Comment

MOST LIBRARIANS pass the library photocopier without a second glance, or a thought of how this relatively new machine has changed, and will increasingly change, the library scene. Only fifteen years ago these machines were relatively rare in libraries, and only just beginning to displace photostat copiers which relied upon the use of sensitised photographic paper that could be employed without films or plates. Photostat machines were cumbersome, laborously slow and frequently necessitated filling tanks with large bottles of chemicals. Some had to be operated in a dark room, and as a young librarian I remember a sort of rabbit hutch with red windows behind the service counter of the technical library where I worked. These copiers produced a negative-like white on black print which, unlike a proper photographic negative, was not a reversed mirror image. However, it provided a perfectly legible copy for reading. Positives were made from negatives if a conventional black on white print image was required. If the prints were not fixed in hypo and washed in water they went brown after a few months, and they certainly had a distinctive smell. These machines are now part of library archaeology; they have passed away and we are far down an evolutionary road which is leading to micro-processors, laser and optical fibre technologies. Eventually the intelligent copier will distribute information and documents over telecommunication links.