LENDING LIBRARIES

Southland Times, Issue 20495, 25 May 1928, Page 8

LENDING LIBRARIES

PRIVILEGES FOR SUBURBS. A MELBOURNE SCHEME. Sydney, April 5. A big move is being made by the Library Association of Victoria to extend the facility of the lending branch of the Melbourne Public Library.

At present books may be borrowed byratepayers or by persons for whom ratepayers are guarantors. But it is essential that borrowers shall visit the library building to obtain books. This does not involve much trouble to people whose employment takes them into the city each day, but there are thousands of ratepayers in the suburbs who never get a chance during the daytime and who therefore are denied the use of the library.

Strange to say, people in the country districts are better off. For they have the privilege of borrowing books by post. The Library Association desires to arrange for the extension of lending facilities to the suburbs. Under the scheme books would be sent from the Public Library in the city to suburban depots, where ratepayers could obtain them.

The project is meeting with hearty support, for Melbourne is woefully behind the times as far as lending library facilities are concerned. The only suburban municipality which has done anything yet is Prahran, which, in addition to providing an excellent reference library of 44,000 volumes, has an up-to-date lending branch. But the books can be borrowed by rate-payers in PraLran only*