TRAVELLING LIBRARIES.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 73, 29 March 1910, Page 8

TRAVELLING LIBRARIES.

THEIR ADOPTION ADVOCATED. (RT TBBEGBAPA — SPECIAL TO^THB POST.] DUNEDIX, This Day. The piiii'ipal paper read before the Libraries Association yesterday was by Mr. M. CohtMt on "Travelling' Libraries and their Management." Mi. H. Baillie, of tho Wellington Public Library, whilst in the United States had collected much valuable information about the matter wilder notice. Mr. Cohen submitted statistical proof of the unqualified success of travelling libraries which has been achieved in the United States, and in States of the Commonwealth of Australia, where, indeed, such libraries have been in successful operation for about twenty-five years. He described the system in detail, and laid on the table for perusal by delegate!! schedules of railway rates for the carrying of travelling libraries which, by the way, are boxes containing up to sixty books. In emphasising the educational benefits derived in remote areas ot countries through such libraries, he deplored the withdrawal hy the Government of the vote of £3000 to country libraries, lie took leave to say that no more fatal mistake was ever perpetrated thau the tutting of this vote. It was this small sum upon which the back-blockers depended for the upkeep of their libraries. If the Government was determined to practice economy in the best sense of the word, there were a hundred and one different f \vays of doing it. For the person who' went into the. wilderness to make a home, it was the duty of the Government to do more than waa done for the dweller in the cities. (Hear, hear.) Travelling libraries would servo admirably, and if it cost £5000 to establish them, to give' kottlero in the backblocks an early acquaintance with tho best of litor.it ttrv, it was tho duty of the Cjo\ernmeut to spend it. The vote must be restored. He concluded by moving : — "Thut it in ifesirable te inaugurate a system of travelling libraries in thin Dominion, and thut the executive of thr- Libraries Association be empowered to bring tho question under tho notice of the Government und to request that practical effect be given to this resolution ax early as practicable, and that thin conference dpxiros respectfully to direct the attention of the Government to thu svstcn prevailing in South Australia, Victoria, and other countries whereby collections of bonks arc sent from the utpital city for circulation in rural district!,; also to the low rateH charged on the railways in New South Wales nnd elsewhere for the carriage of parcels of book* from cii dilating libraries. The conference! urges the concession to libraries controlled by local governing bodies of the right to forvard parcels of books to and within counties at the New South Wales or similar rates." Mr. T. W. Leys (Auckland), in soionding the motion, said that it Kcrtupd to him the only way the system could l>o applied in New Zealand was to get tho Government to encourage municipal libraries to take on the work. Mr. Parr (Auckland) favoured the introduction of such a system, and suggested thai a distribution of the best literature be entrusted to the Education Department. Mr. C. Wilson, Chief Parliamentary Librarian, referred to tho public practice in leaning too much on Government support. He suggested that a (ommittep of Government officials be asked to sui>mit a report to the Governlncn. Conditions in New Zealand were difterent from those in the United States, and the system would not be as cheaply carried out hero as there. The motion was carried unanimously.