AT the close of the year we look back upon twelve very chequered months in the story of librarianship. In the field of libraries as a whole, it may be said that they held their…
Abstract
AT the close of the year we look back upon twelve very chequered months in the story of librarianship. In the field of libraries as a whole, it may be said that they held their own and indeed that some progress has been made. A few libraries have been opened, mostly branch libraries, but there have been extensions and re‐organisations of central libraries, which point to a universally developing regard for the library service. Even if this has not been dramatic in some places, it has nevertheless been real. Men who were middle‐aged before the war must, however, pass away before we get the right perspective for the conditions of to‐day; that is to say, with few exceptions. We are not speaking of librarians here, but of those who control libraries, but even librarians of the older school have sometimes found it difficult to envisage library service on the scale common in America, which, with adjustments to British circumstances, should be the scale for us throughout the Empire.