NEW ZEALAND LIBRARIES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22259, 11 May 1934, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND LIBRARIES

The visit of a representative of the Carnegie Corporation to New Zealand to report on the library system in this country is intei'estiug upon various grounds. The library systems in the United States and Great Britain have organisations at their command such as are scarcely possible in a young country, and have considerably greater financial resources. It is not, however, the opinion of Mr Ralph Munn, who .is making a survey of New Zealand libraries for the Carnegie Corporation, that the disabilities from which our libraries suffer are necessarily to be accepted as inevitable. There are only two free libraries in centres of population in the Dominion, those at Dunedin and Timaru, and Mr Munn is emphatic in the statement that in the United States and Great Britain the condition that the people should not be called upon to subscribe privately to public libraries is regarded as essential. Dunedin may well congratulate itself upon its. distinction in having been the pioneer of the free library movement in New Zealand, but it has to be acknowledged that the expenditure upon the local municipal library from civic funds is of only a moderate amount. On the. other hand, there is a respect in which the Dunedin Public Library is fulfilling its purpose better than some similar institutions, 'and this is in the restriction of the supply of light fiction. This circumstance is partly explained by the existence in this city of another very excellent lending library, in addition to a number of smaller libraries and book clubs conducted by private enterprise. While, the greatest demand at the Public Library is for works of fiction, the increase in the number of non-fiction books lent has steadily increased in recent years, and is much greater proportionately than the increase in the demand for fiction. It must be recognised that only a free library is in a position to frame a policy definitely exclusive of a large number of the ephemeral'works which are published in thousands each year. People who pay for the privilege of borrowing books are entitled to have their immediate requests considered, and, if the request is for light reading, the libraries that hre maintained by the subscriptions of their members must attempt to meet it, even while those who are in control may deplore it. The need for reform of the public library system is obvious, if the views of the Carnegie Corporation, which are substantially the views held throughout the English-speaking world, are to be accepted. Happily, in Dunedin the question of the abolition of the subscription system does not arise. The municipal library in this city may in this respect at least be said to be greatly advanced beyond similar institutions in other centres. In other respects, the whole library system of the Dominion evidently would benefit from an overhaul, chiefly in.the direction of the development of a system of co-operation between the main libraries and the libraries in the smaller towns and those serving country districts. The desideratum is that the stocks of the libraries should be grouped round the central institutions, and made available through them to all members of the associated libraries on request.