| Description | Interview with Dr W M Dickie recorded on 7 July 1986 by Dorothy Johnstone.
Transcript of Interview :
J Perhaps if we could start with your arrival in Aberdeen from Huntly.
D Yes, 1914.
J Had many students come from Huntly to Aberdeen?
D Not in that particular year.
J Would you like to say anything about your school experience and how well it had prepared you for university?
D No, I've no particular comment to make on that.
J You think Huntly was quite adequate?
D Yes.
J Did you do the bursary competition?
D Yes, that was the thing to do. Known as the bursary comp and I managed to get a bursary. I think I was round about number forty in the competition and got a modest bursary I think around about £10 per annum, that would be a four-year course so that was a help and of course the Carnegie Trust was a help in paying the necessary fees.
J So the fees were covered by Carnegie and your bursary helped towards your living expenses?
D Yes, which were at that time quite moderate. I think I remember digs cost about £14 a week, probably 14 shillings, is that possible?
J It would probably have been less than that I think at that stage.
D It's difficult to remember.
J Yes and especially in the last few years when money has changed so rapidly in value. But the bursary money was sufficient to have made quite a significant difference?
D Yes.
J Most of the students would have been on parental support would they?
D Yes. I don't remember having any overt parental support. My father was a minister, United Presbyterian Church in Huntly on a very small stipend I think it was round about one sixty pounds per annum so there wasn't much to spare.
J Was financial hardship something you were aware of as a student?
D Yes. I couldn't enter much into formal social activities.
J Because they would have required dress and expenses of that kind?
D Yes.
J Maybe we'll return to the social side of your college life later but perhaps we should first of all get out of the way exactly what course you did and what you can remember about the way in which you were taught. You were registered for a general Arts degree? Would you like to tell me a little bit about the subjects that you began to study when you went to Aberdeen?
D My father was a parson and I thought that I would do likewise, so with a view to possibly entering the ministry I decided to take an honours degree in philosophy but my first year I took Latin and English which I thought was rather a waste of time in as much as I had already done Latin and English at school. However I was fortunate in the case of English in having the benefit of lectures from Professor Grierson of whom you may know. It was his last year in Aberdeen before he went to Edinburgh and I enjoyed his lectures very much. Latin I didn't care for particularly. Professor Soutar was the professor who was very interested in Stacious which didn't interest me particularly.
J Did you feel that you had already covered a lot of it?
D Yes, however that was year number one. Thereafter I took Economics, Political Economy and Moral Philosophy and Logic and Metaphysics and Psychology. I think they called it Comparative Psychology. These were the three necessary for the honours degree.
J Can you recall anything in particular about your lecturers in those subjects?
D As regards Moral Philosophy, the professor was Bailey and during the war he had to depart to do some war work and he was substituted by Henry Sturt from Cambridge. I remember he had rooms in Union Street in Aberdeen and I used to go there and listen to a lecture in his room in his digs in Union Street.
J Why was this?
D I don't know why.
J Was that a full lecture or was that something more like a seminar?
D No, it was a lecture. When I was a student there was no such thing as a tutorial, we just attended a class and listened to a lecture and made notes and that was it. There was no individual tuition, but that's quite different nowadays.
J Were your notes ever inspected?
D No.
J Did most of the professors read their lectures to you?
D Yes, I think so.
J So they were quite formal ?
D Quite formal, yes.
J Would you have felt free to approach any of your professors about problems in the course or were they intimidating in that way?
D I didn't desire to do that, I don't think anyone ever did, I think they listened to the lecture and made their notes and that finished it.
J Did you ever have any informal group amongst the students about your work? Did you prepare work together in any way?
D No, it was quite a solitary process.
J What about the use of the library, was that important?
D Yes that was important. The library then was in King's College, it has now moved.
J Yes it's on the Old Aberdeen site but there is a new building.
D Yes. I used the library quite extensively.
J Was it well organised?
D Yes.
J And the students could get the books they wanted quite easily?
D Yes.
J Were you allowed to borrow books?
D Yes.
J In studying would you have mainly stayed in your digs or would you have gone to the library to work?
D Mainly in one's digs I think.
J For the courses that you were taking did you have to attend at both Marischal College and Old Aberdeen or were they mostly in Old Aberdeen?
D Moral Philosophy was in Old Aberdeen and so was Logic and Metaphysics, but Psychology was in Marischal College.
J Did this cause any difficulty in getting from one site to another?
D No, I don't think so.
J You would have gone by bus or …?
