The Library World Volume 61 Issue 4

A DRAFT of the first three hundred words of an editorial, on the influence of government on libraries has just been deposited in the wastepaper basket. Libraries are serious matters, and more than one heart has missed a beat on reading in the election manifesto of one of the parties that it intended to introduce legislation regarding public library services: the nature of this legislation was not dislosed. Mercifully the other side offered no such intentions. Frankly we are in grave danger of taking ourselves altogether too seriously. Of course libraries are important for the spread of ideas, culture, and technological and scientific development. Equally they should be good for a laugh.