When I started work at what was then OPCS - inter alia, the births, deaths and census people - getting on for fifty years ago, proper government departments had large libraries headed up by a librarian who was a reasonably serious person, probably professionally qualified with letters after his name. Possibly a her, as being a librarian was thought a fit occupation for ladies in those benighted days.
Large companies like ICI and BP had similar libraries. As did organisations like the Royal Astronomical Society and the Royal Institution.
By the time I finished at the Treasury, the library there had been brigaded with IT and records (that is to say, the archives, occupying maybe a mile of shelving) and few of those involved in any of these activities had professional qualifications. And by the time I arrived at the Home Office most of the contents of its library - which I imagine had once been substantial - had been sold off.
While I learn this morning that in Surrey, libraries have been brigaded with heritage and is headed up by someone called the Libraries and Heritage Manager. Perhaps in a year or so they will drop the Libraries bit as superfluous, as everyone will know that libraries is heritage. That is to say old-speak.
In the meantime I might say that here at Epsom we still have a good library in town, with a substantial branch offering at Bourne Hall in Ewell Village. I even have a couple of books out on loan, pending the end of lockdown. And, as it happens, the branch offering is housed next to our local history museum.
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