THE PEOPLE’S LIBRARIES

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 201, 22 May 1936, Page 10

THE PEOPLE’S LIBRARIES

Dr. Scholefield’s report as Parliamentary Librarian submits some important conclusions based upon his recent tour, abroad. These reflect the great change of sentiment in other countries toward public libraries, a change unquestionably stimulated by the international efforts of the Carnegie Trust both in the education of public opinion and in the material assistance given from that famous endowment. Progress in library development in a young country is necessarily slow. Buildings, books and staffs represent items of public expenditure the return from which, as with education, is largely unassessable, and progress which involves increased expenditure is greatiy hindered by that aspect of it. Nevertheless the step from free education to free library service is one which every enlightened community ought to regard as an aim in its social development. The public library, indeed, is a unit of the general educational scheme, and its claims should be judged accordingly. Public opinion by this time is quite ready to accept this proposit'on in principle. It is, therefore, entirely a question of means. The libraries at present derive their financial support from rates and subscriptions. Dr. Scholefield considers that to be in line with modern library reform, all libraries, whether municipal or country, reference or borrowing, should be completely free to users; all. the non-fiction book stocks of the Dominion should be available, within reasonable limits, for the use of all serious readers; and residents of rural districts “however remote” should be entitled to. as efficient, a lending service as those in the towns, “within practicable, limits.” These "suggestions cover an extension of library development, involving a substantial increase of expenditure from the rates, and it may be a fair question whether a State subsidy to the local authorises should not be placed on the Education Estimates as an acknowledgment of the State’s responsibility for this important branch of public education. The issue really is whether the public library should continue to be regarded as a local amenity or a national institution — with decentralised control of course —and if we agree that library development should be more rapid and comprehensive than it is, and that the system should be free, the issue may become a live one.