HOLIDAY READING

Evening Star, Issue 22539, 6 January 1937, Page 8

HOLIDAY READING

INCREASED LIBRARY ISSUES PEOPLE REMAINING AT HOME Judging from, library records, citizens of Dunedin who have been "unable to leave the city on account of the epidemic have been utilising their spare time in reading, as the figures obtained from both the Public Library and the Dunedin Athenseum show a decided increase of issues over those for last year. The authorities of the Public Library also attribute the increased numbers to a new regulation which allows more than one book to bo taken out on each ticket. Though fiction has naturally been most popular during the holiday period, there has also been a demand tor other classes of literature, even to works on religion and philosophy. The daily issues, with those of last year in parentheses, are as follow: December 24, 1,588 (1,288), December 27, December 28, 1,483 (474). December 29, 1,293 ( —), December 30, 966 (1,197). December 31, 1,582 (1,063) < January 1, 2,757 (1,525), Totals, 9,615 (6,503). In addition to the regular members of the library, there has also been a number of visitors from other centres, many of whom showed special interest in the New Zealand section. One man who came fom London was delighted with the library, and said that although he had visited many similar institutions in Australia and New Zealand he had never been so favourably impressed. The holiday visitors also included a number of University and training college students who had been away from the city for some time. To many of these the reference department of the library had become as much a part of their lives, as the University itself, and many returned to “ browse ” through the scene of their studies. The records of the Dunedin Athenamm show that up to Christmas the book issues were almost the same as the previous year, there being an increase of only 190. The four intervening days between then and New Year, however, showed an increase of 687 books taken out. _ It is interesting to note that on Christmas Eve alone the number of books taken out exceeded last year’s figure by 200,