Fénix 16, 212-242

226 FENIX Iibrariau of Iihrary B is busy with other duties 01' appointments. There may be any number of reasons for the inconveniency. 1 cannot explain exactly what is meant by 'frequently' because the periodicity would depend upon the individual cases. Is could mean that library A and library B are in contact daily 01' weekly 01' perhaps even biweekly. Whatever the period that is meant by 'frequently', the fact is that Iihrarian A begins to have the thought that it would be convenient, and pcrhaps proper, to have the information in Iibrary a instead of continually contaeting Iihrary B 01' library C for it, Note that the situation is this. Librarian A needs information for her clientele, but this information is not in Iihrary A. Hence she must search Ior that inforrnation elsewhere, No matter what method of searehing that she uses, whether by telephone 01' by letter 01' by personal visit, she is separated from the infor– mation by a distanee. Even in the case of the telephone conversation, whieh one might believe to be the quiekest method for obtaining the information, there is the problem of eommunication across a distance as well as the concomitant possibility of error of communication. Although there might seem to be a small chance of error in this country to request information, via the telephone, about a book written in Spanish, the possibilities of error increase with French, English, German, and become enormous when the book is written in Russian, Chinese 01' Japancse. So far we have been considering the problem Irom the viewpoint of the needs of Iibrary A and its clientele, Let us see how thc librarian at Iibrary B tnight react, If the visit from librarian A are few 01' if there are not frequent telephone conversations and their subsequent seurches, librarian B, in a feeling of comaraderie, is pleased to aid her coIleague. If the request for information become frequent, particularly coming at times when librarian B is busy with other, important matters, then even the hest of friends might begin to wonder about the adivisability of continuing this cooperations. If the Iibrarian of library B does not need information concerning the material in library A, then what llegan as a friendIy gesture can seen become a tedious and dreadful task. If the librarían of library B, however, also needs information from librarian A, then there would be no justification for the above-mentioned reaction. At sorne point, then, Iihrarian A wiII begin to think how fine it wouId be lo have, in library A, information concerning the materials in library B, thus not having to telephone 01' write 01' visit Iibrary B to obtain such information. Such a situation would certainly be fine. It would be mnch better to have the infor– mation at hand than to have to seek it elsewhcre. Not only does having the infor– mation coucerning the materials of Iibrary B save time for Iibrarian A and hcr staff, but is also permits Iihrarian A to perform exceIlent service for her clientele. Thus the next step is to attempt to have information concerning the collection of another Iihrary located within the locale of the library that needs the information. In our example, the attempt would be 10 have information concerning the coIlection of library B within the loeale of library A. Note that the inforrnation that Iibrary A needs concerning Iibrary B can be for all of the Fénix: Revista de la Biblioteca Nacional del Perú. N.16, 1966