Abstract
WE read in the daily newspaper that “the lecture system has been obsolete ever since the invention of printing”. Notwithstanding, the system has led at least to the demand for public libraries. The need arose from the establishment of mechanics' institutes and the foundation of lectures for adult education. Actually the public libraries movement dates from the Select Committee of 1845, which authorized a ½d. rate for their maintenance. The corner stone of this movement is the National Central Library, unifying and binding together, as it does, the independent units of the system. The National Central Library constitutes a central bond, through which the books in any one library are made available for use in any other. The annual report for 1937 shows that, in addition to the ten million books contained in the urban and county libraries, the National Central Library has built up gradually a supplementary reservoir of another ten million books, which may be borrowed from university libraries, and those of learned societies and similar institutions.
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The National Central Library. Nature 142, 427–428 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/142427c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/142427c0