THE LIBRARIES CONFERENCE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 76, 1 April 1910, Page 6

THE LIBRARIES CONFERENCE.

The enterprise and public spirit of the Dunedin City Council appear toha%'e been amply rewarded by the success which has attended tho proceedings of tho Libraries Conference. It was tho Dunedin Council that first conceived tho idea of such a conference, and undertook the responsibility of convening it; and in matters of this kind the first step is usually the most difficult. Now that the institution has been successfully launched, it should be assured of a useful and prosperous career. It is to be noted that tho association which nas been formed is one not of librarians, but of libraries. Tho aim of the promotm of th« coofirenco wm, »pp»rtnt>

ly, to form an association which should bear to the various public libraries of the country the samo relation which the Municipal Association bears to the city and borough councils. "Public Library" is, of course, an ambiguous term, and the conference devoted a consderajble amount of time and energy to the endeavour to define it. Ruloa and definitions often provide matter for fierce and fruitless discussion at the initial meetings of societies, clubs, and similar organisations. But in the present case tho discussion, if keen, was inevitable, and it was not fruitless. The basis and scope of the Libraries Association were contingent upon the definition ot the institutions which were to be entitled to representation upon it. It seems to us that the conference did well to spread its net wide fry a comprehensive definitiou. Wo can see no good reason why dependence upon rates or taxes should be made a condition of membership of the association. University Colleges and Technical Education Boards may have valuable libraries which are not Public Libraries in tho sense 0/ being open to the public free of charge. Literary institutes and subscription libraries may be open only to that section of the public which is willing and able to pay the subscription and observe the rules. All these institutions are promoting the same cause of popular education andi culture which the Public Libraries proper exist to serve ; and as long as the element of commercial prefit ib absent the conference wisely decided to admit them all. Much of the attention of tke association will necessarily be concerned with questions of library administration, which, though of vital importance, are ot no particular interest to the public and may not be fully intelligible to anybody but the expert. Of this character if. the Dewey system of classification, upon which a highly appreciated paper was read by Mr. H. L. James, the Assistant Librarian of the General Assembly. The paper is calculated to be of great value to librarians, but its technical character necessarily makes it "caviar© to the general." The majority, however, of the subjects considered by the conference were of general interest and concern. The establishment of travelling libraries, the enlargement of the rating power» for the upkeep of public libraries, and the recent discontinuance of the grants in aid of these libraries, furnished matter at once of general interest and of practical value. In the threo chief Australian States, as well «v» hi many of the NoVth American States, a great work is being done in spreading the taste and the opportunity for the study of good literature in small towns und country districts by the circulation of large parcels of books at very low freights from a central library. It was conceded by Mr. Mark Cohen, who has made a special study of the subject, and urged it with enthusiasm upon the conference, that the lack ot a single convenient centre increases tho practical difficulties of tho problem in New Zealand ; but a way will doubtless be found when people have made up their minds that a way ought to be found. The rating question also "aised an interesting debate, which may reasonably be expected to beai practical fruit before long. The Municipal Corporations Act limits the so-called "library rate" to a penny in the of tho annual rateable value ; but there is another section which gives a general power to spend money on tho establishment and maintenance of a, libraiy. In the latter case the ex-penditui-6 can apparently be charged to the District Fund, but tho relation of this general clause to the special one is by no means clear. It seems to be as unreasonable to limit a municipality to b penny rate for the purpose as to allow it to draw upon tho District Fund without limitation. The request' of the conference that the maximum of the library rate should be increased from a penny to threepence— whicn is, we believe, the English limit — seems to be a perfectly reasonable one, provided that it is at the eaine timo made clear that the right to levy on the general fund for the samepurpose is taken away.