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A NEW YEAR is always a time for a glance backwards and forwards, in the library world as in other worlds. If 1937 was not particularly dramatic in events or achievements, it was at least a year which was not unworthy in the library movement. A list of the libraries which came into being appears every year in the Annual Report of the L.A. and we are convinced that the one for the year just ended will be quite sizeable. The opening of a branch library now‐a‐days, as an addition to a large system, or to serve a lately‐populated part of a new area, excites little comment; and that, in itself, is significant and gratifying. People are coming to regard the provision of public libraries as a normal part of urban and even village equipment.

AFTER‐CONFERENCE time is the period of reflection, and this year one involving several interests. There was uttered on the platform a warning that the question of the government control of public libraries was in the air; and Mr. Jast rigidly deprecated the discussion of the matter as a bye‐product of another subject then being debated. Library authorities and librarians, however, are asking for a lead from the Library Association, the only body competent or authorized to give it, and no doubt this will form the cardinal “policy” question of the winter.

Outlines some basic human embryological facts and considers several myths such as “the immediate product of fertilization is just a potential human being”. Gives medical facts to clarify these issues and concludes that these have far reaching implications for many areas of research. Argues that these decisions, at present, are based more on myth than science.

So far as municipal libraries are concerned, by the time these lines appear librarians will mostly have faced the annual ordeal of the Estimates. It will not have been an easy time for them; for 1921–22 will be the first year in which the high post‐war charges of all kinds have to be encountered as a whole; and the forecast, at a time when the public generally is crying for economy—by which it means retrenchment—has in many cases seemed a gloomy one. The times are serious, and unemployment and slack industries do not make for enthusiasm for library or other constructive expenditure. The phase is, we hope, a transient, transitional one, and while we may deplore retrenchment in any phase of our work, it may be better to face the facts squarely, and to acquiesce in a certain amount of restraint than to resist it, in the hope that our moderation may lead to a larger measure of money and moral support later. It is only a hope, but it is worth cherishing.

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.

THE monumental History of Criticism by Professor Saintsbury, and Mr. Hall Caine's lighter series of studies would be sufficient to put anyone on their guard against accepting as final many of the critical decisions of the important literary reviews. Mr. Caine's book particularly is a revelation of error and spite such as makes one wonder that anonymous literary criticism should be received with toleration by bookmen.

THERE are now so many meetings of the Library Association and its branches and sections that the good custom of recording meetings and the discussions at them has fallen into desuetude. In a way it is a gain, for when the discussion was commonplace the account of a meeting became a mere list of those who attended and spoke, bones without flesh; but in the days when The Library Association Record really was a record, its reports were a part of the educational and informational material of every librarian. Something should be done about this, because 1938 opened with a series of meetings which all deserved the fullest report. The principal one was the investiture meeting of the President of the Library Association on January 17th. The attendance was greater than that at any meeting of librarians in recent years, of course other than the Annual Conference. Chaucer House was beautifully arranged, decorated and lighted for the occasion, an atmosphere of cheerfulness and camaraderie pervaded the affair. The speeches were limited to a few preliminary words by the retiring President, the Archbishop of York, before placing the badge on his successor's neck; a brief, but deserved panegyric of Dr. Temple's services by Mr. Berwick Sayers; and then a delightful acknowledgment from His Grace. The serious point the Archbishop made was his surprise at learning the wide extent of the library movement and his conviction that it must be of great value to the community. His lighter touch was exquisite; especially his story of the ceremonial key, which broke in the lock and jammed it when he was opening a library in state, and of his pause to settle mentally the ethical point as to whether he could conscientiously declare he had “opened” a place when he had made it impossible for anyone to get in until a carpenter had been fetched. Altogether a memorable evening, which proved, too, as a guest rightly said, that one cannot easily entertain librarians, but, if you get them together in comfortable conditions, they entertain themselves right well.

WITH eloquence which we cannot imitate, or repeat, the national loss has been sufficiently expressed by others. It is true, Kipling and William Watson being dead, and Alfred Noyes silent, the poets have not risen to the height of a great occasion, but that is by the way. Our own tribute to the late King must be based on his work for libraries, since any other tribute is general to a whole Empire. Kings can have few hours in which to read and yet some of the stories, true or apocryphal, of King George V. touch upon his reading. He showed, however, a closer interest of late years in libraries than any other of our monarchs has done, and at the opening ceremonies of the National Central Library and the Manchester Public Library he uttered words which are the best slogans that libraries have received. Even if he did not write them—a matter which we have no right to affirm or deny—his utterance of them gave them the royal superscription. We repeat them, as they cannot be too often repeated:—

IT is known that the Library Association Council has devoted watchful care to the position of libraries in the event of war. As we write, the international situation is as dark as it has been at any time since 1919, and many have that calm, cold feeling that there is nothing to do but to tighten our belts and stand againt the onslaught. Even if that is still avoided, as all who listened to Lord Halifax trust it may be, there should be active protection of the library service which is one of those things which might so easily go under in a time of stress. The Library Association has done well in submitting to Government that experience in the last war proved the value of libraries for information and as a factor in the morale of the people; that their services should, so far as possible, be maintained even during hostilities; that there would be need of library provision for people, and especially for children, “evacuated” to areas where the existing library provision might often be inadequate; and that library buildings should not be used for purposes for which they are unsuitable, seeing that there will be many halls, schools and other buildings that would be better for food‐control, recruiting and so on.

THE new library building has been open for six months now. It is pleasantly situated in an area of new buildings, and occupies a prominent island site just on the edge of the shopping centre. The old library was in the middle of a shopping area, and it has been interesting to note that our removal from that site has had a more considerable effect on the traffic pattern than one would have thought.