BUT HOW FAST DID TOPSY GROW?

The establishment of the University Grants Committee in the Britain of 1919 called for fundamental thinking as to the character and priorities of academic communities and the minimum levels of provision — staffing, research facilities, literature support, social amenities, and so on — necessary for any new foundation to be ranked as more than a primarily vocational training centre. Without assumptions and positions on these matters the Committee could not have done its work. Yet as regards libraries, almost no serious debate can be found in print among scholars of that day, and none among librarians.