PUBLIC LIBRARY SERVICES IN The COVENTRY AREA

The purposes of public libraries and those of technical and research libraries differ so widely in scope that I would like, first of all, to deal with the background against which the public library operates. Whilst the field covered by the public library is so wide as to be almost without boundaries, that of the special or research library is usually fairly tightly circumscribed. Public libraries are, as you know, wholly rate supported—or at least almost wholly, because we do draw a certain amount of income from the charges we levy on the people who keep books overdue—and unlike some other corporation departments we do not receive any Government grant.