The Library World Volume 40 Issue 8

As the municipal year ends this month, the public librarian will lightly (or otherwise) turn to thoughts of annual reports. Year by year the problem before him is to justify his ways to men, by producing a document which in the first place is attractive and in the second, third, and as many other places as possible, is true, logical, readable. It is no easy task, especially for those who are new to the experiment or who have made it for so many years that ideas do not come freely ; for, after all, the annual report is a question of ideas. If our minds are of pedestrian, unoriginal—or perhaps infertile is a better word, as originality is as rare as a new planet— type, we shall copy one of the received models, and will be well advised to do so. That is to say, we shall give a brief narrative of what we think are the outstanding events of the year with suitable acknowledgments to committee and staff, and add such statistical tables as will prove the position. These last are always to be summarised in the form prescribed by the Library Association ; the omission of such summary is inexcusable in the modern librarian.