FREE LIBRARIES

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 68, 17 February 1939, Page 5

FREE LIBRARIES

! BASIS OF FINANCE. 10 - PRINCIPLE UNDER DISCUSSION. av “New Zealand and Australia have the unenviable record of being two rul English-speaking countries in which ier libraries are not free,” stated Mr G. T. Alley, M.A., director of filie Co-un--1- try Library Service, during an address, . on o: i .icon -tb-v. t-n the coiiiercnce ol llic '°, 1 New Zealand Library Association at 1 Palmerston North on the principle of l 1( i free public libraries. “The problem I have been asked to yn discuss with you is the basis of financc of public libraries,” said Mr j* Alley. “Shall they be publicly suple ‘ ported and books lent free to resiD f dents, or shall the old method of subas script-ions be continued P It is not difficult to find some reasons for the adoption of the subscription plan, the d main one being that when the 9 Libraries and Mechanics Institute Act u was passed fifty years ago New Zea--2 land had still many material problems 3 to solve and not a groat amount of 3 money—local and general government money—with which to solve those problems. Libraries that were started fifty years ago, by the score—New 3- Zealand has more library buildings and buildings used for library purposes 2 than most other countries in the .. world, per head of population—were driven to tlio subscription method of <1 finance. Money was needed for roads t and bridges, and books were looked 9 upon as recreational, anyhow, and not to be bought with public money. “New Zealanders have thus turned their libraries into (a.) either municipal, monumental institutions, partly paid for out of rates; (b) or semi-pri-vate book clubs, with a limited appeal and a small membership. Rooks have been regarded as a means for killing time —for escape from a life that has not been very exciting or adventur--8 ous. Rut the fact remains that in the other countries in the world, not--0 ably Great Britain and the United States, libraries are regarded as educational institutions as much as or more g than recreational ones, and they are stocked liberally with looks that give I information and education to their bor- — rowers, who are not asked to pay a ' 3 fee for the privilege of using what is | regarded as a necessary public utility. , EDUCATIONAL VALUE. ,u- “The whole question of free public t- libraries lias, I. know, been very well h dealt with in the Munn-Barr Report on New Zealand libraries. But people still say ‘Ob. things are not appreeii„ abed unless they are paid for.’ As □- though any person imagined that roads are not paid for, or education or i- health services. The confusion arises 3- through the failure to recognise the II library as an educational institution. It is that, and nothing else really, ij although it may do a certain amount ,t of work the educational value of which o is negligible. We must, then, get rid of a few pet notions about public libraries. They are not ‘monuments’ ; b to be visited on a rainy day or to y which we point with civic pride or civic j shame depending on our notions or j i" architecture. They are not book clubs partly paid for out of rates and giv- J ing a cheap service of reprint fiction, j , They are not institutions to be fostered as a- necessary part of tile m.unici- | f pal set-up, but necessary links in the *• educational process, j “Local anil general government | authorities, once convinced of the real °]as against tiie spurious value of pul>- ] lie libraries will support them liberally enough. Already in New Zealand there are 20 free public libraries where a year ago there were but three or o four. So that the prominence given i- to ‘free-ness’ and ‘responsibility of the ■ public library’ at this conference are * bound to have a good effect. “The plans that have been put forward for systematic and co-operative book buying by the libraries of this country must be, when they are perfected, a tremendous factor for the achievement of the aim of free-ness. , New Zealand, with a population of a j million and a-half people, lias a score f jor more libraries and library systems - that each make some attempt to cover -'the whole range of published litera- ? ture. The result is not a success. Tt is really chaos. The everyday needs . of these libraries—what might be called the bread and butter stock—can he 1 purchased outright, but the method of cooperation in the purchase of the . ‘niargmal’ titles, and co-operation in , their use. will demonstrate vervclcarlv ■ I that libraries are a cheap and neces- ; | sarv investment.” ! Mr Aliev proceeded to'deal with sev- ; oral problems involved in “going free” on tlie part of a local library. . Ho referred to the value of the book clubs as being able to take a share of ' the work demanded by a reading nub- ! lie. Libraries themselves should have ’ their rental systems or hook clubs, and the advantage 0 f this lay in the pos- ; sibility of giving a popular fiction service at no cost to the public, while the library could be left to undertake its indisputable function of education and information. He nredieted that next year there would he double the nnmb°r of the present free service ] libraries, and it was most probable | that during this year there would be a.n attempt to work out a basis for a county service, operated in population groups. Book selection and inter-lending were the subject of a seminar in the afternoon and at the conclusion of this a resolution was passed recommending to the conference that a special committee be set lip to urge upon loeal body members the adoption of the rate-supported free public library. Subsequent to Mr Alley’s address in the evening there w.as a lengthy discussion on different phases of library service, particularly in relation to commercial hook clubs’ activities. At +he conclusion. Mr Alley w.as accorded the thanks of the conference for his address.