The initial impressions received by anyone surveying the structures for school library services in the United Kingdom may give rise to astonishment that there is such a diversity of provision within a comparatively small country. Resembling a patchwork, with some pieces taken from the same garment but others culled from a variety of sources, the organisations and services are by no means uniform. Again, like patches which recall memories of times gone by, the library structures derive from older organisations grafted onto newer ones. Even where it at first seems possible to compare like with like, there are often variations in staffing and services, due largely to developments (or lack of development) before the re‐organisation of local government in the mid‐1970s.