ABSTRACT
In addition to establishing a large, growing, and expensive propaganda machine of its own, the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) has sought to influence public opinion in other ways—most notably in its attempts to dominate policy making in both the public library service, and in school and college libraries. In 1976 the CRE's predecessor, the Community Relations Commission, in conjunction with the Library Advisory Council, issued a report entitled "Public Library Services for a Multicultural Society". A very few public libraries have some recordings of music from ethnic minority countries of origin. Members of the ethnic minority groups at present constitute only a small proportion of the national population as a whole. In some areas promoting "Black Studies" in library stocks through exhibitions and programmes of events has produced a successful means of contacting young people, and by conveying the achievements of minority groups and supporting their cultural identity.
