NATIONAL LIBRARY

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 125, 20 February 1941, Page 9

NATIONAL LIBRARY

Development Of The Conception

WORK FOR FUTURE

Tribute To New Wellington.

Institution

DUNEDIN, February 19.

Library development as now planned will, according to Dr. G. 11. Scholefield in his presidential address to the New Zealand Library Association today, proceed more or less around the conception of a national library, an institution that ccrttld be envisaged much more clearly now than a few years ago. On the material side it had been set back for the moment by international events, but it might be expected to receive attention again when the recovery programme following the war was being considered. Dr. Scholefield said it had been a stroke of good fortune that the building of the Central Public Library in Wellington had been completed and opened before the war began. The institution was an example and object lesson to New Zealand of what a modern library should be, and its development must be an inspiration to libraries throughout the country. National Library Work. The delay in commencing construction of a national library was not entirely a matter of loss or regret. Piles of brick and mortar did not constitute a .school or university, nor buildings a church or a faith. The plans would be all the better considered and perfected by reason of the experience being gained in the meantime, and growing appreciation of the needs and likely proportions of the various aspects of national library work. “We have, I think, been able to create something of the national library spirit, which is in the main a spirit of co-operation among libraries and librarians,” said Dr. Scholefield. “In the first place there is the interlibrary loan system, which has been steadily developing for the last few years. The theory behind inter-library lending is that the whole of the book stock of the Dominion should be at the service of the whole population. "The system has now been working smoothly for several years to the great advantage of all 'the libraries concerned. In general, it is the larger libraries that make the greatest number of loans and the smaller ones that are the chief beneficiaries. That is always the case, and it should be so in any social community. The smaller libraries often work under great disabilities, and we are glad to feel that their readers may have access to a wider field of literature through the inter-library scheme. Inter-Library Service. Conservation was one of the main duties of the librarian, but a jealous anxiety to preserve books for the supposed benefit of a future generation might quite easily rob the present generation of facilities it urgently needed. The idea of the rigid ownership of books within the walls of the library to which they belonged had gone by the board. The restriction of book imports, which had been found necessary under existing conditions, had made the inter-library use of books and consultation, in buying more significant. Dr. Scholefield expressed satisfaction with the development of the Country Library Service. It had made remarkable strides, showing not only that there was a genuine need for the service but that it was being met with efficiency and in a way that was acceptable to the local authorities.