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IT may be safe enough to have thoughts, running or otherwise, on British libraries and librarians after so brief an experience of them in their habitat: the folly may well be in the expression thereof. In this case, however, I have no hesitancy in speaking because my treatment was so generous and so kind that only pleasant, even flattering, thoughts remain.

THE author of this little sketch is happy to bear witness of the endurance and strength of a Scottish editor; a fifth of a century ago the projector of the LIBRARY REVIEW, who has remained at its heim ever since, asked for an article for the first number of his journal. That paper came from the West Coast, that is California, and tried to disclose some library items of a hopeful nature. Since that year the world has for a time gone mad, but the REVIEW has continued to promote libraries, reading and books.

IN California we have been doing county library work so long that we may possibly be assuming rather a grand‐fatherly air toward this service. It is easy to forget the early days when conditions were crude and primitive, and to feel that we were always tenants of regular houses with proper facilities for contributing our part towards human culture and enjoyment. Gradually most of our counties are growing into better central offices, with plans and ambitions for special buildings of greater or lesser pretensions. Here and there over the state local communities, in one way or another, are finding their branches housed in small but real library buildings. The people have quite come to the conclusion that books properly administered are a necessary feature in this modern world—and are willing to pay the price.

WHETHER one journeys by the west coast or the east coast, South Africa is far away from the rest of the world. Even the traveller of to‐day, making the trip in all ease and comfort on the excellent liners which plough the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans, can imagine something of the dismay of the earlier explorers when, after weeks and months of sailing, they touched the southern tip of the continent only to find the interior cut off by sharply rising mountains and anchorage room lacking. To‐day that terror is gone; and one is lost in wonder and admiration at the splendid setting of Cape Town, the gateway to the country, with her two oceans thundering at her battlements and majestic Table Mountain like a steadfast friend at her back. A great harbour built by human energy insures shipping conveniences and safety. And ashore a new sort of city greets the visitor, with all modern facilities and, as befits the crossroads of the world, a mingling of races and customs strange and alluring to all who look with seeing eyes.

GUEST editor of this South African issue of THE LIBRARY WORLD is Hendrik M. Robinson, Director of Library Services, Transvaal Provincial Administration, Pretoria.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the historical development of libraries in South Africa against a backdrop of poverty and social inequality. In particular, this paper illustrates how the development of libraries in South Africa both reflected and influenced information poverty and has as its goal to increase awareness of the role of libraries in the alleviation of information poverty.

The information in this paper is based on doctoral research completed by the author who investigated the role of libraries in the alleviation of information poverty in South Africa. The methodology for the research included two case studies, interviews, examination of library records, and observation. An extensive review of the professional literature and recorded histories provided imperative context for that research and this paper.

Findings indicate that libraries can play an important role in the alleviation of information poverty in South Africa. Libraries are underutilized in this role and in order to increase their capacity in addressing information poverty, one should consider the historical circumstances behind the dispossession of library services. Understanding the development of libraries in South Africa and sociopolitical ramifications of this development can encourage and inform greater participation of libraries in the alleviation of information poverty in the future.

This paper compiles the work and findings of previous studies on the history of South African libraries. The information provided here offers an accessible and efficient history of libraries in South Africa. In so doing, it provides context that is invaluable to the understanding of how the development of libraries throughout time can have sociopolitical effects on the people and their circumstances. The paper also encourages increased understanding of the value and purpose of libraries in combating information poverty in South Africa.

THE publication last month of the long‐anticipated Report of the Departmental Public Libraries Committee is, of course, the principal recent event. It is too long to allow us to give a full account of its arguments and conclusions, and in common with all who work for libraries we must return to it again and again in the future. It may be said, however, that it will allay the fears of those who thought that one result of the Committee's deliberations would be to support and to suggest the implementing of the Report of the Adult Education Committee of the lamented Ministry of Reconstruction, which would have handed over the public libraries of the country as a gift to the directors of education. This report does nothing of the kind; it even suggests that as public opinion is clearly opposed to such a course, the libraries should remain in the hands of those who made them an admitted success even under the adverse conditions of the limited rate. Thus the way is open to real progress, and the very confined conditions which would be a necessary result of the absorption of libraries in the official education machinery are not immediately to be dreaded.

IF no completely novel contribution to librarianship came out of the Eastbourne Conference, it could be justified as having to some extent integrated libraries and literature; for, in the choice of a scholar to address it in Dr. R. W. Moore on the underlying connexion of books and therefore libraries with life; and of our own ex‐President, Dr. Esdaile, to recreate the poetry of the first years of the century, no mistake was made. The technical and administrative matters always seem Ezekiel's valley of dry bones in such a setting, but there were really good papers, practical ones like the very controversial contribution of Mr. Corbett, the excellent hospital library paper by Miss Southerden and Mr. Lamb's experienced treatment of Commercial and Technical Libraries. Most members there, too, were old enough to appreciate the chronicle of 1919–49 offered by Mr. Stewart, and all received stimulation from Mr. L. R. McColvin's forecast of our future. There were too many papers for any one librarian to absorb, but the Library Association serves many interests today. Some impressions have been given in other pages from the writer of Letters on Our Affairs.

Dual diagnosis (DD) has become a challenging therapeutic issue of our time. As a substance misuse practitioner, I, like many of my colleagues have often been frustrated with the difficulties that service users face in trying to address their issues, often being bounced between services that are unable to meet their needs. This article looks at some of the challenges that face staff working in both substance misuse services and mental health services as they work to deliver services to a group of service users with multiple and complex needs. It will look at the way in which we define dual diagnosis, the challenges that face both services and service users, how new government guidance could impact upon improved working practice and outcomes in the future and what some of the barriers are to the successful implementation of this guidance.

Our South African correspondent writes:—Considerable damage has been done to the University Library of the Witwatersrand as the result of an extensive fire which destroyed a large part of the collection and the building. The Library was, in the course of the past year, in process of reorganisation….. A plea for closer co‐operation between the libraries of South Africa was made by Mr. Percy Freer of Johannesburg at a meeting of the Witwatersrand and Victoria Branch of the South African Library Association. Mr. Freer said that most of the libraries were concentrating on particular subjects, and it was desirable that all libraries should be able to draw on the resources of each other. He suggested that the following libraries should function as regional centres with a view to relieving pressure on the National Central Library: the South African Public Library (Cape Town), Bloemfontein (operating with Kimberley), Maritzburg (with Durban), Johannesburg, Bulawayo and Port Elizabeth. The headquarters of the National Central Library itself should be attached to the State Library at Pretoria. A union catalogue and other bibliographical aids were desirable…. Dr. Gie (Secretary for Education) has been urging teachers to have a greater regard for books. He had been astonished to learn from recent investigations that many teachers not only did not read current books and periodicals regularly, but did not keep in touch with current topics through the newspapers. He advised teachers to assist in setting up libraries and centres where they did not exist.