DOMINION LIBRARY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22212, 15 March 1934, Page 6

DOMINION LIBRARY

POSSIBLE CARNEGIE GRANT PURPOSE OF FORTHCOMING SURVEY. Ono result of the forthcoming survey of New Zealand public and institutional libraries for the Carnegie Corporation may be a large grant for the establishment of a Dominion Library, with the Parliamentary Library as a nucleus. It was claimed in Wellington recently that a grant of 100,000 dollars had been made for this purpose, but in reply to enquiries made by a representative of the Christchurch Press an authority stated that this was definitely untrue, and that such a grant was only likely as a recommendation of the.survey. That a survey of libraries in New Zealand, on similar lines to the recent survey of museums and art galleries throughout the British Dominions, was to be made for the corporation by Mr Ralph Munn, director of the Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh, was announced on January 17. Mr Munn will arrive in New Zealand on April 20, and will be accompanied on his tour by Mr John Barr, chief librarian to the Auckland City Council. GENEROSITY OF CORPORATION. Similar library surveys have been made already in Canada, South Africa, and the West Indies, and in Canada and South Africa considerable monetary grants have been made by the corporation to assist the work of existing institutions and to develop new forms of library activity. In recent years the Carnegie Corporation has given liberal aid to the cause of education and library work in New Zealand. Under one of its grants extension work is being done over a wide field by the 'School of Home Science of Otago University. An educational research foundation has just been created on a promised grant of 17,500 dollars a year (£3500 at par) for five years, upon the same lines as a much larger organisation already established in Australia with funds from the same source.

Grants of 5000 dollars a year for three years are pending to the four university college libraries for the purchase of books. The librarians, in charge of the public libraries in the four main centres and those of the four university colleges have been provided with the means to visit the United States and study modern library methods. Canterbury College has also benefited by the grant of a large collection of books on art and of reproductions of old masters. ENCOURAGING NEW ENTERPRISES. Mr Barr stated recently that during his tour of the United States he had met Mr Munn at Pittsburgh, and had formed a veny high opinion of his ability and personal fitness for the task now assigned to him in New Zealand. The survey would cover every class of public and semi-public library, including public institutions in the cities, towns, and in the country, and libraries attached to colleges and schools of every kind. It was too early to say whether the Carnegie Corporation intended to devote more of its funds to assisting library activities in New Zealand, or what form any such assistance was likely to take. However, the corporation had acted hitherto On the general principle of encouraging enterprises of new kinds with liberal financial help at the outset, in the belief that their value would be recognised and that outside aid would cease to be necessary.