“The Library Association is not prepared to admit that this policy is sound or economical. Clearly, extensive overlapping cannot be avoided, because a large number of industries require general technical libraries and not special technical libraries. For example, the motor industry is special, but a library for that industry must contain books special to many other industries, on metallurgy, chemistry, physics, and other subjects. An industrial library should comprise information, not only on the industry itself, but on subjects and industries in contact with the industry for which the library is intended. As a rule the industrial and technical student, unless he is a beginner, needs information just off the line of his special work. Hence, libraries formed round an industry will tend to become general technical libraries. Few industries are confined to one area. Birmingham is usually regarded as the centre of the hardware trade, which, however, is spread widely over the country. A technical library for an industry must have a centre and branches with all the machinery of inter-communication and exchange. Even so, the books could not be so readily accessible as by an extension of the present library service, which has developed naturally in response to the people’s demand for information. A better plan, therefore, would be the proper organization of the existing libraries of technical societies, and an extension of the present service of public libraries, the technical collections of which (so far as funds have allowed) have been selected to aid the industries of the locality. The public library service is already extensive; improvement on it is essential; but to organize another parallel service would be a regrettable waste of money in view of the great need at this time of obtaining the best technical library service at the least cost. “The Library Association is strongly of opinion that scientific and technical information should be freely available to people who are not yet enrolled in or who are outside an industry; otherwise that industry would tend to be impervious to new ideas, except from within. They earnestly press for the efficient equipment and expansion of the existing public technical collections, and for the foundation of technical libraries, in large provincial cities, on the lines of the Patent Office Library in London.”