The New Zealand Library Association, 1910-1960 : and its part in New Zealand library development

McEldowney, W. J., New Zealand Library Association, Wellington, N.Z., 1962

The New Zealand Library Association was founded in 1910 at a meeting of a small group of delegates of public libraries. Since then, and especially since the Munn-Barr Report of 1934, it has played a leading part in the development of library services in this country. The establishment of the Country Library Service, and later of the National Library Service, the organisation of interlibrary lending and of training courses for librarians, and many other noteworthy features of the contemporary library scene, can all be traced back to the work of the Association.

This study of the Association’s first halfcentury was written to mark the jubilee which fell in 1960. The author graduated from Canterbury University College in 1942 and was a member of the first class of the New Zealand Library School in 1946. He worked in various parts of the National Library Service from 1947 to 1961, and has recently been appointed Librarian of the University of Otago. He has been the Association’s Honorary Secretary since 1955.

This eBook is a reproduction produced by the National Library of New Zealand with permission of the rights holder. Additional physical and digital editions are available from the National Library of New Zealand.

EPUB ISBN: 978-0-908329-52-6

PDF ISBN: 978-0-908332-48-9

The original publication details are as follows:

Title: The New Zealand Library Association, 1910-1960 : and its part in New Zealand library development

Author: McEldowney, W. J.

Published: New Zealand Library Association, Wellington, N.Z., 1962

NEW ZEALAND LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

1910-1960

—Dunedin Public Libra: THE HON. MARK COHEN, M.L.C., 1849-1928. at whose suggestion the Libraries Association was founded in 1910.

THE NEW ZEALAND LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

1910-1960

AND ITS PART IN NEW ZEALAND LIBRARY DEVELOPMENT

W. J. McELDOWNEY

WELLINGTON NEW ZEALAND LIBRARY ASSOCIATION INC.

1962

© W. J. McEldowney, 1962

Printed by Wright and Carman Ltd., Wellington

Preface

I was asked to write a brief history and policy statement of the New Zealand Library Association, but the history has taken so much room to explain that it has become the object of the work. It was not possible to write a brief history before a more complete job had been done. The policy statement will, I hope, emerge from the history.

Several people must be thanked for help very willingly given. Mr A. G. Bagnall for suggesting that I should do the work and for advice ; Mr G. T. Alley, Mr C. W. Collins, Mr A. D. Mclntosh, and Mr S. Perry for advice and documents; these people, and Mr J. Barr, for checking the manuscript; Miss D. G. Bibby for her unfailing readiness to provide information from her own knowledge and from the Association’s records, and for some of the typing; Miss A. H. Fache for patiently checking details of the Dunedin City Council’s first moves in bringing the Association into being. To others who could have provided more information, I must apologize for not calling upon them for help. I hope that my work, together with their comments, will provide a useful picture of the Association’s history.

In recent years I have been fairly closely associated, both as an officer of the National Library Service and as Honorary Secretary of the Association, with some of the questions I have had to discuss. I realize that in some cases there will be differences of opinion about the line I have taken, and it is perhaps inevitable that I should be to some extent biased. I have, however, tried to be objective. My opinions have not been arrived at without consideration, but it is difficult, sometimes, to discuss recent events in a work of this kind. For this reason, I expect that a later history will find less to change in my treatment of the thirties than in the section dealing with the fifties.

I emphasize that this work is my own, and that it does not seek to express the official policy of the Association.

W, J. McE.

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Contents

PREFACE 5

INTRODUCTION 9

THE LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION

OF NEW ZEALAND, 1910 - 1935 11

THE REVOLUTION, 1935-1945 22

CONSOLIDATION, 1945-1960 55

APPENDIXES 90

INDEX 103

Illustrations

frontispiece

The Hon. Mark Cohen

facing page 12

Delegates to the Second Conference of the Libraries Association of New Zealand, Easter, 1911.

facing page 13

Executive, Libraries Association of New Zealand, 1927.

facing pages 28 and 29

Honorary Life Members of the New Zealand Library Association:

Mr Ralph Munn, Mr T. D. H. Hall, Mr J. Barr, Dr G. H. Scholefield,

Mr G. T. Alley, Miss M. P. Parsons, Mr C. W. Collins, Mr J. W.

Kealy, Mr S. Perry, Dr A. D. Osborn.

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Introduction

The New Zealand Library Association has, in its 50 years of existence, accompanied New Zealand’s libraries into the depths of mediocrity, and has then been one of the main influences in building a library system which is good in many respects and offers hope for the future in others. It is therefore fitting that the history of the Association’s first 50 years should be examined.

When the Association was formed there were few libraries of any consequence in New Zealand. Public libraries existed in the main towns, there was the General Assembly Library, and there were small collections of books in the university colleges. Service to people in the country and in small centres depended on tiny libraries, isolated from one another and depending on a capricious government subsidy. Learned and specialist libraries hardly existed at all.

The first period of the Association’s life encompassed the time when the cow was queen. It was not a good time for it to become established, and yet, when a revival became possible, the vision of the founders was justified. A combination of fortunate circumstances—the interest of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the work of a small group of young and enthusiastic librarians, a government which was interested in standards of culture —made it possible for the library system of New Zealand to be transformed in the remarkably short time of 10 years, from 1935 to 1945.

The Association which played such an important part in this work is a mixed organization, including library authorities as well as librarians, and covering all library interests. The interplay of these various forces provides an interesting study in politics on a polite scale. There is, however, no doubt that by keeping together its members have achieved more than they would have in small separate organizations. This being said, it must be added that it is the devotion of a relatively small number of its personal members which has made it effective. This is especially true of the period which I have chosen to deal with in greatest detail, the decade after 1935. Seven librarians and two non-librarians could be chosen for their work in that first period to form an honours list of which any organization could be proud. And to the list could be added a Prime Minister and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

After 1945, as a result of the development of libraries which was stimulated by the work of the Association, and as a result of the

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training programme which had been started, large numbers of new people entered the profession of librarianship. Their work has consolidated the gains that were made earlier. It has also brought into clearer focus the problems which have yet to be tackled. New Zealand still lacks a National Library, for instance, although two separate committees have reported to the Government on ways of establishing one. Public library service, which has improved with the help of the Country Library Service, is still unevenly distributed. University and specialist libraries, although they are much better than they were 25 years ago, still lack the support which is necessary to them if they are to keep abreast of the country’s industrial, commercial, and cultural development. The total resources of New Zealand’s libraries are still too small—we need more books.

There is therefore no likelihood that the Association will lack work to do. In facing the task of working out ways of dealing with present and future problems, it may, however, draw some hope from the fact that in the past it has helped to improve a situation which it must have seemed almost impossible to improve.

The Libraries Association of New Zealand 1910-1935

ON 26th January 1910 1 the Dunedin City Council resolved “That it is desirable to convene a conference of the representatives from Public Libraries of New Zealand for the purpose of discussing matters affecting the general conduct and management of libraries in this Dominion, and that such conference be held at Dunedin at Eastertide.” The conference was held on 26th and 28th March, when the 15 delegates from seven libraries formed the Libraries Association of New Zealand.

The man who suggested to the Dunedin City Council that it should convene the conference, and who is therefore the father of the Association, was not a city councillor, but a newspaper man, Mr Mark Cohen, who had led the movement to establish a public library in Dunedin. The library was established with help from Andrew Carnegie as a free library in 1908. In 1909, Mr Cohen attended an Imperial Press Conference in London and visited Canada and the United States, returning with a vivid impression of library organization overseas. In a newspaper statement, published in the Evening Star on 26th January, he said “It was acknowledged on all sides that these conferences, bringing together as they did the ablest men and women engaged in library work for the exchange of ideas and the examination of administrative methods, had been productive of much good. ... I had opportunities of making myself acquainted with a number of librarians and educationalists who were members of the Librarians Associations of those great countries, and was told by them that their annual assemblies had done much towards bettering the conditions under which public libraries were managed, because assimilation and concentration had been studied, with the result that real economy had been achieved, without the efficiency of the library system being in any way impaired. So impressed was I with the need

1 The date printed in the Proceedings of the first conference, and repeated in the New Zealand Library Association Act 1939, is 7th February, but neither the City Council nor its Library Committee met on that day. The Committee drew up a “syllabus” for the conference which was approved by the Council on 9th February. This syllabus was, however, included in a circular which was sent out by the Town Clerk on Bth February, the day before it was approved.

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New Zealand Library Association

for a Librarians’ Association being established in New Zealand that on my return to the Dominion I took counsel of my friends who have interested themselves in the promotion of library work in the towns in which they reside, and, ascertaining that they regarded the present year as an opportune one for attempting to follow the lead of older countries, I ventured to ask my Committee to recommend that Dunedin should set the ball rolling, and should accept the responsibility of initiating the first congress in New Zealand for the consideration of matters likely to affect the general welfare of our public libraries.” And so the beginnings were made. The Association had a brief but interesting life before the First World War. It was too small to be effective, but it set a tradition which was to be valuable later.

Papers were presented at the 1910 conference on mundane technical matters such as the Dewey system of library classification and its adaptation to New Zealand requirements, and infected library books. The most far-seeing paper, however, was Mr Cohen’s own on travelling libraries and how to operate them, in which he described the use of mobile book stock, sent from library to library in boxes, to make it possible for small communities to have access to a wide range of reading, and suggested that the government subsidy to libraries could best be administered in this way. In this paper, which led to an unsuccessful approach to the Government, Cohen anticipated by a quarter of a century the development of rural library service in New Zealand. It was not until after the depression of the early thirties, the Munn-Barr report on New Zealand libraries, and the renaissance of the library movement which followed it, that the method of giving government aid to libraries by means of small individual subsidies was replaced by the development of a circulating book stock.

Mr Cohen had spoken, before the conference met, of the need for a Librarians' Association, and the first object of the Association, as stated in Rule 1 (i), was “To unite all persons engaged or interested in Library work in New Zealand by holding Conferences and Meetings for the discussion of matters affecting Libraries or their regulation, management, classification, or otherwise”, but the Association that emerged from the conference was an association of public libraries. It would not have been possible to find in New Zealand at that time enough librarians for a Librarians’ Association on the overseas pattern. The term Public Library was defined as “any library not conducted for private profit which is serving a public purpose in the sense that it is used by the public or a section of the public with or without charge”. Under this definition the General Assembly Library and the Victoria University College Library were early admitted to membership, but for the first 25 years of its existence the Association was primarily composed of public libraries administered by local authorities. Such librarians as took part in its affairs did so as delegates of their employing authorities, although any other person interested in

DELEGATES TO THE SECOND CONFERENCE OF THE LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION OF NEW ZEALAND, EASTER, 1911 The sealed delegates, from left to right, are: Miss F. E. Bell, W. B. McEwan, Henry Shaw, H. Baillie, T. W. Leys, M. Cohen, A. R. Atkinson, H. Strong, E. Shillinglon.

EXECUTIVE. LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION OF NEW ZEALAND, 1927 J. F. Arnold, Johannes C. Andersen, E. J. Bell, W. B. McEwan, H. Baillie Miss A. M. Blackett, Miss E. Melville, Miss E. Culverwell J. Barr, Wm. Brock, H. B. Farnali

Libraries Association of N2.., 1910-1935

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library work was allowed, under the rules, to pay ss. per annum to become an associate, and attend and take part in all proceedings, without the right to vote. 2

Two other conferences were held before the First World War. In 1911, 19 delegates met in Auckland, and in 1912, 18 delegates met in Wellington. In each year 11 institutions were represented. After that, there was a gap of 14 years until, on the initiative of Mr W. B. McEwan, Librarian of the Dunedin Public Library, the Dunedin City Council 3 convened the fourth conference in 1926, to coincide with the New Zealand and South Seas International Exhibition. During this time, the Association was inactive, and indeed after 1914 it had no officers, for under its rules office-bearers were to remain in office for only two years. Continuity was maintained by the fact that Mr Herbert Baillie, the Librarian of the Wellington Public Library, kept the Association’s records and was re-elected to his office in 19264

It is tempting, therefore, to write the first conferences off as premature and over-ambitious (it may be significant that the 18 delegates in 1912 had to provide 12 officers, from President to Secretary). To do this, however, would be to ignore the quality of some of the delegates, notably Mark Cohen and W. B. McEwan of Dunedin, Herbert Baillie of Wellington, and T, W. Leys, another newspaper man, of the Leys Institute, Auckland, and the far-sightedness, almost modernity, of the resolutions that were carried. These included the following:

1. On travelling libraries (1910). “That it is desirable to inaugurate a system of travelling libraries in this Dominion, and that the Executive of the Libraries Association be empowered to bring the question under the notice of the Government, and to request that practical effect be given to this resolution as early as practicable, further

“This Conference desires to respectfully direct the attention of the Government to the system prevailing in South Australia, Victoria and other countries whereby collections of books are sent from the Capital City for circulation in rural districts; also to the low rates charged on the railways in New South Wales and else-

2 The number of associate members at the end of the first year of the Association’s life was 23, according to the Proceedings of the second conference, or 35, according to the Minute Book. In his presidential address, however, Mr T. W. Leys said that the restriction of voting power to delegates had made the Association unpopular with librarians below the rank of Chief Librarian.

3 Circular of 6.10.25, signed by W. B. McEwan on behalf of the Library Committee.

i There was a proposal in 1926 that a Library Federation of Australia and New Zealand should be formed. It originated in South Australia and rules for its conduct were published in the South Australia Institutes Journal in November 1926, but it never came to anything even in Australia.

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where for carriage of parcels of books from circulating Libraries. It strongly urges the concession to Libraries controlled by Local Governing Bodies of the right to forward parcels of books to and within country districts at N.S.W. rates. It believes that the facilities thus provided would be widely taken advantage of and would remove one of the most serious disabilities pertaining to country life, which involves the loss of so many of the advantages and pleasures enjoyed by residents in cities."

2. On children’s libraries (1910). “That in all municipal libraries special provision should be made for juvenile libraries and reading rooms.”

3. On a Library Commission (1912). ‘That the Government appoint a Library Commission comprising five members, one at least to be a woman, to promote and establish country libraries and organize and supervise the supply of books to school libraries throughout the Dominion, on a better footing, by increasing the Parliamentary grant towards their maintenance, by providing a better system of control and administration and by establishing travelling libraries.”

4. On a national library (1911). “That this Association make representations to the Minister of Education and the Parliamentary Committee in charge of the General Assembly Library urging that such Library shall be treated as a Dominion Library and thrown open as fully as practicable to the general use of the public.”

5. On the Parliamentary Library (1912). “That it is in the public interest that the Parliamentary Library shall be made the nucleus of a national reference library; that the Library shall be open daily to the public as a reference library subject to such regulations as the Government may prescribe.”

6. Free issue of books (1910). “That in the opinion of this Conference some provision should be made by Library Authorities to enable the free issue of books other than modern fiction from the lending department.”

In its first few years, then, the Association was too small to make much impact on the life of the country, but its members saw, and formulated, many of the problems which it was later to tackle with some degree of success. The resolutions of 1910-1912 provided a foundation on which the Association could be rebuilt.

The revived Association worked on fairly meagre resources. In the year ending 31st lanuary 1927 a “balance from the old Association" 5 of £24 25., added to receipts from subscriptions of £57 2s. 6d. and a grant from the Dunedin City Council of £5, gave a total income of £B6 4s. 6d.; expenditure for the year was £36 2s. Without any paid staff, and without much money to spend, it was not able to do very much to organize itself or the services given by its members. One step was taken almost immediately, however, which was important in building up its strength. This was an agreement on discounts which was reached with the New Zealand Retail Booksellers’ Association (later

5 Proceedings of fifth conference.

Libraries Association of NT.., 1910-1935

25

known as the Associated Booksellers of New Zealand). The terms that were agreed upon were “That a maximum discount of 163% be allowed off schedule prices (books selling at English net published prices excepted) to members of the Libraries Association of New Zealand, and that a maximum discount of 10% be allowed to all other libraries.” 6 It was understood “that your Association would do all in its power to place the purchase of books for New Zealand libraries with the New Zealand Booksellers, and that you would urge the Libraries to pursue this course.” 6 This was the first of a series of agreements between the two Associations, the latest of which is still in force, and it was largely responsible for the fact that by 1930 the membership of the Association comprised 97 libraries. All but five of these were public libraries in the strict sense of the term.

In this period the most impressive figure in the Association, in his insight into the needs of New Zealand libraries and his determination to do something to improve their organization, was Mr John Barr, Librarian of the Auckland Public Library. Mr Barr was a Scottish librarian who reached New Zealand by way of Sydney in 1913 at the age of 26. He saw that New Zealand librarianship would not gain strength until the use of libraries was free to all citizens, until small libraries were linked together in a larger organization, and until librarians themselves were better qualified for their work. Among the papers which were presented at the conferences from 1926 on, and which were mostly descriptions of existing practice or services or discussions of trivial detail, Mr Barr’s stand out. In 1926 he spoke on the present position and future possibilities of New Zealand libraries, and suggested that the Parliamentary Library should be entrusted with the organization of a rural circulating library similar to the one which was operating in New South Wales, and similar, incidentally, to the Travelling Library described by Mark Cohen in 1910. In 1930 he enlarged upon this suggestion and proposed that the library subsidy distributed by the Government should be handed over in loto to the Parliamentary Library. Under the direction of the Parliamentary Librarian, an officer could be appointed to take charge of a Country Circulation Department, which would comprise three classes of books: (a) books which would be helpful to residents in the country, e.g. books which would be helpful to residents in the country, e.g. books on farming, professional, trade and technical subjects; (b) books of a literary or recreative character; and (c) children’s books. Libraries in districts of less than 1,500 population, schools, and other agencies such as properly constituted reading circles, churches, or approved

6 Letter from N.Z. Retail Booksellers’ Association, 16.2.26. It has been the practice of New Zealand booksellers to fix local retail prices for overseas publications according to a schedule which takes into account the original published price and the discount allowed by the publisher to the bookseller.

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New Zealand Library Association

societies such as the W.E.A., were suggested as agencies which could be enlisted to carry out the distribution.

Mr Barr had entered the Association at a time when New Zealand libraries were in a state of sheer stagnation and it is amusing to imagine the head-shaking there must have been over his wild-cat schemes. The Association itself did not show many signs of reacting to Mr Barr’s enthusiasms. The most definite sign of life in its files at this stage is the regular notification to the Associated Booksellers of new members which were entitled to the advantageous discounts, or of members which had resigned and were therefore no longer entitled to them. A conference which had been planned to take place early in 1931 was postponed because of the disastrous Napier earthquake, and it was not found possible to hold another until 1935 because of the economic depression. When the Government stopped its small subsidy to country libraries, frequently wasted, but at least a token of interest, the outlook was as dispiriting as it could be.

In the early 19305, however, the Carnegie Corporation of New York was beginning to show interest in New Zealand, especially in the university field, and, from university libraries, was in a mood to do something about library services generally. The Corporation was not at this stage providing library buildings in the way that Andrew Carnegie himself had done, but was interested in choosing suitable people, who might form the spearhead of future development, and giving them the chance to take courses of study in librarianship or to observe up-to-date practice. Grants were made during the period 1932-35 to the four university libraries, on condition that their librarians were given improved status and remuneration, and that they were sent overseas for professional study. The colleges accepted, and the librarians were sent to study in the United States or Great Britain. Two of these librarians, Miss Alice Minchin of Auckland University College and Mr H. G. Miller of Victoria University College, had held their positions for some years; the other two, Mr C. W. Collins of Canterbury University College, and Mr W. J. Harris of the University of Otago, were new appointees. The university libraries, with the possible exception of Victoria, had not till then played a very significant part in the Association, or even in the library scene as a whole, but they became increasingly important after their librarians returned, and the librarians themselves were to become leading members of the movement to reorganize New Zealand’s library system.

In 1931 the Secretary of the Association 7 made tentative inquiries through the American Library Association 8 about the possibility of

7 Mr J. Norrie, the Librarian of the Wellington Public Library from 1928, had taken over the position of Secretary from his predecessor, Mr H. Baillie, in 1930.

8 Letter of 22.12.31, following correspondence about the visit of Professor Coffman to New Zealand.

Libraries Association of N.Z., 1910-1935

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a prominent New Zealand librarian being sent to the United States, or possibly Great Britain, to glean the latest information about library organization, and at about the same time Mr Barr 9 wrote to Professor Coffman, the representative of the Carnegie Corporation then visiting New Zealand, suggesting ways in which the Corporation might help rural libraries and the Association, and drawing attention to his conference addresses. The American Library Association 10 offered to bring the matter to the attention of the Corporation, and asked for a suitable person to be named. At this stage there was a hiatus in the Association affairs, when the secretaryship was vacant for several months, and before Mr E. J. Bell, the new Secretary, was able to take the matter up again, the Corporation had, of its own accord, made a grant to enable Mr Barr to visit the United States. Another grant was made in 1933 to Mr Bell to enable him to attend the annual conference of the American Library Association.

Another significant Carnegie study grant was made to Mr A. D. Mclntosh, of the staff of the General Assembly Library, who visited the United States in 1932-33. When he returned he wrote a report in which he suggested steps which should be taken to complete the tendency for the General Assembly Library to become a full national library. He recommended the reorganization of state libraries and the development of reference and research facilities, and he also outlined a scheme for a national library service by developing the earlier statements of Mr Barr about rural library service and adding an examination of the part that should be played by a properly organized system of inter-library loans. This report was not widely publicized, but a copy was given to Mr Barr, and possibly had some influence in the development of his own ideas. A year or two later the librarians of the other two large public libraries, Mr A. G. W. Dunningham of Dunedin and Mr J. Norrie of Wellington, also went overseas. Within a few years, therefore, most of the leading librarians in the country, many of them very young, had been exposed to modern thought in librarianship, and a great deal of enthusiasm was available if any sort of forward move became possible.

As a result of its appreciation of New Zealand’s needs, the Carnegie Corporation next offered to arrange for a survey to be made of all types of libraries in New Zealand, appraising their present activities and suggesting lines of development. The formal request for the survey was made by Mr Bell when he was in New York, but it is clear that the initiative came from Mr Barr, 11 and in January 1934 12 he was asked by the Corporation to help the surveyor, Mr Ralph Munn, Director of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, who was also

9 Barr to Coffman, 2.11.31.

10 Letter of 27.1.32.

11 Barr to Bell 16.5.33, reporting that the CONY wanted to know the reaction in New Zealand to the idea of a survey. Also McEwan to

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to take part in a survey of Australian libraries. The survey was made in April and May 1934 and the report published by the Association in December.

Because of the extraordinary importance of the Munn-Barr report in stimulating changes in the organization of libraries and librarianship in New Zealand, it is worth pausing at this stage to look fairly closely at it and at its recommendations. The surveyors’ order of reference included all types of libraries, and attention was paid to the undeveloped university libraries, the very few special (scientific and technical) libraries, the unsatisfactory school libraries, and the work done by the Workers’ Educational Association and the Jubilee Institute for the Blind. Their main interest, however, was in public library services, which constituted by far the greatest part of the library scene and which were seriously hampered by a number of conditions which had to be changed before any satisfactory development was possible. They found libraries in the four main centres which were adequate as far as book stock was concerned and which had the services of at least some librarians with good training and experience. Smaller libraries were inadequate, and those in towns of under 10,000 inhabitants quite unsatisfactory, in spite of the heroic efforts made by many library committees and librarians, because it was impossible for a small community to finance, from its own unaided resources, the range of book stock and services which is necessary for good library service. Many small libraries had collapsed when the government subsidy, small as it was, was withdrawn. All libraries except a very few were financed by the subscription method (with subsidies from the rates), which restricted membership while it encouraged library authorities to concentrate on the provision of light entertainment to stimulate membership. Because finance was meagre and salaries therefore low, library staffs were insufficiently qualified, and because staffs were insufficiently qualified, the possibilities of good library service were not properly appreciated. There was no coordination of library services to overcome the handicaps endured by small, isolated units.

The report embodied a number of recommendations which are set out here in a considerably abbreviated and summarized form 13 :

1. Function of libraries. More consideration should be given to the threefold function of libraries, namely the cultural, vocational and recreational. Self-development was a social necessity in a modern democratic community and good books were of the utmost im-

Bell 7.2.33: “I had one letter from New York in which he [Barr] suggested that the Carnegie Trust might father a scheme for the benefit of the whole of New Zealand.”

>2 Cable CCNY to Barr 9.1.34.

13 For the full text of the recommendations see p. 63-68 of the Report.

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portance in attaining it. Fuller attention should be given to the children.

2. Free libraries. It should be the objective of all library authorities to make public libraries free in all departments, including the lending divisions, starting with a free service to children and gradually extending it to every citizen.

3. Library rale. The penny in the pound limitation should be eliminated, as in England, or the rate limit should be advanced to threepence, as in Scottish law. It was folly to allow libraries to be established and then prohibit them from raising sufficient funds to function satisfactorily.

4. Subsidy for country libraries. Pending the inauguration of the type of rural libraries recommended in the Report, the restoration of the £3,000 subsidy to country libraries was strongly urged, but instead of small sums being given to individual libraries, the whole amount should be allocated to a sub-department of the General Assembly Library for the purchase of books which could then be lent on a circulating system.

