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“FORMAL classes on how to use a library would be an insult to the intelligence of the student.” This was an extreme reply mentioned in the Report of the Committee on Libraries, with reference to a questionnaire to academic staff about instruction in library use. This view of the teaching activities of librarians with students must be familiar to all librarians whether they are concerned with formal teaching activities or not. Nevertheless it is suggested that, in the current climate of change in the nature of sixth form studies, and the need for bibliographic training as part of a general education leading to informed library users in the academic and professional world, there is now a strong case for an examined course of study at “A” level G.C.E. incorporating the principles of bibliographical knowledge for users.

It is heartbreaking to recall that in 1970 it was possible to be very hopeful that a great new age of British school librarianship was about to dawn. It did not happen: and this despite the best activities of some school librarians and some local education authorities; and despite some positive statements by professional associations, and some research projects and official reports. It could be important to ask what went wrong. Although the circumstances may not recur, asking the right questions might give us helpful answers for when the campaign for school libraries starts again, tomorrow morning.

SCHEMES FOR the national library services of developing countries make the British library world seem positively victorian by comparison. Two factors, however, are likely to be agents of change in the next few years. At the apex of the pyramid, the proposals for the British Library will rationalise the British Museum, the National Central Library, the National Lending Library for Science and Technology and the British National Bibliography complex. At more local levels, the re‐organisation of local government in England will ensure more effective provision of public library services under unitary control.

NORMAN BESWICK WRITES: Evidence that the multi‐media resource centre concept is part of an international movement was apparent from a recent ‘meeting of experts called by Unesco and the International Bureau of Education. The conference was held in Geneva from June 10–13, and discussed ‘the development of school libraries into multi‐media centres in secondary‐level education’.

AT LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY we made a film to celebrate the Library Association centenary, and the cost was less than a tenth of what most people understandably predicted. We managed by confining ourselves to simple equipment and uncomplicated locations, and by exploiting the willing services of the university's modest and overworked Audio Visual Aids Unit (whose salaries and overheads were not in our budget). We had remarkable cooperation from librarians, teachers, administrators, students and members of the public in our East Midlands area. Now whether the results match the occasion and the subject is not for us to say, but you are cheerfully invited to test for yourselves by hiring or buying the film for your own institution or group at the rates quoted at the end of this paper.

In addition to providing a review of the literature recently published in the librarianship of non‐book materials this survey aims to draw attention to the characteristics, problems and achievements particular to the documentation and handling of non‐book materials (NBM) in many types of libraries. The materials are briefly described and considerations of selection, acquisition, organization, storage and in particular bibliographic control are dealt with in some detail. Other areas of concern to the librarian dealing with media resources, including the organization and training of staff, planning, equipment, exploitation and copyright, are also discussed. The past decade has seen the widespread introduction of NBM into libraries as additional or alternative sources of information. Librarians have been given an opportunity to rethink many basic principles and adapt existing practice to encompass the new materials. The survey reflects the achievements and some of the failures or problems remaining to be solved in this rapidly expanding area of library work.

What to do about preparing librarians for handling non‐book media has been the most vexing problem to face the library schools in the past five years. Or has it? Janet Andrew's plea that “non‐book materials should be treated as what they are—genuine library materials…deserving of attention throughout any course designed to educate (or train) librarians” produced, in the same issue of Audiovisual librarian in which it appeared, a response from the educators themselves:— to be accurate, from ten of the fifteen schools to whom the pre‐print of the article was circulated, and from an eleventh in a subsequent issue. Some respondents outlined their school's policies; others questioned the validity of Ms Andrew's criticisms. If anything emerged from the “debate”, it was that that there is no consensus as to whether or not librarianship education should take special account of non‐book media, or if so, how this should be carried out.

“WHAT PRICE educational technology now?” This was the pessimistic title of an article contributed by Geoffrey Hubbard, Director of the Council for Educational Technology, to the 3M magazine Tape teacher, last September. Hubbard outlined a bleak future for educational technology if expenditure cuts forced education authorities to cut back on what are often regarded as “audio visual frills”. The article argued that educational technology is concerned with not only the efficient utilisation of audio‐visual equipment, but with the best use of all resources in the effective implementation of the curriculum. Nevertheless, it is easier to argue for savings in expenditure by pruning capital‐intensive projects usually associated with resource‐based learning than to prove that educational technology can help teachers make the best use of scarce resources. Current popular attitudes, favouring a return to “traditional” education, make it even more likely that the former argument will prevail. Librarians not working in the educational sector may also find themselves under pressure to decrease spending on non‐book materials in favour of books.

‘IT WOULD BE no more than poetic justice if a few of the staff at the libraries could be coached to cast spells upon the lifters of that portion of the stock which is concerned with witchcraft’—Middlesex county times commenting upon Ealing Borough Librarian Norman Binns' report that books on witchcraft and demonology are particularly liable to theft.

THE Reference Department of Paisley Central Library today occupies the room which was the original Public Library built in 1870 and opened to the public in April 1871. Since that date two extensions to the building have taken place. The first, in 1882, provided a separate room for both Reference and Lending libraries; the second, opened in 1938, provided a new Children's Department. Together with the original cost of the building, these extensions were entirely financed by Sir Peter Coats, James Coats of Auchendrane and Daniel Coats respectively. The people of Paisley indeed owe much to this one family, whose generosity was great. They not only provided the capital required but continued to donate many useful and often extremely valuable works of reference over the many years that followed. In 1975 Paisley Library was incorporated in the new Renfrew District library service.