W. C. Berwick Sayers Explained
William Charles Berwick Sayers (1881–1960) was a British librarian and teacher.[1] He was one of a "small but remarkable" group of librarians involved in public libraries in the early 20th century[2] and was President of the Library Association in the United Kingdom in the year 1938.[1] [3]
Early life
Sayers was born in Mitcham, Surrey on 23 December 1881.[4]
Career
In 1896 Sayers began as a junior assistant at the Bournemouth Public Library and in 1904 he was appointed as deputy librarian, working under principal librarian Stanley Jast, at the Public Library in Croydon which then a small country town near south London.
In 1915, he became the chief librarian of the Croydon Public Library and under his leadership he introduced a library service for children and during the 1930s he opened several branch libraries. He made every library an arts centre with a "programme of lectures, recitals and exhibitions".[1] He also set up libraries in hospitals and schools in the country. He was successful in convincing the local council to provide a generous budget and his libraries gained an international reputation for their high standards.[1]
After the Second World War, during which he had been badly injured while serving as a Civil Defence controller, he retired from the Croydon Public Libraries.
Legacy
Sayers contributed in several areas of librarianship: he served in the Library Assistants' Association, contributed to children's librarianship, was a respected teacher and "an outstanding authority"[5] on library classification, and served as a long-term editor of the journal Library World.
He was also a personal friend of musician Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and after Coleridge-Taylor's untimely death in 1912, Coleridge-Taylor's widow asked Sayers to become his biographer.[6]
Bibliography
As author
- The Grammar of Classification, Croydon, Central Library, 1912.
- Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Musician. His Life and Letters, Cassell & Co., 1916, 2nd ed. 1927.[7]
- A Manual of Classification for Librarians & Bibliographers, London: Grafton & Co., 1926, 2nd ed. 1944.[8]
- A Manual of Children's Libraries, Allen & Unwin, 1932.[9]
- An Introduction to Library Classification, London, Grafton & Co., 1935.[10]
- Library Local Collections, Allen & Unwin, 1938.[11]
- Croydon and the Second World War - the official history of the warwork of the borough and its citizens from 1939 to 1945; together with The Croydon roll of honour. by W. C. Berwick Sayers (ref :https://openlibrary.org/books/OL21395025M/Croydon_and_the_Second_World_War)
As editor
- James Duff Brown, Manual of Library Economy, 5th ed. Revised by W. C. Berwick Sayers. London, Grafton, 1931.
- Books for Youth: A Classified and Annotated Guide for Young Readers, London, Library Association, 1936.
Further reading
- D.J. Foskett and B.I. Palmer, eds., The Sayers Memorial Volume, London: Library Association, 1961;
- Munford, W. A., A History of The Library Association, 1877-1977, London: The Library Association, 1976;
- Ranganathan, S.R., "Sayers and Donker Duyvis: Theory and Manner of Library Classification", Annals of Library Science, 8(3) September 1961, 85-99.
External links
Notes and References
- James G.. Olle. 10.1.1.850.6334. W.C. Berwick Sayers, librarian and teacher. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science. 13. 4. October 1981. 232–247. 10.1177/096100068101300403. 144041642.
- https://museumofcroydoncollections.com/catalogues/index.php/further-records-of-w-c-berwick-sayers Collection AR1011 - W.C. Berwick Sayers Collection
- "A Word for the Lowbrow", The Guardian, 17 August 1938, p. 8.
- Web site: Sayers and Donker Duyvis . nopr.niscair.res.in.
- W. A. Munford, A History of the Library Association 1877-1977, London: The Library Association, 1976, p. 129.
- News: Sutton & Croydon Guardian. The sound of dignity. 29 July 2004. Kerry. McQueeney.
- Reviews of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Musician: The Musical Times (1916),, ; The Crisis (1916), https://books.google.com/books?id=Wb8RAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA293; J. R. Davis, The Journal of Negro History (1916),,
- Reviews of A Manual of Classification for Librarians and Bibliographers: Henry Bartlett Van Hoesen (1945), The Library Quarterly,, Ruth French Strout (1956), The Library Quarterly,
- Reviews of A Manual of Children's Libraries: Mary Duncan Carter (1933), The Library Quarterly, ; Vittorio Camerani (1932), La Bibliofilía, ; H. Lemaître (1932), Bibliothèque de l'École des chartes, ; Gloria Escamilla G. (1969), Boletín del Instituto de Investigaciones Bibliográficas, http://publicaciones.iib.unam.mx/publicaciones/index.php/boletin/article/view/175/167
- Reviews of An Introduction to Library Classification: Henry E. Bliss (1936), The Library Quarterly, ; Vittorio Camerani (1935), La Bibliofilía,
- Review of Library Local Collections: Jackson E. Towne (1939), The Library Quarterly,