AFTER FORTY YEARS

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 94, 15 January 1932, Page 11

AFTER FORTY YEARS

Mr. J. E. Perry to Retire LIBRARIAN AT NEWTOWN After 40. years’ service in the city, nearly all of which has been as librarian of Newtown Library, Mr. J. E. Perry intends retiring toward the end of this year. Mr. Perry yesterday threw some interesting light on the development of the library movement in Wellington in something less than half a century.

Before the Central Library came into being, the only institution of the kind in-Wellington was the Athenaeum In the old Exchange Buildings, Lambton Quay, to which subscribers paid a guinea a year, said Mr. Perry. It had .a fair collection of'books, and New Zealand and British newspapers. Mr. Perry was engaged at the Athenaeum for two or three years, and when it was taken over by the City Corporation upon the opening of the Central Library, Mr. Perry was taken over with it and was really the first officer appointed in the public library department Mr. T. W. Rowe was the first librarian at the Central Library, and ten to twelve years later he was succeeded by Mr. Herbert Baillie, who had first taken charge of the small library which had been erected at Newtown. In later years the Central and Newtown Libraries were considerably extended, and the museum was added at Newtown consequent upon the presentation of a collection by the late Mr. E. W. Petherick in 1905. Mr. Baillie was at Newtown for two years when he was appointed to the Central Library, being succeeded at- Newtown by Mr. Perry. Reading for Children. For two or three years the work of providing children’s books and school libraries was done at the Central Library, after which it was transferred to Newtown and came under Mr. Perry’s personal supervision. To-day the children’s library and reading-room at Newtown is an outstanding feature of its kind in the Dominion. In the early days there were only eight primary schools served by the school library, but to-day there are 33, including secondary ■ schools, the Technical College, and the Girls’ Colleges, while the number of children provided for has increased many times over. Building Up Subscribers. Mr. Perry has always taken a special interest in the school libraries, as he considers it the most valuable part of the work bf the public library. In addition to the educational value derived in developing the reading habit, - it built up future subscribers. Since Mr. J. Norrie succeeded Mr. Baillie as City Librarian the school libraries scheme has been considerably enlarged and extended, and included the introduction of continuous readers. Another important development had been the series of lectures given to pupils of secondary and technical schools on how to make use of the catalogue and the reference library. The result bad been a tremendous increase in the number of young people using the library for reference and study, and using it intelligently. There are thousands of . adults today who did not make anything like efficient use of the public libraries for lack of the knowledge how to use them, said Mr. Perry. Many of them were afraid of disclosing their ignorance in this respect. Under the present system the present and future generations would make far greater use of the libraries than had been done in the past. The young people realised that it was their library and it was there to provide them with all the information possible. The value of the lectures had been fully appreciated by the principals of the secondary and technical schools, and when debates were being arranged, those engaged sought the services of the reference library, magazine articles, and other authorities. Especially was this the case on one occasion last year, when two schools debated for and against Home Rule for India.