The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Treasures of our Memorial Library The Clipping File In our Library, the reference file of clippings is, naturally enough, housed in the Reference Section. It is maintained and managed by the helpful staff of this section. It houses a colossal wealth of information of which a major part has been culled from the "Vancouver Sun" newspaper. Nevertheless, it is not well known to most of the library's patrons. The date of the origin of this valuable portion of our library is shrouded in the mists of time but it was apparently started at, or soon after, the institution's debut. Today, it is housed in a long line of large steel drawers in the Reference Section - thirty of them, in fact. Each drawer holds a goodly number of large files in plastic covers, hung vertically on steel racks. This system goes by the name of "Reversaflex". It is robust and easy to handle. Its contents are supplemented by the staff of "Reference" about once a week. The mass of material stored here is overwhelming. One cannot possibly do it justice in just a few words, so I decided to sample a single drawer - the first in line. It contained 78 files, each identified by a title tag: they run from "Abortion" to "Astronomy". Of course, the individual files vary greatly in bulk. Two of them happened to catch my eye. One read "AGED - B.C." and another announced "AIRSHIPS". The former is massive; the latter contains one clipping. As I am certainly among the "Aged" (74 years young, last month!) I decided I would pull the first one out, for study. This file, I found, is quite representative of many in the drawers. Among its ephemera, there are scores of newspaper clippings, but most of the bulk comes from brochures and leaflets. To offer some idea of the scope of such material to be found there, allow me to list some of the contents. For example, I encountered the following: ♦ Two brochures on "Housing for the Aged" and "Supportive Housing", brochures from Health Canada on "Palliative Care", "How you can help seniors use medication safely", and "The International Year of Older Persons, 1999". ♦ Bulletins from the National Advisory Council on Aging, such as "Barriers to Seniors' Autonomy: Sensory Loss, Incontinence, Hearing Loss, Chronic Pain, Depression, Falls and Home Injuries. ♦ Bulletins from the Peoples' Law School: "Writing a Will", "Power of Attorney", Office of the Public Trustee". ♦ From the Ministry of Health and the Ministry Responsible for Seniors: brochure entitled "Alcohol & the Older Person". ♦ A 16-page insert from the "Vancouver Sun" newspaper of May 1994, entitled "Active Adults - 50-Plus Living". Also a folder, "Choosing a Care Home". ♦ A 40-page magazine, "411 News & Views", free from the 411 Seniors Centre, Vancouver. Browsing through all this material left me little time to study other files in the same drawer bearing such titles as "Aids", "African National Congress", "Air Canada", "Alzheimer's Disease", "Artists in B.C.", "Arts Club Theatre" and "Asthma". By this time I was tremendously impressed and grateful to those diligent staff members who had amassed and filed such a wealth of worthwhile material. To them, let me say, 'Thank You! Thank You!!" for such a treasure. Ted Hill