LIBRARY DEVELOPMENT.

Evening Star, Issue 21717, 11 May 1934, Page 8

LIBRARY DEVELOPMENT.

There are two Carnegie free libraries in New Zealand, that of Dunedin and that of Timaru, and a representative of tho Carnegie Corporation who is inspecting libraries in this country and Australia has had his heart gladdened by what he has seen of both of them. Mr Munn is naturally a believer in free libraries. They have the best chance of being educational, first, because they are open to everybody, and, again, because readers who do not pay the piper can have no claim to a sole voice in calling the tune. The proportion of bread to sack, of works that are nourishing to ephemeral fiction, can bo regulated more naturally than under a subscription system. Against this we have heard it argued that the Dunedin Public Library Would be more appreciated if its readers paid a small charge for their privileges, which would give it also more funds for expansion. Appreciation, however, cannot be said to be lacking if the number of its users, every year increasing, is a criterion Readers who are not subscribers "cannot say what books shall be provided, but they are still the final determinants as to what they shall take out. A year ago the total of books was roughly 52,000, of which 20,000 were works of fiction. But out of 380,000 books circulated 330,000 were novels. The late librarian used to note yearly, with satisfaction, an increasing demand for the more serious works, and this demand it will be his successor’s object- to encourage.

Expansion has been the history oi'the Dunedin Public Library. A large field lies before it still, however, for extension of its activities, as Mr Munn’s ideas have been outlined. There are two ways of catering for an increasing population—by constant additions to the central library, or by the institution of branch libraries in the suburbs. The first is ruled out in Dunedin’s circumstances by the cramped premises in Moray place. It is fortunate that this city has another library, also not limited to fiction, and that St. Kilda residents make themselves ineligible for privileges by their preference for a separate local government, or supplies would have been pathetically below demand long before now. Suburban branches will come iu time. When they cannot supply a particular demand they will ring up the central library, and the boob will be sent from there. Meanwhile Mr Munn is anxious about the, country districts which are worse off than suburbs. Following the example of older countries, they would be provided for by group committees buying their own books and circulating them from one to another, the city library keeping tally of the whole system. It is a development much to be desired. We can hope that the Carnegie Corporation will yet see it consummated in this province, believed by Mr Munn to be unusually suited for it. The city library also would have more resources if the statutory restriction of a library rate to one penny in the pound could be increased. That was provided for in England fifteen years ago. The restriction to one penny, copied from earlier British legislation, dates back three-quarters of a century.

For the present, however, the chief obstacle to any forward movement by the Dunedin Public Library threatens to bo made by lack of room. If the library never did more than look after its present area more and more books, ns demands grew cm it, would have to be stored in basements and the base-

incuts arc limbed. Again, they arc not.- convenient for tlio supply of waiting applicants. The staff have not room to work under frequent conditions. The M’Nab department and the reference department do not suffer from these conditions, and a good suggestion was made by Mr Munn that coordination, with a joint catalogue, should be established between the 51‘Nab and Hoc-ken Libraries, two institutions which this city has cause to treasure. But the catalogue of the Hoeken Library was compiled in 1910, and anyone who might go there, except during limited hours, from the first place would be certain to find it closed. Its value to the public will be doubled when more money can be spent on it.