5. Urban and rural libraries. Urban libraries, serving populations of 12,000 or more, should be strengthened, and means found to form unified library districts which would include the metropolitan areas of the larger cities, so that the small adjoining boroughs would reap the advantages of becoming part of a larger and more highly organized city system. For rural library service, adjacent local authorities should join together to form districts large enough to provide a reasonable service. l 4

6. Regional groupings of libraries. Regional systems were recommended, consisting of all public libraries, both urban and rural, along with other libraries such as the university college libraries and the libraries of branches of the Royal Society of New Zealand, within areas to be defined, probably nine or 10 in number. Inter-lending would be established within each region through regional headquarters, and between regions. ls To unify and complete the system of inter-loan facilities a national central lending library should be established as a department of the national library of New Zealand.

7. National Library for Dominion. The creation of a national library for New Zealand should be undertaken without delay. The General Assembly Library should develop as a national reference library, but continue and expand its legislative functions. It should bring under its control the Alexander Turnbull Library and should arrange to take over the science library of the Royal Society of New Zealand. As suggested in the previous paragraph a national

14 These district libraries would be separate from the urban libraries, although their headquarters might be in a town which had an urban library. “It was on this point that Barr and I had our only serious difference of opinion, and I gave in to what was said to be necessary or at least expedient for New Zealand": Munn to Dunningham.

15 Note that these regional groupings were not for the purpose of over-all service, but for co-operative projects such as union catalogues and interlibrary lending on request.

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circulating library should be provided in association with the national library.

8. Professional training and remuneration. Means must be devised to raise the general and professional standards of librarians and assistant librarians. For all urban public library systems and all university college libraries the matriculation examination of the University of New Zealand, or its equivalent, should be the minimum required for appointment to a library position. In addition every encouragement should be given to young library assistants to acquire a university degree and to obtain overseas library qualifications. As soon as the general level of salaries could be raised, only university graduates should be eligible for appointment to professional staffs. For the staffs of country libraries two plans for training were recommended: (a) elementary training, possibly through classroom methods, in the public libraries of the four main centres, (b) instructional visits by the chief librarians of the main centres to country libraries.

9. School libraries. Efforts should be made to improve the libraries of primary, secondary and technical schools and to establish small permanent collections of reference books of value to pupils and masters. Improved financial provision should be made by the Education Department with this object in view, by increasing the grants or subsidies for the purchase of books and better equipment. More co-operation between library and school authorities was advised.

10. Libraries Association of New Zealand. The Executive of the Libraries Association was urged to undertake a programme of work whereby the objects for which it was formed might be more speedily and effectively achieved. The first work that the Libraries Association should take in hand was the giving of the necessary guidance to the authorities of small libraries which needed and desired such help. A plan to include the following objects should be formulated and put into practice as quickly as possible: (1) Education of public opinion as to the place and function of libraries in the community, taking as models the library systems of Great Britain, the United States and other countries in which library service had been developed. (2) Improved legislation must also be obtained. The law relating to libraries needed a thorough revision to allow them to develop along modern lines, especially for the rural communities. (3) Professional education of librarians must be improved and practical ways devised to secure this. There were not enough opportunities for the employment of trained librarians in New Zealand at that time to justify the establishment of a library school. As opportunities for employment increased, however, this question should be considered. A degree course under the auspices of the University of New Zealand should be the ultimate goal. (4) A professional library for librarians, especially for those located in the country, was a pressing necessity. (5) A library journal or bulletin was also urgently required and should perhaps take precedence over all other matters.

To realize any of these suggestions would demand considerable

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financial expenditure, and ways and means of obtaining money to carry them out would need to be considered. This was indeed the most vital problem of all, and upon it the Association should concentrate its immediate attention.

Between 1930 and 1935 the Association held no conference. From 1932 the Secretary issued cyclostyled bulletins to members, but the lack of other activity may be judged from the fact that in the period from October 1932 to March 1935 income from subscriptions and interest was £159 3s. 4d., and total expenditure was £29 Is. 6d. During this period, however, the stage was set, by the experience gained overseas by key people and by the Munn-Barr survey and report, for revolutionary changes in both the Association and library services. In spite of the fact that the survey had been formally requested by the Association, one had the feeling that in the early 1930s it was standing in the wings while the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Mr John Barr were arranging the props for the act that was about to begin.

The Revolution 1935-1945

IT is not possible, in writing of the next period, to write only of the Association, for its own efforts and those of other bodies were so intertwined that it would be difficult and pointless to disentangle them. This is especially so of the participation of the Government in library services, but it is also true of the work of other libraries. The Association became an instrument used by its members to do things on their collective behalf which they could not do on their own.

The Carnegie Library Group

The history of this period begins with the formation of a Carnegie Library Group, outside the Association and independent of it, and with a conference of the Association whose decisions eventually made the continued existence of the Group unnecessary.

The life of the Carnegie Library Group is a curious episode which has been overshadowed by the development of the Association. At the beginning of 1935, however, it was not at all clear that the Association could become an effective instrument for the improvement of library services in New Zealand. So when the President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Dr F. P. Keppel, visited New Zealand in February 1935, it is quite reasonable that he should have turned, not to the Association, but to people who were known to the Corporation, to start the work that was necessary to implement the Munn-Barr proposals.

After he had been a month in New Zealand, Dr Keppel wrote to Mr Barr, on 22nd February 1935, “Following upon our conversation about the most practicable way to bring the recommendations of the Munn-Barr report into effect in New Zealand, I should like to ask you whether you will be good enough to add to the services you have already rendered by acting as the convener for an informal and nonconstitutional group of leaders here who might interpret these recommendations in terms of the actual conditions to be met here, indicate the probable cost to the Corporation of its share in such enterprise as might be proposed, and finally would express its judgment as to what might he called the timing of the programme as a whole. ... I am, therefore, cabling to my office in New York requesting that a modest sum be made available and placed in your

22

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hands to meet your own out-of-pocket expenses and those of your associates in this enterprise.” 1

The members of the Carnegie Group were the four main city librarians (Messrs Barr, Bell, Dunningham, and Norrie), Mr McIntosh, and Mr T. D. H. Hall, who was Clerk of the House of Representatives and therefore Permanent Head of the Legislative Department, of which the General Assembly Library formed a part. The Parliamentary Librarian, Dr G. H. Scholefield, was added later, when he had been overseas and presented a report on rural library service. 2 The Group decided at an early meeting to concentrate its efforts on the Munn-Barr recommendations about rural library service, and in particular to prepare for a demonstration of a fully integrated service, including service to children, in a selected area, to be financed for an initial period by the Carnegie Corporation. Such a demonstration would, it was hoped, persuade the Government to support a similar regional service on a national scale. An assurance was received from Dr Keppel that “our Corporation is ready to back a regional demonstration just as soon as there is general agreement as to where it should be made and how it should be set up”. 3 It was decided that it would be necessary first to make a survey of the selected area, in order to estimate the likely reaction of the local authorities and the difficulties which would have to be tackled. The area which was chosen was Taranaki, and Mr Mclntosh was asked to make the survey because of his study of national systems and libraries in the United States and Great Britain, and his knowledge of local and general government in New Zealand. Mr Mclntosh, however, had recently been transferred to the Prime Minister’s Department, and for one reason and another found it impossible to take time off for this assignment.

1935-1938: First Steps

At this stage it is necessary to return to the Association, which at its eighth conference, held in Timaru in March 1935, altered its constitution and so took the first step to reorganize itself to carry out the recommendations of the Munn-Barr report. The effect of the intervention of the Carnegie Corporation in making it possible for people to gain overseas experience had been that by 1935 the hope for future development was in the enthusiasm and vision of individuals, rather than in the institutions which comprised the membership of the Asso-

1 Mr Barr received £4OO, in two drafts, for his Library Group and a Museum Group convened by Prof, Hercus of the University of Otago. Expenditure was £275 10s, 4d. for the Library Group and £45 Us. 7d. for the Museum Group. The residue was divided in 1941 between the N.Z. Library Association and the N.Z. Council for Educational Research. (Accounts in Barr papers.)

ataiwi. iu uan papti 3. / 2 Appendix to the Journal of the H. of R., 1936. H-32A.

3 Keppel to Barr, 26.7.35.

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New Zealand Library Association

ciation, and it seemed necessary, if the Association were to be rejuvenated, for the energy of keen and knowledgeable individuals to be harnessed. On 13th June 1934, after Mr Barr had urged that every library assistant in every type of library should be enrolled as a member, the Executive Committee appointed a sub-committee consisting of the President (Miss E. Melville), Dr Scholefield, Mr Norrie, and Mr Barr, to revise the Constitution of the Association, and Dr Scholefield enlisted the assistance of Mr Hall, who thus began a long and valuable connexion with this part of the Association’s life. The Constitution, which was approved in principle by the 1935 conference and approved later in the year by the Council, admitted individuals to full membership with voting powers and the right to hold office, although the class of associate members (at a lower subscription) was also carried over from the old constitution. It designated the Council of the Association as the body “to which shall be entrusted the management of its affairs”. To emphasize the changed nature of the Association, its name was changed from The Libraries Association of New Zealand to The New Zealand Library Association. Mr J. Norrie became the new Hon. Secretary, and Mr S. Perry the Hon. Assistant Secretary.

The Government was asked by the Association in 1935 to restore its assistance to country libraries by the means recommended by Munn and Barr, and also to provide for school libraries. On 18th September the Minister of Education, who was sympathetically disposed towards the requests, received a deputation to discuss them, and shortly afterwards school libraries were helped by the provision of £1,200 in the Supplementary Estimates. The representations about rural library service were not so easy to put into immediate effect, but after a great deal of work by Mr Hall and Mr Mclntosh, acting as members of the Carnegie Library Group, the Government included a proposal for a national library service, beginning with the supply of books to libraries which had received the old subsidy, and developing into a full library service, as a plank in the programme with which it went to the polls. Within the Group it was thought that a national scheme of this kind could well develop for some years at the same time as the proposed Carnegie demonstration, and that, by the time Carnegie finance for the demonstration ended, the national system would be ready for decentralization in the manner projected by the demonstration. Much more had to be done of course to work out details of a suitable plan, but the spadework was done by the end of the year by members of the Group, and particularly by Mr Dunningham and Mr Mclntosh. When Dr Scholefield departed on his Carnegie fellowship, the Prime Minister instructed him to study library conditions while he was abroad, with a view to carrying out a similar service in New Zealand.

The defeat of the Coalition Government was a temporary setback, but it was known that members of the new Labour Government were

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sympathetic towards library service. In January 1936, Mr Mclntosh supplied Mr Peter Fraser, the new Minister of Education, with an account of developments to that date and a brief study of the implications of the previous Government’s policy statement. 4 The Government was at that time preoccupied with matters of bread and butter and did not decide to enter the library field until 1937. The Carnegie Group, meanwhile, pressed on with its plans for a survey of the area chosen for the demonstration. With the installation of the new Government it became quite impossible for Mr Mclntosh to obtain leave of absence from the Prime Minister’s Department, and the choice of a substitute proved very difficult. Eventually, however, at a meeting of the Carnegie Group on Ist August 1936, Mr G. T. Alley, Librarian of the Association for Country Education, was chosen and, although the members of the Group doubtless could not foresee the importance of their decision, the lines of New Zealand’s library development were set.

Since 1930 Mr Alley had been experimenting, under the auspices of the W.E.A, and under the direction of Professor Shelley of Canterbury University College, and with the übiquitous help of the Carnegie Corporation, with methods of giving a mobile library service to people in country areas, and he had used his experience in writing his Honours thesis. 5 He was well known to New Zealanders by his attainments in Rugby football, and he was also deeply concerned about education, and particularly further education. The library service he knew and had developed was the cultural and vocational type of service on which Munn and Barr laid so much stress. It is therefore somewhat astonishing that in 1934 the surveyors had not examined it and had given it only passing mention in their report: in one of their few lapses they had failed to see the growing point of library service in New Zealand.

The survey of Taranaki was very intensively carried out by Mr Alley in October and November 1936, with the following aims: (a) to explain the advantages of a modern rural library system for Taranaki to as many interested persons, groups, and Local Authorities as possible, (b) to get an opinion from Local Authorities and an assurance of financial support if a demonstration were arranged, (c) to get the necessary data to work out the mechanics. The proposal that was put to the Local Authorities was that service to borrowers should be free, and that the authorities should pay nothing in the first year, 10% of an estimated cost of Is. a head of population in the second, third and fourth years, and 50% in the fifth year of the demonstration. A satisfactory number of authorities gave their approval or cautiously refused to commit themselves, but in Mr Alley’s

4 Mclntosh to Min. of Education, 23.1.36.

5 G. T. Alley. An experiment in rural adult education. . . . Thesis for M.A., 1931. 2 vols.

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New Zealand Library Association

conclusions there was an ominous note: “The only difficulties are administrative—who shall be responsible? It would be a melancholy reflection that no administrative framework can be found for so desirable a building.” It is perhaps just as well that, as things turned out, it was not necessary for librarians at this stage to grapple with the intricacies of local government in New Zealand.

The report of the Taranaki survey was issued by the Carnegie Library Group before the Association met in conference in February 1937. Meanwhile, the Association had been gathering strength, particularly through the activities of its individual members. In Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin, societies of librarians were formed in which new ideas were threshed out and first attempts made to correct some of the deficiencies which had become obvious. The Dunedin society, for example, ran a course in library training and contributed articles, bibliographies and reading lists to Tomorrow , 6 and much the same sort of thing was going on in the other centres. In October 1936 the Auckland society was affiliated as the Auckland Branch of the Association, and the other two societies became branches early in 1937. 7 At the conference in February 1937 a society of Canterbury librarians applied for, and was granted affiliation as the fourth branch. The University and Research Section was formed and affiliated at the same time.

It was at the 1937 conference that the Association came right. Those who had participated in the discussions in the Societies of Librarians or in the work of the Carnegie Library Group now saw the Association as the instrument to be used in improving the library system, and a number of resolutions were passed which laid the foundations for the Association’s future work. Committees were set up to deal with bibliography (including the preparation of a union list of serials in New Zealand libraries), library training, inter-library loans, the NZ.LA. Bulletin, school and children’s libraries, fiction policy in public libraries, and librarians’ salaries, conditions and qualifications. A series of addresses was given, by members of the Carnegie Group, on the national scheme for libraries, as it was then envisaged, and Mr Alley gave a talk on country libraries and their problems which was notable for his knowledge of the people for whose benefit the plans were being made.

The Minister of Education, the Lion. Peter Fraser, who attended as a delegate from the General Assembly Library, opened the conference. He had been expected to talk of the Government's policy on libraries, but the Government was still concerned with other things.

6 These were continued by the Otago Branch.

7 The Otago Branch was at first affiliated as the Dunedin Branch; the name was changed later in the year. A Council minute of 17.6.37 allocated it the area south of the Waikato River, but there is no evidence that it ever operated north of the Waitaki.

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“The Government assumed office a little over 12 months ago,” he said, "and has had to deal with first things first. Important as the things of the intellect and the things of the spirit are, the things of the flesh, and particularly the essentials of life, had to be given precedence. It would be almost cynical for a Government, when people asked for bread, to present them with books.” He ended by saying that “there never was a more sympathetic Government in office, as far as libraries are concerned, than the present Government, It cannot do impossible things, but whatever assistance it can give, will be yours.”

With his Scottish caution, Mr Fraser had refused to let his promises run ahead of reality, but his expression of sympathy was sincerely intended. Immediately after the conference, the Association prepared a statement entitled National Library System for New Zealand which was printed and distributed to delegates to the annual conference of the Labour Party, at which a resolution favouring a co-ordinated system with Government assistance was carried. In July the Minister received a deputation from the Association, which outlined to him a scheme for the restoration of the subsidy to country libraries in the way suggested in the Munn-Barr report. In the 1937 Budget it was announced that “a scheme is being inaugurated for assisting small libraries in the country districts. This will take the form of a regular loan supply of books from a central source, and will constitute the beginning of a comprehensive national library system.” Mr Alley was appointed to take charge of the new Country Library Service, which, after the initial work of collecting books and staff and having book vans built, was formally inaugurated on 30th May 1938.

The Country Library Service was planned, in its initial stage, as a replacement of the old subsidy to country libraries, and it was attached for quarters and rations to the Education Department, which had administered the subsidy. B Its service to libraries in areas controlled by borough councils was, however, dependent on the councils’ willingness to finance from the rates a free service to borrowers, and in this it looked forward to the establishment of a complete library service of the kind that the Munn-Barr report and the later work of the Carnegie Library Group had anticipated. In the case of libraries in county areas it was not thought possible to make the same stipulation, because of the weakness of most county councils, but the service which was offered to independent libraries in counties was on a contract basis, a small charge being made annually for each unit of 50 books lent at one time.

8 For a few months its officers were seconded to the Legislative Department, in order that the foundations might be laid under the guidance of the permanent head of that Department, Mr Hall. The Service was never attached to the General Assembly Library, as had been envisaged in earlier thinking on the subject.

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New Zealand Library Association

The Carnegie Grant

Among the resolutions carried at the 1937 conference was one which reflected the exuberance of the time: ‘That this conference advises a general expansive policy during the next few years.” The immediate action which was taken on the subject of rural libraries has already been described, and the committees set up by the conference contained many fertile seeds which were to grow into healthy plants. In April 1937 the Bulletin, which Mr Bell had continued to issue from Christchurch, was taken over by Mr Perry and made very much larger, and from August it was issued as a printed journal under the title New Zealand Libraries. The Association’s income, however, was not sufficient to allow a very great expansion of its activities, which would involve the need for secretarial assistance as well as the extra expenses likely to be incurred in bibliographical projects, a system of training, propaganda work, and all the other things that were needed to turn visions into reality. 9 It was therefore decided to apply to the Carnegie Corporation for assistance to enable the Association to play the part it should in the library movement. The application, which was sent to the Corporation in February 1938, was for an endowment fund to enable the Association to undertake an expansive policy, or, it the Corporation did not wish to make the large grant which would be necessary, a grant of £8,305 to finance a five-year programme which included setting up a headquarters organization, publishing a bulletin, organizing children’s library work throughout New Zealand, and conducting courses of professional training.

The Association’s application was submitted to the Carnegie Library Group for endorsement before it was sent to the Corporation. The Group, four of whose members 10 had also been since the 1937 conference members of the Association Council, gave unanimous approval. 11 However, the Carnegie Group had independently submitted another application to the Corporation for a grant of £14,640 to finance a five-year demonstration of rural library service, and the Corporation was understandably worried by the prospect of having to finance two large projects. In a letter dated 24th April 1938 to the Association Dr Keppel said, “The question is, which suggestion is the most significant for New Zealand in the long run? Will the extension of the professional services of the Association do more to develop library service than the suggested demonstration? . . . Will the Association in the one case, and the New Zealand Government in the other, be in a position to carry on when the proposed Corporation

9 In the year ended 31.1.38, when the Association was merely flexing its muscles, income, mainly from subscriptions, was £212 18s. 2d.; expenditure, despite the fact that there was still no paid staff, was £292 16s. 9d.

10 Dunningham, Hall, Norrie and Scholefield.

11 Barr to Norrie, and Barr to Keppel, both dated 17.1.38.

HONORARY LIFE MEMBERS OF THE N.Z.L.A,

Mr RALPH MUNN Elected 1935 —Fleischmann. Pittsburgh. Pa.

Mr J. BARR. 0.8. E. Elected 1938 —Auckland Star

Mr T. D. H. HALL, C.M.G. Elected 1937 —Converse Studios Inc

Dr G. H. SCHOLEFIELD, C.M.G., 0.8. E. Elected 1948 —Spencer Digby

HONORARY LIFE MEMBERS OF THE N.Z.L.A

Mr G. T. ALLEY, 0.8. E. Elected 1952

Mr C. W. COLLINS Elected 1960 —Wallace & Co.

Mr S. PERRY Elected 1960 —Spencer Digby

Miss M. P. PARSONS Elected 1953 —Spencer Digb>

Mr J. W. KEALY, S.M. Elected 1960

Dr A. D. OSBORN Elected 1961

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grant ends? To be specific, do the members of the Association foresee any way of supporting adequately the various professional services which would be inaugurated or extended under their plan after the close of the suggested five-year period? Will the Government be able to support the National scheme already under way and the proposed demonstration?” He suggested that the Association and the Group might submit a joint application.

Discussions between the Association and the Group led to the preparation of a joint application for £15,000. It included the demonstration project, but because of the growth of the Country Library Service its estimated cost was set at £7,500, or half the amount originally asked for by the Group. A new feature, worked out in conversation with Mr John Russell, assistant to the President of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, who was in New Zealand at the time, was a suggestion that a liaison officer should be appointed between the Association and the Country Library Service. The whole project was then referred to the Minister of Education, since his interest and approval would have been necessary. Mr Fraser’s reaction was to express the wish that the demonstration should be carried out by the Government itself as an extension of the Country Library Service, and the application which was sent to the Corporation on 22nd August 1938 was for assistance to the Association to the extent of £7,425. Since there was no longer any need to press for funds for a demonstration, Mr Barr agreed to add his signature to the Association’s application. The duties of the liaison officer, which were outlined in the application, would include visiting libraries for instructional and propaganda purposes, arranging training courses, preparing instructional material for the bulletin, and organizing voluntary work, such as the compilation of a union list of serials, done by members of the Association. The Corporation agreed to this application, granting $29,700, or about £7,750 at the rate of exchange then current, to be spent over a period of five years for the general purposes of the Association. 12

Participation in the joint appeal was the last action of the Carnegie Library Group. In the last year its existence alongside a rejuvenated Association had threatened at times to be embarrassing, but it had done a great deal of good in helping to clarify ideas about the way in which library services, particularly in rural areas, should be developed. Most of its members became active in the Association and carried on there the work they had begun in the Group, but it is appropriate here to pay a tribute to one member whose increasing responsibilities in other spheres now began to draw him away from participation in

12 Payments were to be made in roughly equal parts on Ist December in each of the five years beginning in 1938. The later payments were subsequently postponed because of war conditions.

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New Zealand Library Association

the library movement. This is Mr A. D. Mclntosh, 13 to whose clarity of mind and practical sense was due much that was valuable in the plans that were prepared during the time of the Group’s activity. He was, for instance, at least partly responsible for the suggestion that there should be a liaison officer between the Association and the Country Library Service. 14 Equally important was the work that he, together with Mr Hall, did in the background in placing these plans before members of successive Governments, and his part in the work of this period can be summed up in the comment of Ralph Munn that “I suspect that he is far more important to you in the Premier's office than he could be in any library position.” l6

While the establishment of the Country Library Service had gone a long way toward meeting one of the Munn-Barr recommendations, another, which was dear to the heart of several of those who had been involved in the negotiations, was not achieved. This was the establishment of a national library, based on the General Assembly Library, of which the rural service had originally been seen as a part. Plans for a national library building were prepared just before the war, but they were unsatisfactory and it is perhaps just as well that they were prevented from becoming a building, but although more is known now about the desirable features of a national library, we are still without one.

In February 1939 Miss D. G. Bibby, who had been a member of the staff of the Wellington Public Libraries, and who had done an increasing amount of Association work for Mr I. Norrie since he had resumed the office of Honorary Secretary, was appointed to the position of shorthand-typist by the Council of the Association. She has remained with the Association since then, being appointed SecretaryAssistant in 1941, Secretary in 1943, and Registrar in 1957.

Incorporation of the Association

Because the Association was now handling greater funds than before, and because of the greater part it was now expected to play in developing projects of its own and in dealing with the Government and other bodies, it was seen to be desirable that it should be incorporated. Incorporation had been considered earlier, but had been set aside because of the difficulties involved under existing legislation. In a report on the subject early in 1938, Mr T. D. H. Hall wrote, “[The Association] admits as members library committees which are merely groups of people, not incorporated, but which actually run some of

13 After being an assistant in the General Assembly Library from 1926 to 1934, Mr Mclntosh was on the staff of the Prime Minister’s Department from 1935, and became Secretary of External Affairs in 1943 and, in addition. Permanent Head of the Prime Minister’s Department in 1945. He was Secretary of the War Cabinet 1943-5.

14 Mclntosh to Barr, 7.7.38

15 Munn to Norrie, 5.11.37.

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the smaller country libraries. While such loose associations of individuals are admitted as members of the Library Association in a corporate capacity the Stamp Duties Department is unable to accept the Association for registration as an incorporated society. The law requires that members of an incorporated society must be either individuals or properly constituted corporate bodies. ... It seems to me, therefore . . . that it will be necessary to seek a corporate identity for the Association by another method and the one that seems most practicable is that we should ask Parliament to incorporate us by statute.” lB

Mr Hall’s suggestion was taken up, and the Government was asked to permit the introduction of a public Bill. The permission was given, the Minister of Education undertook to introduce it, and the Bill had an easy passage through Parliament. As the New Zealand Library Association Act 1939, it received the Governor-General’s assent in September 1939, The Association, now the New Zealand Library Association (Incorporated), was once again indebted to the interest and sympathy of Mr Fraser and the untiring efforts of Mr Hall.

Under the provisions of the Act it was necessary for rules to be adopted which would provide for matters which were required under the legislation affecting incorporated societies. Quite apart from these matters, however, the development of the Association since 1935 had revealed inadequacies in the Constitution which had been in force since then. The institutional classes of membership, for instance, were “(b) Libraries not conducted for private profit which serve the public or a section of the public with or without charge, (c) Other institutions not conducted for private profit whose activities include library work or which are interested in the provision of library facilities to its members or to the public generally.” In this context the term “library” was not as precise as was desirable, since most libraries are not independent bodies but one of the activities of a borough council or a university or some other body which has a legal identity. On the other hand the existing definition was held to exclude certain libraries, such as those of Government Departments, which were important in the new concept of librarianship which included the co-operative use of the country's entire resources of books and periodicals.