D It was quite a short walk from King's to Marischal.
J So you would have walked?
D Yes.
J You were an honours student, were you aware of competition for prizes to be the best in the year, was this something that you and your fellow students would have considered important?
D Yes. I was particularly interested in Logic and Metaphysics. We had class examinations from time to time and I remember I did fairly, well but on one occasion for some reason or other I didn't do too well and when the results were announced I remember my fellow students being somewhat taken aback that on this occasion I was further down than usual. But in the end I think I was round about fifth in the order of merit.
J Was this something that students would very much have aimed at to have had a good honours degree, it wasn't enough simply to be doing honours, that they would want a high class of honour?
D Yes. The aim naturally was to be as proficient as possible.
J Turning to more the social life in the college, you've already mentioned that that was affected to some extent by your financial circumstances. What about student societies themselves?
D There was a student society of which I was a member, I forget its name. I once gave a paper to it.
J Was it the Literary?
D The subject I chose for some reason or other was 'The Impact of Advertisements on the Public'. I don't know why I chose that and I don't remember the name of the society.
J The Literary Society perhaps is it?
D Probably.
J But you weren't active in the committees of any societies?
D No.
J What about sport, were you interested in any form of sport?
D Not as a student but later on when I was doing my research work. When I entered my research period which coincided with my position as an assistant to the professor of Logic and Metaphysics. My undergraduate course was 1914 to 1918 and from 1918 to 22 I had a double purpose. I was a research student and I was also an assistant to the professor. I was a little more prosperous then because after my examinations for the honours degree I won the Hutton Prize in Philosophy. I also sat an examination for the, I forget its exact name, but I think it was called the Fullerton Scholarship in Philosophy which was quite worth having, I think it was round about £100 for two years, so as I say I was a little more prosperous then. I played tennis, I was quite keen on tennis but I think that was the only sport that I enjoyed at the university.
J That would have been in Old Aberdeen at the site where the sports pavilion had been erected?
D It wasn't actually there. I had rooms near the Duthie Park which is quite removed from Old Aberdeen and I had a friend there, I think he was Chinese, and he was keen on tennis and there was a tennis court in Polmuir Road.
J Yes, that's just beside Duthie Park.
D Yes, we played tennis there.
J Was this somebody who was also a research student?
D No, I don't remember much about him. All I remember was that he was a student and that he was keen on tennis.
J And that he was Chinese?
D Yes.
J Which must have been unusual in Aberdeen was it not?
D There were one or two and I would say that my best friend in Aberdeen was a Chinese by the name of Chow We Kwo, but what happened to him I don't remember.
J Was he a fellow student?
D Yes, he was a contemporary.
J Do you know why he came to Aberdeen?
D No, but I do remember that there were one or two Chinese students. There was Mr Low Lee Ang who later on took a degree in Law and he had some ambassadorial position abroad, I don't remember where, but he distinguished himself in this ambassadorial role.
J Had they had any schooling in Britain?
D I don't know, I think they came direct.
J Had they any language problems?
D No, they seemed to have quite fluent English. Then there was another, something like Fu Con Chen, that was number three. These are the only three I remember, but they were all Chinese.
J We were talking about sport and we wandered a bit from the social life in college. There was one other thing I was wondering did you have any social contact with the professors?
D Yes, only in one instance. The professor of Logic was Professor Davidson, affectionately known as Bourtie. He was a minister. I don't know where Bourtie is exactly.
J I think it's near Inverurie.
D He was a minister in the parish of Bourtie before he was appointed professor. He was one of Alexander Bain's favourite pupils and he had an open house every Tuesday evening and students went there quite freely. I think that was the only social contact with the teaching side of things.
J Would you have gone often to these evenings?
D Yes.
J What was the general programme?
D Conversation and smoking. Just a general exchange of ideas.
J Would he have given you any refreshments, a supper or …?
D I don't remember that.
J Would his wife have been present?
D He was unmarried and he and his sister were the hosts.
J What was Davidson like as a lecturer?
D I found him very interesting. He had the reputation of repeating year after year the same lectures, which doesn't surprise me because logic itself doesn't change from year to year.
J Did some of the students find that rather difficult to take?
D No, he was very much liked.
J The only thing that I have heard about him before was that he had an interest in Thomas Reid the philosopher and I wondered if he mentioned him in his lectures, did he mention Reid, because Reid was an Aberdeen professor.
D Yes, the philosopher of common sense.
J That's right. But Davidson didn't make any particular point about this did he?
