Further to My Egg: The Story of an Australian Library Campaign

The Prime Minister of Australia, Mr. Malcolm Fraser, once said:

"If books and libraries are to compete in the kind of world in which we find ourselves, and in the kind of world in which we must live, if they are to be allowed to make the contribution to the quality of life which I know is within the possibility of things in this area, a more active advocacy for books and for libraries and what they can achieve is required, because the 20th Century does not permit passive salesmanship to succeed".

And there is some truth in Mr. Fraser's assertion.

This paper describes how an organisation of library activists known as CROW (Concerned Residents of the Western suburbs of Adelaide) has gone about providing "a more active advocacy" for libraries, particularly public libraries.

CROW's measures, many of which have been deliberately lighthearted and eccentric - in order to gain mass media attention - have not been without some success, but this must be viewed against a background of severe national deficiency.

This paper describes the "pressure tactics" currently being applied, by CROW, in order to raise the library consciousness of our national leaders and of Australian society as a whole.