The position of the various parts of the Association needed to be defined and regulated. When the 1935 Constitution was drawn up it took over from the earlier Constitution its provision, which had never been used, for the formation of Branches. In the burst of activity which followed the entry of personal members into the Association, the Branches, in which their efforts bore their first fruit, assumed an importance which was justified in the circumstances but which could have had a disintegrating effect when the institutional members were

18 Hall to Perry, 7.2.38.

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New Zealand Library Association

ready to play their full part in the Association’s affairs. It was in the Branches, and particularly the Otago and Wellington ones, that for some years many of the most important discussions on the formation of Association policy were held, and the Otago Branch, especially, built up an impressive record of work on bibliographical and other projects. l 7 The 1937 conference, which was so important in setting the Association on its new course, was driven along by personal members, and particularly by those who came from the deep South. And it was just as well that they did take the Association in hand! But a self-respecting Council of a revived Association had to act, and be allowed to act, as the senior organ of the Association. A decision of the 1935 conference, that all reports of standing committees should be referred to Branches for their comments before being discussed by the Council, was found unworkable and rescinded after a short time; the implied reflection on the Council, in which the institutional members’ interests are more carefully watched than in the Branches, could have been resented. In any case, the personal members who used the Branches and the conference floor to set the Association working, quickly found themselves members of the Council. Each Branch was, moreover, relatively independent because, although the Constitution allowed for its affiliation, there was no provision for the Council to approve its rules.

New rules, largely the work of Mr Hall, were drafted to correct the deficiencies of the old Constitution and were adopted by the 1940 conference together with standing orders for the conduct of annual and special general meetings and conferences, which had been given a trial run in 1939. In the rules, which are substantially those still in force, the class of institutional members was defined as “Any body corporate or unincorporate which conducts not for private profit a library or libraries which serve the public with or without charge and any body corporate or unincorporate not established for the private profit of members, which maintains or is interested in the provision of facilities for reading and study by its members or others.” The associate membership, which had become anomalous, was abolished, and three classes of personal membership were allowed for: ordinary members, honorary life members, and ordinary life members. Differential subscription rates were applied to ordinary members. A rigid separation was made between the annual meeting and the conference, and a careful distinction was made between notices of motion to the annual meeting, upon which decisions were binding on the Association, and remits to the conference, upon which action was to be taken by means of recommendation to the Council. The Council was

17 The Otago Branch also was responsible for a film, Books in Dunedin, completed in 1941, which is still outstanding in its treatment of a subject which seems to baffle most film-makers.

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given absolute constitutional control over Branches and Sections, and committees were made committees not of the conference but of the Council.

The problem of providing for the management of a composite Association which included many different interests, and ensuring that, as far as possible, all members worked together toward a common end, had been well dealt with. The rules have been amended from time to time, but the only substantial amendment was the one, which was made in 1941, which provided for the election of ordinary members of the Council by postal ballot instead of at the annual meeting. It would be foolish to claim that the Association has been perfectly satisfied with its rules since 1941, and indeed several attempts have been made to improve them, especially in connexion with the composition and the method of election of the Council. A new set of rules which was adopted in 1960 was, in effect, a consolidation of the 1940 rules and subsequent amendments, with another attempt to establish a satisfactory composition of the Council. But Mr Hall’s work produced a set of rules which has lasted reasonably well for 20 years of rapid change and was an achievement for which the Association may well be grateful.

Development of the Country Library Service

The plan to appoint a liaison officer between the Country Library Service and the Association was put into operation as soon as the news of the Carnegie Corporation’s grant was received. The Minister of Education agreed, 18 in January 1939, that the officer should be appointed to the staff of the Country Library Service for five years, and that the position should be advertised in the United Kingdom and the United States of America as well as in New Zealand. The salary and expenses would be paid by the Government, which would recover the money from the Association. In June the Council of the Association asked a selection committee consisting of Dr R. M. Campbell, of the New Zealand High Commissioner’s Office, and two prominent British librarians, Messrs W. C. Berwick Sayers and Lionel R. McColvin, to interview two applicants selected from those who had applied for the position. Upon their recommendation, and with the concurrence of the Council, the Public Service Commission offered the appointment to Miss E. J. Carnell, a Branch Librarian of the Lancashire County Library. Miss CarneU’s experience and qualifications were tailor-made for the job. She had worked in county libraries since 1929, being in charge of various branches since 1930. She had gained the Honours Diploma of the Library Association in 1936 upon the acceptance of her thesis The Growth and Future of the County Library, and in 1938 had published County Libraries- Retrospect and

18 Fraser to Norrie, 16.1.39.

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New Zealand Library Association

Forecast. She had been a speaker at the Birmingham Summer School of Librarianship.

Miss Carnell took up her appointment on 3rd January 1940, and less than two months later gave a remarkable address on “Library policy: Great Britain, United States, New Zealand” to the conference of the Association. In this talk she dealt with vigour and an incisive wit with the problems which faced public libraries in this country: the subscription system of finance, the provision of a wide range of books in small libraries, co-operation between libraries, the training of staff. She was an outstanding public speaker, and especially skilful, with a pleasant combination of enthusiasm and courtesy, in presenting new ideas to laymen.

When Miss Carnell came to New Zealand it was necessary to win the support of local authorities for two important changes in public library practice. The first was the abolition of the subscription system, and the second was participation by libraries in the circulating stock provided by the Government through the Country Library Service. The abolition of the subscription system, which was a major recommendation of the Munn-Barr report, was urged very cogently in a pamphlet entitled The Case for Free Library Service which was published by the Association in 1940 and which was an effective propaganda weapon during the next 10 years or so when one measurement of progress was the number of libraries which “went free” in a given period. The establishment of the Country Library Service in May 1938 provided the necessary framework within which the changes of policy could be made: but the consolidation of these two features of the library picture quickly enough for them to take root owed a good deal to Miss Carnell’s work. During 1940 she travelled round the country and wrote a report on the conditions she found, 19 and this was followed by visits to local body councils and committees to explain and urge the changeover to rate-supported service and participation in the Country Library Service. During her five years in New Zealand some 25 libraries made the change, and the new policy was firmly established.

In 1942 Miss Carnell was appointed Assistant Director of the Country Library Service. The Government thus relieved the Association of financial responsibility while still allowing her to act as Liaison Officer, This very valuable assistance made it possible for the Association to conserve the Carnegie grant beyond the end of the war and was one of a series of actions which identified the Government closely with the Association’s work in the 19405. In the following year Miss Carnell joined the Army Education and Welfare Service, but she was still able to do the work for which she was brought to New Zealand.

19 Council document 1940/19,

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Miss Carnell acted in an ex-officio and advisory capacity on all committees and on the Council of the Association. Her work in the initiation of the Training Course was perhaps the most significant of her committee activities, and it will be described under the proper heading, but many other Association projects were helped by the extra push which she was able to give them. It was a time when the Association was trying to do a great many things with very meagre resources in manpower, and the work which one energetic person was able to add to the spare-time efforts of committee members must in many cases have been a major factor in the triumphant launching of a project.

Shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War the Government, recognizing that men in camp needed something more than wet and dry canteens, decided to establish libraries in military camps. The organization of the service was placed in the hands of the Country Library Service, but the Association was involved in the work by the appointment of the Hon, Secretary, Mr J. Norrie, to the Camp Library Committee of the National Patriotic Council. The first camp library, at Trentham, was opened in November 1939. The supply of books to the camps in New Zealand and overseas was decentralized, many of the larger public libraries acting as centres for the collection and sorting of books donated by the public. By 31st December 1941 the total number of books and periodicals allocated from all centres to camps, troopships, and small units, was 135,093 books and 147,127 periodicals. Public library members of the Association also contributed, from 1942, by transferring books from their own stock and by making it easy for members of the services to become members of their libraries. Camp libraries in New Zealand were able to use the request service of the Country Library Service, and the Council of the Association agreed to the use of inter-library loan to obtain books which the Country Library Service could not supply. The participation of libraries, as members of the Library Association, in this work, and in particular the cohesion given by the central activities of the Country Library Service, made it possible for servicemen to receive an effective service, both in ensuring that books of good quality and in good condition were sent to the camps, and in joining camp libraries to the national library system.

Toward the end of 1942 the Army Education and Welfare Service was formed, with a library division which, with full-time staffing at headquarters and in camps, was able to develop a service approaching, and in some respects surpassing, civilian standards. The Dunedin City Librarian, Mr A. G. W. Dunningham, was appointed Staff Officer Libraries with the rank of captain, Miss Carnell became first subaltern, and other librarians were taken on the A.E.W.S. strength. The A.E.W.S. took over the organization of service to the Army from the Country Library Service, which retained responsibility for the supply of books,

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both collected and purchased, and the Army agreed that Mr Dunningham should act as a liaison officer between the A.E.W.S. on the one hand, and the Country Library Service and the Association on the other. The A.E.W.S. continued to make use of the co-operation and goodwill of public libraries, and with increased staffing and imaginative leadership made interesting experiments in the mobile distribution of stock. Books were delivered to units where men were working and a closer relationship was achieved between the distributing agency and the consumer than has been possible in civilian life.

The close connexion between the library division of the A.E.W.S. and its other activities, and its intimate relationship with the Association and the library system of the country, demonstrated a pattern which, as many thought at the time, could have been carried over into peacetime adult education activities. Development since the war has not been on the same scale, however, in spite of the inclusion of the Director of the National Library Service in the National Council of Adult Education. The lessons of wartime in the matter of co-operation between libraries and the adult education movement should perhaps be looked at again by the Association.

Library Service to Children

It will be remembered that the first Government action to implement the proposals of the Munn-Barr report was the provision of money in 1935 for school libraries. Small though the amount was, it was the first sign that the recommendations of the report might receive public support. There was, however, a serious lack of people with the training necessary to organize library service to children, through schools or through public libraries, and in 1936 the Carnegie Corporation again applied its method of sending overseas selected people who would on their return form the nucleus of future development. Miss K. E. Harvey and Miss D. M. Neal spent a year at the Carnegie Library School, Pittsburgh, taking a children’s librarians’ course. On their return Miss Harvey returned to the Wellington Public Library and Miss Neal, who had been on the staff of the Canterbury Public Library, went to the Dunedin Public Library. In 1938 they took over the convenerships of the North Island and the South Island sections of the Committee on School and Children’s Libraries.

In 1938 the Dunedin Public Library began, in co-operation with the Otago Education Board, a co-ordinated system of service to city and country schools. At the same time the Council of the Association was attempting to form a Schools Section which might focus interest in service to children through schools and help to formulate a more general scheme. The Section was formed in May 1939, by which time 36 schools were institutional members of the Association. The meeting, which was held in Wellington, was chaired by the Hon. Secretary, Mr Norrie, and was addressed by Mr G. T. Alley, who pointed out that the Country Library Service gave service to adults only and

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suggested that the Section might work out a scheme of service to children for the consideration of the Government.

Miss Neal's committee produced in 1940 a recommended list of books for children, entitled Junior Books, which was issued to all school members of the Association, and was used as a starting point for the stock of the School Library Service when it was established. Miss Neal’s own energies then became directed towards a scheme of training for children’s librarians which will be discussed separately as part of the history of training for librarianship generally.

The promise of the Government that the Country Library Service would extend its operations to give a more complete service than the simple restoration of subsidies was taken another stage nearer fulfilment in 1941, when the Minister of Education, the Hon. H. G. R. Mason, announced a new scheme, to be administered by the Country Library Service, for the supply of children’s books to primary, intermediate, and district high schools. Miss Harvey was appointed to take charge of the School Library Service, which began distributing books in 1942. As in the case of the Country Library Service the principle of circulating book stock was used, and, again as in the case of the Country Library Service, there was a precedent for the use and provision of money for the new service. Books bought for the School Library Service were paid for from the same part of the Education Vote from which money had been provided for some time for the supply of books to schools. The School Library Service did not at first enter the Otago and Taranaki districts, in which circulating schemes were already in operation, but it assisted by supplying books to them. As it has developed, however, it has taken responsibility for those areas and has also given assistance to public libraries.

The Association’s efforts to improve library service to children had met with conspicuous success in the response of the Government to the need for books in schools, and service through public libraries improved as librarians and members of committees became more aware of the standards that were desirable in children’s library work.

In all library work the value of the service that is given depends not only on its quantity or organization, important though these aspects are, but also on its quality. Quality, in the choice of attractive books, well written and well illustrated, is especially important in work with children, and this was well understood by the two Carnegie fellows who have done so much, by the example of their work and by their Association activities, to establish the principle of quality in children’s library work in New Zealand. It was exemplified in the various approaches to the training of children’s librarians which have yet to be described and in the careful work which went into the preparation of Junior Books and has been continued in the many lists issued by the School Library Service since. It was also exemplified in the decision of the Council of the Association, in 1944, to establish an annual

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award of a medal for the best children’s book published in New Zealand.

The award, which was modelled on similar English and American awards, was named after Esther Glen, author of Uncles Three at Kamahi and other realistic stories published in the 1920s and for many years children’s editor of the Christchurch Sun and the Christchurch Press. Under the conditions approved by the Council in August 1945, it was to be “awarded annually to the author of the book which is considered to be the most distinguished contribution to New Zealand literature for children, published in New Zealand during the year by an author who is a citizen or resident of New Zealand, provided that where the illustrations to the winning book are outstanding, the award shall be a joint award of one medal each to author and illustrator”. No award is made if the judges do not consider that a work of sufficient merit has been published during the year.

The judges for the Esther Glen award have set a high standard, and only four awards have been made since it was established. They have been:

In 1945, to Stella Morice, for The Book of Wiremu. published by D. B. Paul, Hamilton.

In 1947, to A. W, Reed, for Myths and Legends of Maoriland, pub lished by A. H. & A. W. Reed, Wellington.

In 1950, to Joan Smith, for Nimble, Rumble and Tumble, pub lished by Paul’s Book Arcade, Hamilton.

In 1959, to Maurice Duggan, for Falter Tom and the Water Boy. published by Paul’s Book Arcade, Hamilton.

Book Resources and Bibliography

The university librarians, led by Mr C. W. Collins of Canterbury University College, took the first step in the co-operative use of book resources by agreeing informally to lend books to each other upon request. Inter-library loans, or interloans, were shown by the MunnBarr Report to be a necessary part of the reorganization of library services, but were seen as part of an elaborate system of regional groupings of libraries, co-ordinated by a national central lending library. Until there was at least a central body responsible for coordination, with a central record of the holdings of individual libraries, lending between libraries was cumbersome, for unless the location of a book was known it took much time and effort to find it or to find that it was not in the country. The rudimentary system evolved by the university librarians was, however, so valuable that in 1937 the Association Conference recommended its extension to other types of library, resolving "That in order to develop the book resources of the country for the serious student and technician, libraries (public, university, government and semi-public) should be invited to co-operate in a scheme of inter-library loans, it being understood that participation entails no commitment to any loan that may seem undesirable

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to the library concerned." Shortly afterwards, the Council of the Association decided that the cost of postage and packing should be borne by the sending library in each case, and this decision, which simplified the procedures involved by eliminating the need for keeping account of numerous small amounts, has been a feature of interlibrary lending in New Zealand since then.

At the same time, groups of librarians were planning the tools by which the book resources of the country could be exploited. It was necessary for combined records to be compiled of libraries’ holdings of books and periodicals, so that when anything was wanted it could be located quickly, and so that the strengths and weaknesses of the country’s resources could be estimated. At the 1937 and 1938 conferences resolutions were passed urging the compilation of a union list of serials, which would record the periodicals and other serial material held by New Zealand libraries and the issues held by each library, and a union catalogue, recording the book holdings of the major libraries.

In 1939 the daunting task of compiling the union list of serials was undertaken by Mr I. Harris, of the University of Otago, who collected enough information by the end of 1942 to enable the Association to issue a mimeographed Check List. An index to New Zealand periodicals was begun in 1941, following a trial run by the Otago Branch in indexing 12 periodicals during 1940. The first two quarterly issues were produced under the editorship of Mr A. G. Bagnall, of the Alexander Turnbull Library, after which the editorship was taken over by Miss N. Gordon, of the University of Otago. This project ran into trouble as indexers became scarce because of wartime preoccupations, but it provided a starting point for more intensive work after the war.

A union catalogue of books held in the major libraries was a bigger project, and one which an Association committee could not so easily initiate without assistance. In 1938 the conference endorsed the principle that there should be a union catalogue similar to the regional catalogues in Great Britain and the United States, but nothing was done during the time that the Association was engaged in negotiating with the Carnegie Corporation and appointing the Liaison Officer. In September 1940, the Council set up a committee to investigate the immediate compilation of a union catalogue, with instructions to consider the use of microfilm to record existing holdings. The committee was told to think in terms of an approach to the Carnegie Corporation and the New Zealand Government for financial support.

An information exchange sheet, which would enable libraries to notify notable accessions, to offer unwanted items, to ask for locations of books or serials, and to give information, was begun on the recommendation of the Committee on Inter-library Co-operation, the first number being issued on 28th November 1940. For some years this sheet compensated in a small way for the lack of central records, and,

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even with the development of the records, the need for this kind of pooling of information has not diminished.

At the beginning of 1939 the Government found it necessary to impose strict controls over imports, and in October a 50 per cent restriction on the importation of books was announced. The Council of the Association immediately decided to ask the Government to relieve libraries of this restriction, which would weaken library resources at a time when, because fewer books would be coming into the country, it was more necessary than ever that books should be available to the public from publicly owned collections. It was realized, however, that such a concession would not be made unless the Association were able to demonstrate that it meant to see that money made available to libraries was wisely spent on important material. It was therefore suggested to the Government that the 50 per cent reduction should be restored to libraries, and that licences for this part of libraries’ purchases should be issued on the recommendation of a bureau which would check orders to eliminate unnecessary duplicate buying and to ensure that orders were for books of a suitable standard. It was thought that the information culled from the orders would provide a starting point for a union catalogue, and it was suggested that the bureau should be attached to the Country Library Service, which had the necessary bibliographical material for checking to be done, was itself a large purchaser of books, was in touch with the smaller libraries, and was recognized by the Government.

The Government agreed to the Association’s proposal, and the Central Bureau for Library Book Imports was accordingly set up. There was strong criticism of it from librarians who feared the imposition of government control over their buying, but the 1940 conference, after a fairly heated discussion, approved the steps that had been taken by a three to one majority. On the initiative of Mr G. T. Alley the conference decided that a committee should be set up to act in an advisory capacity to the Bureau and to report to the Council, but this did not allay the suspicions of Victoria University College, whose Registrar wrote in September protesting on behalf of the Professorial Board against the action of the Association in entering into an agreement with the Minister of Customs “whereby a bureau has been established for the purpose of controlling the importation of books for libraries”, and after further discussions the Minister of Customs agreed that the Bureau should recommend all university orders in their entirety, simply indicating which books had already been ordered by other libraries. In return for this concession, the universities were to send copies of their accession lists to the Bureau.

At the time of the discussions with Victoria University College the Association pointed out that the Bureau had been established to provide additional facilities for libraries to purchase books, and it has continued to fulfil this function whenever there has been any restric-

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tion on the importation of books generally. Its importance has gone far beyond that, however, because it has been the foundation upon which many subsequent developments in the organization of our book resources have been built. Dr G. H, Scholefield’s comment at a meeting of the Council in February 1940, that it was very satisfactory that the Association had more or less been forced to take certain steps in cooperation that should have been taken before, became more and more apt as the events of the next few years unfolded.

Pending the start of a full-scale union catalogue project, cards containing current entries were filed from Central Bureau records from the beginning of 1941. No further progress was made, however, until the Association received a letter from the Minister of Education, the Hon. H. G. R. Mason, which indicated the Government’s interest in this and allied work. In this letter, which was dated 26th June 1941, Mr Mason said,

"The work of the Central Bureau for Library Book Imports during the past eighteen months has impressed me with the need for and possibility of a still greater measure of co-operation among libraries in order that essential books and periodicals may reach this country and be available to the greatest possible number of users. I am anxious that the work of compilation of the Union Catalogue be proceeded with as quickly as possible so that this very essential tool may be available for use by libraries. I understand that plans are being made towards this end, to cover material already in stock.

“Further policy about the purchase of printed material to cover the likely needs of this country, especially industrial needs, is one which I feel should be worked out by librarians working in full co-operation. I am aware that no single library is able to purchase all the useful material which is available, but the combined purchasing resources of all public and university libraries, added to those of Government libraries, should be enough to do this, if each library were responsible for a part of the field, and fuller facilities for loans of stock between libraries were created. As Minister in Charge of the Country Library Service I shall be glad to consider recommendations for making available on loan to all libraries technical and other non-fiction books stocked by that Service,

“There are probably many ways by which the co-operative use of book stocks might be achieved. Your Association may perhaps have suggestions to make. I should appreciate it, therefore, if you would ask the Council of your Association to extend the advisory help it now gives to the Central Bureau for Library Book Imports by proposing means whereby (a) at least one copy of every publication of any importance in the English language reaches this country and (b) serious readers everywhere in New Zealand have free access to all such publications.”

When the Council met on 10th July 1941 it set up a New Zealand Book Resources Committee with the following terms of reference:

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“The purpose of this committee shall be to strengthen, co-ordinate, and exploit the book resources of the Dominion. Its work will include all matters connected with book purchases by libraries, inter-library loans, accessibility of books to readers, and the compilation of union catalogues.” The new committee, of which the Director of the Country Library Service was convener, superseded the committees on bibliography, book buying, book imports, inter-library co-operation, and the union catalogue, and its importance in the eyes of the Government was demonstrated by the agreement of the Minister of Education to pay travelling expenses to members attending its meetings. 2o This provision has continued to the present time, and has enabled the Association and the Government to maintain a close relationship in promoting the work which the committee was formed to encourage.

A plan for the completion of the Union Catalogue by making microfilm copies of the catalogues of the major libraries, and from the film making the card record, was placed before the Carnegie Corporation and the New Zealand Government. The Corporation made a grant of $5,000 for the purchase of equipment, including a camera, a reader, typewriters, and cards, and at the same time the Government undertook to provide the staff to compile and maintain the catalogue. Writing on 2nd August 1941, the Minister of Education said, “I have authorized the Director of the Country Library Service to give all possible help, and to be responsible for the work of maintaining the catalogue and giving information to other libraries from it, ... I hope your Association will regard this as a satisfactory solution of the problem until such time as the National Library is built, when permanent arrangements will be possible.”

At its first meetings the Book Resources Committee spent a great deal of time hammering out the plan which would be followed in the union catalogue work, and it seemed that this project, the biggest bibliographical work so far undertaken in this country, would very soon be well under way. In May 1942 word came from the Carnegie Corporation that some of the equipment had been assembled and packed, and was awaiting shipping. Almost immediately afterwards, however, the Corporation reported that a camera could not be obtained without special priority, and that shipping space had been declared available only for material that was essential for the war effort. The material that had been assembled was being disposed of. 21 Any hope of compiling a complete union catalogue was therefore deferred until after the war. In the meantime, however, current accessions were entered in the catalogue as they were notified to the Central Bureau. From 1944, upon the recommendation of the Book Resources Committee, many libraries began sending copies of their own new catalogue cards for inclusion in the union catalogue.

20 Request by Association 23.7.41 agreed to by Minister 2.8.41

21 CCNY to NZLA 29.5.42.

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The Book Resources Committee, from its first meetings, tackled the problem of ensuring that the libraries of the country acquired and made available the fullest possible range of printed material. This problem is a different matter from the organization of the books which are in the country, although the two affect each other, and it has been found over the years to be much more difficult to solve. In one sense, it has been met to a certain extent by the steady improvement, in resources and variety, of the country’s libraries, but rising standards have also increased the range of stock that is seen to be desirable. In 1941, however, it seemed obvious that a forward step would have been taken if funds were made available to ensure that at least one copy of every book of value published in the English language from 1940 onwards should reach New Zealand, and if a beginning could be made in filling gaps in earlier publications. Upon being approached by the Association the Government agreed to underwrite this policy by allowing the Country Library Service to be the medium for obtaining books of which no copy was already held in New Zealand.

In the next few years certain standard lists of important books were checked against libraries’ holdings, and orders were placed for books which were not found. At the same time members of the Wellington Branch undertook the task of checking issues of the Cumulative Book Index against notifications to the Union Catalogue, and more titles were ordered as a result of this check. 22 But although both approaches involved a great amount of work, neither was adequate to ensure any but the most elementary coverage, and by the end of the period under discussion it was apparent that a new approach was necessary. The important thing that has survived from these early attempts is the recognition of the need for a coverage programme and of the Government’s responsibility for underwriting it.

Another approach to this problem is for libraries to agree to specialize in designated subjects, and to agree to accept responsibility for trying to acquire everything significant in the subjects in which they specialize. This approach, which raises many difficult questions

22 A more elaborate scheme was discussed in 1941, Outlined by Mr A. G. W. Cunningham, it would have involved the Central Bureau in making cards for all titles listed in the Cumulative Book Index, withdrawing those for books listed on orders sent to the Bureau, and placing orders for those of the residue which it was considered should be in the country. Quite apart from the fallacy, which was perhaps not so apparent then as now, of relying on the Cumulative Book Index as a list of sufficient completeness for a coverage programme, it is probable that the scheme would have foundered on the rocks of staffing. It would in any case have been upset by the decision, taken in 1944, that the Central Bureau should recommend to the Customs Department the issue of block licences to the university and the largest public libraries, because from that date it did not have a detailed record of books ordered by these libraries.