D No, I don't remember any of his lectures referring to Reid.
J The other professors that you had mentioned like Grierson, you had no social contact with them?
D No, none at all. There was one thing notable in my own career, at school in English I wasn't particularly notable but I remember in the case of English we were given the task of preparing an essay, I think it was a comparison between painting and descriptive poetry. Actually I have the essay but can't get hold of it. Anyway we had this essay to prepare and I and one or two others were placed at the top to my great satisfaction but to find out the actual winner the little bunch were given another essay to prepare and that was to, I don't remember if any topic was given, but the point was that we had to prepare an essay in the style of either Haslett or Lamb, I can't remember which, which we all did but who was the winner I don't remember. That was the final test.
J Yes, quite a task. Were you aware of any of your fellow students from the North East having any sort of problem in English in that they were more accustomed to speaking a sort of North Eastern ?
D No, I don't remember that.
J And there was no sense that the professors would have criticised this?
D No. You mentioned social life. You know Aberdeen?
J Yes.
D You know Union Street and Union Terrace and at the corner there is I think an insurance office with quite an imposing entrance, that was known as the student's corner and we all from time to time in the evening met at the student's corner.
J What did you do?
D Sometimes went to coffee but the thing was to meet and talk.
J Did they have smoking concerts, smoking evenings?
D No, I don't recall.
J What position would the women in your class have played in these events? The evenings you describe at Professor Davidsons, would the women have been invited to those too?
D Yes, I think so. I don't remember any actually being there but the invitation was open to all members of his class.
J Were there many women that you can recall in your class?
D Yes, quite a few.
J They competed quite on equal terms did they?
D Yes, no discrimination.
J We haven't really touched yet on the effect of the war itself upon your period as a student. You mentioned that one of the professors had left.
D Yes, Bailey.
J Were there any other clear effects?
D I mentioned Henry Sturt.
J We were talking about Henry Sturt and the war.
D I was very keen on taking this philosophy course and I said this to Sturt and he indicated that there wouldn't be an honours course this year, in otherwords he didn't want to take on the job of instructing a solitary person.
J So what happened?
D He was over-ruled by authority and he had to prepare his lectures for one person which he delivered in his digs in Union Street.
J Quite an honour. Apart from Bailey were there any others who went away to do war work?
D No, I can't remember any others.
J Was there much talk amongst the students about friends and brothers who'd gone to the war?
D In 1914, of course, military service was voluntary and there was quite a big class. I remember being in London round about 1915 and I volunteered then but I wasn't accepted. My brother and I were together in London at that time and he was accepted and I was turned down. I therefore went back to the university to continue my academic career and I remember still, at King's Cross, leaving my brother in London and myself taking the train back to Aberdeen. It was quite vivid.
J I can imagine. So you would have been prepared at that stage to have given up your academic career?
D Later on there was conscription and I was passed for, I think they called it "sedentary work" abroad, but I was never called up and I just continued with my academic career.
J Did you know many students who did in fact interrupt their studies to go to the war?
D Yes, there were quite a few.
J Did news ever come back from them about what it was like, were there ever letters or reports?
D No.
J It sounds in some ways as if the war had very little effect upon the university?
D Yes, very little.
J What about in Aberdeen itself, was there any feeling between the university and the town on this question of the war.
D No.
J There wasn't any sense that the students should have been away at the front?
D No.
J The relations with the town then were quite good were they?
D Yes, very good.
J I see, it's your autographs of the Arts class. Did that accompany a photograph?
D There were photographs later on. There were 118 in that class.
J Which was very large.
D Yes, wasn't it.
J That's interesting, we occasionally see these and of course it helps to remind you who your professors were. Did you ever have any contact at all with the Principal, was he a known figure to all the students?
D No real contact.
J But you would have recognised him?
D Yes, George Adam Smith. We went fairly regularly to the university chapel, King's College Chapel and when I was an assistant in Logic I remember having to read the lesson on one occasion, which I hope was adequate.
J You would have had to wear your gown?
D Yes.
J What about students at chapel?
D No, they didn't.
J Did you wear the toga at all?
D One or two students did wear the red toga but it was quite rare.
J I'm reminded here of the name of Terry.
D Yes, Sandford Terry.
J He would have lectured you would he?
D No, I didn't have his class. He was History.
J So you had no dealings with him?
D No. No direct contact but there was a student choir of which I was a member and he conducted. We gave a concert every year in what they called the Music Hall and he was the conductor. Then there was an interval and the students mixed with the audience.
