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RICHARD DE BURY'S prayer that war, the great enemy of the book and therefore of the library, be averted must have risen to the minds of some librarians recently. As we write these lines international relations seem to have reached a boding complexity unrivalled since 1939 and with potentialities for ill as great or even greater. By the time these words appear we hope sanity and a calmer spirit will prevail and that the Christmas we face as librarians may indeed be a happy one. However that may be, the many frustrations all development, including library development, have suffered in the past year, are not likely to be overcome soon. The 35 to 50 millions our interruption for good or ill in the Israel‐Egyptian affair has cost—a relatively small matter financially against our national annual spendings of thousands of millions—are not likely to make for library progress. Yet, paradoxically, our greater advances in modern times have been the outcome of conditions created it would seem by war. The Great World War showed the naked need of the public library service in a way that the previous seventy years of peaceful advocacy had failed to do. Even greater progress came out of the Second World War. What was lost in each of these catastrophes no one has been able to calculate.

At the Conference in September, 1945, Mrs. Moholy, as Director of the Aslib Microfilm Service, gave an account of the American ‘ceiling’ projector which was then newly designed for the purpose of enabling persons who are paralyzed, or otherwise so disabled that they cannot handle books, to read by means of microfilm. That instrument was devised by Mr. Eugene B. Power, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and was produced by the Argus Corporation, of Ann Arbor. It differs from film‐strip projectors in using standard reels of microfilm, like a library reader, and is mechanized in the sense that the reel‐spindles are rotated by electric motors, which are operated by remote control. By pressing a button of the control switch the reader, who is usually lying in bed, moves the film forwards or backwards, and the image of the pages in each successive frame is thrown on the ceiling. The Argus instrument is built to project vertically. It cannot be stood on its side or tilted, but a mirror can be attached to the lens for horizontal projection.

The fly on the wheel said, “Lord, what a dust do I raise!” As Secretary of the B.M. I was the fly on the wheel, and conscious that the dust was none of my raising. Dust there was in plenty. A place of such national—and international—standing is constantly straining not only its own resources but also those of its friends to make vital and correspondingly costly acquisitions. Such was the purchase, with the generous help of John Pierpont Morgan, junior, who would have liked them for the Morgan Library, of the Bedford Hours and the Luttrell Psalter; the latter being one of the chief sources of our knowledge of English farm life in the Middle Ages. But during my fourteen years in the Office the Museum was faced with four great opportunities, quite out of the ordinary; and in all four it was successful.

ONCE more a New Year, after a year of dramatic public events, finds librarians as other people settling down to what it is hoped will be twelve months of peace and prosperity. It is really remarkable how libraries reflect the happenings of the time; it would not, for example, seem that the burning of the Crystal Palace would affect the issues of all South London libraries but it did very heavily for a day or two. When the public mind is occupied with an idea it is well known that this is reflected in reduced, and occasionally increased, issues. The Jubilee of King George V. reduced reference issues everywhere; and it is to be expected that the Coronation of King George VI. will have a like effect. These efforts however are transient, and are only felt during the few days of the happenings in question.. On the larger count we find at the beginning of 1937 that all but new libraries have now reached a position in which they can assess the results of other competition. It is alleged that the loss of readers who have seceded to the “twopennies” is about 4 per cent. on the peak year of 1932–3, but the gains are considerably in advance of 1930. That is to say, solid progress has been regular.

FROM 5th to 8th October, 1951, Aslib was fortunate in holding its Annual Conference again at Ashorne Hill, near Leamington Spa, and our thanks are due for the third time to Colonel and Mrs. J. H. Alexander and their staff for the excellence of the catering and domestic arrangements. The weather also co‐operated and sunshine displayed all the autumn beauties of the garden and countryside.

LIBRARIES, in common with all other public institutions, must be faced with the uncertainty that arises from the inconclusive results of the recent General Election. We are not intimately concerned with parties and it is held that librarians should eschew them altogether as they have duties to, are the servants of, all. This consideration applies more to the public librarian than to the special one. Be that as it may, the change must postpone, we imagine, our chances of the new Public Libraries Act, because a new general election is probable in a very short time. Meanwhile, there is always uncertainty as to public expenditure and, although we do not expect anything drastic, it is hardly likely that our centenary year will see the beginnings of the library progress for which some had hoped. Most local rate‐budgets have, fortunately, been fixed by now.

“WHAT Manchester thinks to‐day, London will think tomorrow,” was a current saying a century or less ago. It may be current today in political matters; it may be so even in library matters. Before his lamented death, Charles Nowell drew up a long, careful memorandum for his committee on the desirability of Government grants in aid for libraries such as his own which acted in a very definite way as national libraries, in that their services were drawn upon by thousands outside Manchester who contributed nothing to the rates. In smaller measure the case could be made for every library authority which maintains a reference library, because there are no qualifications or introductions or fees required of any reader whencesoever he may come. To that quite substantial degree every good public library does national service. It could of course be contended that libraries receive services of a like kind for their own readers from all other towns and counties. In any case, the burden on Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol—to name only a few important examples—is perhaps unfairly heavy. The case seems a good one. Opposition to the suggestion of tax‐aid which is by no means new, came formerly from the Authority associations, not because of their concern for the taxpayer's pocket, although we do not accuse them of lack of such concern, but because such grants imply a possible, indeed a likely, further interference with local autonomy. It is quite understandable; little by little local authorities have been shorn of their most productive enterprises. School and police in some towns, transport in others, and in all the gas and electricity industries have been appropriated by Government. On terms, it is true, but on capital payments which meant the loss of the recurrent income and, what was worse, loosened the local influence over the services concerned. Perhaps the local authorities can be persuaded that grants, without unreasonable interference and without loss of local control, are desirable. Librarians will watch with practical interest the progress of this proposal which, it should have been mentioned, has been approved by the Manchester City Council.

OUR readers are sure to find the New Year, which we hope will be a prosperous one for them and for librarianship,an interesting one in many ways. From the standpoint of the Library Association it will see the attractive experiment of an Annual Conference which for the first time is to be held in June. Margate, the venue of this, can be spartan in that month; on the other hand, she can be delightful, and the crystal, bracing air of the town, unequalled anywhere in our isles, and the long days, which should be sunny, ought to send librarians back invigorated to the common work of libraries. The objection that June cannot be combined with late summer holidays, that it cuts across school and university terms, and so on, is sound enough, but the advantages seem to be equally clear. At any rate we hope that Margate will be a bumper conference.

The year 1938, not so distant in point of time, but early in modern microfilm history, saw the establishment of University Microfilms as the first commercially operated microfilm service to serve the needs of scholars and libraries. Other laboratories had been established earlier at the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and the University of Chicago, but each of these had the benefit of outside funds for equipment and overhead expenses and each was primarily concerned with servicing its own collections. University Microfilms sought to provide effective microfilm service at rates comparable with those of subsidized laboratories.

The formation, in May, 1949, of the new Aslib, incorporating the Association of Special Libraries and Information Bureaux and the British Society for International Bibliography, led to a change in the dating of Aslib's financial year, which will now run from January to December instead of from July to June. This report, therefore, extends over eighteen months and links the activities of the old organization with those of its successor.