After Smyly's death, the Board was evenly divided on whether the vacancy should be advertised externally but, since those against such a radical departure from tradition included a majority of the Senior Fellows, they carried the day. An advertisement was, however, distributed within the College, the Board stating its intention to elect the Librarian from among its Fellows or MAs, the salary to be £900 a year, reduced to £400 if the successful candidate were a salaried lecturer or professor, or £300 if a Fellow.

Two members of the academic staff who had been closely involved with the Library, Herbert Parke and David Webb, applied for the post. In their applications both acknowledged that they had no experience of library administration, but Webb, the scientist, stressed the need to make the Library more accessible and to resolve the issue of cataloguing legal-deposit books once and for all, whilst Parke, the classicist, emphasised the desirability of comprehensive collecting. Parke was successful and was appointed with effect from 22 June 1949. (See Figure 24.) Though incomparably more committed to his responsibilities in the Library than his predecessor, Parke nonetheless continued the College tradition of retaining his academic duties alongside those of the Librarian. He remained as Professor of Ancient History throughout his tenure as Librarian and in 1952, when he became a Senior Fellow, added the office of Vice-Provost.