J Would this have just been one concert in the year?
D Yes, I think so.
J They had quite elaborate programmes prepared for them didn't they?
D Yes. I had to organise the photographs of all these students.
J Who were in the choir?
D No, in my Arts class.
J How did you set about that?
D It was quite a job and I have the photographs still showing all the students.
J So all of the photographs were taken individually and them somebody arranged them in this montage?
D Yes.
J Would that have been the professional photographer?
D Yes. His shop was in Union Street but I don't remember the name.
J But you had to organise that?
D Yes. Number 25 is the organiser.
J So that must be you?
D 25 is me.
J So if you see one of these photographs would that always be true that the student who …
J We've now covered most of the aspects concerned with your undergraduate career and perhaps we could turn to your research experiences. You mentioned that you were by that stage in receipt of more money through scholarships. Were you also paid by the professor for teaching as his assistant?
D Yes, I can't remember, say two fifty. [£250]
J Certainly it made life more comfortable?
D Yes.
J What form did this teaching work take?
D I had to give a lecture once a week. I feel if I had to do that now I couldn't do it but I seemed to manage to do one lecture of one hour per week, and I had to evaluate the scripts of … There were examinations from time to time during the course, this is when I was an assistant and I had to mark the scripts along with the professor. He had a very good method I thought. He knew who was who and he would say take so and so who was a good student and he would ask me to read out what this particular student had written on a particular topic. They do that for one or two good students and then he would select the lesser good and evaluate them and that would give me an idea of how to mark the whole lot.
J So you then would do the rest?
D I did the rest, yes.
J That sounds a good system. Which professor was this?
D Logic, Davidson.
J So you must have got to know him quite well during those years?
D Yes. I was with him for four years. I also at one time, as you know when I took philosophy I had the idea of going into the church, that I didn't pursue. I couldn't then and I couldn't now accept church dogma so I gave that up. Then I decided that to teach in philosophy was a very restricted field and I decided to give that up and decided to go in for library work. I remember when my four years were completed I drafted a letter seeking a position in a library of some sort. I circulated this letter to libraries all over the place, public and otherwise and I was actually accepted without an interview, without my being seen even, I was accepted for a post in the public library in Wigan. But that, and it's very obscure, that post I didn't take up. But what I did do, I went into the Advocate's Library in Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland now. I went there as a voluntary assistant and I could do that because I had some money with this scholarship. I was there for a year. I had an interesting job there, I was seconded from the Advocate's Library to do a job in Invergeldie Library near Crieff. I was there for about 4 or 5 weeks cataloguing the library. I had digs with the gamekeeper I remember and I had to work in this library by candlelight at night before I could finish the job and I didn't finish the job until much later because I had a lot of material to work up which I worked up in Cambridge. Out of the blue, as a result of this circular letter, I had a communication from the University Library of Cambridge. The Librarian, A F Scholfield wanted to see me so I went to Cambridge. He offered me a post which I readily accepted of being an assistant in the University Library of Cambridge. So I was one year in Edinburgh in a voluntary capacity and then I went to Cambridge for my first salaried library job.
J Was that in 1923?
D I was in Edinburgh for one year, 1924. Then in 1925 on 1 January I commenced this job in Cambridge and I was there from 1925 to 1929. Then rightly or wrongly I thought, here I am in a university library and the field there is a little restricted so I said to myself shall I expand my experience, shall I get into the public library field, which I did. I went to Leeds as an assistant reference librarian in Leeds and I was there for two or three years. I didn't like it.
J The place or the work?
D I didn't like the late shift. I liked Leeds but I didn't like the job. I decided I would like to get back to the academic, so I applied for a post in Glasgow University Library and I went there and I was there for some years. After a few years there was a vacancy fell vacant in the University Library of Leeds, Deputy Librarian, so I went back to Leeds, to the university. I was there all during the second world war and when it finished which was 1945 and then in 1946 there was a vacancy for the library as it then was at Queen's College Dundee, now the university library, so here I am and I stayed here until I retired.
J It's quite a variety. Had you ever thought of any alternatives such as teaching to librarianship or did you know that you wanted to be a librarian?
D I had thought of teaching at one time. I didn't pursue that, I didn't enter any teacher training college.
J Perhaps as with university teaching it would have been too restricted?
D Yes.
J When you first went to Cambridge did you feel very much a foreigner down in England or did you have any Scottish or Aberdonian contacts in Cambridge?
