Complex sentence: Ethel Austin's earliest proposals of 1911 for the amalgamation of small libraries for the blind into one centralised system proved abortive, but by 1917, the Braille collections of the Home Teaching Society, the Girls Friendly Society and the Catholic Trust Society had been taken over.
Split into simpler sentences: Ethel Austin's earliest proposals of 1911 for the amalgamation of small libraries for the blind into one centralised system proved abortive. By 1917, the Braille collections of the Home Teaching Society, the Girls Friendly Society and the Catholic Trust Society had been taken over.