THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 53, 8 April 1914, Page 5

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

CLASSIFICATION COMPLETED. Thte, work of classifying the circulating department of the Christchurch Public Library has now been completed. The scheme is the most generally adopted and influential of all the schemes of systematic library classification, and was devised by Melvil Dewey (formerly bf the State Library, Albany, New-York), and first applied to the Library of Amherst College, Mass. No system of classification has been so widely adopted or so generally appreciated. The scheme . possesses various mnemonic /features, a certain number, for example, always standing for a certain country or topic. The books are arranged on the shelves in simple numerical order, all class numbers being decimal. Since each subject has a definite number, all books on any subject must stand together in main classes and subordinate subjects. ~ • The Library has a splendid stock pf books for circulation, there being abotit 28,000 available for home reading. Of this number only about 10,000 are works of fiction. The historical and biographical section contains nearly 7000 volumes, and the sociological section has a stock of over 1000 volumes, whilst that dealing with literature, drama, etc., comprises about 1300 volumes. The remainder of the stock consists of sections dealing with philosophy, religion, science, useful arts, and fine arts. During the month of March the total number of books issued for home reading was 5269, and of this number 1027 were non-fiction works. The Juvenile Library is very popular, and is going ahead splendidly judging by the issue for the past month, when 1023 volumes were taken out. During February only 663 were issued. There are now over 400 children - using this department, against 168 members for the same period last year. A notable addition to the Juvenile Reference Library is the "Children's Encyclopaedia,'' in eight volumes, which is a most interesting publication.