A Lean Time Ahead for Libraries ?

To anyone unfamiliar with the English local government system the current controversy over the financial provisions of the Local Government Bill will have given the impression that education is the sole function of local authorities. The effect of the Bill on education has figured largely in recent conferences, speeches and writings, and while opponents of the proposed block grant system prophesy a reduction in expenditure on education, those in favour of the new grant arrangements have confined their defence, in the main, to the same service. But whether or not one agrees with Lord Hailsham that “the gentlemen in Warwick and Welshpool, Wigan and Wiltshire, Westmorland and Woking” are as capable of administering the education service as the “gentlemen in Whitehall,” the future, so far as public libraries are concerned, is hardly in doubt. Already in a vulnerable position owing to their reliance on rate revenue,—coupled with a ready misunderstanding, especially at estimate time, of their value and true functions,—public libraries will be in danger of being driven even further below the poverty line when the block grant system begins to operate.