PAPERS TO GO

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 53, 11 September 1928, Page 10

PAPERS TO GO

THE CITY NEWSROOM A DEBATABLE POINT Though it was the desire of tho Library Coinmitteo of tho City Council that tho recommendations of the new librarian,. Mr. J. Norric, Bhould bo carried out practically in toto, at any rato as far as finances would permit, remarked tho chairman of that committee to a "Post" reporter to-day, thoro were two sides to tho proposal to do away with the newspaper room at the Central Library, as suggested by Mr. Korrie. Tho suggestion, in fact, said Councillor Burns, had conio as a surprise to most members of tho committee, for though it might be tho practice iv tho larger libraries abroad not to maintain a newspaper reading room tho members wero not at all sure that it would be tho right thing to strike out this branch of library service in Wellington. Apart from tho wide use which was made of the reading room by Wollmgton people there was a demand for that service from tho fact that the city had a big travelling public which wanted to see tho papers when passing through. The council as a. wholo had not been suro of it, and accordingly the proposal was held over for further consideration. Thero was something to be said, howover, on the score of making available another very badly wanted library room, ho continued, for such was the crowding in other departments that the newspaper room could be more than fully utilised at once. Still, of the very many who used the room every day a good 50 per cent, wero genuine readers, though thero wore others who were not news readers iv the truo sense, rather did they go to the library to devour tho papers and consume much time, while others who wished to lookup a certain item did not get a look in. WHERE ELSE? If the newspapers wero withdrawn from the library, then it was going to be very difficult for the public to get papers other than the local publications and one or two of the main outside papers and weeklies. The average man or woman did not know where to go for, say, a Sydney or London paper, outside tho library, but many hundreds of people wanted to look up such papers, and others would bo still more difficult to get were the reading room closed down. Tho files in the General Assembly Library were not available to the public. Mr. Nome's other suggestion that nowspapers should be placed only in tho suburban libraries was a matter that the committee could not agree to so far, and that, too, had been held over for fuller consideration. He was very doubtful whether the accommodation in tho branch libraries would permit of tho establishment of newsrooms;' certainly it could not be done at cither Karo'ri or Brooklyn without incurring extra expenditure. "Thero are many things in tho older countries which wo will do well to follow," concluded Councillor Burns, "but at tho samo time thero arc others rathor before our time here, that our smaller' population and the requirements of our locality really forbid us from following. Though in tho Old Country and elsewhere, where the populations are so great, it has been found wise not to maintain newsrooms in connection with public libraries, yet I am not at all suro that we should in this matter follow exactly in their footsteps."