One Man's Beginnings

F A curious feature of our profession is the paucity of attention given to its human elements. We are too prone to lose sight of the fact that a library's place in the social fabric is determined not by technics or administrative niceties, but in the last resort by the anima, the personal spirit which lies behind them. With, for example, Draynefleete's new branch library we are familiar through photo‐graphs and drawings; we approve its contemporaneity of style, its brisk aseptic social “tone”. But do we ask ourselves whether it is a creative library? Do we give thought to the personal relationships involved—between members of the staff, between the staff and the public? Is there a sense of confraternity, of oneness of purpose? Units thrown together by chance or destiny, we spend a large part of our allotted span within the walls of a library, doing a job, liking or resenting it; yet this vital aspect of our work seldom comes under scrutiny.