JUVENILE LIBRARY

Southland Times, Issue 24863, 1 October 1942, Page 4

JUVENILE LIBRARY

Number Of Subscribers Increase It is refreshing to hear from the chief librarian in Invercargill, Mr H. B. Farnall, that children are reading more books than they have ever read before. The number of subscribers to the juvenile library during the month of August was 1065 and each day fresh enrolments are being made. This number includes country children who come in for books once a month and usually take away about 10 at a time. Saturday morning is usually a busy one for Miss June Mackenzie, who is in charge of this section of the library. Last Saturdays 147 fiction books were given out. The usual number on a week day is 70. When the children call to change their books they stay to read the iqagazlnes on the stand. These include The Children’s Newspaper, The Scout and the New Zealand Journal. When a reporter called there were at least 14 children busily selecting new books or discussing the ones they had returned. Miss Mackenzie said the children knew what they wanted and very seldom asked for any guidance. While many girls read boys’ books, the boys scorned the authors usually looked upon as favourites by girls. Boys’ books very much in demand at the moment were those by Percy F. Westerman and the William books by Richmal Crompton. The girls were very partial to Ethel Turner's books. BOOKS IN GOOD ORDER Mr Farnall - attributed the increased subscribers to the fact that many children’s books were unobtainable in the shops today and those on sale were much more expensive than they had been in the pre-war days. A number of books had recently been withdrawn from the library and had been rebound in an endeavour to keep them in circulation longer. While the majority of the children looked after their books, there were always a few who had scant respect for the covers, but a close watch kept the books in good order. In order to encourage the children to read, Mr Farnall said that every year two free subscriptions were given to each school. These were always very much appreciated and usually resulted in another keen subscriber when the year was up.