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involving not only libraries themselves but also the policies of the institutions to which they belong, was discussed during the war years, but only in a preliminary way, and although, as libraries have become stronger, some specialization has occurred, it is another subject for the next half-century to tackle.

Under the guidance of the Book Resources Committee, the method of handling inter-library loans was quickly improved. In 1942 a modified procedure was adopted, whereby a library which wanted a book, instead of applying to one library after another, listed all likely libraries on its application card, which was then sent on from one to another until the book was found. This was only a slight improvement, however, and in August 1943 the Association asked the Central Bureau for Library Book Imports to act as a clearing house for nonurgent interloan requests other than those referred to a particular library. When the Government agreed that this should be done, the effect was that when a library wanted a book, but did not know its location, it could send its request to the Central Bureau, which would first check the embryo Union Catalogue, and then, if it was not recorded there, be responsible for tracing it. A weekly cyclostyled sheet, entitled Book Resources and listing all unlocated requests received during the week, was sent to the main libraries, which reported to the Central Bureau which items they held. The Book Resources sheet, the first of which was issued on 18th October 1943, absorbed and continued the Association’s Information Exchange. Besides using the information collected in this way to send interloan requests in the right direction, the Central Bureau also recorded positive results in the Union Catalogue and considered for purchase any item which was not located.

In 1944 the Association published a handbook on interloan procedure, which set out the rules agreed to by the Book Resources Committee in defining the scope of the interloan scheme and the methods of handling inter-library loans. The main features of the scheme, which is perhaps the most successful venture yet undertaken by the Association in the field of library co-operation, had by this time been formed. The rules governing it, which were as liberal and as simple as possible without overriding the rights of individual libraries, were approved by the Association, which also supplied the stationery ; and the Country Library Service supplied the staff to handle many of the requests and to maintain essential records, as well as providing an increasing proportion of the books that were asked for. The operation of the scheme was supervised by the Book Resources Committee of the Association, which the Government helped by paying the expenses of members attending its meetings. When a second edition of the handbook was issued in 1956, it incorporated the experience gained during the previous 12 years, but the main outline of the interloan system was unchanged.

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Library Training

The Munn-Barr report emphasized the need to raise the general and professional standards of librarians and assistant librarians, and suggested that every encouragement should be given to young library assistants to acquire a university degree and to obtain overseas library qualifications. A number of library assistants did, in fact, take the correspondence courses of the Library Association, London, during the next few years, and Carnegie grants enabled senior people to attend library schools overseas. The Association began to build up a library of books on librarianship for the use of its members, and an instructional bulletin was issued, followed by instructional articles in the Association’s journal. More positive action by the Association was necessary, however, if the large number of junior library assistants were to receive any sort of training beyond what was available on the job. In 1936 a suggestion that the Association should conduct its own examinations was made informally by the Hon. Assistant Secretary, Mr S. Perry, to various people connected with the new societies of librarians, and at the 1937 conference the matter was put into the hands of a committee on library training convened by Mr J. Barr. The committee recommended in October 1937 that, without prejudice to the eventual establishment of a degree course under the auspices of the University of New Zealand, an elementary course of training should be established and put into practice as soon as practicable.

The plan that was recommended by the committee was the establishment in the four main centres of classes in library economy designed to meet the needs of young people who had just begun or were about to begin their library careers. The classes would be divided into two divisions: (a) a full course covering three terms, and (b) a shorter course designed mainly for country librarians which would take the form of a summer school which would extend for a number of days, probably a week. The full course would be followed by the award of a Certificate, and the committee suggested that steps should be taken to have the Certificate, plus a pass in Stage I English of the University of New Zealand, accepted as equivalent to a pass in the Elementary Examination of the Library Association, London, thus permitting New Zealand assistants to sit for that Association’s Intermediate Examination without further examination.

The committee’s plan was accepted in principle by the Council in November 1937, and the committee was asked to work out a syllabus. Action was deferred, however, until the appeal to the Carnegie Corporation of New York, under the terms of which the Liaison Officer would be responsible for planning a system of training, had been dealt with. As has already been noted, the appeal was successful, and the Liaison Officer took up her duties at the beginning of 1940. The convenership of the Committee on Library Training had meanwhile passed to Mr G, T. Alley.

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The first course of training to be operated by the Association was one for children’s librarians and teacher-librarians, leading to the award of a Children’s Librarian’s Certificate. The syllabus, which was drawn up by the committee, and the notes for the course, written by Mrs D. M. White (nee Neal) 23 were thorough and imaginative, and had many features which were later incorporated in the general training course. As a prerequisite, students were required to have library or teaching experience, and to have passed either the Elementary Examination of the Library Association, London, or, when it was in operation, relevant parts of the New Zealand Library Association’s general training course. Part II consisted of a detailed study of children’s books, including a preliminary period of reading and a reading record kept throughout the course, and Part 111 was devoted to the administrative aspects of children’s library service. For Part IV students were required to pass the Education papers of the Class C examination for the certification of teachers held by the Education Department, and to spend at least 20 hours in the classrooms of different types of schools. Parts II and 111 were conducted by correspondence, Mrs White’s notes being followed up by a series of project tasks done by the student and sent to the tutor for approval and comment. No formal examinations were held for these parts, the emphasis being on the continuous training given by the participation of the student in the project work.

The syllabus was approved by the Council in February 1941, and the first lot of 11 students were admitted to the course later in the year. Mrs White was appointed tutor, and Miss K. E. Harvey and the Liaison Officer, Miss E, I. Carnell, were appointed to act as an examining board. The Liaison Officer, who had done much of the work of preparing the syllabus, also helped the tutor in maintaining contact with the students and seeing that work was sent in on time. The course was a difficult one, both for the students and the tutor, and it would be fair to say that it could not have lasted as long as it did without the boundless enthusiasm brought to it by Mrs White. Most of the students either failed to make satisfactory progress or dropped out of the course, and in the end only two people ever managed to qualify for the Certificate, 24 When the Library School was established, it was decided that special training for children’s librarianship could best be given there, and the Association’s course was discontinued.

This essay in training, disappointing though it was in the results gained from the expenditure of so much effort, was valuable for the experience it gave in handling a correspondence course of training, as distinct from a system of examinations. Part 11, which was the core

23 Miss Neal married in 1939, becoming Mrs White, and, although her maiden name was used in Association correspondence and publications until 1944, she will be referred to as Mrs White from this point on.

24 One in 1947, and another in 1948, upon completion of Part IV.

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of the course, placed heavy emphasis on quality in children’s books, and was marked by Mrs White’s lively and imaginative discernment. Students who failed to complete the course nevertheless gained much from this contact with a first-rate critic of children’s literature. The notes for Part II formed the basis for Mrs White’s About Books for Children, which was published by the Association, in conjunction with the New Zealand Council for Educational Research, in 1946, and has become a basic text for all who have to do with children’s books. The Children's Librarian’s course was not the least part of Mrs White’s distinguished contribution to New Zealand librarianship.

While the course for the Children’s Librarian’s Certificate was getting under way, the Training Committee was working out a syllabus for a General Training Course. This syllabus was discussed at the conference in February 1941 and approved by the Council in November 1941. The course was to be done by correspondence, the students being given notes and reading lists and being required to send monthly assignments of written work to their tutors. In addition, students were to keep a reading record, and submit comments on their reading to a supervisor of reading records. The full plan of the course was this:

A. General Certificate

Part 1 (12 months). Administration

Part 2 (18 months). Elementary cataloguing, elementary classification.

Reading record for 50 weeks.

B. Diploma

u. isiytuiriu The General Certificate course, and

Part 3 (12 months). Book stock.

Two of the following three parts:

Part 4 (12 months). Organization.

rail ** iiiuiiinaj. uigauirauuii. Part 5 (12 months). Advanced cataloguing and classification.

aui l _/ yi l iiiuuuio j . iiutuuvvu vuiaiuguuig auu WIUOOIIIWUt.IV/11. Part 6 (12 months). The social background of library work in New Zealand.

Reading record for 50 weeks.

The formal educational qualification demanded as a prerequisite for admission to the course was a pass in the School Certificate Examination, the Matriculation Examination, or any recognized equivalent or higher general educational qualification.

Although the emphasis throughout the course was on continuous training through the work on the monthly assignments followed by tutors’ comments, each part was to be followed by a test which would have to be passed before work could be begun on the next part. The Reading Record was a deliberate departure from the practice of overseas library training schemes, of which a more formal subject such as English literature formed a part. Libraries and library work are concerned with much more than one field of knowledge, and the Reading Record was designed to test students’ discrimination in and understanding of their reading while allowing as many kinds of interests as

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possible This part of the course has always been regarded very seriously by the Association, and supervisors have insisted that students’ comments must demonstrate an intelligent appreciation of books of good quality.

Forty-two students were admitted to the course in the first annual intake in August 1942. The course notes for Part I were written by the Liaison Officer, Miss E. J. Carnell, who brought to them the freshness of outlook and the impatience with outmoded forms and conventions which characterized her other work. Senior librarians acted as tutors, each one at first taking a certain number of students throughout the course, but later taking all students for certain of the monthly sections.

The General Training Course started well, for there was considerable appreciation of the value of a well designed course of training suitable for local conditions, and the tutors were willing to devote much of their spare time to work which would benefit New Zealand libraries in the future. There were ominous signs, however. As later courses were begun, difficulty was experienced in finding enough tutors from among the very small number of senior, and qualified, librarians in the country. Then, the full course leading to the Diploma was a daunting project for all concerned, not least to the students who would have to spend at least five and a half years completing it. Although the existence of the course would add to the prestige of library work, it did not immediately increase the number of people working in libraries, and the entrance qualification was not high enough, by overseas standards, if it were to be relied upon to build up the numbers of librarians suitable to take senior posts.

The Association had for some time thought that the eventual aim should be a degree course under the auspices of the University of New Zealand. In 1944 the opportunity came to establish an advanced training course at graduate level, although not under the wing of the university. The United States Government opened an Information Library in Wellington early in that year. Its Director was Miss M. P. Parsons, who had been Resident Director of a library school in Paris from 1924 to 1929 and had taught in library schools in Canada and the United States. The Training Committee was quick to see that Miss Parsons’s experience could be used, and in preliminary discussions it was apparent that the Government would be sympathetic towards a suggestion that it should add the training of librarians at an advanced level to the part it was already playing in library service. In October 1944 the Council of the Association resolved “That in view of the very great need which exists, and will continue to exist for some time for trained library personnel in New Zealand, the Government be asked to establish in consultation with the Training Committee of the New Zealand Library Association intensive training facilities in Wellington, and that steps be taken to secure the services of Miss

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M, P. Parsons, Director of the U.S. Information Library, as director of the project.”

The Government agreed to the proposal, and after it had been established that Miss Parsons would be available, the Minister of Education announced the establishment of a library school attached to the Country Library Service in Wellington. “Fullest use of the stocks of books in our public and other libraries can be achieved only through better staffing,” said the Minister. “The Library Association has begun a system of training and final tests for the New Zealand Library Association Certificate will be taken shortly by a number of students. The need is clear, however, for more powerful means of training, and a library school which will give a full academic year’s training is to be established.” It was planned that 30 students, who would be university graduates, should be trained annually, and upon successful completion of the course would receive a Diploma. In exceptional circumstances, non-graduates would be admitted if their qualifications and experience were such that they could be expected to complete the course, but such students would receive a Certificate in place of the Diploma. The students would devote their full time to the School, and would be paid an allowance similar to that paid to students at teachers’ training colleges. In addition, the Library School would give short courses for special groups of librarians between the full courses. The Association’s interest in training was recognized by a provision that representatives of its Training Committee should act as members of the Library School’s Selection Committee.

Miss Parsons acted as Director of the School until the end of 1947, when she returned to the United States. It is hard to estimate the benefit that librarianship in New Zealand derived from her fortunate presence here at a critical time. The concept of librarianship as a graduate profession is now well established, thanks to her work and to those who appreciated her value.

The establishment of the Library School, which recruited at university graduate level, did not lessen the need for a course designed for library assistants who joined library staffs after leaving secondary school, and Parts 1 and 2 of the Association’s General Training Course, leading to the award of the N.Z.L.A. Certificate, were continued. But because advanced training was now provided by the Library School, the later parts of the Association’s course, leading to a Diploma, were abandoned in 1945. The decision not to proceed with the Association’s diploma course caused some dissatisfaction, which will be discussed in the next section of this book. It is doubtful, however, if the Association could have carried the full course through. The number of tutors available for Parts 1 and 2 was already inadequate; it would have been difficult to find tutors for the exacting work of the later sections from existing staffs. Moreover, the entrance qualification laid down for the course, while it was suitable for the intermediate

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New Zealand Library Association

level of training offered by the Certificate course, was not adequate as a basis for advanced training in librarianship. The immediate advantages gained from the establishment of the School were, first, a net increase in the number of people in the library profession, and, second, a higher level of general education in those who were embarking upon advanced training. A Library School at the graduate level could, moreover, be expected to produce people who could act as tutors and examiners for the Association’s training course.

Planning

The two parts of the Munn-Barr proposals for a national library service had been filled in, to some extent, by the establishment of the Country Library Service, on the one hand, and by the development of bibliographical services around the Central Bureau for Library Book Imports, on the other. As the consequences of these moves become clearer, members of the Association began to try to sort them into order by considering the framework surrounding them, and a series of Planning Committees worked from 1943 on to prepare plans for the future.

The first planning efforts were devoted to overall plans for the national organization of library services, and two plans were drawn up and published in 1943 for discussion. One of them (Plan A) provided for a Ministry of Libraries and State finance for a system in which power devolved downwards from a Dominion Library Service. The other (Plan B) was less revolutionary, being largely based on an extension of the Country Library Service, with local control of local services. Plan A was too impressive for the circumstances of the time, and in any case would have met with opposition because of the strong element of state control contained in it, and when the Country Library Service, after consulting the Association, announced plans for decentralization, the Association recognized that, in this field, nothing more could be attempted in the meantime.

A committee on university and research libraries in relation to planning then looked at the problem from another angle, and reported that it saw a need for a strong national centre to link all libraries possessing material of categories beyond the recreational level, for better local links between public and learned libraries, and for higher standards for all libraries. It recommended that the long-standing policy for the establishment of a real National Library should be revived, and that it should be achieved by the combination of the General Assembly Library, the Alexander Turnbull Library, the Country Library Service, and various special collections such as that of the Royal Society.

The last planning committee, which was then set up, was the Planning Committee—National Library, whose report was taken to the conference which was held in Wanganui in February 1945. Discus-

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sions in the committee had shown that the creation of a National Library was not feasible at that time, and it therefore recommended that a National Library Service should be established on the basis of the Country Library Service, as a separate Department under the Minister of Education, with the expectation that other State-owned libraries would become increasingly closely associated with it as circumstances allowed. The immediate steps recommended by the committee were;

(1) The establishment of a National Library Centre to be developed from the various services already organized by the Country Library Service (i.e. Union Catalogue, Book imports bureau, Book resources activities. Reference service, Interloan, etc.).

(2) The establishment of a school for the training of librarians (as already recommended to the Government).

(3) The development of regional organization of public library service as already approved by the Association.

These proposals were endorsed by the conference, which sent a telegram to the Minister of Education asking that a National Library Service be set up. In October of the same year the Minister announced the creation of the new Service, with three divisions (National Library Centre, Library School, and Country Library Service) corresponding to the three separate recommendations, and with Mr G. T. Alley as its Director.

The Framework is Finished

It can now be seen that the framework of the present-day library system in New Zealand was fashioned in the 10 years which followed the Munn-Barr report, and that it culminated in the establishment of the National Library Service. The system which had developed by 1945 thus became institutionalized, and at the same time became the system within which future development had necessarily to occur. It was a system which had been set up in an astonishingly short time, in spite of the fact that during more than half the period the country had been distracted by war. But it differed in several respects from the system which had been envisaged by the Munn-Barr report and by others who had tried their hands at blue-prints for New Zealand library development, and the differences have had such an important effect on later developments that it is worth while to try to work out just why they occurred.

The most important departure from accepted library thinking of the early thirties was that development did not occur around the General Assembly Library. That library had been expected to become a national library by developing central bibliographical and lending services, and by administering the new form of subsidy in kind which was to replace the old subsidy to individual country libraries. However, when the first breakthrough occurred with the establishment of

64

New Zealand Library Association

the Country Library Service the new organization was formed under the Minister of Education and quite separately from the General Assembly Library. The officer in charge of the Country Library Service was for the first few months seconded to the Legislative Department, but it was to the head of the Department, Mr T. D. H. Hall, that he was attached, not to the General Assembly Library, which was under the jurisdiction of the Legislative Department. Mr Hall, it will be remembered, was one of the two non-librarians in central government positions who worked very hard to get the Association’s ideas on rural library service accepted by the Government, and the Minister of Education, Mr Peter Fraser, was a man who was passionately interested in books and library services.

It is difficult not to conclude that those who urgently wanted something to be done about rural libraries were impatient for quick action and decided to go ahead outside the General Assembly Library. The energy with which the Country Library Service was begun, and the soundness of its administration, both in the relationship which developed between central and local government and in the type of books it provided, were justifications for its separate establishment, but its very energy and vision created more long-term problems. As the need and the opportunity for central services became apparent, it was the Country Library Service which recognized them and was prepared to do something about them. So it was that the Central Bureau for Library Book Imports was placed in the Country Library Service, which nurtured its more important children, the union catalogue, the clearing house for inter-library lending, the national lending collection, and all the services which clustered around them.

The establishment and success of the Country Library Service were due to a combination of fortunate circumstances. The presence of a small number of young librarians of very high quality who had, through the wisdom of the Carnegie Corporation, had overseas training and experience, ensured that the Munn-Barr report would spark off a burst of activity. But it was surely beyond the powers of even the Carnegie Corporation to arrange that the Minister of Education at the critical time should be a man of the calibre of Mr Fraser. And the discovery by the Carnegie Library Group of Mr G. T. Alley meant that the Country Library Service was formed under a librarian who could see and appreciate the whole library picture.

The establishment of the National Library Service followed naturally from the gathering of functions around the Country Library Service. It would have been simpler if the General Assembly Library had developed into a national library, but the fact is that at that time it did not. If the Country Library Service had not come into being, it is very likely that we would still be without many of the elements of a national library. It is annoying that those elements are split up among

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65

three separate libraries, but it would be even more annoying if many of them did not exist at all.

The Country Library Service itself was different from the type of rural service recommended by Munn and Barr. The idea of the subsidy in kind, in the form of circulating book stock, was according to prescription, but the original suggestion of district and regional groupings of libraries was not put into operation. 2s Instead, the central organization was strengthened by the addition of functions such as the service to schools. The first move away from centralization was seen in the opening of a Country Library Service Office in Christchurch in 1945 and the promise that other offices would be opened as opportunity permitted.

This method of development was dictated by hard facts and by common sense. It did not mean that the Country Library Service was intent on being for ever a strong central organization ; its record of careful and conciliatory relations with local authorities is proof of this. There were just not enough librarians in the country to set up a system of district and regional groupings that had any chance of working. The few people who had the training and ability to create a worth-while service had to be concentrated together, both so that their combined efforts would produce visible results and so that they could establish standards of service which would provide a reference point for later developments.

The Association, in deciding to devote so much of its small resources to its own training courses and in endorsing the proposal to establish a library school, recognized that the need to increase the number of qualified librarians was fundamental. The Planning Committee realized this in 1944 when it accepted the plans for gradual decentralization of the Country Library Service and recorded its opinion “that this scheme depends for its success on an adequately trained body of library staff and recommends that the training committee be asked to give urgent consideration to the matter.”

The Association participated in the development of the 10 years which have been discussed in this chapter, and at the end of the period it was clear that it was the organization in which discussions of library policy should take place. Its strength stemmed from many causes, but things might have happened differently if it had not been for the foresight and wisdom of many of the people involved. In two particular circumstances the temptation to ignore the Association, had it been heeded, might have led to quick rewards but would certainly have impeded further developments by weakening the only body which could unite all who were concerned about libraries and librarian-

25 It may be noted that the Munn-Barr proposals, in excluding towns of more than 12,000 population from district groupings, contained an inherent weakness.

New Zealand Library Association

66

ship. They were the activities of the Carnegie Library Group and the growth of the Country Library Service.

The Carnegie Library Group performed an essential function up to the time, in 1937, that the Association was able to continue its work, but its most essential function after that was to hand its torch on to the Association. There were arguments about the rights of the two organizations, but, fortunately, most of the members of the Group saw that they must not try to continue independently. The temptation for the Country Library Service to carve out its own path without reference to the Association must have been stronger, for it was a Government organization, with good financial backing, but in its development it consulted and involved the Association at all stages. The appointment of the Liaison Officer demonstrated, on the Government’s side, the importance which was accorded to the Association, and when the Central Bureau for Library Book Imports was grafted on to the Country Library Service the principle was established that the Association should be able to have some influence on its operation and on the operation of the services that sprang from it. And so, when the National Library Centre was formed, it was recognized that the Book Resources Committee of the Association should have a special relationship with it; the Librarian of the National Library Centre has acted as Secretary of the committee since that time. And when the Library School was established, it was natural that members of the Association’s Library Training Committee should serve on its selection committee.

The Honorary Secretary of the Association from 1935 to 1942 was Mr J. Norrie, of the Wellington Public Libraries, and his assistant was Mr S. Perry. These two nursed the Association through the pangs of its rebirth and made it worthy of the confidence of the Carnegie Corporation. In 1942 the Honorary Secretaryship passed to Mr G. T. Alley, and there followed a period of fruitful co-operation between the political leaders of the Government, the most active Government library agency, and the Association, All three elements were intent upon the same objectives, and the period lasted long enough for the new library pattern to become established. Such a happy combination is not likely to occur again, but at least it should not be possible to challenge the principle that the proper body to consider matters concerning libraries is the New Zealand Library Association.

Consolidation 1945-1960

The years since 1945 have not seen great structural changes in the library services of the country, but during this period the work of the previous 10 years has been consolidated as libraries have improved their work, both in quantity and in quality. The Association’s Training Course and the Library School between them have turned out about 500 people with professional qualifications, and yet in 1960 it seems to be as difficult to fill vacancies as it was in 1945. There have been losses of people from natural causes—mostly marriage—but the continuing shortage of librarians is essentially due to the rapid development of services and the consequent demand for more and more librarians. For 15 years, in effect, a multi-storeyed building has been going up on the foundations which were completed in 1945.

The Association has gained in strength from its increasing membership, and in this chapter some of the work which has been done by it and some of the work which it has stimulated will be described. In 1945 many questions were left unsolved, and the general improvement of library services has brought into prominence others which did not seem so important then. These have in recent years been tackled by the Association, and in 1960 it seems that there are as many urgent problems demanding attention as there were at any earlier time. The Association has been challenged for presenting more than one project to the Government at once, and it is true that in recent years it has been pressing for several important policy decisions. But the period since 1945 has been one of consolidation, and one in which not many new decisions have been made.

Building up the Profession

The first priority in 1945 was the training of librarians. The beginning of the Association’s Training Course and the establishment of the Library School have already been described. The first 13 Certificates of the N.Z. Library Association were awarded in 1945 to students who had passed the tests at the end of Parts I and 11. The first Professional Course of the Library School began in February 1946 with 29 students. In both cases the first courses were strong because they gathered in a number of people who had not taken training earlier because courses did not exist. In spite of a falling off in numbers during the early fifties, however, 272 N.Z.L.A. Certificates had been awarded by 1960, and 269 graduates of the Library School (some

67

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New Zealand Library Association

of whom also held the N.Z.L.A. Certificate) had received the School's Diploma or Certificate.

In its early years the existence of the Library School caused some resentment among students of the Association’s Training Course. Many who embarked upon the Training Course when it was begun had hoped to work through to the Association’s Diploma, which would then have been the highest indigenous qualification. The very good reasons for the establishment of the Library School did not carry much weight with people who, having worked for some time in libraries and having already done much work on the Training Course, saw the second leg demolished and in its place set up a School which introduced inexperienced university graduates to the profession at a level which threatened to be above their own.

In its first year the Library School had restricted the number of places to 30, and in filling them had sought to increase the net number of people in the profession. When applications were being called for admission to its second course, it announced, through the Library Training Committee of the Association, that it hoped to include a number of people already in library work, and that the selection committee would therefore in certain cases consider applicants whose educational background appeared to them to be equivalent to that required for a degree and whose position warranted taking this step. As a further concession, in 1948 and 1949 holders of the Association’s Certificate were admitted to the School for the last two terms. If they were also university graduates they were then awarded the Diploma of the School; non-graduates qualified for the School’s Certificate.

Thus an attempt was made to meet the specific complaint of those who had looked forward to gaining the Association’s Diploma, and it seems to have been successful, for the ill feeling which had been aroused died down fairly rapidly. Two other arguments which affected the School in its early years were, first, whether it should take over the Association’s correspondence course, and second, whether it should be attached to the university.

The Association had had difficulty in finding enough people to act as tutors for its course, and an impression had been formed, encouraged no doubt by relief at finding an easy way out, that when the Library School was established it would take over the work of tutoring. Indeed, in reporting on plans for the School at a meeting of the Library Training Committee in February 1945, Mr G, T. Alley is quoted in the minutes as saying, “The School could begin to take over the N.Z.L.A. training course as soon as staff was appointed. . . The school itself was unable to find enough people to fill its establishment of lecturers, 1 and did not look eagerly for extra duties.

