The Library and the Evacuee

THE evacuation brought many problems to the country districts—problems that those who ordered it had not bothered to think‐out beforehand. One suspects that the ministers responsible looked on it as an exercise in moving a million people from one place to another; and, when the million had been moved, congratulated themselves on another astounding success. But the moving was only the start. It was a far more difficult business to keep the evacuees in the country. That raised problems for everybody—including the rural librarian. Some people may say the evacuees didn't want to read anything except timetables for trains to take them home. The rural librarian, being a man of understanding, might have foreseen that demand and supplied it. But there are other and better ways in which the rural librarian might have helped and is helping. For the rural library can provide the evacuees with a substitute for the pleasures of town; and, more important in the longrun, can help them to understand that strange, almost foreign, thing—country life.