The National Central Library

Abstract

THE twelfth annual report of the National Central Library refers to anxiety regarding the financial position of the Library due to inability to replace from any other source the £4,000 previously received as an annual grant from the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust. Fortunately, the Treasury grant-in-aid has been increased from £3,000 to £5,000 for a period of five years from April 1, 1936, and as a result the Carnegie Trustees have renewed their previous annual grant for a similar period. The continuance of both grants is conditional upon an increase in annual subscriptions from libraries by at least £2,000 by March 31, 1938. In consequence of the financial situation, expenditure on books has been only £2,338 but in addition to 3,110 volumes purchased, 5,451 volumes have been presented. The total number of volumes lent during the year was 118,288 and there are now 158 outlier libraries containing 6,303,000 volumes from which 10,002 volumes were borrowed. Reference is also made in the report to the extension of the regional system to cover the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucester, Hampshire, Oxford, Somerset and Wiltshire. When this system is established, the whole of England and Wales will be covered in eight regional systems, in addition to the London Borough libraries inter-lending system. Volumes lent to university libraries increased by 97 to 2,506. The system was used by 53 university libraries and 1,201 of the volumes were supplied by the National Central Library, 77 by foreign libraries and 1,228 by other university libraries, 80-52 per cent of the inquiries being supplied. The books supplied consist mainly of highly specialized and expensive books, books out of print, foreign books, back numbers of periodicals, or unpublished university theses.