D Yes. Cambridge itself is very narrow in its outlook. It recognises its own degrees certainly and it may recognise Oxford degrees but other degrees … In the Cambridge University Reporter which comes out periodically you'll find so and so, so and so, MA in Pembroke College perhaps or Selwyn College. Suppose that particular individual has a degree of St Andrews let us say, that won't be mentioned, it just gives the Cambridge degrees and in that sense it's very narrow and restricted. As the Master of Emanuel College, Peter Giles, a Scot, used to say to me, 'Cambridge likes to tar its own sheep'. So if you don't have a Cambridge degree as I didn't have you're a bit out.
J Did that mean that when you met fellow Aberdonians you held together?
D Yes.
J Can you recall any of the men from Aberdeen who were there at the same time?
D I remember I used to play golf, it was known as the Gog and Magog golf course, I think the name was Munro, he was a mathematician and an Aberdeen graduate and I happened to meet him at this golf club and I remember he asked me along to one of these senior common room dinners but that was just a parting contact. Giles I knew, the master of Emanuel fairly well but I think that's about all.
J How had you come to know him?
D I think he got to know me rather, he was an Aberdeen graduate and so was I.
J Do you think that if you had stayed in Cambridge University Library your lack of a Cambridge degree would have affected promotion?
D Yes, I would say so.
J As far as I understand from the dates of your career you would still have been finishing your research work at this time?
D Yes. I'd finished my research work I think in 1926.
J I think that was the date of your degree?
D Yes. I had three purposes in Cambridge in a sense. I had my job as an assistant, I had to work up the Invergeldie catalogue and I had to work up my thesis.
J In working on your thesis in Cambridge did you make contact with any of the Cambridge academics?
D No, it was a solitary effort.
J Did you have to come back to Aberdeen at all?
D Yes to receive the degree.
J But not for any further sessions with Davidson?
D No. When I was a research student which was from 1918 to 1922 simultaneously with being an assistant, in connection with my thesis I went to the British Museum to do some research there and this was in term time. I remember receiving a letter from someone. I wasn't in Aberdeen during the session at that particular time and this was a letter wondering what had happened to me and I had to explain that I was in the British Museum doing this which seemed to satisfy them. Theoretically you're supposed to have a supervisor, well that was purely technical in my case. I worked on this thesis absolutely on my own without any supervision, any advice.
J Was this because it was an area that Davidson was unfamiliar with?
D He wouldn't be unfamiliar. I think he must have argued that he knows what he's doing.
J The exact title of your thesis, what was it?
D The Scientific Achievement of Aristotle and Bacon
J So it was a comparison of the two philosophers?
D Yes. It was mainly published in articles and the articles were brought together. I had two articles in the Philosophical Review and one in the Moralist. In the case of the Moralist it was the only periodical that made me any payment.
J Did you publish before you presented your thesis?
D Yes.
J So you had some idea how referees would have received your work. Did you ever think of publishing your thesis as a book?
D No.
J As both a research assistant and a postgraduate student in Aberdeen were your relations with the other professors any different from what they had been as an undergraduate student? Did they see you more as an equal because you were teaching?
D I don't think there was any marked difference.
J Not much contact?
D Not much, no.
J Were you the only research student in your department?
D Yes.
J Because it was in the early days of postgraduate degrees.
D Yes.
J In moving into librarianship at what point did you receive any formal training as a librarian?
D To qualify as a librarian you had to take six certificates, I don't quite remember them all. One would be let us say cataloguing, that would be one section, one in library classification, one in bibliography and library administration was another I think.
J When you say you had to take these certificates, was this a correspondence course? Where exactly was it done?
D I think there were correspondence courses but I elected to do it on my own, self instruction. You took these six certificates and then after so many years practical experience in the library you applied for the fellowship which I did. In addition to these certificates the Library Association, it doesn't do it now, but they had examinations in languages. What was necessary was a good reading knowledge of a language. In school of course I had French and Latin but a librarian is supposed to have as many languages as possible so I once again self tuition. I took German and I sat an examination in German and actually got an honours in it and I likewise did one in Italian and I got a merit in it. I also did a little Spanish but I didn't pursue it.
J Did you have to go to London for these examinations?
D No, they had centres throughout the country. I went to Edinburgh I think. When I was in Leeds I took some certificates when I was there but when I was in the National Library I took the certificates in Edinburgh.
J So in fact your very first post with the National Library had …
D Yes that was a voluntary post.
J And that really had been the point at which you had been trained in some of the library skills such as cataloguing and classification?
