The Library World Volume 50 Issue 5

Abstract

WHETHER the political pendulum is to swing in the direction of the Right or not in the coming year we do not know. Local electors are not the only key to national ones whatever politicians may argue. That there will be a move towards that direction is probable as our people tire of the monotonies of any government. Any change will not affect libraries greatly at present as the world problems are too pressing to allow any practical discussion of domestic ones. Our only fear is that “economy” may become a cry, which means, of course, the lopping of things which are educational, cultural and otherwise not money‐making and it is only too probable that public libraries and indeed other libraries might suffer from the modern equivalent of the Geddes axe which some are hopefully expecting. On the other hand the strength of the organizations which control wages from below is such that the disastrous “cuts” of the first Geddes experiment are not likely to be repeated. And on wages the whole of our financial tructure rests. Moreover libraries have now assumed the right to exist in adequate condition and to displace them may not be so easy as it was thirty years ago; but, nevertheless on vigilance our safety still depends. The conditions are not likely at present to be propitious to any real advance. The much‐desired new Library Bill is being drafted—and should be—but its hearing does not seem imminent; the chances of building new libraries are bleak, and even repairs are to some librarians a nightmare. Confronting all these conditions is the greatly increased use of libraries which is reflected in every kind of public, university, national and commercial library. This strengthens faith in the future in spite of the immediate prospect.

Citation

(1947), "The Library World Volume 50 Issue 5", New Library World, Vol. 50 No. 5, pp. 69-84. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb009309