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ANOTHER Annual Meeting has come and gone. It was scarcely to be expected that the meeting at Bradford would be a record in the number of members attending, seeing that it is only three years ago since the Association met in the neighbouring city of Leeds, and that Bradford cannot boast either the historical associations or the architectural and scenic setting of many other towns. For the most part therefore the members who did attend, attended because they were interested in the serious rather than the entertainment or excursion side of the gathering, which was so far perhaps to the advantage of the meetings and discussions. Nevertheless, the actual number of those present—about two hundred—was quite satisfactory, and none, we are assured, even if the local functions were the main or an equal element of attraction, could possibly have regretted their visit to the metropolis of the worsted trade. Fortunately the weather was all that could be desired, and under the bright sunshine Bradford looked its best, many members, who expected doubtless to find a grey, depressing city of factories, being pleasingly disappointed with the fine views and width of open and green country quite close at hand.

Such reports as reach us go to prove that few, if any, attacks on library finances, such as are usually frequent in the municipal budgetting month of February, have been made this year; and that in spite of the fact that local rates have risen to an unprecedented extent throughout the Kingdom. This is our general impression, although librarians are somewhat reticent upon the matter. Last year we appealed for information as to reductions and retrenchments, but received little response; it appeared that the matter was not sufficiently interesting to librarians to make them express their views or state their experiences concerning it. Library finance is in spite of that a vital matter to us all, and the primary need in connexion therewith is accurate information. We therefore venture to repeat our request for news of the kind. It will be used with discretion.

We lay the flattering unction to our soul that our recent remark with regard to the possibilities of awakening public interest in the public library movement by means of wireless broadcasting has not fallen entirely upon deaf ears. It has just been arranged that the Honorary Secretary of the London and Home Counties Branch of the Library Association is to broadcast a lecture on Public Libraries at a date to be announced later. This will mark an important epoch in our march forward and we await the result with considerable interest.

WE open our new volume in circumstances of hope. The recent developments of the war give real encouragement to the expectation that a few more months of endurance may see if not the end of war, at least its prospect. For many work has been pursued recently in circumstances of difficulty and, occasionally, of danger, but we do not know of any library which has closed for any length of time because of enemy action. Those in the South of England have had anxious hours; for a few days book issues went down, and thus the experiences of the autumn of 1940 were repeated. Such fluctuations are not likely to be permanent or even long‐lasting. For librarians, as for all our people, there is now evidence that before the volume we begin today is complete, we may be able to give undivided attention to libraries.

UNSATISFACTORY performance of an aircratt engine often leads to the ignition system being suspect without there being positive proof that this is where the trouble lies. A complete change of sparking plugs may have to be undertaken; alternatively other ignition components may have to be removed for substitution, bench test or examination. All this work may be necessary to locate the fault, and, in the end, it might even prove not to be in the ignition system at all.

SEPTEMBER, by a traditional impulse, has always represented to some minds the beginning of the most active period in the library year. This year the month that sees the close of the holiday season, the shortening day and lengthening evening, holds fairer promises and greater difficulties than any in the past six years or perhaps in the past twenty‐five. It sees large programmes in prospect but many fences to be surmounted and, if the physicists are right, the beginning of a new era. It is doubtful if, in so short a space of time as that which has elapsed since we last wrote, so many important events have occurred. The entirely new political alignment may have its effects on our post‐war policy. We hope the library will never again be the protege of a political party because that means that it becomes thereby the target of the opposition—as was the case when in London a change of party in local government brought about the wreck for a generation of at least one library service which had the misfortune to have been initiated by the other party. We have however, no immediate apprehensions about public libraries in present circumstances.

OCTOBER brings the full swing of winter's activities. Students have gone to their classes again, library meetings take place—not the least of them the London and Home Counties Branch annual conference, this time at Margate, which has just concluded—and, at the end of the month, the annual election of the L.A. Council. The interest, probably the quality, of a librarian can be gauged by his attitude towards these things. One who does not vote for his Association Council has no right to criticise its acts, and he who does not support, at least reasonably, the meetings his Association arranges, lacks the loyalty which every profession has a right to expect of its members. October 15 is the final date of entry for the December professional examinations. It will be noted, too, that this year the Entrance examination takes place on Wednesday, November 26—a fortnight before the Registration first group.

THE motive for this article is to invite comment on the proposal explained later, and illustrated in Fig. 6, that guide cards ready printed with U.D.C. numbers and their meanings should be made available from a central source. At the Scientific Information Conference held by the Royal Society last summer this proposal was recommended to the British Standards Institution for consideration and a small committee has now been set up for the purpose.

OUR new features of record and reminiscence appear to have been appreciated by our readers; and, as this number shows, we continue with increased pages and are endeavouring to extend our scope to meet every kind of library interest. There is an atmosphere, of change and, as some think, of crisis, in library matters, especially in those of the public library. The winter to which our minds turn in mid‐September is likely to be interesting and may bring decisions of various kinds. We hope to reflect them, and, as is our invariable custom, invite readers to use us to express their views as well as their experiences.

WILL ROGERS, the great American humorist used to say, ‘All I know is what I read in the papers’. It would not be true to say that the daily press will tell us all that the Institute Meeting brings forth in science and technology, but news‐papermen have a flair for the significant. Accordingly, when the New York Times devoted a half‐column editorial to the luncheon speech of Admiral Luis de Florez, it was because this engineer, with so many war‐time training devices and methods to his credit, had once again evolved a valuable idea, a Synthetic Aircraft to serve in the development and testing of new aeroplanes. During the war the Navy developed and used Synthetic Aircraft for training men in gunnery, bombing, radio work, meteorology, the handling of rockets and torpedoes. Moreover, with the aid of complex electronic devices, computers, electric analysers, it was possible to subject young pilots, in almost uncanny fashion, to simulated emergency conditions, the cutting out of an engine, combat damage. The Navy spent S100,000,000 on its synthetic trainers and saved millions of hours of training time and billions of dollars. In pioneer days, to build a new plane cost a few thousand dollars and in the test flight only one man risked his life. Today the first flight hazards millions of dollars and the lives of several men. Admiral De Florez suggested that the building of synthetic aircraft to reproduce the flight characteristics of a new machine in operating form rather than to rely on calculations, however learned they might be. Let us quote his own words: