SAYERS,+William+Charles+Berwick

SAYERS, William Charles Berwick (1881-1960) Bournemouth 1896; DL Croydon 1904; CL Wallasey 1915; CL Croydon 1915-1947 He took over the 'power base' responsibilities of CROYDON, created by his great predecessor, L S Jast, but found them harder to maintain, partly because of more incisive competition from other public libraries but also because his Authority, which had been happy to spend up to the then maximum penny rate of the Jast period, never came adequately to terms with post-1919 conditions. He is likely to be remembered firstly as the outstanding authority of his day on classification. He wrote the standard textbooks, //An introduction to classification// (1918) and //Manual of classification// (1926) each of which was published in several progressively revised editions during his lifetime; he also contributed the chapter on it in //YW// and lectured on it at the UCL SCHOOL for more than 30 years. He edited four revised editions of J D Brown's //Manual of library economy// and was the consulting editor of //LW// from 1915 until his death. He was also a pioneer of work with children, publishing //The children's library// in 1913 and //Manual of children's libraries// in 1932. He was exceptionally active and influential in both the LAA, later the AAL, (Honorary Secretary 1906-1909 and 1912-1915, Honorary Fellow 1912 and President 1909-1912) and in the LA on whose Council he served from 1915 until his death, becoming President in 1938 and an Honorary Fellow in 1947. He married Olive E Clarke (died 1967), one of the outstanding members of J D Brown's ISLINGTON staff from the initiation of the service there in 1906 until their marriage in 1915, and was the friend and biographer of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1921) the musical composer. D J Foskett and B I Palmer //The Sayers memorial volume// (1961)