THE PUBLIC LIBRARY

Evening Star, Issue 23326, 24 July 1939, Page 10

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY

PAY COLLECTION DEFENDED REASONS BEHIND ITS INNOVATION INCREASING DEMAND FOR NON-FICTION WORKS Considerable criticism has, been levelled against the Public Library of late through the innovation of the. pay - collection service, but the full purpose of this service does not seem to be properly understood. A report, giving an excellent summary of the book-buying position as it applies to New Zealand libraries, has been prepared by- the librarian of the Public Library (Alr.Duuningham) and presented to the City Council. The pay service, in brief, is one in which a charge is made for certain books. At least two copies of new fiction are purchased, one going into the general or free circulation, and the other going into the pay service, when a small sum is charged for the reading of the book. The money thus gathered is spent in the purchase of additional pay collection books, and so far as possible of more serious literature, for which'to-day there is an ever-increasing demand, and which undoubtedly is wiser buying than considerable of the fiction published. The majority of fiction readers appear to be finding their desires more than, satisfied in the many small lending libraries which have sprung up around the city. Few of these libraries carry any range of volumes of a general nature, several carry none at all, and it is in .this regard that the Public Library hopes to become an important lending source. , .„ ... The decline of interest in the Public Library in the field of fiction readers is not peculiar to Dunedin, It has-been experienced throughout the Dominion, and throughout the world. But with the fall in fiction subscribers there has been a big increase in the riumber or noii-fiction subscribers, and consequently all public libraries are desirous of devoting more shelf space to the needs of the communities served. The life-of fiction can in most instances be termed only ephemeral, but good serious literature.finds readers over periods of years. REASON FOR PAY COLLECTION. The report prepared by Mr Dunningham states that the pay collection is an extra service which is self-supporting. It contains magazines, new novels, and popular books which are chiefly novels. For 1 all these books the demand is greater than could be conveniently met in the free collection. The chief reason for the existence of the collection . (states the report) is to provide more popular books than can be made available by the normal hook allocation which the council votes annually. This year the public will subscribe probably about £I,OOO for the purchase of new or popular books and magazines. With thjs money we are able to guarantee a reasonably efficient and continuous service. We can also meet completely the demand for any particular title which happens to become generally wanted in the city. To . give an equally efficient service on a free basis we would require not £I,OOO per year in addition to the present allocation, but considerably more, as- the demand on a free basis would be considerably more, and would involve increased book buying and increased staffing. Such a service, if undertaken free, would be a very generous city service. So far as is known it is seldom given free by any local body. In’order to give a service of popular material without involving local bodies in excessive expense, pay collections have been launched in the majority of the libraries of the United States. United States libraries claim that an efficient service cannot be given under one dollar a head of the population a year (Dunedin 2s fid); but even with this amount the demand for current and popular material ia met only in a pay collection or the service of current and popular material is strictly limited or avoided. Limitation of selection j» the .policy adopted more generally in Britain. At Manchester, for example, novels are not added until they , are a year ,old and the first demand passed; A policy of this kind is not suitable to New Zealand. Manchester allocates to its library service 3s a head of the population or a New Zealand equivalent of 3s 9d. Mr F. L. S. Bell, librarian, Sydney, in a report published in 1937, says that he asked 30 leading American librarians if there was objection to the establishment of a pay collection. Seventeen replied that there was no objection, while the remaining three had not had experience of pay collection in their own libraries. In his report to the council he says: “ It is now accepted among afl librarians that it is_ impossible for a public library to satisfy the demand for popular fiction. It is also accepted by the librarians of the United States and by a few English librarians that the only solution, of the problem of. ‘ fiction in the public library ’ is- the installation of a duplicate pay service.” He recommends adoption of the plan in .Sydney., THE POSITION IN NEW ZEALAND. Most New Zealand city libraries are still subscription libraries ; Dunedin and Tim am are the two’notable exceptions. There is probably no responsible New Zealand librarian who would defend the subscription plan which has been rejected for SO years in both Britain and the United States. Library authorities endeavour to make their libraries free so;that a maximum use can he, made of well-selected book stocks; but in doing so it ie not expected that any local body will wish to povide absolutely free a complete service of popular reading. The two largest of the libraries in New Zealand which have recently changed over to a free policy are Palmerston North and Rangiora. Both libraries have at the same time adopted a pay collection for popular books. At Palmerston .North the collection is a separate service given in a shop adjacent to the main library and planned to run at a profit—the profit to be used for the benefit of the free service. DUNEDIN LEADS WAY IN PAY COLLECTION. The pay collection in Dunedin was the first to be established in New Zealand. It was launched in August, 1936, with the approval and recommendation " B

