne of the students will need in– Iormation for their reports on suhjects that are beyond the scope of the co11ection of library A. Hence the Iibraiian at library A, upon discovering that her library does not have the appropiate information for the student, will either telephonc or write 01' visit the library where she believes the material can be located so that she can ascertain where the material is and also whether her student can use that material. Heir choice could be any Iibrary: B, C, or D. She will telephone 01' visit if the library is in the same 01' a neighboring city. She will write if the library is distant. The decision concerning wich Iibrary to contact can be one that is based upan experience gained from conversations with other librarians at mcetings 01' Irom reading the catalog of the different institutions. The decision might, however, be based upon the simple Iact that Iibrarian A has a friend at Iíbrary B and she chooses to contact Iibrary B for that solitary reason, discarding the possibility of the many other Iihraries that might also have had the materials rhat she needed. Note that 1 have assumed in this discussion that the Iihrarian al: Iibrary A, upon her discovery that Iihrary did not have the materials that were needed, earnestly understood her role as Iihrarian and al so was sufficiently eoncerned with the dilemma of her clientele, that she attempted to locate the information for her clientele in another Iihrary. Unfortunately, sorne librarians would have said that the material was not available in library A and would have ended the search at that point. lf the librarian at Iibrary A perceives that she seeks information from li– brary B frequently, she naturally begins to think how splendid it would be to have such information in her own Iibrary instead of the telephone conversations 01' the visits both of which preve inconvenient at times. One request for infor– rnation, for example, may neccssitate more than one telephone conversation 01' more than one visit, These conversations or visits may come at times when the Fénix: Revista de la Biblioteca Nacional del Perú. N.16, 1966