THE READING PUBLIC

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 14, 17 January 1921, Page 7

THE READING PUBLIC

GREATER USE OF CITY LIBRARY

DUE TO HIGH COST OF BOOKS.

Though the annual statistics of the Wel» lington Municipal Library are not mad&, up until the end of the financial year—3lat! March next —according to the City Librarian (Mr. Herbert Baillio) greater use thkit: ever before is being made of the library by the public. This is attributable largely: to the high cost of bookstand magazines aa compared with the period beioro the war.. Books the general public cannot now af« ford to buy are borrowed and read from the library, and the figures so far available show that as compared with the year" ended March, 1916, tha numbers of subscribers to the lending department havo doubled. The average atefcndaiices in the reading rooms have shown a similar advance, being more than twice what they six or seven years ago. A contributing factor to this is undoubtedly the early? closing of shops at 5.30 or 6 p.m. Lately, the accommodation in the reading and ro- ' ference rooms 1133 been taxed to tho limit, and during the coming winter tho congestion will almost certainly be increasad. - Chving to the cost of text books students' are also taking more advantage than 6ver of the facilities the library offers for- the: progress of their work. School jibrarieaj and tli© childrcii s departnicufc also msuiiifo^t)' the same symptoms of growth. Over 100,000 volumes wore issued to schools duringthe year, and the upkeep of the libraries is a problem owing to the enhanced price and short life of books for children. While the subscription to the adult lending department has been increased from sa' to 10s a year, there is no change with th»; children. " QUALITY NOT LASTING. . During tha year there have- been examples of the wanton destruction of books. and magazines, but not mo^e than usual., Plates are sometimes abstracted from,; technical journals, piirticukl-ly ot tha; building trade, with a consequent serious loss to the .completeness of the volumes when they are bou,nd. Clippings havebeen taken from papers also in the newsroom. Legitimate wear and . tear bulks more largely in tha cost of renewals and' 'replacements. Many books nowadays are printed on such poor paper, in spite of the price, that they do. not last long, and it'is a matter for earnest consideration whether books should not be specially printed—or, at any rate,: be. issued 1; in a special edition with more permanent, and enduring materials for libraries. It is a fact that- some of the scientific records of the transactions 'of the New Zealand Institute, for instance, are printed on paper which, in the opinion of the authorities of the British Museum, will not last forty years... Some, of tha books in circulating, libraries hardly last a year without renewal.. Tho greater the demand for- a book, the shorter, ■ as a rule, its life. Fiction st-ill is tlis" idostj popular Torni of literature, and the general ratio of books of. various characters issued remains much the same. Since the visit of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle there has been a. boom in books ok spiritualism, and the same process to a minor degree takes place with any wave of popular interest. Thus a cinema film which has captured the fancy of patrons may assist tho saleor readingl of fiction of tbe_ same character, or the very book on which' the Elm story wa3 based. The idea that the picture theatre would mean, a- decrease in . reading is quite exploded by actual experience. ■• Probably its effect has been the reverse. ..."