Library Administration

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21707, 14 February 1936, Page 12

Library Administration

It is encouraging to gather from the tone of Cr, JJ. H, Andrews’s remarks at the annual meeting of the Addington Public Library that he expects the conference between the City Council and the Canterbury College Council to agree on the control and financing of the Public Library. Cr, Andrews spoke positively of improvements that would be attempted, and it is impossible to think of his confidence as mere cheerful optimism, because he is chairman of tifie council’s finance committee and knows that the issue, though not wholly, is one of finance. If the (council is prepared to accept its duty and help to secure the finances of the central library, as it does those of the suburban libraries, it is unlikely that administrative obstacles will present themselves. But it may be ■j&id, perhaps, before the conference meets, that the council will, be wise to adopt an elastic and generous policy and not to insist on obtaining sole control. In the first place, there are legal difficulties in the way, and it is not really worth while to take the trouble of overcoming them. In the second, the Canterbury College Council, lalthough V shockingly hampered by want of funds, has; administered the library with remarkable economy and, in relation to revenue, surprising efficiency; and it has always found members able and ready to devote considerable fo'pjp and care to it. The City Council’s best course, probably, is to leave the ownership of the library as it is. or the trusteeship, rather, because it not that that matters but the function of the institution; to obtain a sufficient representation on the responsible committee; and to make annual votes in accordance with the reports and recommendations of its representatives, who would, of course, be fully informed pn financial and all other library business. Exceptional problems, such as rebuilding, extension, and so on, could be dealt with by special joint committees of the two.bodies. Too much

chaste at.first is to be The reorganisation of the central and suburban libraries, for example, in a system which will open the resources of the central library to the others is certain, and may not be very far off;, but that is not the first necessity,' and the conference will be likely to lose its way if it tries to solve that technical-problem in addition to the financial pnd administrative one. There is, moreover, the possibility that the new Government may ■ adopt from the last the library scheme which was announced before the elections, or else some simttaT mac; asvd the basis of a distributing scheme may be found in that. In the meantime the City Council has an opportunity to facilitate the progress of a public institution to which the city owes much but has paid little; and that is a fact which should help to smooth the negotiations.