THE PRACTICAL MAN

Press, Issue 33842, 14 May 1975, Page 24

THE PRACTICAL MAN

T he- reference section of the Canterbury Public Library is a world all of its own. It has some of the elements of the world under the sea: it is quiet and once-re-moved: and people move about so deliberately that they almost appear to be progressing in slow-motion, like divers beneath the water. But it is a much more repaying place to be than on the average seabed. Its treasure may not be actual rare shells, or beauttiful pieces of coral, or acient Spanish specie; but its shelves will have descriptions of these things, and probably colour pictures of them: in tact, the shelves of the reference library carry material on every subject under the sun. The New Zealand room tn rhe reference section goes in the closest detail into its own speciality.

This is the room to which students of old Christchurch must come at some point in their inquiries; there is no other place where they will find information in such systematic and exhaustive form, catalogued, stored and ready for assimilation. Here, for a start, are bound copies of Christchurch newspapers from thei. first issue. There are journals, books, maps, manuscripts, periodicals, and pamphlets. Staff are there to advise and to set guide lines for a search. The stacks of shelves are high and close because space is the one thing that the library does not. have enough of. but this crowding of the true wealth at least serves to impress on the visitor the

richness of his surroundings. Tables are available for me inquirer, and to these he can take his reference volumes and work at his notes in peace and silence. Frivolous or vexatious inquiries at the librarian’s desk are unheard of; people would either not dare to make them in such quarters, or have never thought of doing so. All inquiries then, are taken to be earnest even when they might mystify. Moreover. New Zealanders are a practical lot: but the reference library staff is still trying to fathom all the implications of an inquiry made by a middle-aged man who came in one day and asked in a hoarse whisper: “Have you got a book on sex in the do-it-your-self series?”