1 An application was made to the Carnegie Corporation of New York for assistance in sending three New Zealand university graduates to the United States for courses which would qualify them to teach at the

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This question became linked with the general discontent referred to above, and at the 1948 Annual Meeting, when the relationship between the two courses was discussed with some feeling, a motion was passed instructing the Council, among other things, to request the Government “to undertake the administration of the General Training Course of the N7.L.A. as a function of the New Zealand Library School”. This request was refused by the Minister of Education, who said, “The Library School was established in 1946 for the purpose of training students, at the graduate level, in library work. This is in accord with professional practice in the United States and Canada, where library procedures and training are well developed. I understand that the General Training Course of the New Zealand Library Association endeavours to meet the needs of library assistants who cannot come to the School, and that it is providing a very valuable course of training. It is questionable whether the two different types of training could satisfactorily be carried out by the same staff, and at present the School staff could not undertake the administration of the New Zealand Library Association Course.”

The Training Committee then decided to investigate the possibility of revising the Association’s course to include a short residential course at the School. A plan prepared by the Acting Director of the School, Miss N. Bateson, was discussed by Branches and Sections of the Association, and adopted by the Training Committee in September 1949. The sections of the course were reshuffled so that students did two years’ work by correspondence for Part I, sitting a test at the end of each year; those who passed the tests and satisfied the supervisor of reading records were then admitted to Part 11, which was a fulltime course of six weeks, later reduced to five, held at the Library School. In the rearrangement of subjects, those which could gain most from the use of the stock of the National Library Service and from the proximity of students to Wellington libraries were included in the part to be given at the School. The Government agreed to allow the School to give Part II and to pay students living allowances while they were at the School, and the first admissions to the course under the revised syllabus were made in March 1950. Those who passed the tests in Part I spent six weeks at the School in January and February 1952.

After this change was effected, the relationship between the two

Library School. The Corporation was unable to meet this request because of a wartime embargo on Commonwealth projects outside Canada. A decision by the New Zealand Government to provide the necessary finance came to nothing because suitable applicants did not appear. One person was later sent to study at the Columbia School of Library Service and returned to full-time lecturing at the School, but the School has never had the number of lecturers that was thought desirable when it was established.

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New Zealand Library Association

courses of training quickly clarified. The Association’s course is essentially aimed at the intermediate, and the Professional Course of the Library School at the senior level. The relationship may perhaps be expressed by the following illustration, even though it is exaggerated, and takes no account of many reasons which lead a student into one or other of the courses. A girl who starts to work in a library after leaving school with School Certificate or University Entrance, and who takes the job seriously enough to want to undergo a course of training but does not expect to be working all her life, will take the Association’s Training Course. A boy who wants to make librarianship his career and who wishes to bring up a family in reasonable comfort will take a university degree and then apply for admission to the Professional Course of the Library School.

Librarians who have received their training in a New Zealand course now predominate in the profession. Of the 353 librarians listed in Who’s Who in New Zealand Libraries 1958, 104 had a Library School qualification, 99 had the Association’s Certificate, and 18 had both; 33 had overseas qualifications. Another 99 had no library qualification ; these include a number who had been in library work for a long time, among them some who have played an important part in establishing training courses, but the greater number were in junior positions or in charge of small libraries or branches. A very large part of the burden of tutoring and examining for the Association’s course is now taken by graduates of the Library School.

The question of attaching the Library School to the university has not yet been resolved. At the 1941 conference, when the Association was discussing the inauguration of its correspondence course, a case was made for the establishment of a university course. Mr G. T. Alley said then that no one would be so absurd as not to want one, but that it would only be practicable to think of having one “if the Association had a long and glorious career of library training, had in effect trained people, if the country were full of good libraries . . . .” As a result of a motion passed at the conference, however, discussions were held with representatives of Victoria University College, but without success. When the opportunity came to establish a course at graduate level it was the Government, through the National Library Service, that took it.

In 1945 the newly formed National Library Service was the organization that was best fitted to establish a library school. It was the centre of library development and was able to set standards of training better than either the university or any other library in the country. In 1950, when the move to have the School transferred to university control culminated in a conference remit, it seemed to many who were concerned about the future of the School that it amounted to an attempt to present a valuable asset to an institution that was not particularly interested in it and would not be able to look after it. The

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Vice-Chancellor of Victoria University College had expressed some interest in the proposal, but when the Vice-Chancellor of the University of New Zealand addressed the meeting at which the remit was discussed, he treated the matter very lightly and gave the impression that the university did not want the School and did not appreciate what was involved in training for librarianship.

Since 1950, the Library School, which was then still establishing its position, has become an essentia! part of the picture of librarianship in New Zealand and has acquired a tradition which it could carry with it if it were to be transferred to a university. A remit to the 1960 conference, reopening the question, was narrowly defeated, but Dr Andrew D. Osborn, speaking later in the conference, probably spoke for many of those who voted against it when he said that the School should be a university one but that it was probably a matter of timing. If the School could be transferred to a university in a good library centre in such a way as to preserve its present standards there is no doubt that the profession would be pleased, as well as grateful to the National Library Service for setting those standards.

The profession of librarianship has of course been fundamentally affected by the number of qualified people, and particularly the number of university graduates, who have become available and have increased the efficiency and usefulness of libraries. In their own interest they have had to seek better recognition than their predecessors were given, and it has also been necessary, in the interest of the profession as a whole, that conditions, and particularly salaries, should not remain so bad as to prevent recruitment of the kind of people who were needed.

An attempt that was made in 1940 to form a union of library workers failed. The Association Council, on the advice of its honorary solicitor, decided that it could not sponsor a union, since the Association's membership included employers as well as employees. As training schemes were established, however, it became obvious that training and salaries were interdependent factors, and that if employers wanted to attract good people they must be able to offer good conditions of employment. And so a formula was found to enable the Association to look after both classes of its membership: it would not sponsor a union or act as a union, but it would lay down standards which it would then urge employing authorities, in their own interest, to adopt of their own free will.

In 1946 a committee on salaries, conditions and qualifications made an attempt to classify positions in public libraries, name the qualifications which would be appropriate for them, and arrange them in a graded salary scale. In a series of recommendations the committee urged that future recruitment to professional library posts should be through the Library School, and it concluded, “The Committee reiterates its conviction that only through valuable work well done will

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New Zealand Library Association

adequate remuneration come, and emphasizes with all the force at its command that the solution of the salaries problem will be found when selective recruiting is possible and when library training has become well established.”

The Stabilization Regulations were the first obstacle that had to be overcome. These regulations, which were a wartime measure designed to prevent unbalance in the economy, were not suited to the needs of a profession which did not intend to stabilize the standard of its work, but the Director of Stabilization was not one to take the long view. Before employing authorities could be urged to adopt the Association’s scale, it was necessary to get the Stabilization Commission to approve it so that the employers could then apply for permission to adopt it. Approval was gained in 1947 of the lower grades in the scale, up to £460, but the Acting Director of Stabilization said that before considering the question of approving higher grades the Commission desired to have information on the attitude of employing authorities (i.e. of the Municipal Association) to the rates proposed by the Association. Since the Association’s function was not to act as the Municipal Association’s mouthpiece but to persuade employers that if they wanted good library service they would have to pay for good librarians, this was a clear case of putting the cart before the horse.

At the 1949 annual meeting a resolution was carried, “That this annual meeting convey to the Patron of the Association [the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser] its disapproval of the cavalier treatment of a recommendation made to the Director of Stabilization in connection with librarians’ salaries, and that fresh representation be heard.” The difficulty was never overcome during the Commission’s lifetime, however, and its demise, which might have been unfortunate for the economy as a whole, was for librarianship a considerable relief. Since then, the Association has attempted, by means of a series of standard salary scales, the latest of which covers non-public as well as public libraries, to improve the status of the profession and enable it to compete for recruits with others requiring the same sort of background of their workers. There has, of course, been a reciprocal tendency for the Association to look to good employing authorities in formulating its recommendations. The fact that the scales have had to be approved by a Council of which delegates of institutional members have been members has ensured that their main purpose—to help in recruitment —has not been obscured. The scales have always embodied the principle of equal pay for women, which of course carries with it the danger that all salaries will be reduced to rates considered suitable for women. Library salaries are still low, and the top positions are ridiculously graded, but they are not as low as they were 20 years ago.

It remains to be said that, although the Library School cannot now train enough people to fill all the vacancies offered by libraries, this was not so in the earliest years of its existence. If it had not been for

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the ability and willingness of the National Library Service to add a high proportion of the first Library School graduates to its staff, many of them would have been unable to find positions. Of the first 100 graduates of the School, 54 started work in the National Library Service; 29 of these were still in the Service in 1952, whereas the number of this group working in public libraries had by then increased from 18 to 22, in spite of the fact that 25 had meanwhile left library work. In the early 1950s there was even a period when it was thought that the School would have to close for a year because of the lack of openings for its graduates. Acceptance of the School came quickly thereafter, but the National Library Service deserves credit, not only for establishing the School but also for nursing its product through the first years.

The Association Gains Strength

At the beginning of 1945 the Association had 439 members. Sixteen years later there were 1,100. Divided into classes of membership the figures are:

Beginning End

of of

1945 1960

Hon. life members 3 9

Ordinary life members 4

Ordinary (i.e. personal) members 213 739

Institutional members 223 348

The Carnegie grant of $29,700 for the general purposes of the Association, which was made in 1939 for a period of five years, had been carefully husbanded, a large item of expenditure being removed when the Liaison Officer was appointed Assistant Director of the Country Library Service. A statement which was sent to the Corporation in 1947, and which covered operations since the receipt of the first grant, showed that the state of the fund was as follows on 31st July of that year:

Receipts Payments

£ s. d, £ s. d.

Ist grant 1,751 12 9 Rent and insurance 150 13 8

2nd grant 1,715 11 8 Salaries: office 2,103 5 7

3rd and 4th grants Liaison officer: salary

(1942) 3,439 18 6 and expenses 1,574 4 9

1 X y li. I •/ 1 XV v uuu X y # r y sth grant (1945) 1,813 0 10 Furniture, etc. 280 15 6

Current office ex-

8,720 3 9 penses 117 15 6

Interest, etc. 325 2 5 Printing and station-

ery 201 0 3

Books 73 14 9

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New Zealand Library Association

Union List of Serials 162 2 6 Index to N.Z. Period-

icals 21 16 1

Interloan handbook 28 7 0

Training course:

tutors and examin-

ers 319 10 10 Printing New Zea-

land Libraries and

Proceedings 1,630 10 6

6,978 13 4 2,066 12 10

Balance

£9,045 6 2

£9,045 6 2

Subscriptions at this time brought in about £4OO a year, but the annual excess of expenditure over receipts was about twice that amount. Subscription rates, which had deliberately been kept low because of the need to attract new members, were raised slightly in 1948, but the Association still relied heavily on the Carnegie grant.

An application for a further general grant was sent to the Carnegie Corporation in 1949, but the Corporation replied that it felt that full local support should by then be forthcoming. It therefore made the Association a single, final grant of $lO,OOO to provide a transition period in which the Association could reorganize its financial basis. The grant was generous, and the decision salutary.

During the next years expenditure, particularly on publications, was reduced, and some relief was given by the Government’s decision to take over the responsibility for publishing the Index to New Zealand Periodicals and the Union List of Serials in New Zealand Libraries. Grants were sought, and received for some years, from the Department of Internal Affairs and from private trust funds. Subscription rates were raised again, and a drive for new institutional members, helped by the publication of an illustrated pamphlet, A Message to Local Authorities, carried out.

These were temporary measures, however. The greatest increase in membership resulted from the training programme, which increased both the number of people in the profession and the number of institutions and authorities with properly organized libraries. The increasing status of librarians, coupled with gradually increasing salary rates, meant that members, who pay subscriptions according to a graduated scale, tended to move into higher brackets. In 1960 the amount taken in subscriptions was nearly £2,200, and the excess of expenditure over income in the general account, which was less than £lO in 1959, had risen again to £llB. The subscription rates were raised again at the 1960 annual meeting.

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The Association’s finances are therefore fairly stable now, but it is not a wealthy organization. Its training course, which is partly financed by students’ fees, is possible because tutors and examiners are willing to work for very small rates of payment, and most of the other work of the Association, apart from that done by the permanent office staff, is unpaid. The office was given rent-free space in the Wellington Public Library from 1935 until 1940, and then, after it had occupied rented offices for a short time, in the National Library Service from 1942 until 1960, but it has now been necessary for the Association to acquire a building of its own for its headquarters.

Sectional Interests

If the larger membership has enabled the Association to balance its books, it has also meant that the work of the Association has become more diversified. In its early days it was primarily a public library organization, reflecting the pattern of libraries in New Zealand. Much of the work of reorganization in the 1930s was, however, done by university librarians, and one effect of bibliographical projects initiated by the Association and often carried on and developed by the National Library Service has been to encourage the development of non-public libraries, particularly the specialized libraries of Government Departments and research institutions.

Besides this development, a change occurred in the public library field as local authorities, which had been a bit out of the picture when the new personal members were bringing the Association to life, began to take a more active interest in libraries and Association affairs. Certain far-seeing local authority delegates, such as Miss E. Melville of Auckland, had been keenly interested in the Association throughout this period, but the great increase in local authority participation came with the improvement of public library services, and as a result of hard work and persuasion by personal members who saw the importance of building up the institutional membership and interest.

Since the war, then, there has been a growth of new interests within the Association, and this has been reflected in the organization of the Association itself. The instruments of progress in the 1930s had been the Branches, which, although they nominally included the whole range of membership, were essentially groups of personal members. The Branches were supplemented by the University and Research Section and the Schools Section, whose formation has already been noted. The most significant sectional development came, however, in 1949, with the formation of the Local Authorities Section.

The Local Authorities Section was designed both to provide a forum for the discussion of library matters by delegates of local authority institutional members, and thus to attract to active membership people who might have thought that the Association was primarily of interest only to librarians, and also to ensure that major policy

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decisions affecting public libraries should be discussed by institutional delegates and endorsed by the Council in a form acceptable to them. Since its formation, despite ups and downs caused by changes in management, and despite dark hints of subversion within the ranks, the Section has been useful on both counts. As the discussions with the Stabilization Commission showed, the Association was vulnerable if it could not be shown that its decisions were not simply those of its personal members, and yet it was not satisfactory or possible for the Association, which has wider than local authority interests, to act as a subsidiary of the Municipal Association. It is an interesting commentary on the formation of this Section that when a remit was brought before the conference of the Municipal Association in 1954, asking for endorsement of the N.Z.L.A. standard salary scale, that Association decided to investigate the credentials of the N.Z.L.A.; that the ensuing discussions between the two Associations were concluded amicably was due largely to the existence of the Local Authorities Section.

In 1950, a conference meeting which discussed the professional status of librarians resolved that a section should be set up to represent the interests of librarians and assistants, and the Professional Section was formed at the following year’s conference. This Section has done some useful work in formulating standards of appointment and employment of librarians and in helping in the discussion of matters of professional interest. It has not been as noteworthy a success as the Local Authorities Section, however, because it entered a field which was already taken up, to some extent at least, by the Branches. There is no doubt, however, that it could be effective in the future, especially if it can establish a working relationship with the Branches, in two main fields: in looking after the trade union, or employee, side of the Association’s work, and in providing opportunities for the discussion and examination of what the institutional delegates call technical library matters.

The Schools Section was converted in 1951 into a Children’s and Young People’s Section, thus widening its field of interest, and in 1954 a Small Public Libraries Section was formed. Other groupings have occurred, without full sectional status, when it has become apparent that members with similar interests could benefit from discussions at conference and other times. Among these have been the Scientific and Technical Librarians’ Seminar, which has a loose connexion with the University and Research Section, and the Seminar for Librarians of New Zealand Collections, which would look toward the same Section or the New Zealand Book Resources Committee,

The value of the Sections and similar groupings is that, like the Branches, they are powered from below and so make it possible for varying interests within the Association to make their voices heard. In this way they complement the committees which are appointed by

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the Council to carry out work which the Council wants done. The Sections perform the valuable function of enabling people with similar interests to find common ground within an Association whose interests tend to become more diversified as libraries themselves become more diversified. When the Local Authorities Section was proposed, Mr R. F. Barr, of the Dunedin City Council, wrote, “I believe that sessions or seminars of local body men at past conferences have caused librarians some mild alarm, and that there is the feeling that whenever Council allows local body men to get together at a conference they become ‘subversive’ and start talking about a separate library organization, where they can get away from the oppressive number of librarians. Any tendency to break away would result in the development of parallel bodies which would normally meet at the same place and time for their annual conferences. I noticed in the November issue of New Zealand Libraries a suggestion by a librarian that a separate professional association should be formed. Both tendencies are, I think, likely to persist unless the separate interests can be separately provided for within the constitution. I hope the Local Authorities Section will do something towards this. Whether a professional section is also needed depends on the extent to which librarians think that their technical and professional needs are met by the Association’s standing committees.” 2

In 1960, the Association’s rules were altered to provide for some degree of separate representation of sectional interests on the Council, with separate elections to be held for representatives of (a) local authority institutional members, (b) other institutional members, and (c) personal members. The suggestion which was taken to the Annual Meeting was that these seats, which make up more than half the membership of the Council, should be allocated in the ratio of 4:2:6, but it quickly came out in discussion that the delegates of “other institutional members” considered that two seats were not sufficient to give them adequate representation and the ratio was altered to 4:4:6. A representative of the local authority institutional members said that the local authorities were getting the seats they wanted and that it would be better if all interests could feel that they were being fairly treated. His attitude is the only one that is appropriate to a complex organization which includes many interests which gain strength from association with each other.

The development of many and varying activities and interests within

2 New Zealand Libraries v. 12 p. 51 March 1949. It should perhaps be noted that both the Local Authorities Section and the Professional Section contravened the rules of the Association, the first in restricting its membership to local authority delegates and the second in not restricting its interest to a particular type of library service. Both were so obviously needed, however, that the 1960 Annual Meeting made honest Sections of them by amending the rules.

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the Association is a natural result of the growth of the profession. When one considers the Association of the period 1935 to 1945, the same names crop up in one context after another, but it is possible now for a person to do a good job in a small corner of the Association and hardly be known elsewhere. This is an aspect of the development of a very small association into a small one, but care must be taken to ensure that it does not lead to splintering.

As is only natural, the Branches have not, since the war, occupied the dominating position that they did in the thirties. Despite the fact that their membership nominally comprises the whole Association membership, personal and institutional, within their areas, they are essentially groups of personal members working in the towns where the Branches are centred, and many of the more active members devote their main efforts to Council or committee work. The Branches do, however, provide opportunities for matters of moment to be discussed by members who have not been elected to Council or appointed to committees, and eager new faces can catch the senior eye in Branch work. Most Branches have undertaken valuable projects of their own. For instance, Auckland has indexed a number of important early New Zealand books; Otago has compiled a cumulative index to the first twenty volumes of New Zealand Libraries and has run schools for country librarians; Palmerston North has organized week-end conferences for librarians and institutional delegates; Canterbury has taken part in the Children’s Book Week activities for which Christchurch is notable. The Wellington Branch, with the largest membership, has been the least active in this way, possibly because the senior branch members have normally been much occupied with standing committees of the Council.

Registration of Qualified Librarians

The question of compiling a register of qualified librarians was raised by the Otago Branch at the 1947 conference, but it was felt then that it was too soon to establish a register, and a committee charged with the task of reporting on the matter was not set up until 1952. After three years’ work, in which its proposals were examined stage by stage by Branches and Sections, as well as by the Council and relevant committees, the Committee on a Register of Qualified Librarians drafted rules which were approved at the 1955 Annual Meeting.

The committee decided that there would not be much point in merely compiling a list of people with library qualifications. This purpose was served by Who’s Who in New Zealand Libraries, the first edition of which appeared at the end of 1951. It saw advantages, however, in a scheme of registration which would take into account both formal qualifications and subsequent satisfactory performance in library work, and it devoted its attention to devising a scheme which would embody this principle. The main difficulty, of course, was to

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decide how an applicant’s performance in library work was to be judged.

The registration rules, which were put into their final form by the Association’s veteran draftsman, Mr T. D. H. Hall, provide for two titles: Associate of the New Zealand Library Association (ANZLA), and Fellow of the New Zealand Library Association (FNZLA). The grant of an Associateship, in the wording of the rules, indicates that a librarian has the necessary academic or similar qualifications and has proved himself by their actual exercise to be possessed of the proper skills for the higher branches of librarianship. The Fellowship is not a vocational qualification in the sense that the Associateship is, but is awarded as a high honour: “the highest title of merit in the gift of the Association”.

Applications for Associateships and nominations for Fellowships are referred to a credentials committee, which consists of five Fellows. The committee reports to the Council, which awards the charters. In theory, the Council could act without reference to the committee, but in practice it has not done so except in granting the first five Fellowships, and by a series of resolutions it has strengthened the committee’s position. Recommendations which are questioned in the Council, for instance, are not discussed in open meeting, but are, if necessary, referred back for reconsideration. The Credentials Committee is therefore the body which has the task of guarding the Association’s standards and reputation.

The standard prerequisite library qualification for the Associateship is the Diploma of the Library School, which is named in the rules together with the Certificate of the Library School and the Certificate of the New Zealand Library Association, but the Credentials Committee may accept noteworthy experience or any other library qualification. It is therefore able to recognize overseas qualifications without the fuss and bother that some other library associations experience in similar circumstances. Only a small proportion of holders of the NZLA Certificate apply for, or are granted, Associateships, but the fact that the way is open for them has removed the last differences of opinion about the merits of the two New Zealand training courses, and the fact has been recognized that although a person might not have been through the most advanced course of training he might nevertheless be a good librarian.

As is usually the case when registration schemes of this kind are introduced, provision was made for Associateships to be granted to people who did not have the necessary training qualifications but who at the date the rules came into force held a post in a New Zealand library requiring the exercise of the higher skills of librarianship and who had competently discharged their duties.

The work of devising a suitable scheme and then of drafting rules was difficult, and there was considerable difference of opinion, both

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as to whether any scheme was necessary and as to whether this one was what was required. In order to help the Annual Meeting in its discussion, a postal expression of opinion of all members of the Association was taken beforehand. Of those who voted, more than threequarters favoured the proposals, and the favourable vote of the Annual Meeting was therefore virtually assured. The final success of the scheme depends, however, on the wisdom shown by the Credentials Committee and on the gradual acceptance of the Associateship of the New Zealand Library Association as the normal mark of a fully qualified librarian.

By December 1960, 128 Associates and 12 Fellows had been registered. Their formal qualifications were:

Associates Fellows

Diploma of N.Z. Library School 60 1

Certificate of N.Z. Library School 19 -

NZLA Certificate 26 3 -

Overseas library qualifications 15

No library qualification 8 4

The Association’s Interests

The growth of the library profession in New Zealand has been described in some detail because of its effect on the Association itself and on the Association’s effectiveness in promoting library work in all its manifestations. The development of libraries in New Zealand during this period cannot be covered fully in this study, and I propose therefore to deal at some length with only three broad aspects: the Association’s policy on public library service, its work in fostering the development of the country’s book resources, and its efforts to have a National Library established. First, however, I shall give a brief account of other matters in which the Association has been involved.

Submissions made by the Association to the Consultative Committee on Adult Education in 1945 led to the Director of the National Library Service being given a seat on the National Council of Adult Education, although the Association would have preferred direct representation. The Association itself has been represented on the National Historic Places Trust since it was established in 1955. Its submissions to other committees and commissions have had some part in the formulation of Government policy, or, failing that, public opinion, on copyright, the care of archives, local authority finance, university libraries. Whenever any public organization seeks opinions on a matter affecting libraries, the Association tries to formulate a policy which will gain the backing of its members and to present it as energetically as possible. This is a field in which results often seem hard to achieve, but on each occasion the very fact that the Association has had to work out its policy means that a body of opinion is built up

3 Includes the one holder of the NZLA Children’s Librarian's Certificate.

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which can be drawn upon on other occasions. The necessary hard work of follow-up and publicity depends, however, on the ability of Council and committee members to devote time which can hardly be spared from their normal duties. The Association would gain a great deal in effectiveness if it could afford more paid staff of high quality.

After the war the Government agreed to the Association’s suggestion that subsidies for war memorials could well be applied to public library buildings, and some fine buildings, notably that at Lower Hutt, have appeared as a result of this decision. The Association’s Library Buildings Committee compiled in 1949 a set of Elementary Principles of Library Planning to assist librarians and architects in designing library buildings and to establish desirable standards for local authorities to follow, and the committee has given assistance on numerous occasions by discussing and criticizing plans for new buildings. A new edition of the principles, entitled Principles of Library Planning, was issued in 1959, and copies were sent to all registered architects.

When books from soft currency areas were freed from import control the Central Bureau for Library Book Imports continued to make recommendations to the Customs Department for licences for books from other countries, particularly the United States. The Association has therefore been able, whenever exchange crises have arisen, to persuade the Government to safeguard library needs by extending the use of an existing arrangement. This circumstance was especially fortunate in 1958, when import licensing was reintroduced and imports of books were cut to 60 per cent of the 1956 value. At the same time the Association tried to have the machinery of the Central Bureau used to enable libraries to import gramophone records, of which imports for a while were completely forbidden, but without success. This was a matter of smaller importance, since library purchases of records are nowhere near as great as those of books, but the ease with which existing machinery could be used, on the one hand, contrasted with the difficulty of obtaining any concessions, on the other, is a useful indication of the value of the legacies of the first Labour Government.

