of such problems, the experience which has suggested the particular devices already adopted, and the lines upon which further developments should be designed.

448. We have already discussed in this chapter and elsewhere the reasons why only in certain areas are to be found such libraries as can meet the reasonable requirements of a public which desires access to a wide range of books, and why outside the larger towns there are practically no public libraries which contain a sufficient variety of standard books to serve the needs of students or readers with educated tastes and varied interests. The cause is not the apathy of ratepayers unwilling to pay for good libraries, but the fact that every kind of public service is peculiar in the degree to which it lends itself to organisation on a large or small scale. One of the peculiarities of library service is that until a library has reached a certain size it can only perform a very limited function. The chief reason for the superiority of the service in the large library is that each user can in a certain sense make use of the whole of the library. He has access to a wide choice of books; he has at his service the bibliographies and the expert knowledge of the librarians. The real and permanent need for supplementing the resources of the local libraries, especially the smaller local libraries, does not arise through their having been "starved." If all the local libraries were as well stocked and as well staffed as could reasonably be expected, the demands which give rise to the necessity for a Central Library would still exist.

449. Moreover, the unanimity on the question of the utility of a Central Library does not arise from theory but from practical experience. It is this fact that makes the consensus of opinion all the more significant. It is not a plausible theory, which has been caught at by persons conscious only of the defects of the existing libraries. The feasibility of supply certain definite and pressing needs by an organisation of a new type has been demonstrated through actual experience. And although the experiment has been limited in its scope (partly through want of funds, but partly also through the necessity for developing the machinery in accordance with actual requirements), it has already convinced those who have made most of it that it is indispensable to any national library service.

450. The experiment to which we refer, and which forms the basis for the proposals which we have to make, is the Central Library for Students. In 1914 the Workers' Educational Association, in conjunction with Toynbee Hall, established a library for the purpose of supplying books to members of University Tutorial and W.E.A. classes. It was not long before it outgrew this limited sphere of activity. The need for a central organisation was pointed out by Professor Adams in his report to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust. In 1916 the Trustees, in response to a request made by the Central Joint Advisory Committee for Tutorial Classes, agreed to make a grant for the establishment of

an independent Central Library. In 1919 the Third Interim Report of the Adult Education Committee of the Ministry of Reconstruction dwelt at length upon its importance, and made it the centre of their proposals for the future consideration of libraries, as it is the centre of those which we make to-day.

451. The Central Library for Students is now housed at 9, Galen Place, Bury Street, W.C.1, in convenient proximity to the British Museum, with the staff of which friendly relations have existed from the first. Its stock of books, which in 1916 (when it began work under the new organisation) consisted of 1,392 volumes has risen to 30,824 in 1926, while it has working arrangements with other libraries which enable it to draw upon a much larger supply. Its issues, which in the first year were 2,005, have reached 44,196 in the tenth, (1) approximately 40,000 of which were lent to libraries or groups of students, where they were presumably used by more than a single reader. The record of issues gives in fact a clear indication of the services which the Library is rendering :Volumes issued.

Its total income since its foundation has amounted to £41,565, of which £20,561 has been received from the Carnegie Trust, £6,000 from the United Services Fund (in consideration of the privileges which the Library allows to ex-service men), £3,500 from the Cassel Trust, and £400 from the Thomas Wall Trust. Of the remainder, £2,225 has come from various societies and institutions, £1,495 from urban libraries, and £546 from county libraries.

452. A recent development, fostered by the Carnegie Trust, has been the institution of "outlier libraries." Various special libraries (of which a list is given in Chapter IV, page 135) receive grants from the Trust on condition that the books and periodicals in these libraries are made available for members of the general public who borrow them through the Central Library.

453. Although the Library continues to serve individual students, its policy is more and more to lend through public and other libraries and allied institutions. For our present purpose the essential facts with regard to the Central Library for Students are that (a) it began as a specific device for supplying organised bodies of adult students with the books which they required for their courses; (b) it enlarged its function so as to aim at supplying every serious reader with standard books which he could not get from his local sources; (c) it established connection with the local libraries, and thus became a reservoir upon which they could draw.

(1) It must be remembered also that Scotland and Ireland, which at one time used the Central Library, have now their own institutions.

454. The need for such a source of supply arose very largely through the great increase in the number of adult education classes. It had long been the practice of the bodies responsible for the organisation of University Extension Lectures, and subsequently of University Tutorial Classes, to send out to each class a box of well chosen books. Such books were a prime necessity, even in towns where there were good public libraries. With the rapid growth of the classes it became more and more difficult to supply in sufficient quantity and variety the standard books on an everincreasing number of subjects. What the Central Library did was to supply as far as possible every book asked for by such classes, in so far as their wants had not been met by the educational body responsible for the organisation of the classes. The Library's stock of books was built up largely by purchasing, in increasing number, the books demanded by the classes, and by students outside the classes. It has been the policy of the Library to induce the individual reader, as distinct from the organised group of students, to apply for his books through the public library of his own neighbourhood. Obviously if he can get the book he wants from his local library he ought not to trouble the Central Library for it. By working through the local libraries not only is economy effected in the distribution of books, but the local libraries themselves are made acquainted with the specific requirements of the readers in their districts; and, further, readers who have hitherto regarded the local library as the limit of their supply, are brought into contact with the Central Library and its larger possibilities. The need for such co-ordination becomes all the greater now that county libraries have been established.

