Comment

IN THESE days, when all around us are cries of ‘woe! woe!’ because of the cuts in local government spending and the effects these are having on public libraries, it is as well to look back to another time of depression (and, indeed, earlier) to see what life in our libraries was like then. If it is difficult today, when establishments are cut by simply not filling vacant posts (like leaving drain covers off for people to fall down, it is so casual in effect), how much more difficult it was to keep one's chin up forty to fifty years ago! Yet chins were held high, beliefs in the worthwhileness of our job were maintained, and the service was kept going.