Public Lending Right and the Working Party Report: A LJniversity Librarian Comments

was Sub-Librarian, being appointed in I952. He is a member of the Council of the LA and of the Committee of SCONUL. His main professional interest is in library architecture and planning, and his academic interests are in Tudor and Stuart economic and social history. The Working Party Report on Public Lending Right confines its attention to the ways in which an operational scheme might be administered. Librarians should not be diverted from the principle, for which no convincing case has been made out, and should oppose the introduction of any such scheme, which would be bound to affect adversely all types of libraries, and not least the book trade itself. In the introduction to its Report, the Working Party explains &dquo;We have seen the remit given to us as essentially one of analysing how a scheme for the establishment of a public lending right might be devised in practical terms, and it has been no part of our task to consider as a matter of principle whether such a scheme should or should not be introduced, or what effect it might have on the finances of the library services or authors concerned.&dquo; We need have n