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Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

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.

In the Annual Report of the General Purposes Committee of the Middlesex County Council for the year ending March 31, 1909, it is stated that inquiries were made as to the action taken under the Dairies, Cowsheds, and Milkshops Orders of 1885 and 1899 by the thirty‐six district councils in the county, the object of such action being the detection of cows suffering from tuberculosis of the udder. It might be thought that by this time the necessity for putting these orders into force had been thoroughly proved. The Royal Commission on Tuberculosis made a definite statement to the effect that milk derived from tuberculous cattle is one of the principal causes of tubercular disease in the human subject, and, apparently there seems to be some disposition on the part of local authorities to make tuberculosis notifiable. The Public Health (Tuberculosis) Regulations, 1908, which came into force at the beginning of 1909, require that all cases of pulmonary tuberculosis are to be notified to the sanitary authority if the patients are receiving treatment from the Poor Law medical officers. Large sums are spent every year throughout the country on the upkeep of sanatoria with the object of curing cases of tubercle, if possible, but, in any case, of alleviating the sufferings of those afflicted with tuberculosis. On all sides, in fact, it is now recognised that the most energetic measures are necessary in order to combat this terrible disease. It appears from the figures given in the Report referred to that in twenty‐three out of the thirty‐six districts. “No veterinary examinations of cows were made on behalf of the local authorities!” The statement is not made the subject of comment, but we hardly think that the county authorities can regard the results of their enquiry as satisfactory. The Report was apparently presented to the County Council on July 22 last, so that up to that time, at least, it would seem that these twenty‐three districts, in a county with about one million inhabitants, are governed, so far as sanitary matters go, by people who consider themselves qualified to hold opinions diametrically opposed to those held by experts and based on the best scientific evidence at present available.

A LETTER from the President of the Library Association (Mr. Berwick Sayers) has been received which we have pleasure in giving prominently.

THIS number will appear at the beginning of the Leeds Conference. Although there is no evidence that the attendance will surpass the record attendance registered at the Birmingham Conference, there is every reason to believe that the attendance at Leeds will be very large. The year is one of importance in the history of the city, for it has marked the 300th anniversary of its charter. We hope that some of the festival spirit will survive into the week of the Conference. As a contributor has suggested on another page, we hope that all librarians who attend will do so with the determination to make the Conference one of the friendliest possible character. It has occasionally been pointed out that as the Association grows older it is liable to become more stilted and formal; that institutions and people become standardized and less dynamic. This, if it were true, would be a great pity.

The Library Association of Ireland issued last month the first number of An Leabharlann, their new official journal. The title, for those of us who do not speak the language of Erin, means The Library. It is an extremely interesting venture which will be followed by librarians on the mainland with sympathetic curiosity. In particular our readers would be interested in the first of a series of articles by Father Stephen J. Brown, S.J., on Book Selection. The worthy Father lectures on this subject at University College, Dublin, in the Library School. It is mainly concerned with what should not be selected, and deals in vigorous fashion with the menace of much of current published stuff. No doubt Father Brown will follow with something more constructive. Mr. T. E. Gay, Chairman of the Association, discusses the need for a survey of Irish libraries and their resources. We agree that it is necessary. The Net Books Agreement, the Council, Notes from the Provinces, and an article in Erse—which we honestly believe that most of our Irish friends can read—and an excellent broadcast talk on the Library and the Student by Miss Christina Keogh, the accomplished Librarian of the Irish Central Library, make up a quite attractive first number. A list of broadcast talks given by members of the Association is included.

THE Fifty‐First Conference of the Library Association takes place in the most modern type of British town. Blackpool is a typical growth of the past fifty years or so, rising from the greater value placed upon the recreations of the people in recent decades. It has the name of the pleasure city of the north, a huge caravansary into which the large industrial cities empty themselves at the holiday seasons. But Blackpool is more than that; it is a town with a vibrating local life of its own; it has its intellectual side even if the casual visitor does not always see it as readily as he does the attractions of the front. A week can be spent profitably there even by the mere intellectualist.

THE exact date of the first foundation of the library is not discoverable, but it was within the first two years of the formation of the Medico‐Chirurgical Society (1805–1807), as a Library Committee was appointed as early as March, 1807.