455. Three important points should be noted:

(i) The Central Library supplies books only in response to a definite and specific demand from actual readers. It does not come to the aid of an inefficient library by lending it a stock of books which may not be required. Hence it cannot grow faster than the real demand for its services.

(ii) It is not a fixed stock of books out of which the reader selects what it happens to possess. It is a source of supply from which every reader may get the book he needs; for it is the policy of the library to procure for its readers the books they require, and by that means to build up its stock.

(iii) The Library is designed, not to replace existing agencies, Thus the bodies responsible for but to supplement them. organising educational work have a responsibility also for supplying the essential text books and other books which are within their resources; but they cannot be expected to supply all the needs of their students. Public libraries, again, may be expected to supply the common needs of the ordinary readers in their areas; but they cannot meet all demands for multiple copies of a book, or for books only required by students for special purposes, or for books which are required for a long period. There is ample

need for the improvement of the local libraries, and for such important developments as are now being made by means of county libraries. But whilst the Central Library can never take the place of the existing local libraries, or render unnecessary the county libraries, so these cannot perform the particular services of a Central Library.

456. If we ask why there is such unanimous approval of the principle of a Central Library, the answer is to be found in the experience of the many different sections of persons interested. First, the large and increasing number of students in the adult education movement have found that only since the Central Library for Students came into existence have they been able to get access to an adequate supply of books. Even where they are in a good library area the demands of other readers make it impossible for the public library to do for them what the Central Library can do. Secondly, those responsible for the organisation of adult education, e.g. the Joint Committees of the Universities and University Colleges of England and Wales, the University Extension Boards, the Local Education Authorities, the Workers' Educational Association, the Educational Settlements, the Y.M.C.A., and other bodies, all find that it is of immense advantage to have the resources of a Central Library to supplement the special collections of books which they administer. For although it will probably always be necessary for that body which is educationally responsible for adult classes to provide for the more constant needs in the shape of text books, and certain indispensable standard books, the miscellaneous requirements of the 100,000 students who may be expected to be in attendance at adult education classes within the next few years can only be met from a central source.

457. Thirdly, the smaller public libraries have for the first time been able to see a way out of their worst difficulties. For, instead of having to refuse the requests of that section of their readers which they value most, they can now extend the sphere of their own libraries by being linked up to a new source of supply.

458. Fourthly, those who have been concerned in the larger problems of library service are convinced that by means of a Central Library not only can certain defects in the local system be made good but the sphere of work of even the large efficient libraries can be extended in several important ways.

459. The function of the Central Library, then, as it is already developing from the limited aims with which it began, is to supplement and to co-ordinate: to supplement the supplies of books which public libraries can provide for students, and to co-ordinate the various existing agencies, so as to put the individual student, wherever he lives and whatever be the subject of his study, in touch with the particular library, general or specialist, which has the books of which he is in need.

460. Such is the work which the existing Central Library for Students has attempted with its limited means, and such the aim which it has of late come to envisage. We congratulate its founders and supporters on their courage and vision. We wish now to consider in what way it can best be enabled to achieve its objects, and how it can be placed on a permanent footing as the centre of a national system.

461. The first question is that of its main functions. Although the experience of the last nine years serves as a valuable guide, it by no means follows that the particular lines which were appropriate in the circumstances of that period will always be appropriate in the circumstances of the future. The establishment of county libraries is a new factor. The question of the co-operation of the universities and the local education authorities in the supply of books for students demands fuller consideration. The possibilities of co-ordinating the work of special libraries may alter the balance of the function of the Central Library. It is on matters of policy such as these that there is room for considerable divergence of opinion, but it is only in so far as the precise functions of the Library can be determined that the most appropriate constitution and the lines of its administration can be formulated.

462. The question of the best methods of supplying books to organised groups of students is dealt with in detail in Chapter VI. Here it is only possible to summarise our conclusions. Briefly, there must be several sources of supply, for it would be encumbering the Central Library with a mere bulk of work, and an excessive quantity of books, to make it the sole agency for the supply of adult education classes. The supervising bodies educationally responsible for the classes will continue to provide some of the books; public libraries will play a larger part in supplying such books as are, or ought to be, in their stocks. The Central Library will supply what neither of the other bodies can be expected to supply, namely, the rarer and more expensive books, or those not in general demand on the part of a number of classes. The allocation between these three sources is a matter for friendly arrangement.

463. A more difficult problem is that of aiding public libraries to supply the demands of individual readers. It is clearly desirable that every serious reader in any part of the country should be able to procure such books as he would be able to procure if he lived in a good library area. But it is equally clear that no Central Library could meet the demands which would arise if it advertised that it was prepared to supply every book asked for in every library in the country; and it is very undesirable that the local libraries should be relieved of their responsibilities.

464. The Central Library has been able to keep pace with most of the actual demands upon it, just because it has not advertised itself as a general purveyor of books. It is easy to see that if it offered an unlimited supply many public libraries might become

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