The Library Association, which for many years had striven to raise the educational status of workers in libraries, and had held lectures, correspondence classes and ex aminations, with that purpose, appealed in 1917 for the estab lishment of a day school within the University of London, for the regular training of librarians. With the support of the Carnegie Trustees, who undertook to provide L1,5oo a year for the first quinquennium, the School of Librarianship was opened at Uni versity college, London. A reduced grant was made for the sec ond quinquennium, the balance required being made up by the university senate. According to the latest report, 549 students have been admitted to the school during the nine years covered, including many part-time students engaged in library work in the London area. A large and increasing number of these were already graduates of various universities. Easter and summer schools have been held both at home and abroad, with excel lent results. The influence of the school in raising the educational standard of librarianship, improving salaries, and increasing the proportion of women, relatively to men, employed in libraries, has been considerable. The recent Government report is em phatic on the need for improved educational qualifications for librarians, and urges that the School of Librarianship, which is performing a national service, should be maintained, and that it "would appear to have a strong claim on the funds which the university receives from the State." An appeal for a permanent endowment fund has recently been launched. Classes in librarian ship have also been started at Manchester, mainly for the benefit of assistants in that neighbourhood, and at Dublin for Irish stu dents. Many library authorities now require a sound standard of general education from entrants to the service, and the Library Association specifies the matriculation standard for candidates for its certificates.
The only obstacle to a gen eral advance, after the Government report of 1927, as rapid and epoch-making as that which followed the Government report of 1919, is the present demand for economy. Great events are pending, and will probably, in a few years, be matters of history. The British Museum, in spite of the great extensions of a few years back, is still cramped for space; a large part of the interior is about to be reconstructed, and it is proposed to enlarge the Hendon repository and remove all newspapers there. Cambridge has decided to remove the University Library to a new building. Oxford is about to settle the problem of the Bodleian by erecting an additional building across Broad street and a repository at Jordan Hill for material not in constant request. What is healthi est at the moment is the intense interest aroused by the many sided problems opened up by the growth of libraries, and by the widening consciousness of the immense part they must play in every department of life. The adoption of a more active policy by
the Library Association, coupled with the appointment of a full time paid secretary and the acquisition of permanent headquarters, where they will probably soon be joined by other bodies having cognate interests, should help to a concentration of effort in the right direction. (E. A. BA.)
BRITISH DOMINIONS The majority of the British Dominions have permissive library laws. The rate limit is not so strict in every case. There is, for example, no rate limit in Tasmania; and South Australia may raise a library rate equivalent to threepence in the L. In Africa, Australia and Canada the Governments make grants to public libraries. The Canadian and Australian libraries are administered more or less on American, and those of South Africa, India, etc., on English lines.
There are several important libraries in South Africa. The oldest library is the South African public library at Cape Town. established in 1818, which enjoys the copyright-privilege for the Cape (1 oo,000 vols.). This library contains the collection of colonial books bequeathed by Sir George Grey. This and the Pretoria State library form together the National library ; the legislatures have libraries, notably the Parliamentary library, Cape Town, which includes the Mendelssohn Collection of Africana. The chief public libraries are at Port Elizabeth, Kimberley, Dur ban, Bloemfontein, Bulawayo, Germiston, which has a country cir culating system, and Johannesburg, the only really free public li brary. All charge a subscription for borrowing. The Education De partment supports school libraries. The University library of Cape Town was being greatly developed in 1928. That at Pretoria de serves menticn (40,000 vols.). (A summary of the literature of South African public libraries, by P. Freer, will be found in The Library Assistant, 1928.) In North Africa there are considerable collections at Cairo, especially the Royal library (1879) 107,000 vols., 23,00o mss., 50o papyri, and at Algiers, the latter under French control.
various States legislate for libraries inde pendently, and maintain libraries. The Commonwealth library at Canberra was founded in 1927. The State public libraries circulate books to institutes, etc., in the country; Victoria subsidized local libraries. The local public libraries are those of Victoria at Mel bourne, 1853 (421,00o vols.); of New South Wales, at Sydney, 1867 (4or,000 vols., including the Mitchell library) ; this was an old subscription library bought by the Government; of South Australia, at Adelaide (139,000 vols.) ; of Queensland, at Brisbane, 1896 (34,20o vols.) ; and of West Australia, at Perth, 186o (142,00o vols.). The university libraries are Sydney 08o,000 vols., including the fine Fisher collection, 1885); Adelaide (70,000 vols.), which assists in control of the public library; Mel bourne (6o.000 vols.) ; and Brisbane (30,00o vols.).