The British Chess Problem
Society
| 1. Published Books and Pamphlets | 2. Periodicals | 3. Tourney Awards |
| 4. Unpublished and Personal Material | 5. Problem Collections | 6. Miscellanea |
The Library is the private property of the Society, and those who are not members may visit it only by invitation; but an invitation will usually be extended even to persons having no previous connection with the Society if the visitor agrees to observe the rules of the Library and the sole or primary object of the visit is to consult material which was published in Great Britain or Northern Ireland and is not in the British Library. Visitors are asked to give not less than 48 hours notice (not counting Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays) and to indicate any items which they would particularly like to see, so that material normally stored elsewhere can be made available.
Everything available in the library is listed, though a small amount of the material has yet to be examined in detail. However, the catalogue is continually being reviewed and revised, and notification of any error or omission (in particular, of a misinterpretation of something in a foreign language, or of a failure to record an issue missing from the run of a periodical) will be appreciated.
The catalogue has been designed to be readily transportable between
computers, and to be searched on a computer which offers nothing more
sophisticated than an elementary editing program. The text has therefore been
confined to the characters
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
0123456789
!"#$%&'()*+,-./:;<=>?@[\]^`{|}~
and whatever characters are
used to represent "space" and "new line". Accents and other diacritical marks
have been suppressed, and names and titles in non-Roman alphabets have been
transliterated. In principle, Cyrillic text has been transcribed using the
Library of Congress transliteration, but the present librarian does not read a
Cyrillic language and experience has shown that the procedure is susceptible to
error. Readers searching for Cyrillic items should therefore allow for
alternative spellings.
The catalogue is freely available over the Internet. It is also available in disc or printed form, and any member wishing to receive it in one of these forms should contact the Librarian. A charge is normally made for a disc or printed copy, but an Internet copy can be obtained without payment. Disc copies are supplied in paginated form ready for printing (80 characters per line, 66 lines per page).
The Library owes a great deal to donations and bequests by members and their families. This catalogue identifies such material as far as is practicable, but there are inevitable omissions because information has not been preserved. Any reader able to to shed further light is warmly invited to do so.
1. The Library is maintained for the benefit of members. Members are entitled to visit it, whether for research or for recreation, and, subject to the rules below, to borrow from it. The Librarian is also willing, subject to his other commitments, to provide a limited research and enquiry service to members who cannot visit the Library personally, but he cannot undertake to provide the service which a fully staffed institutional library would be able to offer.
2. Arrangements for personal visits should be made with the Librarian. There are no formal visiting hours and there are times and periods when access cannot be granted, but as a general principle visitors are accommodated whenever it is practicable. They are asked to give not less than 48 hours notice (not counting Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays) and to indicate any items which they would particularly like to see, so that material normally stored elsewhere can be made available. The Library is housed in a basement workroom which offers heat, light, a convenient working table, and a power point for a personal computer; it can be used without disturbing the rest of the household. Visitors to the Library are asked not to smoke.
3. As a general principle, and subject always to the discretion of the Librarian, an Ordinary Member may have up to three volumes out on loan at any time, and a Fellow may have up to five. In the case of unbound magazines and other material not in book form, what constitutes a "volume" is decided by the Librarian. Requests to borrow additional material are normally granted only for the purposes of research towards the publication of a book, article, lecture, or other such work, and account is taken of the likelihood that the material may be required by another member during the currency of the loan.
4. In the first instance, a loan is normally for 60 days. Where no other member wishes to borrow or consult the material, an extension is normally granted on request, but any such extension is subject to the willingness of the borrower to return the material on demand.
5. It is a condition of each and every loan that the borrower:
- takes
good care of the borrowed material while it is in his custody;
- makes good
to the Society any loss or damage incurred while the borrowed material is in his
custody (but see Rule 12);
- does not copy or permit copying from any
material which the Librarian has directed is not to be copied;
- does not in
any case copy or permit copying except with the permission of the copyright
holder or as otherwise permitted by law;
- does not take the borrowed
material outside the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
without the prior permission of the Librarian;
- returns the borrowed
material promptly at the end of the initial loan period, or on subsequent
demand, or on ceasing to be a member of the Society.
6. Borrowed material is deemed to be in the custody of the borrower from the time of its receipt until either it has been returned to the Library, or it has been given personally to the Librarian or to someone authorized by the Librarian to receive it, or it has been given, correctly addressed and prepaid and adequately packed, into the care of the Post Office or of some other reputable delivery service, and a certificate of posting or equivalent receipt has been obtained for it.
7. Where it is not convenient for a borrower to collect or return material in person, the Society normally bears the cost of sending and the borrower the cost of return, but the Society reserves the right to restrict the expenditure thus incurred in any year on behalf of any particular borrower to one third of the membership subscription paid by him for the year. The Society normally despatches material by first class post. For return, second class post is normally sufficient unless another member wishes to consult the material, in which case the courtesy of first class post is appreciated. Registered post need not be used unless the Librarian specifically requests it.
8. It is the general policy of the Society that manuscript and other irreplaceable material may not be borrowed. An exception is likely to be granted only when the borrower is a member of long standing and the loan appears likely to be of direct and immediate benefit to the Society (for example, in assisting the borrower to prepare a lecture for delivery to the Society or an article for inclusion in a Society publication).
9. It is the general policy of the Society that Library material, even if potentially replaceable, may not be taken outside the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. An exception is likely to be granted only when the borrower is resident or travelling abroad in order to represent British interests and replacement of the material in the event of loss would be straightforward.
