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THE idea of a central service and supplies organisation for libraries—a “Library Centre”— such as exist abroad and are described in Library Supply agencies in Europe, is like most ideas in librarianship, not a new one, even taking into account the establishment of Norway's Biblioteksentralen over 60 years ago in 1902, which at that time was called Folkeboksamlingenes Ekspedisjon. This idea, like so so much else, seems to have originated in the fertile brain of Melvil Dewey, taking its final and lasting form as the Library Bureau, established by Dewey himself in 1882.

THE Wanstead Library is just round the corner from the shopping centre in the High Street where the old shop branch existed for many years. The new Library is a large, single‐storey structure with floor to ceiling windows facing Christchurch Green, a charming open space with well established trees. This spacious, attractive building is in complete contrast to the cramped accommodation previously occupied and local reaction has been emphatically favourable.

In 1886, Thomas Greenwood had been rightly critical of the lack of public libraries in London. Eight years later, he was able to describe a changed situation. Following further adoptions of the Acts purpose‐built public libraries were to be found at Battersea, Bermondsey, Camberwell, Chelsea, Lambeth and St. Martin‐in‐the‐Fields, for example. Greenwood wrote appreciatively of further developments:

Special collections, because of their very nature, need special consideration by library management. Discusses one part of special collection management which needs particular consideration, namely printed ephemera. This will perhaps be the greatest problem for local studies departments of public libraries; special libraries, because of their identification with their parent body, and its aims and objectives, do not have quite the same problems. However, all libraries concerned with acquiring printed ephemera need to consider certain aspects of the management of this material. Outlines some of these problems and issues, and briefly suggests possible courses of action which can be taken, based on current research into developing a collection policy for printed Welsh ephemera, carried out at the Department of Information and Library Studies at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth in conjunction with the National Library of Wales.

A FEW YEARS AGO that small but many‐paged volume of facts called Whitaker's Almanack, published annually by J. Whitaker & Sons, celebrated its centenary. In 1974 the firm celebrated the longevity of another of its publications, British Books in Print, first published in 1874 as the Reference Catalogue of Current Literature. While many people know of the Almanack, it is mostly publishers, booksellers, and librarians who are aware of the other publications this firm has produced in the field of book‐trade bibliography in the last 116 years, publications of sufficient scope and quality to delay until quite recently the provision of a British national bibliography.

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 Seminar on Library Interior Layout and Design organised by IFLA's Section on Library Buildings and Equipment, and attended by people from over twenty‐two countries, was held at Frederiksdal, Denmark, in June 1980. This present article neither reports on the Seminar's proceedings, as it is hoped to publish the papers in due course, nor describes fully the Danish public libraries seen, but rather uses the Seminar's theme and the library visits as a point of departure for considering some aspects of the interior layout—the landscape—of public libraries. Brief details of the new Danish public libraries visited are given in a table at the end of the article.