THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20028, 9 September 1930, Page 13

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

TO I'HE EDITOR OF TBI PBIS3 Sir, —I should like to raise the question of the circulating department of the Public Library being closed oni Saturday afternoons and holidays. This is possibly the only ■ time a business' man may have to get a book.r I cannot see why the library should not be

open on such days and the assistants be given an equivalent time off on other days, of the week. Another point is the system of reserving books. Books, at-present, may bo booked at 4d each. This system w.unsatisfactory, as any new bookß worth reading never come into general- circulation until they have been in the library for about a year. By then, in consequence of facilities which do not invariably seem to be connected with the system of 4d reservations, anyone who is/anybody seems to have had the opportunity of reading, them.' It is saicl that no hew books • may be reserved until they have been in the Library for three months; but what

happens to themf. Only the antiques are; ever seen on the table. The booking business should be done away with, and, if.necessary, the subscriptions might be raised slightly to make up for the loss in revenue. , . Lastly, the choice of books is poor. Notable books of which one reads in. reviews are seldom seen in the Library. The shelves are full of dirty, out-of-date-books which nobody wants to read; and: as for technical or . scientific books," they are non-existent. The Library needs a thorough shake-up, and the. sooner it gets it the better for the unprivileged subscriber.—Yours, etc., BOOKWOBM. , September 7th, 1930. [When this letter was referred to him, Mr E. J. Bell, the Librarian, said that he had only one comment to make, which was that the .writer; should go to any other of the libraries in New Zealand to! see dirty books, etc., and compare them with those of the Canterbury Public Library. On Saturday afternoons arid evenings 'their circulating departments are closed, whereas that of the Canterbury Library is on Saturday evenings.]