Given Roger Thomas's achievements, his successor suffered by comparison. Although Kenneth Twinn held DWT together, progress was modest. In contrast to the library's ‘old world’ atmosphere, social change in Britain seemed rapid during the 1960s and 1970s, with ecumenism seizing the imagination of the churches. Was DWT necessarily detached from such changes and trapped in its past?

Roger Thomas and Staff Retirements, Kenneth Twinn's Report 1968–9

The coming retirement of the secretary/librarian, Roger Thomas, was the leading issue in 1966. In May, the staffing committee unanimously recommended Revd Kenneth Twinn (1910–96) for the joint appointment of secretary and librarian, which post he held for nine years until his retirement. Thomas had energetically arrested decline and, in so doing, made radical decisions.

Inez Elliott herself retired in September 1969, having joined the staff in 1933 and been deputy librarian since the 1940s. She had served in wartime, throughout the compilation of the Bibliography of Early Nonconformity, and the absorption of the Baynes bequest. She had trained several assistants, including John Creasey from 1959, and had contributed to DWL's ‘efficiency and pleasant atmosphere’. On her retirement Creasey became deputy librarian and Janet Barnes the senior assistant librarian. Clifford Reed was to be the library cataloguer 1970–2.

Twinn reported that in the year to September 1969 DWL enrolled 169 new readers. This compared to 187 in 1968 and 195 in 1967. In 1938 the new members had totalled 453. In 1949 the total number of books issued had been 12,447, while in 1969 it was merely 6,161. Overall statistics showed that use of DWL had declined and was declining, although the number of readers since 1967 had remained the same at 1,957 and was markedly higher than the 1,110 readers recorded for 1951. In March 1969, the trustees reached agreement with Heffers to print 1,500 copies of Twinn's Dr Williams's Library: Guide to the Manuscripts for £136. By December it was selling for five shillings or one dollar.

Describing DWL to Methodist readers in 1972 as a ‘metaphorical ivory tower’ and ‘a largely specialized library for scholars’, Twinn confirmed the transformation inspired by Thomas. He saw it as ‘concerned with those fundamental studies of our religious, spiritual, philosophical and intellectual heritage which are worth exploring’. He did not clarify his word ‘our’.