COUNTRY LIBRARIES

Grey River Argus, 11 February 1938, Page 4

COUNTRY LIBRARIES

GOVERNMENT’S SCHEME. APPOINTMENTS TO NEW SERVICE WELLINGTON, February 4. Plans for giving assistance to country libraries were explained by the Minister of Education, the Hon. P. Fraser. The Government, he said, was impressed with the importance of adequate library facilities being available to the people, and was anxious to do its share in establishing a planned system of libraries. The officer in charge of the country library service is Mr G. T. Alley, M.A., who has had a wide experience in country library work. Other appointments to the staff are as follows: — Assistant librarian: Mr W. A. Lindsay, Wellington. Field librarian, North Island: Mr L. C. Gdanitz, Dunedin Public Library. Field librarian, South Island: Mr N. A. J. Barker, of the A.C.E. Library Service, Christchurch. Other library assistants: Miss J. Rawson, Wellington Public Libraries; Miss P. Palmer, Havelock North; Miss F. Lawrence, Dannevirke. This staff will be accommodated in Parliament Buildings for the time .being, where the accumulated experience of the General Assembly Library Will be available and of value.

“There is general agreement,’’ said Mr Fraser, “that the most pressing problem of the moment is for better library provision for country areas. A sum of £3OOO was voted last year for this purpose. It is not proposed to interfere with existing local libraries, but to enable them, if they wish, ,to function in a way that has not been possible hitherto. This year the country library service will be confined to boroughs, town districts and country centres with a population of 2500 or less. Later, as the scheme grows, ’t may be possible to extend the service to boroughs with a larger population. “Assistance to’ local libraries will be given by loans of books delivered by special vans in charge of field librarians, who will visit each centre regularly with a wide range of books. These librarians will give help in matters of library administration. In addition, in genuinely isolated parts where no libraries exist, groups of interested people by forming themselves into proper-ly-constituted units or stations, will also receive regular supplies of books. Loan Service. “In independent or subscription libraries not situated in a borough or town district, -a loan service of books will be offered at a , very reasonable charge, the books to be changed up to three times a year. Assistance to a library in a borough or town district will depend on the service the local authority has maintained or is prepared to maintain. If the local authority will provide a free service to residents in its area, the Government will provide a free library loan service at the rate of 15 books per hundred of the population of that area. These books will be changed periodically; In areas where this very desirable free service is made possible, it should be practiqable to secure co-operation-between the local libraries and the schools in their districts. This is a matter in which I, as Minister of Education, am particularly interested. “Steps have been taken to obtain the initial stocks of new books,” said the Minister, “and it has been generously decided by the South Island: Association for Country Education to present its stocks of books built up during the last eight years, and also its library equipment, to the Government.”