THE PEOPLE'S LIBRARY

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 115, 16 May 1936, Page 28

THE PEOPLE'S LIBRARY

COMMUNAL SEEYICES

SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS

(By "Quivis.") To the true booklover there is something peculiarly personal and private about- a book that makes him want to h,ave it for himself, as a possession, rather than borrow it on sufferance, to be returned at due date, under penalty, or to read it in an alien environment. If he has the means to indulge his fancy, he founds a library, which may grow until it becomes famous, like the Turnbull library. If the means are riot there or are-limited, he must either. deny, himself, live ■ within his means, go bankrupt on books, beg, borrow, or steal and take the consequences, or, if he is wise, make the best of it—if it is a second-best—by a legitimate use of the libraries .the community puts at'his disposal. Various causes, such as the increased' cost of books since before the war and reduced incomes since the slump, militate against the private collection of books ' on- a wide scale, while the marked advance in the technique of library management has popularised immensely the public library as an institution. Similar agencies operate against the home in favour of the v communal caravanserai, the flat and the hotel. There are very regrettable losses, but there are also very material gains. The author and his. friend > and erstwhile Maecenas,, -the:- tr.ue-eb'ooklover, may suffer, but the general public undoubtedly.; .profit. " .'■;' .-.,.., '..-.' : It is these': circdinstances 'thai make the. annual .report of the "Wellington Public Libraries for the last civic year ■ (ended!. March' 31) -'unusually,interesting. Discussing the use of libraries! the Chief Librarian (Mr.-.Norrie) points out'that the-reference aijd commercial departments have always been ."something of a mirror of social conditions." Looking back oyer a good many years, one realises how true this is and what a boon the library must have been especially to-those "whom the Americans call the "jobless" at all times and particularly during' the last five or six years. .Books, from the:shelves of the library,- papers and magazines, must have. be.en both a stimulant and an anodyne _to thousands in the effort to pass "the "day on which there was no , regular work. Out of such reading may come some day some important fruit in a work of literature or a technical invention of value. At the;lowest estimate there must have been an mii 'crease in generalknowledge, useful in a changing world. The report comments on the new leisure that is to be: "It is anticipated that with the probable reduction in the' hours of work increased leisure will cause further use to be made of the stock." One .'.does not like that word "stock"; it sounds like a shop or warehouse, but no doubt it'has purely a technical connotation in the phraseology of library manage-,: ment. , ■ ; EXTENSIVE READING. A public library, caters for home reading through- its lending department, and it is only; to be expected that:. under' the economic • and other changes mentioned earlier there should be-a: substantial increase in the= books issued/, These -numbered last year 677,719,,0r-over:31,000 moire than the previous year. The extraordinary popularity of a single book—a sort of nine-days wonder—is- shown :by the reference to the late T. E. Lawrence's "The Seven Pillars of Wisdom," of which the library acquired fourteen copies to meet with the urgent demand that sprang up. It: might be added that this is an instance, where in more normal times, as before the war; the; private buyer,- catering: for his own' library, would probably have rendered so large an order unnecessary.-'lt? is quite clear, however, itttaV.'the public library system does ; make ; for more extensive, if not^more intensive, reading. One has- only r to; look at ..the; figures pn the ' date-slip'inside the cover ofia popular novel to realise that sucli-"-,a;:book * almost like coin >of the ; realm. and that ■ the author would'.;be- richHindeed if. the figures' represented;sales 'of, :his work.' Perhaps/some; day '«. some " ingenious individual-^-God; forbid! -would say' the librarian—-will' -.devise -scheme, for, charging-a^royalty, on': every ;issuel proceeds toVgo to the author, just as they do, I understand, when gram.o-: phone records are used oij., the wire-; less, to the singer, composer, musician, and company concerned; Where the public library serves its most useful purpose to the community is, however, in the facilities it offers to the young. In this respect assistance to school libraries and the estab- • lishment:of suburban libraries constitute a gift of the gods. Here there is room for a vast extension and of this the Chief Librarian is well aware, for he devotes a good deal of space to the subject in his report. ".. . On the same topic the Director of Education (Mr. N. T. Lambourne) had this to say in his address to teachers this week:— .'. ■ .'.'■' One of the principal-weaknesses of the New Zealand education system Is the lack of wellstocked libraries and'an inadequate supply of class-reading material;y~lhs- probable reason, is that in others-countries ..'so much of the money available for .comes directly from rates that so;.much?lsftavailable for the purchase of books,'stationery;.- and consumable material, as well1 as for.pictures.and equipment of all kinds..'.-..'. V ;' ; 'REFERENCE AND RESEARCH. ■ Another\iridispehsable -function the free library, performs isl'the provision of.facilitiesifof.fefefehcei'and research. In' this respect Wellington is well off with'its Central Library, Turnbull Library, and ■/-.■?. General : Assembly Library, and—for its own students—the Victoria University .College; Library. The conditions'- oh."which these institutions maybe used differ, of course, very materially, but as '.time goes on, no; doubt, there-will be greater collaboration in an effort, to serve.the public, which is, after.-all/their primary . purpose. The Central Library, is notasiwell equipped,as it ought to be on the reference. side, a fact which Mr. Norrie emphasises in view.of the plans for the new building. Many of the . bopks are "out of date and have little application to the problems of' today." It is the books, not the building, that matter most. "It,is.proposed, if funds permit, to revise the 'whole of ':the stbek of works of non-fiction, replacing superseded books by their more modern equivalents and filling such gaps as may be necessary." Wellington is an expensive city to run,- and the library'has been too much of a Cinderella in the past. It is-'to be hoped that the-ratepayers, for once, will play the Prince Charming and come along with the funds. QUESTION OF CURRENT FICTION. . Finally, there is the vexed question of fiction.' Should a public library go ,in for current fiction. at • all? Mr.■! Norrie, in his report, says:— It is the dujy. of a library to furnish recreational reading; not necessarily all of it profound, but at least wholesome and of good quality. /The need, for -recreational literature is las (Treat as that for informative literature. It Us. the library's task to hold the scales as eyenly as may be. ■Few critics could quarrel with such