10. At present, the Society does not offer a photocopying service, but a limited service is available privately from the Librarian. This service is the subject of separate rules. However, a borrower may copy from borrowed material (except where the Librarian has specifically directed otherwise) provided that he obtains any necessary permission from the copyright holder and takes care not to damage the material in the course of copying.
11. The Librarian may direct that material may not be borrowed, or may be borrowed only against a deposit to be refunded on its return in good condition.
12. The liability of a borrower in respect of any volume is limited to the amount of the deposit demanded in respect of it, or, if no deposit is demanded, to the amount of the ordinary annual membership subscription in force at the time of the loan.
13. There is no general right of introduction of guests into the Library, and a member wishing to introduce a guest must obtain the prior permission of the Librarian. A member is responsible for ensuring that his guests observe the rules of the Library, and for making good to the Society any loss or damage that his guests might inflict. A guest may read anything that is not explicitly restricted to members, but may not borrow.
14. Any person, whether member or guest, who makes use of Library material in the preparation of work for publication outside the Society, is asked to include "The Library of the British Chess Problem Society" among his acknowledgments.
John Beasley, Librarian, June 1995.
At present, the Society does not offer a photocopying service, but the Librarian is willing to use local commercial photocopying services privately in order to copy small amounts of material on behalf of members. However, a journey is involved on each occasion, and the service offered is accordingly limited.
1. Photocopies are not provided of:
- anything which in the opinion of
the Librarian may be damaged by copying;
- anything which the member making
the request can borrow.
2. Photocopying is subject to legal restraint, and it is the duty of any member requesting a photocopy not to put the Society, the Librarian, or any other person in breach of this restraint. However, the great majority of the manuscript and other unpublished material in the Library has been bequeathed or donated to the Society either by the author or compiler himself or by his family or executors; and while much of this material remains subject to copyright, in some cases the present copyright holder cannot conveniently be contacted or even identified, and the very fact of the bequest or donation can be construed as having implied a willingness to make the material freely available to members. As a general principle, therefore, photocopies of such material are provided to members FOR THEIR PERSONAL USE ONLY without further formality. Any material in respect of which this procedure appears inappropriate should be brought to the Librarian's attention at once.
3. This concession applies only to private personal use, and any member wishing to use any material thus obtained in any other way, or wishing further to reproduce it, must obtain any necessary permission from the copyright holder.
4. In respect of all other material, and unless the member requesting a copy is prevented from borrowing because he is resident or travelling abroad in order to represent British interests, it is for the member either to obtain prior written permission from the copyright holder or to satisfy the Librarian that no such permission is necessary.
5. Where a member is prevented from borrowing because he is resident or travelling abroad in order to represent British interests, the Librarian will conduct any necessary negotiation with the copyright holder on the member's behalf, but the Librarian will not copy anything unless satisfied that he is entitled to do so.
6. The Society reserves the right to make a charge for allowing the copying of Library material. In addition, the recipient is expected to reimburse the Librarian for the actual cost of the copying and for any other charges incurred, and to make him a reasonable personal payment for his time and trouble.
John Beasley, Librarian, February 2000.
Our library owes a great deal to bequests and donations from past members and their families, and members whose natural heirs do not share their enthusiasm for chess problems or endgame studies are asked to consider bequeathing their collections. However, we cannot accept everything that is offered; space is limited, and the library is a working resource for members and not merely a repository. We therefore ask prospective donors and testators to bear the following points in mind.
1. In general, we can accept a conditional gift or bequest only if the condition can be satisfied once and for all at the time of receipt. We cannot undertake continuing obligations. We are not an incorporated body, and our officers cannot bind their successors. We ask testators to take particular note of this, and to make any bequest unconditional. The imposition of even a minor condition that cannot be satisfied may leave us no legal alternative but to decline a bequest altogether.
2. We usually hold duplicate library copies only of items which are regularly consulted for reference. In such a case, it is desirable that a copy of the material be kept permanently in the library, and the possession of a duplicate allows a copy to be loaned out. In any other case, a duplicate library copy is likely to be used only rarely, and we usually think it preferable to allow any second copy that may come into our possession to be bought or otherwise taken by a member who might use it regularly.
3. Although we cannot undertake to keep library material indefinitely, an item that has once been accepted is not displaced without very good reason. In particular, something received by bequest or donation is normally retained as long as it is in reasonable condition, and if another copy of the same item subsequently becomes available it is the later copy which is released for use elsewhere (except that unbound magazines will normally be displaced if a bound set becomes available). No account is taken of which of the donors may have been the more prominent member in his time.
4. In general, we do not hold library material without problem or endgame study interest. A few exceptions have been allowed to occur, usually in the case of general chess or puzzle material which has had a personal association with a particular member, but such material will always be a candidate for disposal should space become tight. Donors are also asked to note that general chess magazines take up a disproportionate amount of space and that such magazines may be filleted either on receipt or subsequently, the problem and endgame study material alone being retained and the rest being discarded.
5. It is our current practice to record the donor of a bound volume (but not of unbound magazines) both in the volume itself and in the library catalogue. It has not been possible to create a complete record because some information has been lost, but new receipts are being acknowledged, and any donor or testator who does not wish his generosity to be recorded in this way is asked to make the matter clear at the time of donation. All known previous ownership is recorded in the catalogue in any case in order to establish provenance, but the fact that an item was acquired by gift rather than by purchase can be concealed if the donor wishes.
6. We welcome the deposition of personal collections, scrapbooks, incomplete and draft works, and other unpublished material, but our general policy is that private correspondence should remain private. Letters and extracts which relate solely to chess matters are welcome, but donors and executors are asked to purge correspondence of all sensitive personal matter before offering it.