The Daily News WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1934. PUBLIC LIBRARIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 November 1934, Page 4

The Daily News

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1934. PUBLIC LIBRARIES.

OFFICES: NEW PLYMOUTH. Currie Street. STftATFdBD, Broadway. HAWERA, Hinh Street.

The report oft the libraries of the Dominion made by Mr* Ralph Munn, Director of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburg, And Mr. John Barr, Chief Librarian at Auckland, is one of much value. If in places it seems to suggest A policy that is an ideal to be worked for rather than practice within the reach of large and small communities, the report does present a coherent plan for library service throughout New Zealand by means of which Overlapping can be avoided, Students in specialised subjects receive more aid, and the public given a wider service. The report pays tribute to the zeal shown in library organisation throughout the Dominion, though it finds considerable room for improvement in the methods of its application. In Taranaki, as would be seen from the extracts from the report published in yesterday’s issue of the Daily News, the expert investigators found honest efforts were being made to afford an adequate library service. The lack of accommodation at New Plymouth has been recognised, and the plans for a new library are now under way. The tribute paid to the organisation of the Hawera library was justified, and extension of the service there, as in. most communities, depends most of all upon the necessary finance being available. Nor haS the question, of finance been omitted in the investigators’ findings. They propose that aS library Services have a definite standing in civilised community life their whole Cost should be borne by a library rate. At present, in Taranaki at all events, the main objection to this suggestion is that local authorities Cannot afford the expense. The report urges that as the support of public libraries by public funds is established in Great Britain and the United States it should be possible in New Zealand, where the general standard of living is certainly as high as in the older countries; The investigators admit that if libraries were made entirely free the type Of book supplied would be altered, in that the educative rather than the recreative side of libraries would need to be stressed. This raises the point at once of what is the proper function of free public libraries. It is impossible to rule out the recreational side, for one of the earliest lessons learnt upon acquaintance with social work is the value of recreation. The report urges that a “moderate supply of carefully selected fiction” would supply all that is required, and that a public library entirely supported by a rate should be a “cultural, vocational and recreational centre.” In one Dominion library there seems an attempt to make the best of both systems. The library is supported by rate, but there are free and subscribing members. The trouble would be to decide what books are “cultural and vocational” and what merely recreational, apart, of course, from specialised text books. How far municipalities are justified in spending rates upon recreative services is a matter of opinion. There are some who urge that wide expenditure is justified in all public service. They would, for instance, have hospitals free and entirely supported by local and general taxation. But on the' whole public opinion in regard to libraries is likely to support the conclusion of the special investigators that if the institutions are to be made free their chief functions must be cultural and vocational, in the hope moreover that those functions will afford interest and, therefore, recreation in its truest sense. The report pays high tribute to the

enthusiasm of collectors and refers to New Zealand’s good fortune in receiving the gifts of such men as Grey, Turnbull and Hocken. The investigators complain that, speaking generally, the more important libraries are inadequately housed and understaffed. They envisage a system whereby the Parliamentary Library might become the nucleus of a Dominion library system, linked with the special institutes and libraries now in existence. It is a bold plan. Whether it is entirely suitable to the Dominion will be a matter of opinion, but coming from experts in modern library methods the report deserves the most careful consideration. If public libraries cannot be made entirely free at present it is an ideal to be worked for. In the meantime the study of possible co-ordination of services already in operation is worth while. One fact stands out clearly in this report. It is that the Dominion owes a great debt of gratitude to the pioneers who in all their struggles with new Conditions never forgot that “man does not live by bread alone.” They began the cultural work of which the library system, imperfect as it may be, is one of the most laudable outcomes.