Today every citizen in New South Wales has access to public library services through a sophisticated network, a partnership between local and State Government. In fact, free public libraries in New South Wales only began to operate in any numbers after the end of World War II--not even sixty years ago. Why did it take so long here, bearing in mind that free public libraries were commonplace in the United Kingdom and the United States even in the nineteenth century? What prompted the change of climate in the 1930s and 1940s? The development of free public libraries in New South Wales is a fascinating mix of individual vision, professional action, community mobilisation and political will.