MODERN LIBRARIES

Evening Star, Issue 21966, 28 February 1935, Page 10

MODERN LIBRARIES

METHODS AND ORGANISATION ABROAD DUNEDIN LIBRARIAN'S RETURN Interesting observations upon library systems abroad were made to a reporter this morning by Mr A. G. W. Dunningham, librarian of the Dunedin Public Library, who returned to the city last evening after nine months in America and Great Britain studying modern library methods. ‘ It is in America that one sees the fullest development of the public library as a social institution/’ said Mr Dunningham. “It has been found valuable to plan the work of primary and secondary schools around well-staffed and excellently-stocked school libraries; separate services have been developed to provide information readily to business men; and art and music societies find special departments covering their interests and committee rooms for their meetings. The lecture hail of the public library is available for the showing of valuable cinematographic material for the encouragement of little theatre and children’s' theatre movements, and the libraries also serve to invite and introduce persons whose views or experience may be of interest to the public. SOCIAL AND CULTURAL CENTRE. “In an old country such as England, with its wealth of established and traditional institutions the public library has perhaps a more limited and less socially varied function, but even there the providing of lecture facilities in that direction is being undertaken. It is in new countries that the convergence of music, drama, art, and other social and also business and technical interests all tends towards more economic centralisation such as is possible within the public library. The parallel developments of interests within such a community tend to find natural co-ordination and an obvious meeting ground at the place where the literature of those various interests is. being made available. “ The present success of the American library as a social and cultural centre is the outcome of public confidence in the careful and conscientiously administered library. policy. Every effort is made to ensure that material which is of use or of value within a city should be. freely available, and always with this there is available also a reasonable supply of .recreational reading. It is in this way that the very valuable social function' of the American public libraries has been established. Also in this way the American public library has earned in. public respect , the generous gifts of fine buildings and endowment which have become almost general.” DEVELOPMENTS IN BRITAIN. “ The generosity of the Carnegie Corporation of New York,” continued Mr Dunningham, “ has done much to assist the American Library Association in the development of its policy, and in England the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust has . made-possible (among many other projects) the establishment of. the National Central Library of Great Britain/ an organisation which, makes book holdings of important and specialised English libraries available to every person within Great Britain. “ The need for development of the British National Central Library arose comparatively recently with the problem of providing out-of-the-way material in the newly-formed county libraries ’ of England. Their service was chiefly to rural districts, and their stock was new and , inadequate. It was undesirable as well as impossible to buy stock to satisfy non-recurring demands of the serious reader who might require a book on some unusual topic; and it was essential to be able to borrow if possible from neighbouring or specialist libraries to satisfy his need. Bequests of this sort came to be forwarded to the National Central Library, which undertook the task of locating the volume needed and sending it when available. NATIONAL CENTRAL LIBRARY. “The National Central Library had up till this time existed ~ to supply material to isolated students throughout England. With the help of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust a stock covering what was obviously needed for recurring requests was built up, and * Chaucer House,’ the very admirable headquarters provided for this work and for. the administrating of the English Library Association, was opened in 1931 by His Majesty the King, part of whose address was as follows :—“ Two years ago, as your address recalls, I had the pleasure of granting a Charter of Incorporation to the National Central Library. To-day I am happy to renew my association with a movement designed to meet the needs both of the general public and of students in this country. The striking increase in the number of libraries, and of those who avail themselves of the facilities thus offered, is welcome evidence of a growing recognition that education does not end with school or college. Education is • indeed many sided, and must lead to the encouragement of reading for recreation and for the intrinsic pleasure that reading can afford. By your system of loans between libraries you have made provision for study and ' research which would be scarcely possible in any local library. In this respect these buildings constitute a national university which all may attend and none need ever leave; and, it is fitting that thtey should have as neighbours those other great centres of national culture, the British Museum and the .University of London.’ ” NEW ZEALAND MOVEMENJ. Mr Dunningham said that the intention of the recently-published report on New Zealand libraries, the outcome of Mr Munn’s survey, ■ which was’Shade possible by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, was to find means for the similar organisation of library resources within New Zealand, and to discover also in what way a library service could most economically be provided to country districts. The outstanding success within comparatively recent years of both these aspects of library development in England made one confident that the problem in New Zealand would not now be over difficult/ and that economy would result from the consolidation which would be brought about within the dominion’s own "library movement. Mr Dunningham added that he owed much to the generous hospitality of the librarians of such cities as Cleveland, Newark, Amherst, Strongfield, Albany, and Flint in America, and to those of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bristol, Birmingham, Exeter, Sheffield, Colchester. Manchester, and Croydon in Great Britain. Especially was he indebted to Mr Ralph Munn, of the Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh (the New Zealand library surveyor) for much valuable direction and advice while he was in America. , At the Library School at - the University, of Michigan he had. been able to stujiy the American out '

look on various aspects of library work under the direction of Dr Bishop, who had been responsible for the task of th* reorganisation in Rome of the library of the Vatican. >