of tie Carnegie Corporation. Dr Keppel, writing to the council on behalf of the Carnegie Corporation, said: ‘‘This new development should be beneficial to both those who use the pay collection and) to those who rely on the regular service.” The terms under which the collection was established are as follows:—Pay collection books will be represented in the free collection, and will be transferred to the free collection when they have paid! for. themselves. In this way users of the pay collection are continually presenting the library with a supply of popular reading. All money taken in the pay collection is spent on more books for the pay collection. A charge-of Id or 2d is made for the first three days, and thereafter a charge of Id per day. Reservation is made at Id 1 .

The rental is planned,to make a public service of new and popular books available at a very low minimum charge. Some books do not pay for themselves at all, others more than pay for themselves and make up for loss. No book has ever, so far as we know, paid for itself twice. The pay collection has now built up a service of magazines, of western novels, detective novels, and a selected range of novels which are constantly asked for by women borrowers, and continues to maintain a fairly wide service of current popular books. In this way the public has been given the means of providing itself with a popular service which would otherwise not have been available. DEARTH OF BOOKS IN NEW ZEALAND. While the pay collection is covering very well the range of popular material published every year, the Library Committee was concerned about the very narrow range of stock of permanent value which is coming into the city. There are only 2,000 novels published in England each year, and about 1,000 children’s books; but each year about 7,000 new titles of books other than novels and children’s books are published, and these each year represent the change which takes place during the year in the range of information available in print. At least one copy of the majority of these titles should enter some New Zealand library and be available by interlibrary loan throughout the country wherever they are wanted. Dunedin buys not more than a few hundredl of these books each year. It is not a very large financial problem. The cost of the whole 7,000 volumes would only he about £4,000 per year spread over the public library system of the country. This year, when we have done our maintenance and replacement buying for. sections of the adult stock which the public. is continually using, and have completed our children’s buying, we will have left only about £BSO available for current titles, including new fiction and reference books. This does not guarantee a very wide selection from the range of book production of the year. If we avoid all duplication we will at the most buy 1,700 titles, of which a reasonable number must be hovels, and duplication is unfortunately necessary. Books of • which • very many copies are needed are covered" in the pay collection,

NEW ZEALAND’S SPECIAL NEEDS. New Zealand cities are in a difficult position in trying to give efficient library service because our citv populations are small. The whole of New Zealand’s population is only that of an overseas city. The small city in Britain can rely on adjacent very large cities to have available everything which is likely to be of value to the public, and by_ a system of interlibrary loan an efficient service can be maintained in the smaller cities.; But in New Zealand the (responsibility for selection from the wide range, of annual book , production falls upon a few comparatively small city libraries. At the same time, the range of interests of New Zealanders cannot be said to be very much less than that which is shown by borrowers in libraries overseas. The problem can be solved only in a co-operative way and by generous book grants; it is clear that there is need (because of the smallness of our cities) for generous book allocations in the main centres, sufficient to maintain and replace the sections of stock which the public is continually using, and also to allow a wider range of new titles to enter the country each year. In a letter I received recently from Auckland Mr John Barr, the city librarian, summarised the New Zealand library hook buying position as follows: (1) 'Library'hook buying is , at present a matter purely of local effort; (2) it is not co-ordinated —one library buys without relation or reference to another; (3), neither individually or clolectively are the main libraries of New Zealand getting- between them enough of the more important books published annually. The report recommended the committee to urge upon other New Zealand local bodies, perhaps within the framework of the Municipal Association, the need for co-operatipn in book buying.