INTER‐LIBRARY CO‐OPERATION AND STANDARDS OF PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICE

Abstract

The following is the text of a statement sent on behalf of Aslib to the Ministry of Education in connection with its two Working Party Reports on the Public Library Service. It will be recalled that the Minister of Education set up, in September 1957, a committee, under the Chairmanship of Sir Sydney Roberts, ‘to consider the structure of the public library service in England and Wales, and to advise what changes, if any, should be made in the administrative arrangements, regard being had to the relation of public libraries to other libraries.’ The report of this committee was published in February 1959. In December 1960 it was announced that the Government intended to give the Minister of Education a general responsibility for oversight of the public library service; and that public library authorities would be required to discharge a statutory duty to provide an efficient service. Further study of certain problems was, however, felt to be needed before legislation could be drafted, and two Working Parties were appointed for the purpose: one, under the Chairmanship of Mr H. T. Bourdillon, to study the basic requirements for an efficient public library service, the other, under the Chairmanship of Mr E. B. H. Baker, to examine the technical implications of the references made to library co‐operation in the Roberts Report. The reports of the two Working Parties were published in December 1962, and it is to points in these two reports that the Aslib statement refers. For brevity, the three reports are referred to as Roberts, Bourdillon and Baker respectively:

Citation

(1963), "INTER‐LIBRARY CO‐OPERATION AND STANDARDS OF PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICE", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 15 No. 8, pp. 229-233. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb049936