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As Nicholas Barker has pointed out, concern with the problem of deteriorating books has a long history. In 1898 the Prefect of the Vatican Library convened an international conference in St Gall to consider the decay of paper, in particular the new cheaper papers produced from wood pulp. Thereafter a number of libraries established conservation laboratories and the Bodleian monitored tests of the efficacy of different methods of treating paper. An even earlier concern for conservation is noted by Alex Wilson. In the Abbey of Admont the librarian's task was laid down in 1370 as

My contribution to this conference will be an attempt to outline the part which local government—and that means principally, the public library—can play in a national information plan. This implies a need to look at the effectiveness of such services, their relationship with others, and indications for the future, bearing in mind the economic climate which is likely to prevail for several years yet.

The public library service for the County of Cheshire administered by the former Cheshire County Council since 1922 was mainly a book lending service to the more rural areas of the county with village library centres staffed by volunteers and later a mobile library service. Branch libraries served small towns and the suburban fringes of the larger towns with a student library postal loan service as support. Library services in most of the larger towns were run by the borough or urban district authorities, and in all there were eighteen library authorities in Cheshire by 1964. In 1965 S. G. Berriman, the former County Librarian of Middlesex, was appointed to the new post of Director of Libraries and Museums for Cheshire County Council, and with the support of an independent Library Committee, rather than a Sub Committee of the Education Committee, he proposed and achieved a massive development programme. Between 1964 and 1973 the face of the Cheshire Library Service was transformed as substantial money both capital and revenue was made available for the very first time and many new libraries were built. With the advent of local government reorganisation and the proposed changes to the shape of Cheshire that exciting developmental period was over, and Berriman decided to retire early as Director of Libraries and Museums to allow a new man to steer the service into the new Cheshire. Appointed in 1972, that man was Alex Wilson.

THE MIDLAND county borough of Dudley has produced two post‐war chief librarians who have gone on to become national librarians. Alex Wilson told me this with some pride, when we met at the beginning of February to discuss his new appointment, which takes effect this month, as Director‐General of the British Library Reference Division. A couple of decades ago, Alex took over at Dudley, at one remove, from George Chandler, who has just retired as Australia's National Librarian.

As I listened recently to Alex Wilson delivering a paper on conservation I was reminded of his excellence as a lucid communicator of ideas, enthusiasm and timely sense of direction. His 1977 paper “The threshold of choice” must be one of the most frequently cited papers of recent times, and in a brief state‐of‐the‐art article on systematic bookstock management, Nick Moore has called the paper “seminal”. The concept of managing stock is a central element in Wilson's thinking, though he establishes its critical interaction with the management of all resources. This interaction may appear obvious but critics of a systematic stock management approach persist in attacking it for lacking properties and objectives which it cannot, by definition, have nor aspire to: as McClellan pointed out, and Moore re‐iterates, it is a sub‐system operating within the context of a greater whole, not an isolated system. The approach may nonetheless be regarded as subversive partly because it potentially challenges what may have become comfortable assumptions, partly because its adoption presupposes changes in methods and attitudes, the influence of which is likely to extend in all directions. Wilson is able to indicate this practical and conceptual influence in a way which speaks directly to the needs of UK public libraries without appearing to threaten the fabric of their existence.

I start this talk with two acknowledgements; the first, to my colleagues on the recent Library Association Working Party on Community Information Services. Our report is due to be published by the LA in the new year and I have based a lot of this talk on our conclusions. Secondly I must acknowledge many discussions with Alex Wilson, Director of Libraries for Cheshire, and the freedom that he has given me to pursue ideas in this field.

MY THEME affects all of the community who live with or by books. This theme is that all of the book community, but most particularly librarians, have given priority to the exploitation of library materials over their conservation in use to such an extent that accumulated neglect is almost irrecoverable in economic terms. Particularly is this the case with modern books, say those published from the middle of the nineteenth century. Within them the seeds of destruction in the form of lignin and the acidic content of paper, sizing, adhesives, leather and even the ink upon the pages could condemn them to an unusable state in less that a lifetime even if kept in reasonable conditions.

The LA Council met on 11 June 1985 still at Islington Town Hall because of HQ repairs. In spite of the almighty fuss made a few years ago by the membership over the method of election of Presidents, once again they failed to nominate. Mr Alex Wilson's name was then brought forward and he was nominated by Council to serve in 1986.

Alex Wilson was elected Chairman of Council, the customary vote against smoking was duly passed, the usual dearth of librarians in the Honours List noted and Council was under way for another year of office. In his investiture of Jean Plaister as President, Max Broome, the retiring President, made a point of not making a point about her being only the second woman to hold the office, asserting that gender had nothing to do with the choice of LA Presidents. The feminine majority of LA members, though accepting the theory, may not be entirely convinced of its practical application so far! His statement that no previous President has been as intimately connected with library co‐operation as Jean Plaister is certainly true. In her reply Miss Plaister looked forward confidently with the remark “I like challenges”, to a year which will involve the problems of legislation for copyright, increasing government pressure towards charging for public services, and continuing censorship. She drew attention to the fact that the LA has never before had a more broadly‐based membership with only 30 per cent now serving in public libraries and saw this as an encouraging development. Mr Barnes proposed the vote of thanks to Max Broome for his presidency in 1987.