FIFTY YEARS WITH BOOKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20028, 18 August 1928, Page 7 (Supplement)

FIFTY YEARS WITH BOOKS.

LIBRARIAN'S EXPERIENCE.

After studying for fifty years " the peculiarities of weird or more or less normal people who frequent public libraries," Mr. Frank Pacy, the Westminster librarian, recently related some of his conclusions. Mr. Pacy, who is lion, secretary to the Library Association., will retire shortly, after thirty-six years a), Westminster and fifty as a librarian. Mr. Pacy says, he found that men are fond of " thrillers," that dappers prefer rather shocking "border line" books, and that wlivi grandma was young she preferred that kind, too! "'Scandalous' books of fifty years ago," he said, " would now he thought dull by schoolgirls. Every librarian has a dark cupboard in which he hastily hides unsuitable books which may emerge at a later dale when the general public has developed and realised that it is time the skeletons wero brought out! "We are very proud of that. At Westminster we had recognised Mary Webb's books long before the Prime Minister drew attention to her, and wo had them on our shelves. There was little demand for them before, but the demand now is enormous.' Mr. Pacy is not entirely satisfied with London's present library system.' " The greatest commercial city in the world is virtually unprovided with special commercial and technical libraries, such as Manchester, Birmingham, and Liverpool."