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More than the previous two columns, this list is highly suspect. It represents what I like to read from England, what I could get my hands on, and what could serve as a core collection for an American library. What I immediately want to do is disclaim that these are the most representative or even the most sensible choices for libraries, although I do want to emphasize that they are a fine assortment and that they are among the most influential and intriguing publications of the English press that are readily available.

The most obvious symptom of the most obvious trend in the building of new libraries is the fact that, as yet, no spade has entered the ground of the site on Euston Road, London, upon which the new building for the British Library Reference Division has to be erected. Some twenty years of continued negotiation and discussion finally resulted in the choice of this site. The UK and much more of the world awaits with anticipation what could and should be the major building library of the twentieth century. The planning and design of a library building, however large or small, is, relatively speaking, a major operation, and deserves time, care and patience if the best results are to be produced.

THE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION'S worsening financial position is a matter of general concern, and any constructive suggestions will no doubt be helpful to the Honorary Treasurer and others who plan our finances. The present Library Association structure is workable in practice, but it is becoming increasingly expensive to maintain, and a little thought begins to show the possibilities of economy, without any loss of effectiveness. The most important associated factor at the present time is the possibility of drastic local government reorganisation in 1974, only one year after the earliest date when Library Association subscriptions can be increased. The effect of this reorganisation, as at present proposed, on Library Association structure, needs to be borne in mind.

The stand‐out works this year are a number of comprehensive general discographies. Before reviewing them in detail in Part Two, I would like to single out three of them here for special attention.

It's been three years since my previous survey in RSR. Superb reference books in pop music have been appearing so frequently that I've been having trouble keeping up. Let's hope “next year's” survey will only be 12 months in the making and not 36.

BRIAN COOPER, until recently in Zambia for the Ministry of Overseas Development, setting up library facilities in a new teacher‐training college, has been appointed as the first ever hospital librarian at Rampton special hospital. The appointment is made jointly by Nottinghamshire County Library (K A Stockham is County Librarian) and the Department of Health and Social Security, and is a consequence of the recent government white paper on Libraries in hospitals.

A recent survey on book purchases was published by Sales Research Service Limited and reveals some very interesting statistics.

‘An editor is a man of the first consequence in the republic of letters—equal at least to any theatrical manager. Has he not, like the latter, to furnish a pleasing variety, to hold the balance even between rival individuals? Must not his entertainments be according to nature; nay, must he not occasionally throw about his squibs and crackers to please air balloon politicians; or, as it were, have writers of tumbling— wire dancing—and hurly burly description?’

The most challenging aspect of overseeing an alternative press collection is to provide adequate reference service. The same forces that cause libraries to ignore alternative publications also conspire against their using them fully and effectively once they have been acquired. This holds true for all forms of alternative literature and media, though periodicals probably suffer the most severe neglect. Many periodicals go unindexed from year to year because such companies as H. W. Wilson and its Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature stick basically to a traditional core of “safe” or “acceptable” periodicals. (It took Readers' Guide ten years to include Rolling Stone, which had long since shed its “alternative” image.)

THE London Borough of Havering is running three competitions as part of its contribution to National Book Week—for tapes and tape/slides, ‘Design for the future’, and for a short story or essay. Entries are invited from schools, groups or individuals, with a closing date of October 7. Autumn should be a busy judging time for Borough Librarian G H Humby and his colleagues.