MUNICIPAL LIBRARY SCHEME

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26176, 12 June 1946, Page 3

MUNICIPAL LIBRARY SCHEME

LETTER TO BOROUGH COUNCIL The sub.committee of the Oamaru Athenaeum Committee reported at the monthly meeting of the Athenaeum on Monday night that it had forwarded the following letter to the Oamaru Borough Council, through the chairman of the Council Library Sub-committee:— " In view of the fact that the estimates for 1946-47 will be made up at the next council meeting, would you place before the council the scheme formulated by the Athenaeum Special Committee in Novemzer, last, and adopted in substance by the Council Library Committee and chairman of the Finance Committee in April, 1945? Since the drawing up of this scheme great strides have been made in perfecting the National Library Service, and it is more than ever desirable and necessary that the borough should avail itself of these advantages, for which the people are always paying. Until Oamaru is abreast of the times and operates a municipal library, only very limited use can be made of the services of the National Library Service." The committee had asked the council again to make an offer to the Athenaeum. It was to be noted that the Anthenaeuin was faced with heavy electrical repairs which would be superfluous if the council renovated and altered the building. These repairs could be considerably reduced if it were certain that building alterations were pending. Whilst the Athenaeum finances were directly concerned it was, nevertheless, wasteful to deplete any funds unnecessarily, and would in the long run represent a loss to the council. There did not seem to be any real prospect of a civic centre, complete with library, being built within the next few years and it appeared all the more desirable that the council should avail itself of what amounted to a donation of £6500, a large stock of books, and a useful and very substantial building. It was true, the letter added, that this offer was not entirely unselfish On the part of the Athenaeum, since, as a small unit, it could not work at the maximum efficiency but this fact detracted nothing from the value of the assets offered. The committee suggested that if any private citizen offered such a gift to the borough with so few conditions attached, there would be a public outcry if the offer were rejected. At present the committee was using to the greatest advantage the borough subsidy, and it was its earnest desire to enlarge this co-operation. As no reply had been received from the council, discussion was deferred until the amount of the borough estimates for library matters was known.