THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

Evening Star, Issue 20346, 30 November 1929, Page 14

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

On Monday next the Dunedin Public Library enters upon its majority, the newspaper and magazine rooms,, which made the beginning of it, having been first opened to the public on December 2, 1908. The new institution was not welcomed by everyone when it first took its place among the amenities of the city. There were reflections on its birth which may well be forgotten now ; there were doubts if it was needed; there were even suggestions that the rooms with which it began would prove rather a bane than a blessing, offering more attractions to. somnolent decrepitude than to intelligent browsings. Tho “ knockers ” were as , short-sighted then as they have generally been, and Dunedin would not be Dunedin to-day without its library. The reference department was opened towards the end of 1909, a juvenile reading room and juvenile lending department early in the following year, the adult lending library in July, 1911, and the juvenile library was opened as a separate room in September, 1912. It is significant of the concern for the younger generation by which the library’s controllers have been always animated that a lending branch for children should have been provided before that for adults. ' Tho invaluable M‘Nab collection of books dealing with early New Zealand—4,2oo volumes—was received as a Christmas gift in 1913, and to that more than 3,000 volumes have since been added by purchase and donations. Later developments have included the provision of books for schools, a collection of books in Brnillo for the blind, the utilisation of the library as a cultural centre for the observance of outstanding literary anniversaries, and the displays of treasures of an older time which have done so ranch for its appearance. Internally the library lias never ceased to grow, and expansion is only limited now by its confining walls and foundations. Books have been pushed upwards where they escape the eye and are not easily reached when seen, and downwards into basements, where they are seldom seen at all. That constriction will be remedied some day. Ten years ago a summary of contents showed 6,4/0 books in the reference department, 4,353 in the M'Nab collection, 17,807 in the lending library, and 3,953 in tho juvenile library—a total of 32,583. At the end of last financial year the figures were: Reference department 8,076, M f Nab collection 7,205, Whitman collection 229, lending library 23,127, juvenile library 5,272, school libraries 1,264—t0tal 45,173. Tho institution has been fortunate in an enthusiastic and broad-minded librarian, who has had charge of it from its birth, and in external advisers, as well as councillors, who have watched over its growth. Its coming of age will be fitly celebrated on Monday next, and if all the “poor scholars” and seekers for either knowledge or recreation who have had cause to bless it could contribute to the celebration that might continue for at least a year.