Library Review

BOSTWICK, ARTHUR E.

1928 Library Review

doi: 10.1108/eb011877

FROM the standpoint of an American librarian busy in acquiring, cataloguing and distributing books, his country is naturally very bookish indeed, though there are doubtless points of view from which it might appear quite otherwise. We librarians frequently make the mistake of confounding the public in general with the part of it that makes use of public libraries. As a matter of fact this latter is not even the reading public, certainly not all of it probably not even a typical cross section of it. This makes any conclusion drawn by librarians from their own statistics regarding the volume or quality of reading, subject to grave suspicion. What goes on in the way of reading outside of our institutionsin society libraries, in clubs, in millions of private houses,we know only by hearsay or guesswork.

YORK ERSKINE, LAURIE

1928 Library Review

doi: 10.1108/eb011878

IN a recent season Mr. A. A. Milne published an entirely enchanting book of verses entitled When We were Very Young. Later this was followed by other Milne books for and about children. The literary pages, literary departments and literary reviews of two nations gave a great deal of space to criticism of, comment upon, and gossip about these books, and by the most expert and practiced critics of these nations the charming volumes were given their just meed of praise.

FREER, PERCY

1928 Library Review

doi: 10.1108/eb011879

WHAT were the circumstances that prompted the Carnegie Corporation of New York to send to South Africa last year its President and Secretary to make subsequently a liberal grant to libraries here, and further to delegate Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Pitt to report on them Did our silence forbode feverish activity or stagnation In either case the matter should be investigated, and if accused of suspecting the latter state, the Corporation could plead its interest in the former only. However, without ascribing to the instigators of the present survey any but philanthropic motives, its inception was obviously not without reason. The most selfsatisfied amongst us would not imagine for one moment that current South African library practice reflects the professional Manual. Is our conservatism due entirely to financial impoverishment, or has the enervation of a South African summer produced a winter lassitude in wouldbe reader and librarian alike Let us hastily glance at existing conditions.

THOMAS, F.G.

1928 Library Review

doi: 10.1108/eb011880

IT was in September, 1927, that the rural extension scheme of the SouthWest was launched in Devon, financed by the Carnegie Trustees. The faith and persistence of a few gained recognition for the county, and their optimism has been justified. In six months fifteen new centres have been opened in villages with group meetings of four and eight talks, with a total average attendance of some 550 adults and with some 750 people passing through these groups. From the inception of the scheme, there has been close and reasoned cooperation with the county library. These notes are based on our experience. They are not intended to be dogmatic generalisations anyone who realises the social barrier of Dartmoor in the life of Devon, the intimacy of its valleys, the difference between Exmoor and Dartmoor, the different type of valley farmer and the small holder wrestling with the upland for his scant food, will know that any generalisation will be but a half truth, necessarily modified in each village. On the other hand, an intimate study of the varied types of villages, together with a more desultory knowledge of the difficulties over a wider area, may indicate some of the possibilities and the obstacles in the true functioning of a county library.

WILLOUGHBY, EDWIN E.

1928 Library Review

doi: 10.1108/eb011881

EVEN when in a dim monastic cloister he presided over his twenty treasured volumes, the librarian had his vade mecum, his refuge and strength in time of trouble. When asked an unexpected question, he, like his successor of the twentieth century, rushed to the encyclopedia. Indeed, it would seem that during the middle ages, when books were few and parchment was dear, the encyclopedia, the work which attempts to include all human knowledge, reached its greatest popularity.