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ONE or two questions raised by the writer of “Letters on our Affairs” this month are of some urgency. The first, the physical condition of books, is one that is long over‐due for full discussion with a view to complete revision of our method. The increased book fund of post‐war years, and the unexpected success of the twopenny library, have brought us to the point when we should concentrate upon beautiful and clean editions of good books, and encourage the public to use them. “Euripides” is quite right in his contention that there is too much dependence upon the outcasts of the circulating library for replenishing the stocks of public lending libraries. We say this gravely and advisedly. Many librarians depend almost entirely upon the off‐scourings of commercial libraries for their fiction. The result, of course, is contempt of that stock from all readers who are not without knowledge of books. It is the business of the public library now to scrap all books that are stained, unpleasant to the sight, in bad print, and otherwise unattractive. Of old, it was necessary for us to work hard, and by careful conservation of sometimes quite dirty books, in order to get enough books to serve our readers. To‐day this is no longer the case, except in quite backward areas. The average well‐supported public library—and there are many now in that category—should aim at a reduction of stock to proportions which are really useful, which are good and which are ultimately attractive if not beautiful. The time has arrived when a dirty book, or a poorly printed book, or a book which has no artistic appeal, should be regarded as a reproach to the library preserving it.

“BEFORE the leaves of Autumn fall” we were assured by Mr. Churchill that there might be heavy fighting. They have not fallen yet, although with September, beautiful as it often is, we know the Summer is over and our minds must be occupied most immediately with the war. Libraries may seem to some, even librarians, secondary in this maelstrom but, even if they are, that secondariness is really so important that at this month everyone looks to his own work to see in what ways it may be geared up more fully for its own special contribution. Immediate planning concerns such matters as winter service hours, staffing, the growing wear and tear on stocks, the inadequacy of new book supply, the growing shabbiness of our buildings and our continuing inability to carry on the extension work which was so prominent a feature of many libraries. Frankly, in most towns we are giving a book service, not doing the library work, personal and bibliographical, which every librarian desires to give. To do what is within our limits to the best advantage is, then, the immediate problem.

OUR various accounts of the Portsmouth Conference, and the official record of it which is now in the hands of readers shows that it may be regarded as a successful one. It was specially notable for the absence of those bickerings and differences which must inevitably come to the surface at times. There may be something in the suggestion of one of our writers that the weather was a main factor. However that may be, there was uniform good temper, and we came away with the belief that a good week's work for librarianship had been done.

ALTHOUGH the active European and Asiatic land war has not begun so far as the bulk of the English are concerned and there are no visible signs of war's ending, advantage has been taken by many bodies to outline their after‐war proposals. Stale as we know that simple statement to be, we want to insist again that no one should be deflected for long from this reconstruction problem on the grounds that the decisive phases of war are still before us. Improbable as it seems, peace might “break out” at any time and might be catastrophic if food, clothing, homes and employment were not available on a scale at present scarcely dreamed. All the reports on reconstruction we have seen—of the Labour Party, N.A.L.G.O., the Educationists, as well as the more national ones, the Beveridge, the Uthwatt and those, so far as they exist, of the political parties, have common factors. The imperative of the moment is to relate these and to admit without party bias, the grounds of agreement so that some sort of work may begin. If this is not done—and who is to do it?—the whole of reform may be suffocated in a mass of indigestible verbiage. Libraries are vital, we say and believe, but in the general welter of words the many words of the excellent McColvin Report will not have fair consideration we fear. Our readers know that a strong committee of the Library Association has been giving assiduous study to the much shorter statement which is to embody library aspirations. We hope that it may not be long delayed, although we recognize that undue haste might lead to prolonged repentance.