D Yes, that gave me my first practical experience.
J So that when you went to catalogue the library at Invergeldie you had been trained by the people in Edinburgh?
D I would say no, I would say that I trained myself. I can't remember doing any cataloguing work in Edinburgh.
J It must have been a tremendous task to have faced, the library at Invergeldie?
D It was. I was there as I said about 4 or 5 weeks working the material up, it took a long time and wasn't finished till I went to Cambridge.
J Moving right on to the sort of climax of your career as Librarian in Dundee, did you then renew contacts with Aberdeen University, presumably with your colleague who would have been the Librarian at Aberdeen or did you have much to do with him at all?
D Not really, no.
J There weren't meetings of the Scottish university librarians on any regular basis?
D Yes, on occasion. There is a group called the University Research Section of the Library Association's Scottish Division or some such title. I went to its meetings occasionally.
J Did any of this experience in Dundee make you look back on your experience in Aberdeen with any criticism? Did you feel any retrospective judgements about Aberdeen library?
D No. I should say there was no comparison between one and the other.
J You think it was fairly average?
D Yes. It's about the last place I would choose to be. It's very parochial. Not so much now but it was when I came. Leeds I liked. It's quite a city, university, law courts, good theatres, we don't have anything like that here. When I arrived, it was University College then, the college had no conception of the importance and function of a Librarian. It was even doubtful if he should have a place in an academic procession. It seems ludicrous, but now if you look at the university diary you'll find the Librarian.
J He's a senior official.
D Principal officer of the library, rightly, Librarian is one. That is a complete change from what it was when I arrived.
J Was that not true in Leeds and Glasgow as well?
D Not in Glasgow certainly.
J The Librarian in Glasgow would have been accepted more as an equal?
D Yes, and in all the other universities I think. But I would say that even in the other universities there has been an increasing awareness of the importance of the Librarian.
J Do you think that this is partly related to the professionalisation of librarianship, the recruitment of honours graduates with qualifications?
D I think there tends or tended to be a kind of chasm between the teaching staff and the non-teaching staff but the teaching staff qua teaching are superior to the non-teaching therefore there was a tendency to think that the Librarian is of less importance than the teachers.
J Did you experience any difficulties with particular professors who would want you to buy material in their area and would try to sway your decision?
D Most recommendations for books went to the Library Committee. It wasn't my decision.
J What about relations between the Queen's College and St Andrews?
D Not good.
J At that time did they improve or deteriorate?
D Quite a common description was that University College was the poor relation of St Andrews. The influence of St Andrews on University College was on a whole not good. I can give two examples. I thought naturally that University College library ought to have the British Museum catalogue of printed books. Well I had to fight quite a lot to get that put into effect. The argument was something like this from the St Andrews side, there's a College library does it really require the BM catalogue? That's one example and I won that in the end. Now the other example is this, and it's a very vital example. With regard to the new library, there is a relatively new library here. Well I wanted it, as Librarian, to be on an island site so that it could expand if necessary outwards and perhaps up, that it shouldn't be restricted and the St Andrews plan was to have it in what's called the Tower Building. It's really surrounded by other departments and can't expand. I wanted an island site, I couldn't get it and the result is that we're now talking of another new library which has been aptly described as a new library. Now I say this is St Andrews, so it is, on the other hand there was a small committee to consider this, this was of the library, there was the Principal of St Andrews, Knox, there was the Master of Queen's College as it then was, there was the senior professor of Anatomy, that was Dow, there was Bell, professor of Physiology and a Professor Ibor who was interested in cancer research but the point is that the Principal of St Andrews and all the others were Queen's College and there was no one to say no to the Principal's idea. They all accepted. You know what happens, there is such a thing as a crowd psychology, there's also such a thing as a committee psychology, they may disagree but they may say nothing.
J So the weight of the Principal's voice was greater?
D Yes.
J How about your relations with the Librarian at St Andrews? Was there much contact on a day to day basis?
D Some unfriendly contact.
J But not much co-operation?
D Not really. There was the same attitude there. Here am I at St Andrews and I look down on the poor relation in Dundee.
J In so far as your policies regarding purchase were considered, you have mentioned the Library Committee actually granted purchases, was the budget Dundee's to do as it wished with or were issues like the British Museum catalogue duplicated. Were there other cases where St Andrews would say Dundee does not need that because we have it? Were you independent of St Andrews in terms of buying in ordinary monographs or would there have been concern about duplicating material on the two sites? Perhaps it not a very critical issue.
End of Interview
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