LIBRARY SYSTEM.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 58, 9 March 1935, Page 14

LIBRARY SYSTEM.

AUSTRALIA AND N.Z.

"SERIOUS" TYPE OF BOOK

MORE POPULAR LAST

CENTURY

A statement that the "serious" type of book was more popular 50 years ago than it is to-day was made this morning by Mr. E. R. Pitt, chief librarian of tho Melbourne Public Library, who, with Mrs. Pitt, is a through passenger by the liner Mariposa. Mr. Pitt is to visit the United States, Canada and England under a travelling grant made by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. His tour will occupy six months and he will return to Australia via Suez.

Mr. Pitt, who has been chief librarian at Melbourne for three and a'half years, said that during the depression books on economics had been rend much more widely than previously, and that the hard times had brought with them a demand for more serious reading matter generally. A recent survey, however, had shown that what could be classed as "serious" books had been more in demand 50 years ago. He made it clear that he was referring in this respect to provincial and country district libraries. The Melbourne reference library, he said, averaged between 2000 and 30Q0 readers a day, and at times all the 400 seats available to visitors were occupied. The library, with over 500,000 books, had the best collection in Australia. Mutilations and the lost book problem had been the cause of some trouble since the war, possibly due to a general slackening in public morale, but the losses to the library each year would hot be more than 100 books. Recent Survey Valuable. Mentioning that he had made a tour of libraries in Australia with Mr. Ralph Munn, of Pittsburg, Mr. Pitt expressed the hope that the survey of New Zealand libraries recently made by Mr. Barr, Auckland librarian, and Mr. Munn would bear fruit. The report on the Australian library system had created considerable interest and was likely to result in much pood. "Our report,. which deals with the library situation in Australia, was very scathing," he said. "We found that in the matter of libraries Australia is verv backward."

The library system in New Zealand, said Mr. Pitt, was rather better than in Australia, where the Government was more centralised and to a large extent cramped the development of a national system. Under the system in force in Australia the Government concentrated its energies on the main centres. It was now suggested that library development work should be undertaken by municipalities and that local libraries should lie controlled by municipal councils. At the present time the libraries had to "live" on their subscribers, only a few municipal councils giving any assistance, Under such a system only a limited portion of the population could take advantage of the reading matter provided.