THE CITY LIBRARIES

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 108, 2 November 1929, Page 10

THE CITY LIBRARIES

EFFECT OF NEW RATES

MANY MORE SUBSCRIPTIONS

ONE MONTH'S INCREASE

■It.-is vow just a month' since the City Council decided -upon reduced subscription rates for the municipal libTaries, and surprising indeed ire. .'the results which have followed, chiefly, no doubt, due to the lower rates for estfa volumes, but in part also duo to other ig>?. irlea3 rceenife-intraduced. Whether it is lit Wellington's library buildings arc fciilgy and out of date or whether the rates in the past were considered by many people on tho high side, the fact is that the percentage of subscribers has been very low, round about 3 to 4 per cent, of the population, with a tendency, as far as the Central and Newtown libraries are concerned, for the number of subscribers .to fall. ■ .■ ■ . The figures for the last'four years are. as follows:—

Karorj .people are certainly reading more, and more of the1 books from the public library shelves, and school children, too, read more than they did four or.fiye.years ago. ■ WAR YEAR READERS. It was during the war years that the city libraries made their greatest step ahead, for in 1913, the year before the war, the total issues were below 100,000 (92,205), but in the year ended 31st March, 1916, the issues reached 163,----6- and those from the Central Library alone were over'loo,oo*o.- In the . following year the children's library system was much enlarged, and the figures climbed accordingly, the demand for' reading matter thereafter going . along at a steady rate of increase. Just why people read more during badv'ears the psychologists can argue out ■ at as great length as suits them, but probably the two main reasons are that books take their minds off other worries and other books tell them why the j'ear is bad, what is happening, and when the end is coming. Tho same thing was noticed at Home, but much more noticeably, and there there was almost as equally, marked a falling away in the demand for books when tho war ended. Hero the demand did not fall away, suggesting that once the reading habit is learned that habit sticks: once a reader always more or less of a>| reader. ONE MONTH'S SURPRISING : INCREASE. There-' have recently been introduced1: several new ideas in library management, none, of them particularly revolutionary, but, taken together, obviously very effective. They include a new card system, the bringing of the ■ lending and reference departments much closer together, and a lower scale of rates. Tho new card system makes not much difference to the subscriber as far as . convenience goes, but one important effect of its. application in the libraries themselves is. that books returned are replaced.on the shelves for. others to select from without a delay of more than a few minutes. Eightly or wrongly, many subscribers in the past nursed a feeling that . some of the books.they wanted did not appear on . the.shelves for them, to choose from. The new system leaves no ground for .. complaint on that score. The policy of placing many volumes of travel, biography, science and arts, of a reference type but yet with a general interest upon the lending department shelves has been explained in a previous article, and undoubtedly it has. pleased a great number of readers who like a change from .fiction, fiction, fiction, but did not in the past see eye to eye with the rule which required them to deposit a guinea before they borrowed a reference department book The guinea deposit rule still stands for strictly reference volumes, but the lighter reference types in the lending department are available to subscribers just' as are volumes of fiction. Thelreduction in rates when more than-one book is taken out, however probably has had the greatest effect in sending up the number of subscriptions received, with a run. The rate for the first-volume remains the same, 5s per half-year,. but 2s 6d only i s now charged for each additional volume subscription. The increase is eertainlv surprising, for in one month these are the results, as compared with the number of subscribers at 31st March:

It does not follow that library finance will be any the" more buoyant for the present, however, for readers who have in the past taken out extra books each week by paying threepence per book have now taken out an extra subscription at 2s 6d, but without doubt the figures show that the first aim of the? committee and libraries staff, to make reading more and more popular, has been achieved.

1925-26. 1926-27. 1927-2S: 1928-29. Central (adults) 2341 2294 2134 2196 (children) 301 3S5 373 345 Jfewtown (adults) 871 861 S63 S32 (children) 276 292 290 . "39 Brooklyn; .,.'.. IOC 113 116 112 Karorl ....... S4 95 111 150 The recognised normal • rate of increase in well-established libraries in the Old Country is about 5 per cent., so that the Wellington increase during recent years is well below that standard. So -also in the numbers of books issued to .subscribers. These figures are:— ' 1925-26. 1926-27.1927-2S. 192S-29. Central (adults) 171,244 179,336 173,165 105,710 ■ • (children) 14,146 17,480 17,326 15,597 (reference). 919 1,106 1,037 905 Xcwtown ... S7.036 92,813 90,243 92,601 Brooklyn ... 7,182 S.7-77 7,827 S.061 Karori • 5,271 6,801 S,195 10,565 Schools 151,905 167.0S3 170,604 179,294 ; 437,703 474,262 468,397 472,733

•• .. ■ . ■ ■ , New subscriptions - , . March figures. for October. , Central ; ....... 2190 828.Newtown .... 832 374' Brooklyn .... 112 Karori . ...... 130 S2 . - - 3290 1322