Censorship in New Zealand is carried out under the Indecent Publications Act and by virtue of the powers of the Customs Department, the latter method being especially important in the case of a country whose books are mostly imported. The Association has tried to find a way of mitigating the effects of a system of censorship which can easily be capricious. In 1946 the Council adopted a report in which it said that the New Zealand Library Association was unalterably averse to the censorship of books on qualitative grounds, but that it recognized that public opinion appeared to accept restriction in one form or another. It suggested that there were only two grounds on which a literary censorship could be justified: (1) to safeguard public

New Zealand Library Association

morals and prevent the corruption of youth (which may be through indecency, obscenity or by the glorification of gangsterism and youthful lawlessness), (2) to prevent incitement to violence (or subversion). It thought that the danger from the second ground had been considerably exaggerated, and added, “The danger is that such a censorship might be applied in a political sense, and we are firmly of the opinion that there should be no censorship of opinion, whether political or scientific, religious or philosophical. There should be no interference with partisan political literature so long as it does not advocate violence.”

After saying that the Association was opposed also to any censorship being exercised as an arbitrary act of a state department, it recommended that no book should be placed on the proscribed list without being referred to an advisory board of three members, “who should be free of political or commercial influence and chosen for their intelligence, integrity and impartiality”. It recommended further that appeals against the decisions of the board should be heard by an appeal censor, who should be a legal person of high standing, and that decisions should be communicated forthwith to the New Zealand Library Association (or the principal librarians) and the New Zealand Booksellers’ Association (i.e. the Associated Booksellers of New Zealand).

No action was taken by the Government to which this report was sent, but in 1952, following representations to the new Government, a committee consisting of Mr R. M. Burdon, Professor I. A. Gordon, and Miss I. Wilson, was appointed to advise the Minister of Customs. No arrangements were made for the appointment of an appeal censor, but despite the lack of opportunity for appeal the Advisory Committee has done something to improve the earlier haphazard arrangements, even if, in some cases, the committee has not been consulted until the Association has reminded the Government of its existence. Whenever a book has been proscribed unreasonably, in the view of the Association, a protest has been made, the latest being Nabokov’s Lolita, on which a recommendation by the Advisory Committee was ignored by the Minister of Customs.

In 1954 there occurred the extraordinary outburst of hysteria which gave every New Zealand household a copy of the report of the Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children (would that State money were applied so readily to the provision of more wholesome reading!). Hasty and ill-considered legislation which was passed almost immediately threw a heavy burden of censorship on the Justice Department, which could not handle it but which did one good job in cleaning up the horror comic field. The Association, in protesting about the far-reaching nature of the legislation, suggested that the proper answer to the problem of juvenile reading was the generous provision of good books, and it has continued to stress the need for a positive

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approach to this very difficult problem. It recognizes the need for children to be protected, but does not agree that all citizens should be considered to be children.

The entry of the Justice Department more actively into the work of censorship means that the Advisory Committee, which works for the Minister of Customs, is not consulted as often as it should be, and it has also led to a feeling in some quarters that the work of censorship should be co-ordinated. There would be many advantages in having all censoring done by the Justice Department, provided it does not fall into the hands of puritans and provided a proper appeal procedure can be devised. The Association’s policy has not changed since 1946.

The development of children’s library services has been uneven. The School Library Service has built up a large organization buying large quantities of books and distributing them from fifteen centres. By its work in choosing books to meet teachers’ requests, compiling an impressive series of annotated lists, and advising teachers and librarians in the use of books, the Service has made a very good name for itself. Children’s services in public libraries have varied in quality, in accordance with the variation in public library service generally, but the general impression, in 1960, of library services to children is one of faulty co-ordination and failure to realize the potentialities of the good services that exist. Children’s librarians are often classified on library staffs below their colleagues in other departments, and there has been a notable failure to establish proper standards of staffing for libraries in schools.

The Association attempted in 1945, and later in 1952 and the following years, to work out a pattern by which services to children could be integrated. It has tried, without success, to persuade the Government that school libraries of any size should be staffed by properly qualified teacher-librarians, and, in spite of the efforts of individuals or of such bodies as the Library School at teachers’ refresher courses, it has not really been successful in getting into the teaching profession an appreciation of the way in which the wide range of books that is available could be used in teaching. The picture of good resources alongside a failure to use them properly is an odd one to which the Association will have to give considerable attention in the future. The problems are of some magnitude: finding, for instance, a way of training the large number of people who are needed if school libraries are to function properly, and working out a better way of co-ordinating the work of public libraries with that of the schools.

Below the top level of planning and organization, the Association has done valuable work in helping to improve the standard of services for children. The training programme has produced people who have built up attractive collections of books with care and discrimin-

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ation. The institution of the Esther Glen award was followed in 1947 by a decision to encourage the publication of children’s books in New Zealand by underwriting the publication of suitable books. One book was published under this scheme in 1949, but the experiment was not a success. Children’s Book Week, which was introduced to New Zealand by the Association in 1945 under the guidance of Miss M. P. Parsons, has been a more successful method of drawing the people’s attention to good children's books. Supported annually by the Association in conjunction with the Associated Booksellers of New Zealand, it has enabled members to demonstrate, by means of displays and the preparation and distribution of selected lists for parents, together with radio talks and articles in periodicals, the wide range of valuable books that are otherwise so easily submerged by the cheap and meretricious.

The Association’s official bulletin. New Zealand Libraries, has played an important part in building up a sense of purpose in the Association. It was begun in 1932 by the Secretary, Mr E. I. Bell, as a duplicated news sheet to compensate for the decision not to hold conferences during the depression. In 1937 it became a printed monthly journal, which included articles of general professional interest as well as news. Since then its character has changed as the composition of the Association has changed, and when the Newsletter was begun in 1956 it became unnecessary for New Zealand Libraries to print ephemeral news items. The bulletin has varied in quality, of course, but at its best it has compared more than favourably with journals serving other professional groups of a similar size.

It is not possible to go into detail about all the other things that have been done by the Association. These include representations about the decision to abandon the Centennial Atlas, advice to the Department of Statistics about the quinquennial census of libraries, preparation of a recruiting pamphlet, approaches to the Department of Education about the layout and staffing of school libraries, protests about the improper treatment of librarians by employing authorities, a request (agreed to) that the New Zealand Listener publish reviews of gramophone records, and a request (not agreed to) that the Duke of Edinburgh should visit a library during the Royal Tour. Small in themselves, transactions of this kind amount to a large part of the work of any Association.

Some attention should now be given to the three major aspects of the Association’s work since the war which seem to illustrate best the Association’s overall policy and the context in which the Association exists.

Public Library Service

In 1945, forty-five boroughs had adopted the principle of free library service and were receiving aid from the Country Library

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Service, and in the same year the Auckland City Council, which was of course outside the population group which qualified for C.L.S. aid, also decided to make the change. The Association has had the satisfaction, since then, of seeing the subscription system disappear in most boroughs and cities except some in the 20,000 to 40,000 population range. A number of boroughs, especially in the Auckland metropolitan area, have not, however, established libraries at all, and very few counties have used the powers conferred on them by the Counties Act to establish libraries or pay nearby boroughs for library service for their inhabitants, although for the counties the effects have been mitigated by the fact that small groups of people could get service from the Country Library Service for a small fee. In 1945 the Association’s main effort was devoted to the establishment of free in place of subscription service. In 1960 it is directed to the even provision of library services to the whole population.

In 1947 the conference decided that the Case for Free Library Service, published in 1940, should be revised, and the Council set up a committee to do the revision. The committee was not able to agree, however, and the attempt was abandoned. The simple urge to establish free service had been replaced by controversy as to the best way to operate it. This was symptomatic of a feeling, also expressed in demands that the Munn-Barr recommendations on regional groupings of libraries should be revived, that progress, good though it had been, needed more positive direction, and it seemed that there was some need for a reassessment of the way in which public libraries were developing in New Zealand. The Council therefore in 1948 decided to ask the United States Educational Foundation in New Zealand that a member or members of the committee appointed by the Social Science Research Council to conduct the Public Library Inquiry in the United States in 1947-48 should visit New Zealand for the purpose of carrying out a similar inquiry.

Miss Miriam Tompkins, of the School of Library Service, Columbia University, came to New Zealand under the auspices of the Foundation, arriving on 24th January 1950 and leaving on the following 24th November. By means of visits and questionnaires, she assembled a great deal of very detailed information about public libraries in this country, but the amount of work involved was much greater than would have been necessary for a similar survey in the United States because of the great variety in the conditions of service here, the complexity of the library scene, and the absence of previously assembled information. When she left, an enormous task had still to be done in arranging and evaluating the information that had been collected, and failing health and onerous duties at Columbia made it impossible for Miss Tompkins to write more than three chapters of her report. She died in 1954.

But although the Tompkins report was never finished, the Tompkins

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influence meant a great deal to the Association’s thinking on the development of public library service. Speaking to a meeting of the Otago Branch in July 1950, she said that she thought that the time had come to stop talking about free versus subscription libraries; this problem would resolve itself, for free libraries were coming into their own. The problem which needed most attention was that of personnel, the key to the question of raising the standard of librarianship in New Zealand. She added that she was going to recommend the development of regional libraries, and draw attention to the work of the New York State Government, which had recently created library districts and given them aid. This suggestion was discussed with other Branches later in the year.

The importance of the training programme has already been discussed. The development of the regional library idea took some years to work out, and will be dealt with separately. Another comment made by Miss Tompkins, at a meeting of the Canterbury Branch, foreshadowed the most immediate fruits of her survey. This was that, in reading literature written by New Zealanders on their libraries, she had noted a failure to discuss in anything more than the vaguest terms standards for measuring service given, in the number of books and quality of book stock, the kind of personnel that should be recruited and the qualifications that they should possess.

A Standards Research Committee was set up by the Council in 1951, its convener being Mr T. B. O’Neill, who, with Mr R. N. O’Reilly, had been seconded by the National Library Service to act as assistant to Miss Tompkins. This committee, which had access to the data collected for the survey, produced a year later a set of basic standards for New Zealand libraries, 4 in which an attempt was made to define, in terms of book stock, staff, buildings, financial support, and other measurable features, what good public library service meant in the New Zealand setting. The report was discussed at the 1952 conference. Standards, in a field where quantity does not necessarily imply quality, are difficult to define, but, allowing for difficulties of interpretation, these standards had some effect in improving library services in the ensuing years. Librarians were given a yardstick of a sort by which they could measure the performance of their libraries, and many have included the NZLA standards for comparison alongside their own figures in their annual reports.

Besides the formulation of general standards, attempts were made to define good practice in specific areas of library service. One of these was the technique of combined free-and-rental service. When free library service was being encouraged, it was seen as a means of making available to the public a wide range of serious and worth-while books. The public, had, however, been used to getting light entertain-

4 New Zealand Libraries v. 15, 1952, p. 121-31, 145-57

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ment reading from the subscription libraries, and if books of this kind were supplied free from public libraries the demand would be so great that the whole of the library’s budget could be taken up in supplying them and the main advantage of free library service would be lost. To meet this situation a technique of supplying light reading from rental collections, run on commercial lines, had been developed, first in Dunedin in the 1930s and later in other places with the encouragement of the Country Library Service.

The Fiction Committee of the Association in 1942 compiled a list of authors of fiction graded (A) Standard and (B) Popular, with the division into free and rental collections in mind. This list has been revised from time to time, the latest being published in 1960, and has been supplemented since 1949 by a monthly list of new novels, briefly annotated and graded in the same way. In 1951 the committee presented a report on The Rental Collection and Free Library Practice, 6 in which various methods of running rental collections were discussed, and the standard free-and-rental plan, in which books were assigned to free and rental collections according to standards of quality, was recommended as the most desirable. The 1953 conference adopted a resolution endorsing the standard free-and-rental plan as the best means of giving public library service.

These things have combined to make public library service more effective and worth while: the expanding services of the National Library Service, the addition to library staffs of people with training in one or other of the New Zealand training courses, and the rethinking that the Tompkins survey stimulated. In one field, however, the efforts of the Association have so far met with dismal failure. In 1945 a proposal was made to the Government that technical librarians be appointed to the staff of the National Library Service to organize a service, through public libraries, of technical and scientific material required by business and industry. The positions were advertised, but appointments were not made because there were no suitable applicants. The question was not raised again until 1958, when, following a conference session on the subject, a similar recommendation was made to the Government. So far the Government has not agreed to it, although the industrial and commercial development of the country which it is fostering makes it an obvious need.

Regional Library Service

The decentralization of the Country Library Service went as far as the establishment of three offices, in Christchurch (1945), Palmerston North (1948), and Hamilton (1953). Hopes which had been held that the public libraries of some of the main centres might act in co-operation with the Country Library Service to run district or regional centres came to nothing, and these offices were quite separate

6 New Zealand Libraries v. 14, 1951, p. 204-12.

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from the public libraries of the towns in which they were located. The School Library Service followed a different pattern of development and operates now from a greater number of centres, many of which are located in public libraries and have close connexions with them. The School Library Service is, nevertheless, primarily a service to schools, although it gives a great deal of help to public libraries.

The idea of regional grouping of local authorities to give an integrated public library service was therefore by-passed. The reasons for this have already been discussed, and it has been suggested that in the circumstances this was the best way to tackle the problem of giving a good public library service to rural areas and small centres at the time. But the ideal of regional library service has never been lost sight of. It was discussed at the 1947 conference, when Mr A. G. W. Dunningham, in talking of the events which attended the establishment of the Country Library Service, said, “I think it a pity that the demonstration [recommended in the Carnegie Library Group’s appeal to the Carnegie Corporation] did not proceed as a parallel development with the new government service and I am unclear about why the Group and the Association decided to abandon it. My impression is that it was thought that it might cause some affront to the government which had already shown goodwill in launching the new service and that the government view was that the demonstration was unnecessary because development could now safely be left to the new service. ... As a result a new era of government aid to libraries began. It began with the active sponsorship and partnership of the New Zealand Library Association. It followed a period of over sixty years of ineptitude or neglect. It can be thought of as stage one of Mr Cohen’s 1910 proposals and as stage one of the Munn-Barr report proposals.”

Although Mr Dunningham did not give due credit to the success which had been achieved by the establishment of the Government’s service, and did not admit the probability that the Government would not have agreed to support a successful demonstration region, he performed a useful service in reminding us that the pattern which had developed was a compromise which need not last for ever.

The Association’s Regional Planning Committee was reconstituted after this discussion, and recommended later in the year that “the Association endorse a further appropriate channel for the administration of state aid: i.e. to aggregations of library authorities in cases where such authorities are prepared to join together, as, for example, by the setting up of joint boards, and to seek assistance through these. In the event of the constitution of such a board composed of representatives of the principal local authority within an area and others, and representing a substantial population, being in occupation of an adequate building or buildings, and maintaining approved standards, such aid might well be given by way of a cash grant.”

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The question of regional development was examined at later conferences and in articles in New Zealand Libraries, and in 1952 some stress was laid on it in the discussion of the Tompkins survey. At this session it was suggested that a modest start might be made if groups of public libraries were to agree to pool some of their book funds for the co-operative purchase of marginal books, and some groups were organized with the assistance of the Country Library Service in the following years. In 1954 the Local Authorities Section asked that a scheme for co-operation between local authorities be prepared, and was in its turn asked by the Council to make proposals. At the same time the Council set up a Public Library Service Committee, which presented a report in 1955 in which it examined in a fairly tentative way some of the administrative problems of establishing regional schemes. This report was referred to the Local Authorities Section and was followed by further discussion at the 1956 conference.

So although the development of public library service had proceeded on the same lines for nearly twenty years—Country Library Service aid to individual public libraries—there was a growing literature on the subject of regional libraries and a belief within the Association that the time must come for another step forward. The difficulties, however, could not be underestimated. Local authorities are notoriously unable to co-operate, especially with neighbours, and to be acceptable a plan would have to offer an inducement, probably by way of a state subsidy. Any plan that was put forward would therefore have to be acceptable to the Government as well as to local authorities. On the credit side, the improvement in public libraries which had occurred since 1938 made it possible to convince local authorities that further improvement was worth while.

The National Library Service convened a working party which met for two days in August 1956 to consider the problems of regional service. This meeting, which was attended by three officers of the National Library Service and five public librarians, marked the beginning of a serious attempt to devise a scheme which could be put before the Government and local authorities. After a report from the working party had been discussed at the following Association conference, an Association committee, for which the Government agreed to pay meeting expenses, was formed to work out a scheme in detail. Its scheme, which was approved by the executive of the Local Authorities Section, was published in November 1957, first in New Zealand Libraries and then as a separate pamphlet, Co-operation: a New Phase.

In its report, the committee pointed out that the main problems facing libraries were: (1) the unfair distribution over the whole community of the costs of library service, (2) the continuing growth of the cost of municipal government to a point where it had become an

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embarrassment to the cities and boroughs concerned, (3) the failure of some local authorities to provide for library services. In taking this line, the committee made a case for the payment of cash subsidies by the Government, which in New Zealand is the educational authority, to local authorities which maintained library services at a reasonable standard, and it suggested that the larger centres, which had not received the main benefits offered by the Country Library Service, should participate.

It did not, however, suggest that subsidies should be paid to individual local authorities, except in the case of the largest ones, but that it should depend on groups of authorities using their powers under existing legislation to form federations which would contain a large enough population to support a good service. It was an essential part of the scheme that counties, which had never been prominent in library affairs, should join with boroughs in providing the local funds which would be subsidized. The subsidy would replace the aid-in-kind given by the Country Library Service to libraries and groups in its area as soon as a federation was established, and the federation would also take over certain areas of library service, at present held to be national responsibilities, such as services to schools, hospitals, prisons, camps of the Ministry of Works, Electricity Department and Forest Service, lighthouses, etc.

The committee’s proposals, which were endorsed by the 1958 conference, were submitted to the Minister of Education, to whom it was suggested, when he asked for more information, that assurance should be given of financial aid to two pilot areas where the opinion of local authorities could be tested in terms of subsidy support for a federation, at an estimated cost of £30,000. The proposals were also presented in submissions to the Royal Commission on Local Authority Finance, which met in the same year. The Commission accepted the principle of a subsidy, but was careful to state that the method of giving effect to it should be the subject of discussion between the parties concerned.

Although the financial implications of approval of pilot schemes were much greater than the cost of the initial projects, the Government decided in 1960 that an attempt should be made to establish a regional service along the lines of the Association’s recommendations in an area of the North Island based on Palmerston North, and at the time this is being written the Country Library Service is trying to get the agreement of the local authorities in the area to its proposals. The Minister of Education, the Hon. P. O. S. Skoglund, personally convened and opened the meeting of local authority delegates to whom the proposal was first explained, and the scheme has aroused con-

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siderable interest in the area, but it is too soon to know whether it will be possible to organize a region. 6

Book Resources Committee and National Library Centre

The National Library Centre, which was established as a division of the National Library Service in 1945, took over various services which had been organized by the Country Library Service to meet needs which had been expressed by the Association, including the Union Catalogue, the Central Bureau for Library Book Imports, book resources activities, and the central handling of inter-library loans. The Association’s interest in all these activities had been centred in its New Zealand Book Resources Committee since 1941, and the special relationship between the National Library Service and the Association in these matters, recognized by the Government in the payment of expenses of members attending meetings, has continued. The Director of the National Library Service, Mr G. T. Alley, has been convener of the committee since its formation, and the Librarian of the National Library Centre, Mr A. G. Bagnall, appointed in 1946, has been secretary of the committee since 1947. The National Library Service has consulted the committee about matters which lie within its sphere of interest, and the committee in its turn has drawn the attention of the National Library Service to work which needed attention and commented on its activities. Because of this state of symbiosis it is impossible to consider one of these organizations in isolation from the other.

With full-time staff, inadequate in numbers though it was for some years, the National Library Centre was able to give more impetus to bibliographical projects which had been languishing. In 1946 it took over the work of preparing the Index to New Zealand Periodicals, which had ceased publication in 1943, and, after making a cumulation to cover the years 1941 to 1946, began an annual series with entries for 1947. The Association continued to publish the Index until 1956, when the Government agreed to relieve the Association of what was quite a considerable financial burden.

The Union List of Serials in New Zealand Libraries was taken over in 1949, after a period since 1946 in which the work had been done by the Librarian of the University of Otago, Mr I. Harris, with the help of an assistant paid by the National Library Service. The heavy work of checking libraries’ holdings and editing the entries was then pushed ahead by the National Library Centre, and the main volume of the Union List was published in 1953 by the Government; it has been followed by regular supplements. Another of Mr Harris’s projects.

0 After this passage was written the Minister informed the Association that it had not been possible to form a regional service in the selected area. It seems, therefore, that more work will have to be done to devise an acceptable scheme.

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the Guide to New Zealand Reference Material, was completed by Mr Harris and published by the Association in a preliminary mimeographed edition in 1947 and in definitive form in 1951, but the supplements that appeared in 1951 and 1957 were prepared by Mr Bagnall.

The central cataloguing of New Zealand publications was begun by the National Library Centre in 1947, and since January 1948 it has distributed first duplicated and then printed catalogue cards to libraries. At the same time it has accumulated information for a retrospective New Zealand national bibliography, on which a special effort is now being made.

The oldest bibliographical project in the care of the National Library Centre is the Union Catalogue of the book holdings of major libraries, which was established in conjunction with the Central Bureau for Library Book Imports. Since its beginning the Union Catalogue had been built up by the inclusion of cards for new acquisitions reported by libraries and the relatively small number of older holdings discovered through the interloan machinery, but plans for its completion by the inclusion of libraries’ pre-1941 catalogues had been suspended when the Carnegie Corporation had found it impossible to send the necessary microfilm equipment to New Zealand during the war. The Corporation in 1947 renewed its offer to supply $5,000 worth of equipment, and microfilm units and card stock were received by the Association early in 1949. The work of filming library catalogues was carried out by the National Library Centre, with the cooperation of the libraries concerned, and the Centre has since been transferring the information to cards for inclusion in the Union Catalogue.

The National Library Centre also assumed responsibility for the work of the three headquarters sections of the National Library Service—Order, Reference, and Cataloguing—and was able, by developing them, to establish centralized services, which had been suggested by the Association’s planning reports of 1944-5, for the libraries of other Government Departments. The headquarters stock of the National Library Service, which came under the control of the National Library Centre, has been built up to be one of the main supports for the interloan and book resources programmes. Although it had its origin as a collection of Country Library Service books kept at headquarters to supply individual requests, it has become a collection of a different kind, administered and housed separately from the collection of the Country Library Service.

In 1945 the Association was still trying to achieve its aim of seeing that at least one copy of every worth-while book in the English language was brought into the country by checking lists systematically, but this method was wasteful of time and did nothing to encourage the growth of rounded collections, and it was not acceptable to the National Library Centre. Instead, the Book Resources Committee

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tried to establish a system of subject specialization, by which libraries would agree to acquire material intensively in subjects allotted to them by agreement. A survey of libraries was undertaken to discover strong collections that could form the basis for specialization, and the subject was on the order paper for a number of meetings of the committee, but it proved impossible to work out a satisfactory scheme and it was quietly dropped about 1951. The relatively rapid growth of specialized collections and of the National Library Centre’s collection since then has improved the national book resources so much, compared with the earlier period, that the demand for a more systematic approach was muted, but in fact libraries in New Zealand have been coasting along when they should have been accelerating.

Renewed interest in book coverage led the Book Resources Committee in 1955 to begin work on the compilation of a list of important works in sets and runs of serials which were not held by any library in New Zealand. Even when this list was restricted to works valued at more than £5O, and to works of the highest priority, it turned out to be quite formidable and demonstrated the serious nature of the weaknesses in New Zealand’s library collections. A further selection, made up of the most urgent needs, resulted in a list of items which were tentatively valued at £30,000. A request was made to the Government in 1959 that money should be made available for the purchase of these items, on the understanding that, although the material would be bought by the Government, it would be placed in the libraries most appropriately placed to use them, the decision about allocations to be made by the Book Resources Committee. The Association’s request, which was conveyed to the Minister of Education by the National Library Service, was reinforced by a deputation which met the Minister in January 1960. If it is agreed to, it will enable a few gaps to be filled, and will therefore alleviate some of the major symptoms of malnutrition, but it will not relieve the Association of the duty of finding a way of preventing the cause of the trouble.

In larger, more developed countries than New Zealand the libraries of commercial and industrial firms make a significant contribution to their national book resources. Such firms were excluded from full membership of the Association under the 1940 rules by a clause which was designed to exclude commercial book clubs, but a few were admitted as affiliated institutions. In time, however, the number of firms wishing to join the Association in order to take advantage of the interloan facilities increased, and in 1957 the rules were amended to allow a new class of members, Restricted Institutional Members, to join. In the Association’s view, it was necessary that firms admitted to membership should be able to contribute to its programme as well as to use its facilities, and it has therefore been the Association’s policy to admit only those whose collections were properly cared for and to ask that their holdings, especially those of serials, should be recorded

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centrally. The Book Resources Committee examines each application for membership under this rule to see that these conditions are complied with, and recommends to the Council the conditions on which each applicant should be admitted. Libraries of this kind are still relatively insignificant in New Zealand, but there is no doubt that their importance will grow and that they will take their place alongside the special libraries owned by institutions which are publicly financed.