a dictum; the difficulty is in the practice. One must confess to a certain feeling of melancholy in surveying the shelves of fiction both in the bookshop and in the library, for, as Mr. Norrie says, "there is much modern fiction that is worthless." And then he adds:— But even the worst of the modern novels are less harmful than much of the popular superficial writing which, while not fiction, finds a public through half-truths, unsound reasonins, and often through insincerity. • Two blacks do not, however, make a .white, and one would like to see both "worthless fiction" and "popular superficial writing" excluded from a public library. A ; librarian must, of course, study his public and cater for its tastes, but he is also a trustee of the public, both as to its money and as to its taste. If a library were completely "free," that is to say, independent of subscriptions, then the librarian would be free also to exercise an untrammelled judgment. Where the. public subscribe to a lending "department, they pay the piper in a certain measure and to that extent can call the tune: In the Old Country fiction used to be left—one speaks of,long agelargely ;to semi-private circulating libraries like Mudie's and club-like institutions, with large membership, such as the Athenaeums and the like, scattered over English provincial cities. There is, of course, nothing to stop municipal and other public libraries running fiction as a side-line for subscribers, but it is distinctly■'.-. questionable whether public money should be spent-on anything but standard .works, or such as by universal consent of acknowledged critics are, on their appearance, recognised •as worth while. . What one would like to see in New Zealand would be cheaper preprints of books a booklover—and 'there are many—would like to own, including, the best of thfej.early New Zealand 'books, now out! of print. This would give the person who likes to build up a private library a chance. The public library'should be fully representative of all that is best in literature and works of reference of all kinds, and the design of the rooms and the furniture, and other equipment in ;the actual building should be' congenial to the .reader.;. The public library-lias become a:very/big business and/the management of it a highly-skilled profession. Such being so, and with these aids, it is possible to look forward with some confidence towards an approach to the ideal - ,