HUMAN BEINGS IN A LIBRARY

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LX, Issue 11134, 8 June 1933, Page 4

HUMAN BEINGS IN A LIBRARY

“The lay reader has. come to select a book at the public library. He has read but little and now, other diversions grown stale or with a.n excess of spare time on his hands, the urge to fead comes over him, and he prepares to select a book—one from hundreds of thousands” writes L. M. Dickson in the “Bookman." “This casual readers wanders aimlessly from stall to stall, not knowing what he wants, not knowing where to find that which might interest him. He is plagued by a seeming confusion of books, of endless titles, which he scans rapidly, unseeingly. A name appeals to him, he takes the book from the shelf and flits over a few pages, reading only enough to convince him that the book is worthless, uninteresting and a waste of time.

“Another one is rejected like its predecessor. Up and down, row after row, shelf after shelf, this flighty, irresponsible dabbler goes with growing irritation. “He is not a connoisseur. He is not looking for something rare or something new. Neither does he count the old masters of literature, or the modern masters, or even the modern mediocrities, life friends. “He is lost and is searching for something to divert him for the moment, for something to lift his mind from the tedium of humdrum things, to transport him, no matter the vehicle, for a short while to a new atmosphere, and to make his life and hopes coincide with and partake of the lives of other more wonderful people than himself. Eventually by random choice he finds his one among thousands: a tale with a lurid title, a tale with action in the first sentence, written in short, crisp phraseology, easy to read, and by an unknown author. He is satisfied. “Next comes the insatiable reader of Western stories; the super-sleuth devotee: the gangster and the crime tale victim: the imaginative roamer of the frozen North; the land-tied sailor: and the sex story addict. Each one of these comes with a fixed purpose. He must have another detective story, or another sea story, and his steps lead unerringly to the section where the greatest abundance of his particular mental food is stored. ‘This type of reader leads all others in numbers, and swells the library circulation figures amazingly. They are the ones who deplete library shelves, who crowd library

halls and form queues at the exchange counters. They read voraciously as long as the supply is maintained, and the appetite remains, and they are satisfied. “In smaller numbers the readers of discrimination, the lovers of literature, appear haunting the library day and night. They can be found hunched over a biography or absorbed in ancient drama, lost to the world about them. “This ma.n is in no hurry, and wishes only that he had more time, and that the library would remain open longer. He would even like to live there, and often dreams of having bis own private selection on which to feed his mind and exercise his highest, finest thoughts at will. This genuine book-lover, not numerous. not. demonstrative or audible, forms the foundation of our libraries and our literary systems. “from him and his type spring the literary geniuses, the masters of the written word, and it is for him that the masterpieces and the classics of all the ages were written. He reads continually—he is always searching for something more—he is never satisfied.”