The Book Resources Committee, which includes in its membership the librarians of the major public and university libraries as well as representatives of special and state libraries, is used by the Council to formulate Association policy on matters which require professional knowledge and experience. When, for instance, the Association wished to make a submission on university libraries to the Committee on New Zealand Universities in 1959, the committee was asked to prepare it. In addition, it represents the Association in negotiations with the Associated Booksellers of New Zealand.

One of the most satisfactory features of recent conferences of the Association has been a series of seminars for librarians of New Zealand collections. The first of these was organized in 1956 by Mr A. G. Bagnall, and set a high standard in the presentation and discussion of carefully prepared papers on problems affecting the librarians of specialized New Zealand and Pacific collections. Although there is no formal link between the seminar and the Book Resources Committee, the seminar reinforces the work of the committee in this field.

A National Library

The idea of a national library is one that covers two types of function: a national service to the people as a whole, and a national collection, maintained centrally but possibly combined with bibliographical services and with limited or generous lending on request. Therefore when someone advocates the establishment of a true national library it is necessary to ask just what he means—whether a service to the people or a national collection in one place or a combination of both. When the 1911 conference passed a resolution asking that the General Assembly Library should be treated as a Dominion Library, the emphasis was on service to the people, but when the Science and Art Act of 1913 provided for a Dominion Library, a different sort of service was envisaged.

The Munn-Barr report recommended that the General Assembly Library should develop as a national reference library, take over the Alexander Turnbull Library, whose librarian was in any case originally responsible to the Parliamentary Librarian, and the library of the Royal Society of New Zealand, and be associated with the development of a national circulating library. As has been seen, the development that did occur, both in service to the public and in bibliographical

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services, took place outside the existing framework and led to the emergence of a third state library with national library functions. The establishment of the National Library Service was a triumphant recognition that many faults had been remedied, but it also added another complication for those who wanted New Zealand to have a strong institution at the head of its library system. That the 1945 solution should be only a temporary one was recognized by Mr C. W. Collins when he reported on his Planning Committee’s work at the conference in that year. He said, “Regarding the General Assembly Library and the Alexander Turnbull Library, there would be room for an increasing liaison with the National Library. In fact, it is possible that, in the course of time, perhaps when there is a really adequate National Library building, the General Assembly Library might shed some of its present functions and stock and become more precisely the library of Parliament and its officers. The Alexander Turnbull Library is in a special position because of its museum aspect, but many of its activities could be more closely related to those of the National Library to mutual advantage.” 7

The two factors that caused a revival of interest in the idea of a national library were, first the need to rationalize a situation in which three separate institutions, operating under three different Departments of State, were each performing national library functions, with consequent overlapping and without the prestige that would accrue to one large organization; and second, the need of each of the three for better housing. B In 1951 the Palmerston North Branch recommended “that a committee be set up to investigate the possibility of coordinating special libraries such as the National Library Centre, Alexander Turnbull Library and General Assembly Library under the heading of a N.Z. National Library,” but the Council was not ready to embark on such dangerous waters and instead set up a committee “to report on the degree of co-operation and co-ordination existing between the various Wellington libraries with a view to the formation of Association policy.” This committee considered all types of Wellington libraries and compiled a useful report on co-operative practice. It also reaffirmed the Association’s approval of the desirability of a National Library implied in its adoption of the Munn-Barr report, but pointed out the necessity for a single library building. As a result of this report a National Library Committee was convened by the President, Mr S. Perry, and confirmed by the Council in August 1952.

The National Library Committee devised a remit which was passed

7 NZLA Proceedings 1945 p. 13. By an unfortunate misprint Mr Collins was made to say, “Regrading the General Assembly Library . . . .

8 It is worth noting, as a matter of interest, that architects’ plans for a National Library building were completed before the war, but that the project was abandoned when war broke out. So much has happened since then that the plans would almost certainly now be unsuitable.

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unanimously at the 1953 conference: “That this conference is alarmed by the increasingly unsatisfactory condition of many of the buildings in which state library work is done, and by the serious effect this has on their administration and service, and recommends Council to urge on the Government that a select parliamentary committee be appointed to consider the need for a national library building with adequate storage for future national needs, the elements such a library should contain, and how far existing state libraries and the national archives can, without detriment to their particular functions, be brought together in such an institution.”

Because of the need to establish Association policy, or at least to get a clear idea of what was involved in the alternatives, this resolution was not conveyed to the Government until November 1953. In the following month the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. S. G. Holland, asked for a fairly detailed proposal to be put up as a basis for discussion. After further correspondence, the Government decided, in October 1954, to examine the Association’s proposals under a procedure that Cabinet had set up to deal with suggestions involving different Departments of State. Under this procedure the Public Service Commission was asked to set up a committee to consider submissions by the Association and by other interested organizations. The committee, which consisted of Mr J. K. Hunn (Public Service Commission). Mr H. N. Dollimore (Legislative Department), Mr S. C. Parker (Treasury), Mr A. B. Thompson (Department of Education), Mr H. L. E. Peryman (Department of Internal Affairs), and Mr L. A. Shanks, secretary (Public Service Commission), heard the views of the Association in the second half of 1955 and reported in 1956. The time taken to bring the matter thus far was caused in part by difficulties which arose when an attempt was made to establish the Association’s policy on what a national library should be and do. Between the two extreme views, of a lending service to the public and of a reference collection without lending facilities, there is a possibility of many variations. The main argument was, however, between a minority who feared that if the National Library Service were incorporated in toto in the National Library the fine reference collections of the General Assembly and the Alexander Turnbull Libraries would be dispersed irresponsibly, and those who thought, first, that the work of the Country Library Service and the School Library Service should not be abandoned, and second, that there was no need to detach these services in order to safeguard the reference nature of the central collection. In addition, those responsible for the three state libraries were anxious that the functions of their institutions should not be impaired by any proposed reorganization, and some difficulty was caused by just plain inter departmental jealousy. In the end, the Association’s committee agreed, with some dissenting

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voices, on a plan which combined the existing functions of the three libraries, and this plan was agreed to by the Council.

The Association proposed that the National Library should serve as a national reference collection and a national lending collection and that it should include, among other things, the stock and services at present maintained by the National Library Service, the Alexander Turnbull Library, and the General Assembly Library; that it should be housed in a specially planned building on a central site in Wellington ; and that it should be administered as a department of state under the direction of a National Librarian, directly responsible to a Minister of the Crown, with an Advisory Council to make recommendations on policy to the Minister. When the necessary safeguards had been made to protect the special features of the Alexander Turnbull Library and the General Assembly Library, this would mean that the Wellington building would contain a good national reference collection, most of which would be available for loans to meet specific requests, together with a separate Alexander Turnbull collection and a parliamentary reference section with a special relationship to Parliament ; the National Library Centre, with its national union catalogue and other bibliographical services, would be incorporated in it; and the Country Library Service and the School Library Service would be directed from it.

The P.S.C. Committee, after thorough deliberation, recommended a plan which accepted the Association’s viewpoint except that in the matter of control it preferred that the National Library should be a sub-Department attached to the Department of Education, or alternatively the Department of Internal Affairs. 9 The Government did not, however, act upon the committee’s report, but instead, in the dying stages of the 1957 session, decided to appoint a parliamentary select committee, “to inquire into and report upon: (a) the ways and means of carrying out the decision of the Government 10 to establish a National Library and all matters relating or incidental thereto; (b) the place and functions of the present State libraries and services within the framework of the National Library; (c) the administrative direction and control of the National Library; (d) the provision of adequate library and reference service for members of Parliament, and the control of such service; (e) generally any other matter which the Committee may deem relevant to the establishment of a National Library.”

The select committee reported early in 1958, 11 and again the Association’s views were substantially accepted. Because New Zealand was

9 The Committee’s report, Proposed National Library 1956, was never made public, but copies were made available to the Association for the confidential information of members of the Council.

10 My italics.

iTij iianw. 11 National Library Committee. Report. Wellington, 1958. Appendix I. 17.

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then in the middle of a severe exchange crisis the committee softpedalled the demand for a building, though it did say that a new building for the National Library Service was a matter of extreme urgency and suggested that it should be located at the rear end of the General Assembly Library. The most important of the steps in the programme outlined by the committee was: “That as an initial step the three existing State libraries be grouped together in a central organization with a chief executive and other necessary officers, and that such organization be placed within the jurisdiction of the Department of Education and under the control of the Minister of Education.” Despite representations made by the Association, the select committee’s recommendations have not yet been acted upon.

In 1952 the Association recommended to the Government that the national memorial to the late Peter Fraser should be a memorial library building. It would be appropriate if the National Library which everyone favours were to be housed in a building dedicated to the memory of the man who made it possible for us to reach the stage of thinking seriously about the establishment of a National Library.

The Osborn Survey

The second great survey of New Zealand libraries was made in 1959, twenty-five years after the Munn-Barr survey of 1934. The experience of Miss Tompkins’s survey had shown that libraries had developed so much that a simple repetition of the work of Munn and Barr would not be adequate, but when the suggestion was made in 1957 by the Public Library Service Committee that an endeavour be made to secure the services of an American librarian to make a survey in 1959 it was thought of as a survey mainly of public library services.

As the project was discussed within the Association, however, it became apparent that the library scene had changed so much since the war, with the growing importance of special libraries and university collections, that a survey, to be relevant, would have to include these with the public libraries and consider the library system as a whole. This reflected a major change in the emphasis of the Association’s thinking, and was assisted by a short but significant visit paid to this country by Dr Keyes D. Metcalf in June and July 1958.

Dr Metcalf, former Director of Libraries at Harvard University, spent three weeks in New Zealand as a guest of the Government on his way to an assignment with the Australian Commonwealth National Library. He visited a number of libraries and then met the Book Resources Committee to discuss problems of library co-operation, specialization, the national library question and a number of other matters. His clarity of mind and his genius for formulating problems which needed examination had a marked effect on the thinking of those who came into contact with him, and the new view of the true situation in New Zealand libraries which resulted was reinforced by a seminar,

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attended by five New Zealand librarians, which was held in Canberra under his leadership later in the year.

During the discussions which took place over this period the opinion that took hold was that the aspect which most urgently needed investigation was that of the resources of New Zealand libraries, their development, conservation, and use. Dr Andrew Osborn, an Australian who had recently returned to Australia after a distinguished career in American libraries and who had worked with Dr Metcalf at Harvard, was approached and agreed to make the survey. The Carnegie Corporation of New York, which had already expressed interest in the prospect of a new survey, granted $5,000 to make it possible, and Dr Osborn spent six weeks in New Zealand from October to December 1959, his New Zealand associate being the Librarian of the National Library Centre, Mr A. G. Bagnall.

Dr Osborn’s availability was fortunate. To his very important American experience, which included work on a number of surveys of various types of library service, was added his knowledge of the problems of Australian libraries, similar enough to those of New Zealand libraries to give him a special insight. How fortunate the choice was was not known, however, until the report was written. It had been feared by some that, having chosen to concentrate on library resources and invite a man with a background of academic librarianship to carry out the investigation, the Association might have broken too sharply with the pattern of its history. On the contrary, in his comments on public libraries and school libraries, on plans for regional development and for a national library, Dr Osborn showed once again that libraries are interdependent and that the library system must be considered as a whole. If the emphasis was very different from that of Munn and Barr, the difference was due to developments which stemmed from the earlier survey.

The terms of reference drawn up for the survey by the Association were;

The purpose of the survey is to enquire into and report upon the nature and extent of the resources of printed and associated near-print, manuscript and audio-visual material in all types of New Zealand libraries supported directly or indirectly from public funds.

The survey should, further, enquire into and report the extent to which such existing resources meet the actual and potential needs of the users for whom such materials are primarily provided, and also, how far they contribute, through co-operative availability and use, to the resources of all libraries of the country.

The survey should, further, report on what action is desirable in order to increase these resources for serious use, either through the development of programmes for individual acquisition by libraries, or through co-operative acquisition and availability.

The survey should, further, comment on any other matters relevant to the use and availability of printed and other materials in libraries.

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By superhuman efforts Dr Osborn wrote his report 12 in time for it to be printed and available for discussion at the Jubilee Conference of the Association which was held in Dunedin in February 1960. After pointing out that certain of the Munn-Barr objectives had been very creditably realized, he then discussed the present situation in public, school, university, and special libraries, in the treatment of New Zealand collections, and in the campaign for national library. Then, after an examination of present resources and potentials, he set out a programme for the future, in which the following were the main points:

1. Regional organizations: A regional-library plan must be put into operation if all segments of the population, especially in metropolitan areas, are to be served.

2. School libraries: For the great contribution they can make to primary and post-primary education and as the foundation for all later library use, school libraries must be fully organized, staffed and developed.

3. University libraries: For undergraduates there should be sufficient books and adequate reading space; for postgraduates there should be enough collecting depth to support advanced studies ; and for the academic staff a degree of quality should be realized in the book stock to attract and keep quality teachers, to prepare them for research projects overseas, and to enable them to continue their investigations on return from sabbatical leave.

4. Special libraries: The New Zealand Library Association should do all it can to aid in the proliferation of special libraries.

5. National Library: Not as three discrete institutions but as a concerted organization, the National Library should take its rightful place as the head of the whole New Zealand library system.

6. New Zealand Library Association: It is important for the New Zealand Library Association to avoid the separation of scholarly and popular library interests. The Association must go out of its way to maintain integrated interests and to serve all parts of the country’s library system equally.

7. Library School: In the second twenty-five year plan the Library School should go out of its way to inculcate in the minds of students, along with the basic insights, a sense of purposiveness such as should go naturally with a planned and expanding library programme.

Book Resources: In a series of recommendations. Dr Osborn urged a great increase in the rate of building up the book resources of New Zealand libraries, and further development of methods of using and husbanding resources co-operatively.

Service to special groups: In another series of recommendations, Dr Osborn urged that special attention be given to service to business,

12 A. D. Osborn, New Zealand library resources. NZLA, 1960.

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to local government, to medicine, and to students and teachers. Fifty years after the foundation of the Association, and twentyfive years after the Munn-Barr report, Dr Osborn found New Zealand libraries ready for development. It is fair to say that the remarkable achievements of the decade 1935 to 1945 caused a certain amount of smugness in the Association—justifiable in the case of the few people who had been responsible for them, but not so justifiable in the case of those whose entry into the profession had been made possible by them. By the late 19505. however, the Association had digested its earlier achievements, and by 1959 it had worked hard to produce plans for advances in some fields, such as regional library organization and the establishment of a national library. It is too early to say whether the Osborn report has come just at the right time to give the Association and New Zealand libraries another push forward, and it may be that, as in the case of the earlier report, some of its recommendations will be achieved in an unexpected form. No matter what happens, however, the Association, if it is well led, will have work to do.

Appendixes

CONFERENCES 1910-1960

Ist, Dunedin 26th and 28th March 1910.

2nd, Auckland 15th and 17th April 1911.

3rd, Wellington 6th and Bth April 1912.

4th, Dunedin 13th and 14th January 1926.

sth, Wanganui 9th and 10th February 1927.

6th, Christchurch Bth and 9th February 1928.

7th, Auckland 4th to 6th March 1930.

Bth, Timaru 26th to 29th March 1935.

9th, Wellington 16th to 18th February 1937.

10th, Nelson 15th to 18th February 1938. i i Vi i 1 -7»u mm

11th, Palmerston North 14th to 17th February 1939.

12th, Wellington 21st to 23rd February 1940.

13th, Dunedin 18th to 21st February 1941.

(In 1942, 1943, and 1944, it was not possible to hold Conferences, but Annual Meetings were held in Wellington)

14th, Wanganui 13th to 16th February 1945.

ifiu, rr augauui i jui iu iuui i cuiuaiy i7t j, 15th, Auckland sth to 7th February 1946.

i -> ixt, nuviuauu jiu /iu x suiuaij 16th, Christchurch 20th to 23rd May 1947.

17th, Napier 17th to 20th May 1948.

18th, Dunedin 10th to 13th May 1949.

19th, Wellington 16th to 19th May 1950.

20th, Palmerston North Ist to 4th May 1951.

21st, Timaru 26th to 29th February 1952.

22nd, Auckland 17th to 20th February 1953.

23rd, Nelson 23rd to 25th February 1954.

24th, Wanganui 22nd to 25th February 1955.

25th, Christchurch 21st to 24th February 1956.

26th, Rotorua 26th February to Ist March 1957.

27th, Invercargill 25th to 28th February 1958.

28th, Wellington 17th to 20th February 1959.

29th, Dunedin 15th to 19th February 1960.

PRESIDENTS. 1910-1960

(Under the 1910 constitution officers held office for two years. In 1926 this rule was altered so that officers remained in office until the next conference, and this provision was retained in the 1935 constitution. Under the rules adopted in 1940 and amended at various times since, the President must be elected each year at an Annual Meeting.)

102

A ppendixes

103

Honours shown in this list are those which were held at the time of the presidential term.

Year elected

1910 Mr R. Gilkison, Dunedin City Council (elected Chairman of the Conference).

1910 Mr T. W. Leys, Leys Institute Auckland.

1911 Mr T. W. Leys, Leys Institute, Auckland.

1912 Mr A. R. Atkinson, Wellington City Council.

1925 Miss E. Melville. Auckland City Council.

1927 Mr J. J. Clark, Dunedin City Council.

1928 Miss E. Melville. Auckland City Council.

1930 Mr G. Benstead, Timaru Borough Council.

1935 Mr W. J. Gaudin, Wellington City Council.

1937 Mr E. J. Bell, Librarian, Canterbury Public Library.

1938 Mr T. D. H. Hall, C.M.G., Clerk of the House of Representatives.

1939 Mr J. Barr, Chief Librarian, Auckland Public Libraries.

1940 Dr G. H. Scholefield, 0.8. E., Chief Librarian, General Assembly Library.

1941 Mr W. C. Prosser, Rangiora Borough Council.

1942 Mr J. Nome, City Librarian, Wellington Public Libraries.

1943 Miss E. Melville, Auckland City Council.

944 Miss A. M. Blackett, Librarian, Alexander Public Library, Wanganui.

1945 Mr J. Barr, Chief Librarian, Auckland Public Libraries.

1946 Mr W. J. Harris, Librarian, University of Otago.

1947 Mrs E. M. Gilmer, Wellington City Council.

1948 Mr J. W. Kealy, Auckland City Council.

1949 Mr C. W. Collins, Librarian, Canterbury University College.

1950 Mr T. K. S. Sidey, Dunedin City Council.

1951 Miss A. K. Elliot, Librarian, Timaru Public Library.

1952 Mr S. Perry, City Librarian, Wellington Public Libraries.

1953 Mr W. S. Wauchop, Chief Librarian, General Assembly Library,

• iui "uuuiujj, v-iuv-i L.IUI ui tun, utnuai nsatmuiy uunai), 1954 Mr H. W. B. Bacon, Petone Borough Council.

i .'ii ii. it. u. uakv/n, I biunv uuiuugn v^uunui. 1955 Mr F. H. Rogers, Librarian, University of Otago.

1956 Mr A. G. W. Dunningham, City Librarian, Dunedin Public Library.

1957 Mr D. C. Pryor, Palmerston North City Council.

1958 Mr F, A. Sandall, Librarian, University of Auckland.

1959 Mr G. T. Alley, 0.8. E., Director, National Library Service. i ocn u. n» d oi .i. n, i . vr .l /->

1960 Mr D. B. Black, Palmerston North City Council.

PATRONS, 1935-1960

1935-1938 Dr J. Hight, Rector, Canterbury University College (Hon. President).

1938-1950 Rt. Hon. P. Fraser, Wellington.

1951-1960 Mr J. W. Kealy, S.M., Auckland.

1960- His Excellency the Governor-General, the Rt. Hon. Viscount Cobham, G.C.M.G., T.D.

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New Zealand Library Association

BRANCHES AND SECTIONS

Auckland Branch. Society of Auckland Librarians affiliated 1936. Canterbury Branch. Formed 1937.

Otago Branch. Society of Otago Librarians affiliated 1937 as Dunedin Branch; name changed to Otago Branch in same year.

Palmerston North Branch. Formed 1944.

South Canterbury Branch. Formed 1948, but has not functioned.

Wellington Branch. Society of Wellington Librarians affiliated 1937.

Children’s and Young People’s Section. Formed as Schools Section 1939; reconstituted as Young People’s Section 1951; name changed to Children’s and Young People’s Section in same year.

Local Authorities Section. Formed 1948; inaugural meeting 1949.

j t Him// me j jctiii'/i, x uiiiivu i / tu, luauguiui Professional Section. Formed 1951.

Small Public Libraries Section. Formed 1954.

University and Research Section. Formed 1937.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

A. Manuscript Sources

The only manuscript record in the possession of the Association for the period from 1910 to 1925 is the Minute Book. After that time general files, containing correspondence and reports, supplement the minute book.

From 1939 the Minute Book has been superseded by a numbered series of Council documents, which includes committee reports and texts of Association submissions and policy statements as well as minutes of meetings. Similar numbered series of documents are maintained by the New Zealand Book Resources and Library Training Committees. The Association’s records contain, in addition, files handed in by conveners of committees, as well as files of correspondence and similar material arranged under subject headings.

For a thorough examination of all aspects of the Association’s history it would be necessary to consult files in the possession of prominent members. It has not been possible to do this systematically, but much useful information has been gained from files made available by Mr G. T. Alley, Mr A. D. Mclntosh, and Mr S. Perry. An important collection of papers, deposited in the Association’s keeping by Mr J. Barr, has been especially useful in the documentation of the Munn-Barr Survey and the Carnegie Library Group.

B. N.Z.L.A. Publications

An attempt has been made to include in this list all the publications of the Association which have an independent existence. It therefore includes more than the publications which were consulted specifically in the writing of the history. Most important reports and other documents have since 1939 been included in the series of Council documents and many of the most significant of them have been printed in New Zealand Libraries. These have not been included in the list. Where it has been thought necessary to include a Council document which has been issued to members as such, this fact is noted. In the case of reprints from New Zealand Libraries, those that were reprinted at the request of authors and have no significance for the Association have been omitted, but those that were reprinted for wider distribution by the Association have been included with a suitable note.

Appendixes

105

Rules

The rules adopted at the first conference were published in the Proceedings of that conference. Later issues have been: 1926

The Libraries Association of New Zealand. 3p. P. 1, List of officers; p. 2-3, Rules. 1935

Constitution of the New Zealand Library Association. [4p.] 1940

Rules of the New Zealand Library Association (Incorporated) (Incorporated by the New Zealand Library Association Act, 1939). lip. mimeographed. Council document 1940/34.

Standing orders relating to the conduct of annual and special general meetings and conferences. 3p. mimeographed. Council document 1940/36.

1944

Rules. 13p. mimeographed. Council document 1944/6.

1949

Rules of the New Zealand Library Association (Incorporated) together with standing orders and branch rules. 20p. Supplemented by Amendments 1-4, 1950-8.

1955

Rules for the institution and granting of associateships and fellowships of the New Zealand Library Association as adopted at the Annual Meeting held at Wanganui on Friday, 25th February, 1955. 7p. Also printed, from different type, in New Zealand Libraries vlB no 3 p. 63-8 Apr. 1955, with the accidental omission of rule 6 (iv).

1960

Rules and standing orders, together with New Zealand Library Association Act. 1939. 34p. photoprint.

Serial Publications

Annual directory of library supplies. 1-2 (1945-6). There were no further issues, but relevant information has been published in the Newsletter from time to time.

Annual report. An annual report was published in the Proceedings of the second (1911) conference, and there are reports from the secretary in later pre-1935 Proceedings. The Proceedings of the 1935 conference include a report by the Hon. Secretary covering the depression period, and the annual report covering the previous year appears in each issue of the Proceedings from 1937 to 1941 and 1945 to 1950. Reports for 1941 to 1943 were published in New Zealand Libraries. Reports for 1950 and subsequent years have been issued to members as mimeographed documents, and from 1956 the report, without appendices, has also been republished in New Zealand Libraries.

Book list. 1-3 (Jan.-Mar. 1942) mimeographed. Edited by D. H. Monro. No further issues.

Fiction list. Monthly supplement to Guide to authors of fiction, fifth report, 1960 (sub-title varies). l(May 1958)-continuing. Monthly gradings of new fiction titles, supplementing the gradings of

106

New Zealand Library Association

authors in the successive reports of the Fiction Committee. Preceded by monthly lists published in New Zealand Libraries from August 1948 to March/April 1958. Annual indexes to these lists, entitled Guide to the fiction lists . . , , were printed in New Zealand Libraries and reprinted as separates.

Index to New Zealand periodicals and current national bibliography of New Zealand books and pamphlets. 1940-6; new series v1(1947)- The first issue, for 1940, was compiled and published by the Otago Branch and exhibited at the 1941 conference, after which the Association took responsibility for publication. Issues were quarterly, and then half-yearly, to June 1943; issue numbers went from v2 nol (Jan.-Mar. 1942) to v 3 nol (Jan.-Jun. 1943) which was the first printed issue. The issues from 1941-3 were superseded by a mimeographed cumulation 1941-6, published in 1949. A mimeographed issue for Jan.-June 1947 was followed by printed annual issues for 1947 to 1955 published by the Association. Since 1955 the Index has been published by the National Library Service. The current national bibliography was first published in the 1950 issue.

Information exchange sheet. l(Nov. 1940)-22(May 1944) mimeographed. Absorbed by Book Resources, issued by the Country (later National) Library Service.

New Zealand Libraries. Bulletin of the New Zealand Library Association Inc. vl nol (Dec. 1932)- v2 no 4 (July 1937); new series vl nol (Aug. 1937)- continuing.

