PUBLIC LIBRARIES

Taranaki Daily News, 29 November 1934, Page 13

PUBLIC LIBRARIES

NEW ZEALAND WEAKNESSES.

THE SUBSCRIPTION BASIS.

“The experience in England, the United States and Canada is that many people whose reading experience is latent would be attracted to a free service and would develop good reading habits,” states the Hon. Sir Charles Statham, Speaker of the House of Representatives and chairman of the Joint Library Committee appointed by the Government, in the recent survey of New. Zealand libraries made under the auspices of the Carnegie Corporation. He advocates a free lending scheme on a national basis. “The free public library as it exists in Great Britain and the United States is almost unknown in New Zealand,” he states. “With rare exceptions public libraries here are subscription libraries with borrowing privileges limited to members. Fees vary greatly, tire average annual charge being about 10s for the privilege of borrowing one volume and one magazine at a time. The fee for children is frequently less, and in some cases it is as low as Is a year. “CHEERLESS CHARITY.” “To qualify a public institution for the receipt of municipal grants, public libraries always provide a free reading room, which, with the exception of the larger libraries, usually contains only a selection of newspapers and a few out-of-date periodicals. An atmosphere of cheerless charity usually pervades these rooms. They are severely put aside from the other parts of the building, which are sometimes conspicuously labelled ‘Strictly for Members Only.’ Libraries are also compelled by law to open their reference collections to the general public. In the larger cities, and an occasional smaller one, this Is of real value to the community. “This subscription basis of service is perhaps the greatest weakness of New Zealand public libraries. In an age when widespread popular education is conceded to be the foundation of democratic society, these libraries are restricting

their lending services to those who pay a fee. It is argued that anyone who is really interested in reading can easily afford to pay a fee of 10s per annum, but the fact remains that no New Zealand library, with the exception of Timaru —which it should be noted has a free lending service—approaches such high records of use as are common among free libraries in other countries. It is also unwise to restrict the use of any service which is as educational as libraries to those whose initial interest is strong enough to induce them to pay directly for it. QUALITY OF READING AFFECTED. “The quality of reading is also affected adversely by the subscription basis. The; library must attract the largest possible' number of subscribers because it needs . their fees. With a few exceptions this • is accomplished by offering the lightest i and most exciting novels, almost to the exclusion of books of greater merit. In many of the smaller libraries novels comprise 95 per cent, of the book stock. If the library were supported entirely

from rates the librarian would be free to cater for all interests. The number of readers might be reduced temporarily by this policy, but it would no doubt result eventually in a much wider interest and use of the library, just as in other countries. “Membership fees are never sufficient to maintain a well-developed service, and wherever a library is worthy of the name it is found that a high percentage of its cost is met from public funds. In Auckland in 1932-33 the library received about £lO,OOO from local rates and approximately £3OOO from membership fees. Thus the city was paying more than twothirds of the cost, and through failure tp pay the additional one-third it was losing the full advantage of its own in- ' vestment. If the library were made free ; its use would no doubt be enormously i increased and the quality of reading ; would be greatly improved. The fact should be faced, however, that a free system which would greatly Increase the use of the library would require a total expenditure proportionately larger than that now made.”