Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/346

332 PAPER READ BEFORE for the addressee to attend must quickly create an impression of the uselessness of the Society which sends them out, and this does not make for pros- perity. Speaking of course only as an individual member, I venture therefore to express the hope that as soon as a Group or Branch is formed any- where else, we London members may ask to be formed into a Group also, and so be left free to concentrate ourselves on making good some of our lamentable shortcomings. The absence of any kind of co-operative organ- ization among the learned Libraries of London is all the more deplorable because although, relatively to the population, the quantity of books in London Libraries is probably rather below than above the average, positively it is very large indeed, and if the best use were made of our resources few serious needs would go unsatisfied. As regards the existing stock of books anyone who is not already acquainted with that admirable handbook, Mr. Reginald Rye's c The Libraries of London/ will have his eyes opened, after he has spent an hour in reading it, to the existence of resources of which he probably never dreamed. Some of the libraries which Mr. Rye mentions are, no doubt, cramped for funds ; of others, perhaps many others, it may be said with some confidence that additional money would readily be forthcoming in answer to evidence that the use made of these libraries was steadily in- creasing, and that if more books were bought and more money spent in salaries the rate of progress would be proportionately increased. At present evidence of this kind is difficult to procure. Until