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WHEN THE LIBRARY WORLD asked me for a letter from Finland, I was very glad, for I like writing letters. To me it is a pleasure to write letters. Of course it is equally pleasant to receive letters, and I hope that we can soon receive a letter from Great Britain as a reply for our journal Kirjastolehti.

From Keith Harris's “Death and transfiguration” — which one University Librarian significantly baulked at reviewing for LR — onward, Atkinsonian thinking has produced extended if confused debate in Britain. Roger Hickman, formerly of Glasgow University Library, looks in perspective at the original UGC report, the debate, and the future.

THE MIXED reaction to the proposal for a diploma of higher education appears to be based not on the qualities or defects of the curriculum for the diploma—for no‐one yet really knows what it is going to be—but on attitudes which relate not to educational problems, but to social or political assumptions. The great British public has never wanted to spend more than it must on education. Expenditure on universities was never questioned when it was a fraction of the budget: since it has been a significant figure, the government of the day, whatever its complexion, has sought to economise. The polytechnics were supposed to be cheaper than universities; four term years cheaper than three term years. Now it is two‐year diplomas that are cheaper than three or four year degrees. No‐one with experience of the various changes in educational policy made by successive governments can, it seems to me, be other than cynical about the educational motives of politicians in making changes in the educational system. The case for the introduction of a two‐year course for a diploma in higher education is that many students would prefer to undertake a shorter course, with the possibility of topping it up later to degree standard if they wish to do so. This is presumably one example of the current fashionable phrase ‘continuous education’. Bodies such as the AUT and some members of professional associations fear that the introduction of the diploma will lead to a reduction in standards in the education students receive. The AUT also thinks it will affect the salaries of teaching staff.

THE MAY 1975 meeting of the Library Association Council was noteworthy for bringing to a conclusion the series of twenty‐four meetings held by the Working Party on Association Services. It is literally true to say that the association will never be quite the same again. It is therefore useful to summarise the main decisions.

In 1955 it was proposed that the Library of the University of Liverpool School of Architecture (which is administered by the University Library) should start a collection of 2 in. by 2 in. slides (black and white, and coloured) which would be limited to a working collection of 15,000 slides. The new collection was organized as part of the work of the assistant librarian in charge, but a slide assistant was also appointed to carry out some of the photographic work under the supervision of a lecturer in the school and to assist in the routine work involved in cataloguing the slides.

IF we count the University of Strathclyde School of Librarianship as a “new” school—rather than simply an old school transferred from a College of Commerce to a university—then four “new” schools were established between 1963 and 1964, three of the four in universities and the other closely linked with a university, though remaining independent. All four schools have their special features but I consider the more significant of Belfast's features to be its right, from the outset, to conduct all its own examinations for graduates and non‐graduates. Queen's was also the first British university to provide non‐graduates with courses in librarianship. (Strathclyde is the second.) All successful students are eligible for admission to the Register of Chartered Librarians (ALA) after they have completed the prescribed period of practical experience.

WE are pleased to devote this Special Number of THE LIBRARY WORLD to a discussion of Irish libraries and librarianship. Our contributors are all distinguished members of the profession in Ireland, none more so than Dermot Foley, to whom we are greatly indebted for having convened this issue.

Examines the roles played by various international and government organizations in the development of libraries in Ghana. Argues some justification for the continued reliance on external assistance in Ghana′s library development, despite the controversial nature of such assistance. Concludes that all government efforts should be made to supplement external assistance in the development of libraries in Ghana.

The fifteen years before Atkinson represented for many British university librarians a golden age, as the number and size of universities expanded, young men received promotion long before they might reasonably have expected, and funds for collections and buildings to house them became available on a scale never before seen in most British universities. The thesis of this contribution is that the “golden age” provided an opportunity for the testing of attitudes and approaches to academic librarianship which before had always been constrained by financial circumstances, and that in that test the traditional philosophies were found wanting. The Atkinson Report was a turning point when the reluctant academic library community was reminded of reality.

All items listed may be borrowed from the Aslib Library, except those marked, which may be consulted in the Library.