Library complaints

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33154, 19 February 1973, Page 7

Library complaints

(N.Z. Press Association) INVERCARGILL, Feb. 16. When unsophiscated readers took passages out of context, indignation set in and the argument started, Miss R. S. Mackay, of Gisborne, said at the annual conference of the Library Association, held this week in Invercargill. Speaking during a panel discussion on public complaints, Miss Mackay said that by far the largest trouble spot had the smallest name. “While we have a number of fairly graphic volumes in the medical and ethics section, they, so far have caused no outcray. It is when sex is treated in the novel form that arguments arise. By the intelligent reader, the purple passages are accepted, along with descriptions of poverty, bad housing, or simply pressures of modem living, as part of the novelists’ way of making his or her point in the framework of the story. “It is when the unsophisticated reader takes passages out of context that indignation sets in and the argument starts,” said Miss Mackay. "Certain religious sects complain that there are not

enough books on their particular aspect. “This could well be true and we do mention that we tty to keep a rough proportion of the number of books to the number of people in our district practising each sect.

“In the political field, care is taken that no pressure is allowed from any camp and that material on both or all aspects is available,” said Miss Mackay.