WHAT SYDNEY READS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3764, 4 May 1926, Page 9

WHAT SYDNEY READS.

SIDE LIGHTS ON LITERARY TASTES. SYDNEY, April 14. One of the most popular institutions in Sydney is the Municipal Library, controlled by thp City Council, with an equally wellstocked library alongside of it for youngsters. To become a member of it entails merely the task of filling in a form, and getting someone in a- representative capacity, such as rn alderman or member of Parliament, to sign it. It is as free as the air, and an open door to all those wonderful treasures that are hidden in the world’s best books, to countless thousands of books on every subject under the sun. Persons from all parts of the world, who are limiting their stay in the city to. say, three months, frequently enrol themselves as members. With the shorter hours in operation in the City Council the library was closed down on Saturdays some lime ago The fact that this action evoked a howl of protest from all parts of the metropolis was the best evidence of its popularity. The council bad to bow submissively to public opinion an<{ re-open the library on Saturdays The librarian (Mr Bertie), who incidentally is an authority on early Sydney, has just published an interesting statement of the output of the library, as a fair index to what the people read. It is perhaps the best index, for while there are private libraries in the city, none of them attracts such a wide and diversified class as the Municipal Library. Fiction represents only 43 per cent, of (lie output, which is not a high average compared with other libraries of +l " world. The total output for the year was just on 470,000 books on philosophy; 16 on religion (which indicates that. Sydney is not entirely lost to a sense of piety), 41 dealing with social matters; 39 scientific works; 83 dealing with the useful arts; 65 covering the range of fine arts; 143 on poetry, the drama, and literary criticism3B historical works; 42 on travel; 41 biographies; seven in French and German; 681 books" od fiction; and 353 books for children. That is the average daily output. It is an interesting sidelight on the general reading taste of a big city.