LIBRARY AIMS

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 143, 20 June 1938, Page 8

LIBRARY AIMS

(To the Editor.) Sir—l read with interest the City Librarian's annual report, and can fully understand the difficulty he is up against; but I am afraid that if he considers the cultural and vocational service of more importance than the recreational he will be losing members. It is all very well lor him to say that the new shop libraries which have sprung up lately have relieved the public libraries of some of the fiction j burden, but he must remember that it I has also relieved the public library of their subscriptions. After all is said and done, the public know what they require; and keen business men have seen that they ask for fiction, and are making a good thing out of it by supplying the need. If the public library had studied more the wishes of the public there would have been no need of these shop libraries cutting in. That they are successful is proved by the number of members they have. Look at the people in the trams with these branded books; you can see' them in the streets carrying them with their I well-known covers; and jt is sad to reflect that had the public library, like a good shopkeeper, studied the wants iof the people, these shop libraries | would not have started and so reduced the finances of the Public Library. Councillor Luckie says it would be necessary to levy a higher rate, fcr the library in the future; would it not be better, instead of putting up the rates, to really see what the public need and satisfy their wishes?—l am, etc., FICTION READER.