The earlier series was duplicated and issued under various titles: vl nol Bulletin issued by the Libraries Association, N.Z.; vl no2- vl no 10 Bulletin of the Libraries Association of New Zealand; vl noil- vl nol7 Bulletin of the New Zealand Library Association; v2 nos 1-4 New Zealand Library Association Bulletin. The present title began with the new series.

New series vl-5 12 issues p.a. Aug.-July; v 6 16 issues Aug. 1942Dec. 1943; v - Jan.-Dec., 11 issues p.a. except v 9 1946 (10 issues), vls-18 1952-5 (10 issues each), vl9 1956 (9 issues), v2O 1957 (10 issues), v2l 1958 (8 issues), v 22 1959 (10 issues).

The following issues were wrongly numbered; vlO nol as v 9 noil; vlO no2 as v 9 nol2; v! 6 nos6-9 as vl7 nos6-9; vl7 no2 as vlB no2; v! 7 no 3 as vl9 no 3; vlB no 7 Aug. 1955 as vlB no 6 July 1955 (but month given correctly on cover).

Editors: vl nol (Dec. 1932) - vl nol7 (Dec. 1936) E. J. Bell; v2 nol (Apr. 1937) - v2 no 4 (July 1937) S. Perry; new series vl nol (Aug. 1937)- v 5 no 7 (Feb. 1942) S. Perry; v 5 noB (Mar. 1942) - v 6 nos (Dec. 1942) E. J. Carnell; v 6 no 6 (Jan.-Feb. 1943) - v 7 no 3 (Apr. 1944) G. H. Scholefield; v 7 no 4 (May 1944) - v 8 no2 (Mar. 1945) D. N. White; v 8 no 3 (Apr. 1945) - v 9 no 3 (Apr. 1946) G. L. Gabites; v 9 no 4 (May-June 1946) - vlO no 4 (May 1947) A. G. Bagnall; vlO nos (June 1947) - vll no 4 (May 1948) A. E. Mercer; vll nos (June 1948) - v! 6 nol (Jan.-Feb. 1953) W. J. McEldowney; v! 6 no2 (Mar. 1953) - vl9 nol (Jan. 1956) D. M. Wylie; vl9 no2 (Mar. 1956) - v 22 no 7 (Sept. 1959) J. A. Frampton; v 22 noB (Oct. 1959) to date J. E. Traue.

A ppendixes

107

-Cumulative index, volumes 1-20, 1937-1957. Compiled by E. J. Robinson and A. L. Henderson, assisted by members of the Otago Branch. 1960. 62p.

Newsletter. l(Mar. 1956)- continuing, monthly, mimeographed. Issued to members only.

Proceedings of the . . . conference (title varies). Proceedings were published of all conferences from the Ist (1910) to the 19th (1950) with the exception of the 3rd (1912), for which, the records having been destroyed by fire, a summary was compiled from newspaper reports and cyclostyled. The Proceedings and the Papers of the Ist conference were published separately. A brief summary was published of the Proceedings of the 20th (1951) conference; since then, minutes of the annual meeting and papers of interest have been printed in New Zealand Libraries. Summaries of conference proceedings have been included in the Newsletter since the latter’s inception in 1956; these were preceded in 1954 and 1955 by cyclostyled summaries sent to delegates.

■lndex to Proceedings 1910 to 1939. 1939. mimeographed,

Syllabus and regulations of the training course and professional examinations conducted by the New Zealand Library Association (title varies) 1941- continuing, annual. First issue printed; later ones mimeographed.

Children’s and Young People’s Section. News letter. l(Nov. 1951) - 9 (Jan. 1956) mimeographed.

Small Public Libraries Section. Newsletter. l(Nov. 1954) - 8 (Aug. 1956) mimeographed.

Wellington Branch. Branch newsletter. l(Mar. 1949) - 65 (May 1956) mimeographed.

Books and Pamphlets

1934

New Zealand libraries; a survey of conditions and suggestions for their improvement, by Ralph Munn and John Barr. Prepared under the auspices of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. 7lp.

1936

Instructional bulletin no.I. Compiled by E, B. Ellerm. 17 1. mimeographed.

1937

Instructional bulletin no.I (revised). Compiled by E. B. Ellerm. 31 I mimeographed.

List of books on library work. 25 1. mimeographed

National library system for New Zealand. Statement by New Zealand Library Association. [4p.]

1938

Fiction buying list [compiled by the Committee on fiction policy. 36 I.] mimeographed.

Report on hours, wages, training and conditions of service in public libraries in New Zealand. 6 1., and 36 1. of tables, mimeographed.

Younger children’s books. Revised list. 17 1. mimeographed. Revision of a list included earlier in the year in a report by the Committee on school and children’s libraries (South Island).

1940

The case for free library service. Prepared by the Committee on free library service of the New Zealand Library Association. 16p. illus.

Junior books, a recommended list for boys and girls. Compiled by

New Zealand Library Association

108

Dorothy M. Neal [later Dorothy Neal White] for the School and children’s libraries standing committee of the New Zealand Library Association. 95 1. mimeographed.

New Zealand libraries in 1940 ; a report by the Liaison Officer. 12 1. mimeographed. Council document 1940/19.

£25 to spend? Books for 7-11 year olds; stories for 11-15 year olds; nonfiction for 11-15 year olds. 14 1. mimeographed. Edited by Kathleen E. Harvey.

1941

Children's librarian’s certificate: a course of training, by Dorothy Neal [later Dorothy Neal White] 260 p. mimeographed.

Dunedin libraries and book resources. Compiled by John Harris for the Otago Branch. 27p. mimeographed.

Some policy decisions of New Zealand Library Association conferences 1910-1940. Compiled by the Dunedin Public Library. 11 1. mimeographed. See 1950 for later issue.

1942

Check list of serials in New Zealand libraries. Compiled by John Harris, [356 I.] mimeographed. See 1945 for supplement.

Report on (A) standard (B) popular authors. sp. mimeographed. Compiled by the Fiction Committee. See 1947, 1949, 1954 and 1960 for later reports.

1943

Fiction suitable for post-primary schools. 26 1. mimeographed. Published by the Schools’ Section.

1944

Inter-loan rules and procedure. 17p. Cover-title: Library inter-loan. Prepared jointly by the Association, through its Book Resources Committee, and the Country Library Service. See 1956 for second edition.

Libraries in Otago; a post-war plan. 11 1. mimeographed. Prepared by the Executive of the Otago Branch.

1945

Supplement to the Check list of serials in New Zealand libraries [compiled by John Harris] 51 1. mimeographed. See 1942 for main volume. Note: the Union List, for which the Check List formed a basis, has been published by the National Library Service.

1946

About books for children, by Dorothy Neal White. 222 p. Published by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research in conjunction with the N.Z.L.A.

Guide to New Zealand reference material and other sources of information, by John Harris. 100 1. mimeographed. Based on a preliminary mimeographed edition duplicated by the Library School in 1946. See 1950 for later edition.

Subject index to reports of Royal commissions and Special committees 1923-45. [4p.] Reprinted from New Zealand Libraries v 9 no 7 p. 140-5 Sept. 1946.

1947

Christchurch: guide for the visitor, restatement for old friends. 15p. illus Published by the Canterbury Branch for the 1947 conference.

Appendixes

109

Second report on (A) standard (B) popular authors, 1947. 28 I. mimeographed. Compiled by the Fiction Committee. See 1942, 1949, 1954 and 1960 for other reports.

1949

Elementary principles of library planning. Prepared by the Committee on (small) library buildings. [3p.] Reprinted from New Zealand Libraries vl2 no 10 p. 245-7 Nov. 1949. See 1959 for revised edition.

Third report on standard and popular authors, 1949. 32p. mimeographed. Compiled by the Fiction committee. See 1942, 1947, 1954 and 1960 for other reports.

1950

Guide to New Zealand reference material and other sources of information. Compiled by John Harris. 2nd ed. 114 p. Some interleaved copies were issued. See 1946 for earlier edition; 1951 and 1957 for supplements.

New Zealand geographical headings [3p.] Reprinted from New Zealand Libraries vl3 nol p. 17-20 Jan.-Feb. 1950.

Some policy decisions and recommendations of New Zealand Library Association conferences and annual meetings 1941-1950. 10 1. mimeographed. Council document 1950/25. See 1941 for earlier issue.

Wellington 1950. Souvenir booklet for the 19th conference and 22nd annual meeting of the N.Z.L.A. 15p. illus. Published by the Wellington Branch.

1951

Guide to New Zealand reference material, by John Harris. Supplement no. I (to June, 1951) compiled by A. G. Bagnall. 29p. See 1950 for main volume; 1957 for second supplement.

The rental collection and free library practice. Report of the N.Z.L.A. Fiction committee [9p.] Reprinted from New Zealand Libraries vl4 noB p. 204-12 Sept. 1951.

Who's who in New Zealand libraries 1951. Edited by A. L. Olsson. 42p mimeographed. See 1955 and 1958 for later editions.

1952

A message to local authorities. 16p. illus. Prepared for the Local Authorities Section.

1953

Standards of appointment and employment of librarians (as approved by Council, 19th August, 1953) [6p.] Reprinted from New Zealand Libraries vl7 no 9 p. 207-12 Nov. 1953.

1954

Fourth report on standard and rental authors, 1954. 38p. mimeographed. Compiled by the Fiction Committee. See 1942, 1947, 1949 and 1960 for other reports.

You can help the library. 4p.

i i/u tun ii ci// kic uui ui jr. 1955

An elementary guide to archive practice. 34 1. mimeographed. Prepared by the Archives Committee and edited by F. H. Rogers.

New Zealand book display: international book design exhibition, London, 1953. Bp. mimeographed catalogue.

Standards of salary for public libraries [3p.] Reprinted from New Zealand Libraries vlB no 9 p. 221-3 Nov. 1955. See 1960 for later scale.

110

New Zealand Library Association

Who’s who in New Zealand libraries 1954-1955. Edited by A. L. Olsson [2nd ed.] 44p. mimeographed. See 1951 and 1958 for other editions.

1956

Interloan rules and procedure. [2nd ed.] 16p. Cover title: Library interloan. Prepared jointly by the Association, through its Book Resources Committee, and the National Library Service. See 1944 for first edition.

Introduction to cataloguing and classification; being notes for Part I, Paper B of A course of training in librarianship. Compiled by Enid A. Evans. 108 1. mimeographed. Reissued with corrections 1958.

Union list of theses of the University of New Zealand 1910-1954. Compiled by D. L. Jenkins [2B3p.] mimeographed.

1957

A career in library work. 6p. illus.

Co-operation: a new phase. Report of the Committee on regional library co-operation approved by the Council of the N.Z.L.A. for discussion at the 1958 conference. Bp. Also printed, from the same type, in New Zealand Libraries v2O no 9 p. 197-202 Nov. 1957.

Guide to New Zealand reference material, by John Harris. Supplement n0.2 (to August, 1956) compiled by A. G. Bagnall. 34p. See 1950 for main volume; 1951 for first supplement.

Library administration; being notes for Part I Paper A of A course of training in librarianship. Loose-leaf, mimeographed. Sections revised by tutors as need arises.

1958

Rules for cataloguing and indexing Maori names. 3p. Reprinted from New Zealand Libraries v2l nos p. 107-9 Aug. 1958.

Some tales for telling . . . and reading aloud. 9 1. mimeographed. Published by the Small Public Libraries Section.

Who’s who in New Zealand libraries 1958. Edited by A. L. Olsson [3rd ed.] 4lp. photoprint. See 1951 and 1955 for earlier editions.

1959

Preservation of records; a guide for local body officers. Part I. What to do with your old records. 3p. mimeographed. Issued by the Archives Committee. See 1960 for revision.

Principles of library planning. Prepared by the Committee on library buildings . . . 6p. Reprinted from New Zealand Libraries v2l no 6 p. 121-6 Sept. 1958. See 1949 for earlier edition.

Special libraries and collections: a New Zealand directory, 1959. Compiled by University and research section. 34p. photoprint.

1960

Children’s books to own. Folder prepared for Children’s Book Week by the Children’s and Young People’s Section.

Guide to authors of fiction: fifth report. 79p. Compiled by the Fiction Committee, photoprint. See 1942, 1947, 1949 and 1954 for earlier reports.

Library resources in Otago and Southland, by H. D. Edam. 7lp. mimeographed. Compiled for the Otago Branch.

New Zealand library resources. Report of a survey made for the New Zealand Library Association under the auspices of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, by Andrew D. Osborn. 70p.

A ppendixes

111

Preliminary list of archives of local bodies in New Zealand 1960. Prepared by Pamela Cocks for the Archives Committee. 21 1. mimeographed.

The printed word as an aid to industry. 3p. Statement prepared for the Industrial Development Conference.

Standard salary scale. 12p. mimeographed. Council document 1960/21. The scale was adopted by Council on 19th February 1960 and contains a provision for automatic revision whenever the Professional Division scale of the Public Service is revised. See 1955 for earlier scale.

What to do with your records: a guide for local body officers. Prepared by the Archives committee. 7p. mimeographed. See 1959 for earlier version.

C. Other Publications

Alley, G. T. An experiment in rural adult education. Thesis for M.A., 1931. 2v. V.l mimeographed; v.2 photos, maps, etc.

Alley, G. T. Taranaki’s rural library facilities. A report submitted to the New Zealand library group . . . based on a survey of the Taranaki area and being (a) a summary of present library facilities (b) an estimate of the possibility of inaugurating a modern rural library service for that area. Christchurch, 1937. 63 1. mimeographed.

Carnell, E. J. Library administration. London, Grafton, 1947. 166 p. Based on the notes written by Miss Carnell for Part I of the N.Z.L.A. General Training Course.

Foote, S. M. New Zealand libraries. A bibliography. Wellington, Library School, 1948. 29 1. typescript.

Foote, S. M. New Zealand Library Association. Wellington, Library School, 1948. 31 1. manuscript.

Mercer, A. E. New Zealand Library Association, Inc.; some notes on its development and present state. Wellington, Library School, 1949. 14 I. typescript.

N.Z. Laws, Statutes, etc. New Zealand Library Association Act, 1939. 1939, no. 17. Wellington, Govt. Printer, 1939. 2p.

N.Z. National Library Committee. [Report]. Wellington, Govt. Printer, 1958. lOp. (Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1.17).

N.Z. Prime Minister. The Government’s national library service: memorandum n0.34. [Wellington, 1934] 4 1. mimeographed. An election statement.

N.Z. Public Service Commission. Proposed national library, 1956. Report of Committee set up by the Public Service Commission to examine proposals from the New Zealand Library Association to the Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. S. G. Holland). [Wellington, 1956] 27 1. and 12 1. of appendixes, mimeographed.

[Scholefield, G. H.] Rural library services. Report by the Chief Librarian, General Assembly Library, relative to. Wellington, Govt,

Printer, 1936. 12p. (Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, H.32A).

100

ASSOCIATION COMMITTEES 1937-1960

New Zealand Library Association

A ppendixes

113

114

New Zealand Library Association

Index

Adult education, 36, 68

Alexander Turnbull Library, 19, 50, 82-6

Alley, G. T., 25, 27, 36, 40, 45, 51-2, 54, 56, 58, 79, 91 Archives, 68

Army Education and Welfare Service, 34-6

Associated Booksellers of N.Z., 14-5, 70, 72, 82

Association for Country Education, 25

Atkinson, A. R., 91

Australian Commonwealth National Library, 86

Bacon, H. W. 8., 91

Bagnall, A. G., 39, 79-80, 82, 87

Baillie, H., 13, 16 (n) Barr, J., 15, 17-24, 29, 45, 91

Barr, R. F„ 65

Bateson, N., 57

Bell, E. J., 17, 23, 28, 72, 91

Benstead, G., 91

Bibby, D. G„ 30

Black, D. 8., 91

Blackett, A. M., 91

Book of Wiremu, 38

Book resources, 10, 38-44, 51, 7982, 87-8

Burdon, R. M., 70

Canberra Seminar, 86

Carnegie Corporation of New York, 9, 16, 25, 56-7 (n), 76

grants to N.Z.L.A., 28-9, 39, 42, 61-2, 80, 87

Munn-Barr Survey, 17-21 study grants, 16-7, 36

Carnegie Library Group, 22-30, 52, 54, 76

Carnell, E. J., 33-5, 46, 48

Case for Free Library Service, 34, 73

Cataloguing of N.Z. books, 80

Censorship, 69-71

Census of libraries, 72

Centennial atlas, 72

Central Bureau for Library Book Imports, 40-4, 50-2, 54, 69, 7980

Children’s Book Week, 66, 72

Children’s books, 38, 72

Children’s libraries, 14, 26, 36-8, 46, 71-2

Clark, J. 1., 91

Cobham, Viscount, 91

Coffman, Prof., 16 (n), 17

Cohen, M., 11, 13, 76

Collins, C. W„ 16, 38, 83, 91

Consultative Committee on Adult Education, 68

Copyright, 68

Country libraries, 9, 12, 13, 15, 19, 23-7, 52

Country Library Service, 10, 27, 29, 33-7, 40-4, 50-4, 75-9, 84-5

Liaison Officer, 29, 33-6, 61

Discounts, 15-6

Dollimore, H. N., 84

Dominion Library, 82

Duggan, M., 38

Dunedin City Council, 11, 13-4

Dunningham, A. G. W., 17, 23-4, 28, 35-6, 76, 91

Elementary Principles of Library Planning, 69

Elliot, A. K., 91

Esther Glen Award, 38, 72

Falter Tom and the Water Boy, 38

Fiction policy, 26, 75

Fraser, P., 25-7, 29-30, 52, 60, 86, 91 Free-and-rental service, 74-5

Free-and-rental service, 74-5

Free libraries, 14, 19, 34, 72-5

Gaudin, W. J.. 91

General Assembly Library, 9, 145, 17, 19, 23, 30, 50-2, 82-6

Gilkison, R., 91

103

116

Index

Gilmer, E. M., 91

Munn-Barr report, 17-21, 45, 513, 73, 76, 82-3, 86-9

Gordon, I. A., 70

Myths and Legends of Maoriland, 38

Government departmental libraries, 31, 80

Gramophone records, 69, 72

Nabokov, Lolita, 70

National Council of Adult Education, 36, 68

Hall, T. D. H., 23-4, 28. 30-3, 52, 67, 91

Harris, J„ 16, 39, 79-80, 91

National Historic Places Trust, 68

Guide to N.Z. Reference Material, 80

National library, 10, 14, 17, 19, 30, 50-3, 82-6, 88-9

Harvey, K. E., 36-7, 46

National Library Centre, 51, 54, 79-81

Hight, J„ 91

Holland, S. G., 84

National Library Committee, 85-6

Hunn, J. K., 84

National Library Service, 51-2, 58-9, 61-3, 68, 74-5, 77, 79-80, 83-6

Import controls, 40, 69

Index to N.Z. Periodicals, 39, 62, 79, 94

National Library System for N.Z., 27 Neal, D. M., see White, D.M.

Neal, D. M., see White, D.M.

Information exchange sheet, 39, 44, 94

N.Z. Council for Educational Research, 47

Inter-library loans, 19, 26, 35, 389, 44. 51-2, 62, 79

N.Z. Government, 9-10, 12-6, 1920, 23-31, 33-7, 39-44, 48-58, 62, 68-72, 75-9, 81, 84-6

Jubilee Institute for the Blind, 18 Junior Books, 37

N.Z. Libraries, 28, 62, 72, 94-5

N.Z. Library Association Auckland Branch, 26, 66, 92

Kealy, J. W., 91

Keppel, F. P., 22-3, 28

Branches, 26, 31-2, 57, 63, 66, 92 Canterbury Branch, 26, 66, 74,

Canterbury Branch, 26, 66, 74, 92

Labour Government, 1935-49, 9, 24-7, 54, 69

Children’s and Young People’s Section, 64, 92

Leys, T. W„ 13, 91

Librarians’ salaries, 26, 59-60

Libraries Association of N.Z., see N.Z. Libraty Association Library buildings, 69

Liorary /\ssociauon Library buildings, 69

Children’s Librarians’ course, 46

committees, 26, 64-5, 100-2 (see also names of individual committees) conferences and annual meet-

conferences and annual meet-

Library Commission, 14

Library Federation of Australia and N.Z., 13 (n) Library rate, 19

ings, 90, 95

1910, 11-12

Library staff, 18, 20, 55, 59-61, 64, 66-8, 71

1911, 13, 82

1912, 13

Local authorities, 25-6, 63-5, 68, 76-8

1926, 13

1935, 23

1937, 26

McEwan, W. 8., 13

1941, 58

Mclntosh, A. D., 17, 23-5, 29-30

1945, 50, 83

Mason, H. G. R., 37, 41

1947, 66, 76

Melville, E., 24, 63, 91

1948, 57

Message to Local Authorities, 62

1949, 60

Metcalf, K. D., 86

1952, 74

Miller, H. G.. 16

1953, 83

Minchin, A. E., 16

1955, 66

Morice, S., 38

1956, 77

Municipal Association, 60, 64

1958, 75

Munn, R.. 17-20

1960, 88

Index

117

Credentials Committee, 67-8

Wellington Branch, 26, 32, 66, 92

N.Z. Library School, 46, 48-51, 54-61, 67-8, 88

Fiction Committee, 75

finances, 14, 21, 28-30, 34, 61-3

formation, 11-2

headquarters building, 63

N.Z. national bibliography, 80

incorporation, 30

N.Z. Retail Booksellers’ Associ-

ation, see Associated Booksellers of N.Z. Nimble, Rumble and Tumble, 38

influence of personal members, 9, 23-4, 26, 31-2, 63

Liaison Officer, 29, 33-6, 61

Librarians’ Salaries, Conditions and Qualifications Committee, 59-60

Nome, J„ 16 (n), 17, 23-4, 28, 35-6, 54, 91

Library Training Committee, 45-9, 54, 56-7

O’Neill, T. 8., 74

O’Reilly, R. N., 74

Local Authorities Section, 63-5, 77. 92

Osborn, A. D„ 59, 86-9

membership, 12-3, 23-4, 30-2, 61-5, 81-2

Parker, S. C., 84

Parliamentary Library, see General Assembly Library Parsons, M, P., 48-9, 72

National Library Committee, 83-4

N.Z. Book Resources Committee, 40-4, 54, 64, 79-82, 86

Perry, S., 28, 45, 54, 83, 91

Peryman, H. L. E„ 84

Newsletter, 72

Principles of Library Planning, 69

Otago Branch, 26, 32, 39, 66, 74, 92

Prosser, W. C., 91

Pryor, D. C, 91

Palmerston North Branch, 66. 83, 92

Public libraries, 9-10, 18, 72-8

Public libraries, free, 14, 19, 34, 72-5

Patrons, 91

Public Service Commission, 84-5

Planning Committees 1943-5, 50-1, 53, 80, 83

Presidents, 90-1

Reed, A. W„ 38

Professional Section, 64-5, 92

Regional groupings of libraries, 19, 53

Public Library Service Committee, 77

Regional library service, 50-1, 749, 88-9

publications, 92-9

Regional Planning Committee. 76 Register of Qualified Librarians,

Register of Qualified Librarians, 66-8

Rogers, F. H., 91

Royal Society of N.Z., 19, 50, 82

Rural libraries, 9, 12-3, 15, 19, 23-7, 52

Russell, L, 29

rules, 24, 31-3, 65, 93

Schools Section, 36-7, 63-4, 92

Salaries, 26, 59-60

Scientific and Technical Librarians’ Seminar, 64

Sandall, F. A., 91

Scholefield, G. H„ 23-4, 28, 41, 91 School libraries, 20, 24, 26, 36-7,

School libraries, 20, 24, 26, 36-7, 46, 71-2, 88

Sections. 33, 57, 63-6, 92

Seminar for Librarians of N.Z. Collections, 64, 82

Small Public Libraries Section, 64, 92

School Library Service, 37, 53, 71, 76, 84-5

South Canterbury Branch, 92

Shanks, L. A., 84

staff, 30, 68

Shelley, J„ 25

Standards Research Committee, 74-5

Sidey, T. K. S., 91

Skoglund, P. O. S., 78

Training Course, 45, 47-50, 558, 62-3, 67-8

Smith, L, 38

Societies of librarians, 26, 92

Special libraries, 81-2, 86, 88

University and Research Section, 26, 63-4, 92

Specialization, 43-4, 81, 86

118

Stabilization Commission, 60, 64

Standards, 74

Subsidy for country libraries, 9, 18-9, 27, 53

Taranaki survey and proposed demonstration, 23, 25-6, 28-9

Technical and commercial service, 75 Thompson, A. 8., 84

Thompson, A. 8., 84

Tompkins, M., 73-5, 77, 86

Training for librarianship, 9-10, 20, 26, 45-51, 53, 55-9

university course, 45, 48, 58-9

Union catalogue, 19, 39, 42-4, 512, 79-80

Union List of Serials in N.Z. Libraries, 26, 39, 62, 79

Union of library workers, 59

United States Educational Foundation, 73

University and research libraries, 9-10, 38, 50, 63, 68, 82, 86, 88

Victoria University of Wellington, 16. 40, 58-9

War library service, 35-6

War memorials, 69

Wauchop, W. S., 91

White, D. M., 36-7, 46-7

About Books for Children, 47

Who's Who in N.Z. Libraries, 58, 66 Wilson, 1., 70

Workers’ Educational Association, 16, 18, 25

Index