ABSTRACT
In the late 1940s, like most institutions in the UK, libraries of every kind were working hard to recover from the effects of six years of war. Most commodities were in short supply and music libraries were experiencing difficulty obtaining scores and books to repair the ravages of the war years. Peace brought an increase in demand for a better standard of living, which was only to be expected after so much deprivation and sacrifice. The decline in librarianship, particularly public libraries, must also be attributed to a deep unease the British have about most aspects of public service. In the 1950s and 1960s the Library Association’s attention was focused on education. In those times many influential librarians had qualified through part-time study and very few had attended any full-time library instruction. The library profession should have made itself the central body for qualification in information technology, but obsessive bookmanship stood in the way.
