TV Thought Factor In Fall In Library Issues

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30636, 30 December 1964, Page 1

TV Thought Factor In Fall In Library Issues

A fall in the number of books issued by the Canterbury Public Library this year is attributed, in part, by the acting City Librarian (Mr J. E. D. Stringleman) to the effect of television.

The number has fallen by about 2| per cent. A fall of 5| per cent in the number of books issued to adults has been partly compensated by a rise of 6 per cent in children’s book issues.

“This is the first year that television has had an adverse effect on book borrowing from the library,” Mr Stringleman said yesterday. “There has been a big increase in the number of TV sets in the area.

“The influence of TV can be expected to increase in the next few years, if overseas trends are a guide. Then there will be a swing back to reading—a levelling-out to a fairly static position.” Mr Stringleman said that from October, 1962. to September, 1963, 708,000 books were issued to adults. From

October, 1963, to September this year, the total was 669,000.

“The exceptionally fine winter we had this year, with only about two wet Saturdays, for instance, has also had an adverse effect on book borrowing. The fact that our charges for popular books was increased about a year ago may have had a slight effect on the number of issues.

“However, I consider that the greater number of persons now watching TV has been the main cause of the drop in issues. You cannot read and watch TV in your leisure time. Once the initial impact of TV is over, viewers, in the main, return to reading, if devoting less time to it,” Mr Stringleman said. The trend, noticeable in all English-speaking countries since World War 11, towards the reading of serious books has not been reversed at the Canterbury Public Library. Last year, 54 per cent of the

books borrowed by adults were in the serious class, and 46 per cent popular books. This year the proportion has been 55 per cent to 45 per cent.

“Until the City Council took over the Canterbury Public Library in 1948, there was a very poor collection of serious literature,” Mr Stringleman said. “In fact, this side of the library was not built up until Mr R. N. O’Reilly, the City Librarian, really got to work on it in 1951. The policy of free serious books and rentals for popular books was introduced. “Now we have an excellent collection of serious literature, the classics, novels of literary merit, books on the arts and so on. The grant given by the City Council is devoted entirely to this side of the library. Popular Books

“The rental fees charged for the popular books are ploughed back into buying more of them. The price of books has increased steeply in recent years—about 19 per cent for fiction in the last two years, for example. “Thus, although fees to the borrowers of popular books have been increased, we are not buying more books but are merely able to keep up the annual number,” he said. Mr Stringleman said that the higher standard of education undoubtedly played its part in the increased borrowing noticeable over the last 10 years. “It is encouraging, too, to find the number of children’s books being borrowed still increasing. I do not think the library will be down in revenue at the end of this financial year, because of the increased rentals.

“The staff has always been hard put to it at peak periods of borrowing, so that the small drop in issues will not do any harm in that direction.”