LIBRARY TRAINING SCHOOL

Evening Star, Issue 25473, 2 May 1945, Page 8

LIBRARY TRAINING SCHOOL

ESTABLISHMENT AT WELLINGTON ANNOUNCED

SERVICES OF U.S. DIRECTOR OBTAINED

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, May 1. "To help meet the great shortage of trained librarians in New Zealand, the Government has decided to establish a library school attached to the Country Library Service in Wellington," said the Minister of Education, Hon H. G. It. Mason, to-night. Mr Mason said the Government had •asked the United States Office of War Information through the United States Legation in "Wellington, and it had agreed to make available the services of Miss M. P. Parsons, director of the United States Information Library in Wellington, as director of the library training school. This, ho said, was a generous action, which was deeply appreciated by the Government and which the library • authorities in New Zealand would applaud. Subject to the appointment of the necessary staff and other necessary preliminaries being carried out, the Minister said, the Library School would give short courses this-year, one for the librarians of the smaller town libraries and one for the librarians of Government departmental libraries. In 1946, with the approval of the manpower authorities, the school would give a year's training to 30 students, who would be university graduates in science or arts. Other developments might be possible, such as short courses given by the faculty of the school between the full courses. These could bo given in other centres than Wellington and would be open to librarians approved for the course by the director of the school and the training committee of the New Zealand Library Association.

Students accepted for training at the full course of the school, the Minister concluded, would be paid allowances sufficient to meet their living costs, and would be required to give an undertaking that they would remain in library work for a certain period.