The notion of a Libraries Board side by side with and independent of the Board of Education would find no support in this country. Nor are we likely to see State library commissions on the American model, though we may as well digest the lesson from the United States, where they certainly know how to manage libraries so that they bulk large in the social consciousness. Co-operation, but not subordination, must be the watchword. The department of the general Board of Education charged with supervision of the national system of libraries would contain, besides those who are educators in the widest sense of the term, representatives of those versed in the government and the actual administration of public libraries, from the British Museum and the university libraries downwards. Such a combination would be less likely than the mere education committees of to-day to negative the proposals of those who understand the needs of libraries and of the people who use them. The local committees would likewise be well-seasoned with co-opted members representing all the varied intellectual interests of each locality, and, above all, representing the actual readers, the people most concerned in each library’s well-being. Local initiative must be welcomed, not merely tolerated: it is the vital element of progress. In between would come the regional committees, charged with the maintenance of the central supplemental libraries, and with all the general activities carried on throughout each great library province. Thus, surely, the proper equilibrium between the central co-ordinating body and local volition would be safely established. FOOTNOTES: [27] cp. America:--“In towns where there is more than one library accessible to the public, these should reach as soon as possible some _modus vivendi_ that will prevent the useless duplication of any class of literature. This may usually be done by agreeing to specialize. For example, in Chicago such an agreement has been made by the Public Library, the John Crerar Library, and the Newberry Library. The Public Library specializes in general literature, the John Crerar in science, and the Newberry in history, economics, and so on. In pursuance of this policy, the Newberry Library has even transferred to the John Crerar its medical collection, which had reached a considerable size. Such action is evidently a long step toward the complete understanding between civic institutions that is so much to be desired; and it deserves the highest commendation.” Bostwick: _The American Public Library_, pp. 73-4. Similar specialization has been effected in the Astor, Lenox, Bar Association, Academy of Medicine, and Columbia University Libraries in New York.