EXTENDING LIBRARY FACILITIES

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 138, 7 March 1930, Page 7

EXTENDING LIBRARY FACILITIES

SUGGESTION FOR COUNTRY DISTRICTS ALLOCATION OF SUBSIDY Dominion Special Service. Auckland, March 5. A proposal for the extension of library facilities to country districts was made by Mr. John Barr, chief librarian in Auckland, in an address to-day on "New Zealand Library Problems,” at the conference of the New Zealand Libraries’ Association. “It is not easy to give an idea of the impossible conditions under which the small libraries have to work,” he said, "but anyone who has visited even a few country libraries can sympathise with the committees.” At the present time, he continued, the Government distributed £3060 annually to libraries in country districts where the population was less than 1500. in 1028 325 libraries participated in the subsidy, receiving amounts varying from £6 to £l2. Allowing an average cost of a volume at the low figure of 5/-, the most that any library could purchase from the grant would be 48, less than a book a week. Mr. Barr suggested that instead of the subsidy being divided in the present manner, it should be handed to a central authority, which he proposed should be the Parliamentary Library, under the direction of the librarian in Wellington. An officer could be appointed to take charge of the country circulation department. After putting aside a third of the present subsidy for office expenses, there would remain £2OOO for expenditure on books. Allowing an average of 10/- a volume for technical works and 5/- for other classes of literature, 6000 volumes could be bought annually. In ten years’ time, allowing for withdrawals, there would be a stoqk of 50,000 volumes available for circulation to various agencies such as libraries in districts with less than 1500 population, schools and churches. A sub-committee was formed to report on the question.