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IPSWICH gave an interesting lead to the libraries of this country in its Book Week, which occurred last month. By a wise co‐operation between the National Book Council, the Local Booksellers and the Public Library, two book exhibitions—one of new publications in the local Y.M.C.A., and the other of book‐making processes at the Public Library—were held, and lectures at the Library by Sir Ernest Benn, representing publishers; Mr. Maurice Marston, booksellers; Messrs. G. A. Stephen and Berwick Sayers, librarians; and Mr. Michael Sadleir, authors, attracted good audiences. Posters of a most original kind “declared war” on the ignorance of the value of books in the town. The affair must have stimulated reading to some extant in Ipswich; and we hope it may find imitators elsewhere.

THE topics of the Library Association Conference and the election of the Council of the Association naturally absorb a great deal of attention this month. To deal with the second first: there were few novelties in the nominations, and most of the suggested new Councillors are good people; so that a fairly good Council should result. The unique thing, as we imagine, about the Library Association is the number of vice‐presidents, all of whom have Council privileges. These are not elected by the members but by the Council, and by the retiring Council; they occupy a position analagous to aldermen in town councils, and are not amenable to the choice or desires of the members at large. There are enough of them, too, if they care to be active, to dominate the Council. Fortunately, good men are usually elected, but recently there has been a tendency to elect comparatively young men to what are virtually perpetual seats on the Council, simply, if one may judge from the names, because these men occupy certain library positions. It, therefore; is all the more necessary that the electors see that men who really represent the profession get the seats that remain.

THE programme of the Bournemouth Conference shows variety enough concentrated into its three days of business to satisfy even that Mr. Smith, of Leicester, who made Cheltenham memorable for the cheap press. The main subject appears to be book selection of two kinds, adult and junior. Mr. Callender has been given a difficult task, and it does not appear conceivable that any very practical issue can come of the debate even with Mr. Jast as opener. Book‐selection must be the application of a series of definite answers to such questions as “What is a good book?” “What is a bad book?” “When may an inferior book prove to be the best for the end in view?” and so on; and that is a matter first for a committee, which may give well‐led and lengthy deliberation to the subject; it certainly won't come to much in open conference. Much the same must be the case with “An Analysis of Child Reading,” even if Mr. Osborne leads and Mr. Berwick Sayers follows him. On what enquiry will the analysis be based? Who has analysed children's reading in England on any scale that would justify public debate?

NOT for a long time have books and libraries featured in the correspondence columns of The Times and other newspapers as regularly as they have in 1960. Earlier in the year Sir Alan Herbert's lending rights' scheme had a good run, and we have clearly not yet heard the last of it. Indeed, a Private Member's bill on the subject is to have its second reading in Parliament on December 9th. More recently, the Herbert proposals have had a by‐product in the shape of bound paperbacks, and a correspondence ensued which culminated in Sir Allen Lane's fifth‐of‐November firework banning hard‐covered Penguins for library use.

THIS number of THE LIBRARY WORLD sees the periodical in a new dress: it is in fact the start of a new era for a publication now in its 64th year. Its past has been chequered, but at least its issues have been continuous, and under such editors as James Duff Brown, J. D. Stewart and W. C. Berwick Sayers, it has always kept faith with its readers. In return, most of its readers have kept faith with THE LIBRARY WORLD during some of the difficult days gone by.

The 45th Annual Report of the Executive Committee of the National Central Library, for the thirteen months ending 31st March 1961, records the death of its Chairman, Mr W. C. Berwick Sayers, and the appointment of Mr L. R. McColvin as Chairman of the Committee.

ONCE more a New Year, after a year of dramatic public events, finds librarians as other people settling down to what it is hoped will be twelve months of peace and prosperity. It is really remarkable how libraries reflect the happenings of the time; it would not, for example, seem that the burning of the Crystal Palace would affect the issues of all South London libraries but it did very heavily for a day or two. When the public mind is occupied with an idea it is well known that this is reflected in reduced, and occasionally increased, issues. The Jubilee of King George V. reduced reference issues everywhere; and it is to be expected that the Coronation of King George VI. will have a like effect. These efforts however are transient, and are only felt during the few days of the happenings in question.. On the larger count we find at the beginning of 1937 that all but new libraries have now reached a position in which they can assess the results of other competition. It is alleged that the loss of readers who have seceded to the “twopennies” is about 4 per cent. on the peak year of 1932–3, but the gains are considerably in advance of 1930. That is to say, solid progress has been regular.

In the last‐issued volume of his monumental History of the Novel, Dr. E. A. Baker remarks that librarians do not expect to be thanked for their services and then, characteristically, proceeds to thank some dozen or so. Whatever our expectations are, we are none the less appreciative when a writer does express his debt; it helps us, it justifies our work. Few tributes of late have been more graceful than this paid by Mr. J. D. Griffith Davies in his useful and attractive Honest George Monk, which has lately come from Mr. John Lane: “What I should do without the kindly help of my friend, R. J. Gordon, Librarian of the Leeds Public Libraries, I really don't know. Like some fairy godmother he produces for my use the rarest books; and his keen personal interest in all forms of research, and the unfailing courtesy of his colleagues, makes the Reference Library at Leeds one of the homeliest places for work.” It is worth while to compare the expression here with the words Mr. Berwick Sayers has written at the end of his preface to the 1937 edition of Brown's Manual.

Although this profile will attempt to look at various of the activities of this many‐sided man, our first concern will be with his years at Westminster. McColvin was appointed city librarian there in 1938 when he was 42 years of age. For this signally important position he had been well‐grounded. His early years in librarianship had been spent at Croydon under the much respected W. C. Berwick Sayers. After that, his public library experience had been considerably widened by his being successively deputy librarian of Wigan, chief librarian of Ipswich, and chief librarian of Hampstead.

THAT we devote the greater part of this number to memories of Louis Stanley Jast will surprise none of our senior readers. He was the embodiment of the public library, and for that matter other library, movement in its best characteristics for the past fifty years. He was also one of the founders of THE LIBRARY WORLD and found in its pages for years the effective medium in which his technical studies could be expressed. We acknowledge with thanks the help that several of his former colleagues have given in the preparation of this memoir and we gather from Mr. Berwick Sayers that it may be the precursor of a biographical study that he will write in which what it is only possible to indicate here may be made more complete. The unanimity of opinion in our writers, none of whom has seen the work of the others, on the importance of Jast is remarkable. Incidentally we may note that the best portrait of Jast, showing his Strong, meditative and enquiring genial personality, is that which forms the frontispiece of his Libraries and Living; a selection of his essays and verses which we hope our readers will turn to again.