Establishment Of National Book Council Urged

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30678, 18 February 1965, Page 14

Establishment Of National Book Council Urged

New Zealand required an independent national book council, which could find the roles books played in life and spearhead the public relations movement in books and reading, the managing secretary of the Associated Booksellers of New Zealand (Mr C. Cameron) told the conference of the New Zealand Library Association last night. Mr Cameron, who was giving an address on the library and public relations, suggested that such a. council could conduct regular festivals of books and reading on a Dom-inion-wide basis.

The programme for the Pan Pacific Arts Festival contained no reference to books, and it was a festival of arts, said Mr Cameron. There could be a display of books and reading, or something of that nature, he said. No attempt had. been made in New Zealand to evaluate

the position of books in the community. In his view the buying and the borrowing of books were complementary, not competitive. People in power tended to put more emphasis on material things than on things of the spirit, and books were included in things of the spirit, said Mr Cameron. “Have all the public authorities with the power to establish libraries done so? I believe not. Are bridges and drainage schemes always more important than books?" asked Mr Cameron. There was one book a head of population in New Zealand libraries, compared with 1.5 books in Britain, 1.1 in the United States, and 3.6 in Swedish libraries, he said. There was a need for cooperation and understanding between the general public and the private sector of the book world, and this was the role of public relations, said Mr Cameron.