LIBRARY SYSTEMS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18922, 25 January 1936, Page 4

LIBRARY SYSTEMS

FILING OP RECORDS INVESTIGATION OVERSEAS DR. SCHOLEFIELD'S TOUR (Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, this day. Reference lo the possibility of valuable historical documents relating to the early davs of the colony being secured for the official archives of the Dominion was made by] Dr. G. H. Scholefield, the Parliamentary librarian in New Zealand, who returned to Auckland by the Monterey yesterday after spending 10 months on a world tour. Dr. Scholefield's trip was made at the invitation of the Carnegie Corporation and he was also assisted by the New Zealand Government. The main objects of his trip, Dr. Scholefield said, had been to inspect the manner in which official archives were kept in other countries, a duty which devolved on him in New Zealand, and also to investigate national and rural library systems. His research into the keeping of archives had been carried out mainly in Australia, South Africa, Holland,'.Spain, Great Britain, the United States, and Canada. LINKS WITH EARLY DAYS . "In many places I was fortunate in discovering a good deal of material linking up with the official archives of New Zealand," Dr. Scholefield said. "I was able to make a survey of some of the more remote material relating to the early clays of the colony in the Public Records Office, London, the British .Museum and in the archives of the Church Missionary Society and the London .Missionary Society." Dr. Scholefield added that he had met, or had been in communication with, representatives of several of the old families who had been connected with the early days of settlement in New Zealand. He felt'satisfied that, as the Dominion improved its facilities for receiving and preserving such relics, many documents and other valuable material would be presented to New Zealand. He had been, in touch with the descendants of Captain Hobson, New Zealand's first Governor, having himself published a life of Hobson in 1934. Dr. Scholefield said that he had already forwarded to the Government, a report* on the rural libraries as he had seen them overseas, embracing suggestions for the development of a similar scheme in New Zealand. NATIONAL SCHEMES. During his trip, Dr. Scholefield attended a conference of the International Federation of Libraries in Spain and also the annual conference of the English Libraries Association in Manchester. From these gatherings, and from his own personal investigations, he had obtained material for a report on national libraries which would shortly be presented to the Government. "In the United States, Dr. Scholefield continued, "I was struck by the extraordinarily high cost of books. In the case of books which are printed on both sides of the Atlantic, many American libraries prefer tot wait for the English edition, which is generally cheaper and of more convenient size for library purposes. The library buildings themselves in America are amazing. They are really temples for books. Another feature, is the preponderance of women in the library service in the United States, even in the highest and most responsible positions." '"'