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It will be remembered that in 1936–7 a survey of libraries abroad was made on the basis of funds provided by the Rockefeller Foundation, and in that connexion Mr. H. M. Cashmore visited Russia. Since then Moscow, like many of our British cities, has been badly plastered in the course of the war, and the libraries dis‐organised. It will be understood, therefore, that the conditions as viewed by Mr. Cashmore are probably considerably different to‐day; but, even so, the survey made by him indicates the salient features of the Moscow Library Service, and we recommend readers interested in the subject to refer to the Russian section in A Survey of Libraries published by the Library Association in 1938, and edited for it by Mr. Lionel R. McColvin.

THE Birmingham Induction on February 13th was in every way satisfactory to those who participated. A writer in our “Letters on Our Affairs” has given in brief the substance of the event. It fulfilled the anticipations we made in our last number: the attendance was really representative; and there was an agreeable meeting of many of Mr. Cashmore's older and younger contemporaries, as well as a large concourse of his neighbours, to share in the dignified ceremony in which Dr. Esdaile initiated the President into his office. We ventured last month to refer to the quality of the retiring President's occasional speeches. That at Birmingham was a masterpiece of apparently unstudied ceremonial speech‐making. No doubt it will be available elsewhere. Those who spoke—from the Lord Mayor, who chaired the meeting, to Mr. Duncan Gray, who returned thanks for the Lord Mayor's hospitality— rose to an occasion on which all was pleasant and unjarred by any slip or inharmonious note. It was a happy augury for the year to come.

A brief description of the parts of a modern book: The usual order, &c., of the various parts of an average modern book may be enumerated as follows:—

AN older librarian, we think, looking at the Annual Report of the Library Association, which is the principal publication of June, must almost rub his eyes in bewilderment at the recent progress made. In the outer world of libraries, that part which the public sees, there are symptoms, and actual signs, of development; new branch libraries, such as those at Sheffield, at Croydon, and at Dartford, are portents of a sort—pleasant substitutes, and most effective ones, for the larger, orthodox (in size at least) branches such as Yardley Wood, Crossgates, Firth Park and Leith. Greater development must be a problem for a few years to come, as every librarian must acknowledge. It is in the development of librarianship and bibliology that this record of the L.A. is so significant. The bare fact that the Centenary Year sees the L.A. with a membership rapidly approaching ten thousand and an income of £36,000 seems almost incredible. Even more so is the fact, not quite so pleasing, that by £347 this income proved insufficient; but, on reflection, that, too, is a sign of activity. The Association has almost ceased what was once thought to be its main pre‐occupation; its own organization, or, as one of our writers called it, “the moving about of its domestic furniture.” It is now deeply concerned with international librarianship, an attitude which in no small measure it owes to Mr. H. M. Cashmore and to Mr. Welsford's flair as host at Chaucer House; its gradual adjustment of its benefits, including the education ones, so that they appeal to other than public librarians, as they formerly did, and to such an extent that over one thousand special and university librarians are grouped in it; the immense, for it is that, educational and examination scheme, which from the accounts appears to cost: the administration about £1,900 more than the candidates' fees provide; its extending publishing business, now costing in all £12,150 a year, but bringing in returns more valuable than the substantial sales would suggest, and the quite remarkable library, information, and research work. The Association has become a large business, influencing the life of every librarian and energizing most of the work now done in libraries. The Report has a general acknowledgment paragraph recording the debt owed to the chairmen of committees. It is a modest tribute to a group of men who give great labours to our interests. To be the chairman of a Library Association Committee today is to be a leader and hard‐driven worker. We owe them much. And this does not reduce our admiration for the manner in which the official staff of the Association do their work.

OWING to the comparatively early date in the year of the Library Association Conference, this number of THE LIBRARY WORLD is published so that it may be in the hands of our readers before it begins. The official programme is not in the hands of members at the time we write, but the circumstances are such this year that delay has been inevitable. We have dwelt already on the good fortune we enjoy in going to the beautiful West‐Country Spa. At this time of year it is at its best, and, if the weather is more genial than this weather‐chequered year gives us reason to expect, the Conference should be memorable on that account alone. The Conference has always been the focus of library friendships, and this idea, now that the Association is so large, should be developed. To be a member is to be one of a freemasonry of librarians, pledged to help and forward the work of one another. It is not in the conference rooms alone, where we listen, not always completely awake, to papers not always eloquent or cleverly read, that we gain most, although no one would discount these; it is in the hotels and boarding houses and restaurants, over dinner tables and in the easy chairs of the lounges, that we draw out really useful business information. In short, shop is the subject‐matter of conference conversation, and only misanthropic curmudgeons think otherwise.