WE end the library year in an atmosphere of anticipation. There are signs, not of the ending of the infernal conflict that engages the best of our lives, but of movement which brings the happy event into the range of probable things. Most men and women feel that in the past year a great deliverance has been wrought. Librarians Still labour under the greatest difficulties they have ever known, fewer books, reduced Staffs, crowded working days, but they have endured the worst it seems, and although there may yet be heavy air onslaught, and the great sacrifices that a second front must bring, there is the feeling that we are not as far from the day as we were twelve months ago. That is a happy reflection with which to look to Christmastide.

THE Librarian faces one of the turning times in library history. The flow of progress has not yet begun, the shortages and consequent imperious demands for food, housing and clothing stand in the way of the beginning, except on paper. How long the interregnum will last none can say. The authorities, which are a reflection in some ways of the Parliamentary party in power, are well‐disposed towards libraries; the official handbook of the Labour Party proves that; but the clamour of the needs we have mentioned deafens everybody to library needs—except in certain instances. For example, the rebuilding and enlarging of the staff at Holborn is an encouraging sign. Of more potential significance is the working out of the so‐called National Charter. It has involved many towns in the task of creating an establishment for each public department. Thus, in one library system we hear that each branch or department may claim a librarian and a deputy both on the A.P.T. scale, but all the assistants are either general or clerical. Some assistants we hear have applied to be of clerical grade as the maximum salary is greater than in the general. This we suggest is putting cash before status because it is accepted as an axiom that a clerk has only clerical qualifications and potentialities, while a general assistant may aspire, when there is a vacancy and if he have certificates, to the professional status. The grading in the particular library mentioned has rather a petrifying effect in that no assistant can get into the professional grade unless his librarian or deputy departs. Possibly this sort of thing may alter, but the fact remains for good or ill—it is not all ill by any means—that no library is able to attract men from another except to a definitely higher post.

It has often been said that a great part of the strength of Aslib lies in the fact that it brings together those whose experience has been gained in many widely differing fields but who have a common interest in the means by which information may be collected and disseminated to the greatest advantage. Lists of its members have, therefore, a more than ordinary value since they present, in miniature, a cross‐section of institutions and individuals who share this special interest.

LIBRARY Association Council elections move on the principle common to those of municipalities: there is a three‐year service for each member and a rota by which one‐third of the members submit themselves yearly to the electors. It used to be the custom of the Council to retire wholly and to renominate its retiring members, which meant all of themselves, and so recommend themselves to the suffrages of the members of the Association. That has been abandoned and has been replaced by a certain amount of electioneering. It is natural for any section of the Association to want to choose and to instruct its own candidates but it can be an unfair thing for, say, the A.A.L. to ask its members to support in body its own particular men. The A.A.L. does not recruit its members. They are mainly students who have to join the Library Association in order to sit its examinations and by doing so are automatically allocated to A.A.L. membership. The whole position needs revision and, as a part of the L.A., it should be ordained that when a man becomes a chief librarian his A.A.L. activities should be transferred entirely to the senior body.

It will be a momentous year, even if prophecies are not fulfilled in the sense in which they are so recklessly made. Threats of terrors at Christmas, especially for London, did not materialize. There are some readers who whisper that they do not believe in a Second Front at all. And so on: jade Rumour lies as earnestly today as ever in her unwholesome history. But much must happen before we can again utter the wish with which we begin. Our business, in addition to our imperative war duties, is to carry to conclusions of value the post‐war policies we have received from the Library Association. We have more than that to do. Some of our libraries, even those that have not suffered from direct bombing, are in a state which in peace conditions we should say was deplorable.

We issue a double Souvenir number of The Library World in connection with the Library Association Conference at Birmingham, in which we have pleasure in including a special article, “Libraries in Birmingham,” by Mr. Walter Powell, Chief Librarian of Birmingham Public Libraries. He has endeavoured to combine in it the subject of Special Library collections, and libraries other than the Municipal Libraries in the City. Another article entitled “Some Memories of Birmingham” is by Mr. Richard W. Mould, Chief Librarian and Curator of Southwark Public Libraries and Cuming Museum. We understand that a very full programme has been arranged for the Conference, and we have already published such details as are now available in our July number.