Library services to children and young people have long constituted one of the most important branches of the public library profession. Collections and services have evolved to support the social, cultural, educational and recreational needs of young people as well as the fundamental requirement for literacy in its many variant forms. In creating library provision for the young, the profession has recognised that children and young people do not constitute a homogeneous group. Increasingly, children's librarians have also recognised the need to extend their services to those adults who are concerned with young people, and collections on topics such as parenting, child development, even adult fiction are being established in many children's libraries. Central to the success of provision is the need for a cadre of librarians who possess the requisite specialist skills, a coherent national policy for children's librarianship, and management structures which facilitate comprehensive services to the young.