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The paper by Miss Exley on ‘Replanning Libraries’, given at our Annual Conference this year, was intended to be on the theoretical side of the subject, while this symposium is intended to tackle the same subject on the more practical side.

Scientific and technical periodicals are read soon after publication by individuals, for their own enlightenment. In addition to these ‘personal’ users, periodicals have what I shall call ‘institutional’ users—librarians, information officers, abstractors—who use them, maybe years after publication, mainly on behalf of others. These ‘institutional’ users find that for their purposes, which are slightly different from those of the ‘personal’ users, many periodicals are inconvenient to use in some, mostly minor, respects. My purpose is to ask editors and publishers to help ‘institutional’ readers by adopting a number of small changes, few of which would involve appreciable cost and none of which would lessen the value of their publications to ‘personal’ readers. They have been asked before—notably by Dr. V. E. Parke and Mr. L. G. Patrick in their papers at the 1947 annual Aslib Conference, and by Dr. Wilfrid Bonser many years earlier. I am, to a large extent, merely repeating and emphasizing their pleas. The requests I have to make may appear trivial: so they are. That is why it seems absurd that some, at least, should not have been adopted before now, and that it should still be necessary to put them forward.

IN these days when permanent building is so restricted and difficult, librarians, like others who require new buildings or extensions to their present accommodation, have had to resort to temporary structures for housing books and readers.

Recounts the origins of Birmingham University in Mason College, and the early development of its library under William Henry Cope. The growth of collections, particularly by donations from Thomas Pretious Heslop and the services based on them into the early twentieth century are discussed. The importance of the appointment of Charles Grant Robertson as Vice‐Principal is examined and the growth of the collections described, as is the further service development under Fenwick Mills and Wilfred Bonser. The continuing development of the collections and opening of a new library building in 1960 are discussed in a review of the history of the library and its services into the modern period.

The plans for new premises for the National Institute for Medical Research were commenced in July, 1937, and building operations began in 1938. The carcass was completed in 1942, when it was lent to the Admiralty, and works of conversion were undertaken for W.R.N.S. occupation, involving the housing of some 1,200, including staff.

This issue of Aslib Proceedings contains papers given at Branch meetings in 1951, two items under ‘Members' Forum’, and a number of reports from other organizations with which Aslib has had close association.

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

SEPTEMBER sees the holiday season waning and the summer irrevocably over. It sees the progressive librarian, as one of our correspondents suggests, making plans for the winter. Possibly it may be said that the really alert one has had them made for some time, because it is immediately on return from holidays, when there is a hint of winter in the air, and daylight saving is over, that the average man thinks of how he will spend his leisure in the darker days. That, at least, is the theory and many librarians have already set up their displays of suggestions to would‐be Students.

The only comprehensive list of British medical libraries hitherto available has been that in The Aslib directory 1928, and there is an extended account of those in London in Reginald Rye, The students' guide to the libraries of London (3rd ed., 1927), pp. 362–77. The new list, here put forward, is intended to bring the information from those two books of reference up to date, after nearly twenty years. British libraries are briefly listed among ‘Medical libraries outside North America’ in the Medical Library Association's A handbook of medical library practice, ed. Janet Doe, Chicago, American library association 1943, chapter 1, appendix 2, pages 41–64. The meagre information in that list, if contrasted with the detailed documentation of American and Canadian libraries in successive issues of the American medical directory, accentuates the need for us to know ourselves better. Several, perhaps many, medical librarians have had to compile lists of kindred libraries for their own convenience. A list which I had thus prepared seemed to Aslib to offer adequate basis for a Directory of British medical libraries, and in order to complete it Aslib issued a questionnaire in the autumn of 1944 to libraries known to possess medical collections and to hospitals, medical societies, and medical institutions throughout the British Isles. The information obtained from the generous response to this questionnaire is epitomized in the list which follows. I am responsible for all omissions and errors and I hope that those who detect any will supply corrections and additions so that this preliminary list may be revised and become a definitive Directory.

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