Abstract
The paper, by a ‘consumer economist‘ discusses the use of libraries under four classifications: the personal library, the specialized library, the teaching library of a college or university, and the research library. In addition, it reflects briefly on the current problems of libraries ensuing from rising costs, increasing published materials, reduced budgets, etc. It gives the view of one who is not widely familiar with bibliographic aids, both literary and increasingly computerized, and concludes, perhaps erroneously, that such is the ambiguity in the words used by economists that it is unlikely that mechanical substitutes will be found for informal and personalized techniques, such as asking people who know a given field.
I acknowledge with gratitude the help of Edgar W. Davy, director of the Dewey Library at MIT, but, since our points of view differ in a number of respects, he is not to be regarded as believing everything I say. Many librarians and one or two economists com- mented on the first draft and corrected errors of varying significance, for which I am grateful.
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Refernces
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© 1977 International Economic Association
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Kindleberger, C. (1977). The Use of Libraries by Economists: A Personal View. In: Perlman, M. (eds) The Organization and Retrieval of Economic Knowledge. International Economic Association Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-03325-6_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-03325-6_2
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