MUTILATED BOOKS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22224, 26 September 1935, Page 14

MUTILATED BOOKS

PROBLEM AT LIBRARY MANY VOLUMES RUINED CONSIDERABLE ANNUAL LOSS A library problem which has become increasingly serious in recent years, the mutilation of books, is the cause of concern to the authorities in Auckland. There are those who avail themselves of the facilities at the main library and its suburban branches who are unable to resist the temptation to remove portions from volumes. The difficulty is one encountered in libraries throughout the world, and the practice of cutting from valuable books plates and illustrations, or passages dealing with a particular subject, has been fairly reliably attributed, as far as its marked increase is concerned, to the encouragement given to schoolchildren to keep scrapbooks. While teachers instance to' their pupils the worth of preserving interesting pictures and items, the good principle of avoiding valuable books as a means of supply has evidently been overlooked. The city librarian, Mr. John Barr, said yesterday that the education authorities could do a service by instructing children in the care of books. Students and Enthusiasts

Children are not the only offenders. The reference department at the library suffers severely from the attentions of the student of physics, of inisects or sanitation, and the enthusiast for the Nazis, the Tibetans or the Hottentots. So extensivo is the mutilation of valuable volumes that the authorities have actually to keep a record of ruined books. It is a gloomy, if interesting story, for the wrecker of books, as a class, is as prodigal in his preferences as he is regardless of tho value of wellkept Bboks. Thp dr.bbler in Bolshevism might readily regard as his own property an interesting passage on the life of Lenin, and the budding engineer might find much interest in an explanation of internal combustion. Encyclopedias, medical works, reference books of all kinds, piquant illustrations, are, as Mr. Barr said, regarded as "fair game" by the mutilator. The desire to absorb knowledge is praiseworthy, but the loss is a serious one to the library, and, consequently, the public. Writing in Volumes

Another bane to the library world is the commentator, or, rather, the individual who is unable to resist writing his own opinions on the leaves of books. Ho may detect a flaw in a treatise on ferneries, so he says so, for the edification of subsequent readers. But politics are the favoured field for scribblers, especially since the public appetite has been whetted by new theories of government and economics. Fortunately, the almost traditional practice of "dog-earing" books has dwindled. The library has coped with the habit to some extent by attaching bookmarks to the volumes, and, in any case, most people find a convenient bookmark of some description. Proof of this is the number of singular marks found in returned volumes, perhaps a confidential letter, a photograph of " a relative, or a receipt.