A CORRESPONDENT complains that he has undertaken a course for his final examination, after spending six years from Dunkirk to the Elbe far removed from library opportunities—only to find that librarians and libraries are building up their staffs now. The Times Literary Supplement, he says, carries column after column of advertisements of desirable posts for which he, as he thinks, is a desirable and legitimate aspirant, but he is barred by his academic obligations. This appears to be a genuine grievance and we place it first in these notes in the hope that authorities, and especially librarians, may be induced to consider it. It may be answered that there is a present urgent need to tune up libraries of every kind to meet the great public need and that many of them have already waited some years. It is perhaps a pity that they did not wait a little longer so that the men who deserve most of the country could have been brought into the competition.

Of course the predominating subject in British librarianship in the past month was the Manchester Meeting. It was the largest gathering in our recollection, and those who were fortunate enough to attend lived some crowded hours of glorious life. The arrangements showed that the most careful and painstaking labour had gone to their making. The Local Committee and the various librarians in Manchester and the district deserve all possible gratitude, and the Library Association has every reason to congratulate itself upon a conference which ran without fault and which received great and wide publicity.

Criticisms of the Library Association have no value which do not take account of all the circumstances. We are told that for some years past nothing constructive for librarianship or for its technique has been done. Our correspondent Callimachus makes this assertion by implication on another page. It must be remembered, however, that until quite recently the Library Association was a very small body which exercised an influence out of all proportion to its size and income. It has grown by direct membership and by affiliation in an extraordinary manner in the past year, a result which is due to goodwill on the part of librarians, but more immediately to the wise direction of Messrs. Jast and Savage and the untiring patience and tacful activity of Mr. Guy Keeling. Our readers know that Mr. Keeling has actually had to rest owing to the effects of overwork. This being so, it is quite clear that the demand for more must be tempered by a willingness to work on the part of the critics. The Association is only an embodiment of the membership; what the members want of the Association they must give to it.

One of the indirect ways in which the condition of the people may be improved lies in the hands of librarians in arrangements that may be made for the use of the buildings at their disposal. If the sale of alcohol is to be prohibited or curtailed, large numbers of our working classes will lose their meeting‐place or club, and while the public libraries, as at present constituted, are not in a position to fill the gap, a good deal might be done by way of providing for the possibility of foregathering, for a “feast of reason and a flow of soul,” without the sense of a stern authority always calling attention to the rules and regulations for silence and strict decorum. Really practical suggestions to this end would be of really valuable service now and indeed for all time.

HARROGATE will be notable as the venue of the Conference in one or two ways that distinctive. The Association Year is now to begin on January 1st and not in September as heretofore; and, in consequence, there will be no election of president or of new council until the end of the year. The Association's annual election is to take place in November, and the advantages of this arrangement must be apparent to everyone who considers the matter. Until now the nominations have been sent out at a time when members have been scattered to all parts of the country on holiday, and committees of the Council have been elected often without the full consideration that could be given in the more suitable winter time. In the circumstances, at Harrogate the Chair will still be occupied by Sir Henry Miers, who has won from all librarians and those interested in libraries a fuller measure of admiration, if that were possible, than he possessed before he undertook the presidency. There will be no presidential address in the ordinary sense, although Sir Henry Miers will make a speech in the nature of an address from the Chair at one of the meetings. What is usually understood by the presidential address will be an inaugural address which it is hoped will be given by Lord Irwin. The new arrangement must bring about a new state of affairs in regard to the inaugural addresses. We take it that in future there will be what will be called a presidential address at the Annual Meeting nine months after the President takes office. He will certainly then be in the position to review the facts of his year with some knowledge of events; he may chronicle as well as prophesy.