VALUE OF LIBRARIES

Taranaki Daily News, 16 April 1935, Page 5

VALUE OF LIBRARIES

HELP FOR MODERN WRITERS.

SPLENDID TURNBULL LIBRARY.

By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, April 15.

“Upon a specialist library of the class of the Turnbull Library in New Zealand depends the production of most worth-while books,” said Mr. Taylor, assistant librarian of the Turnbull Library, who returned to-day from a year’s study of libraries abroad.

He pointed out that modem books were mostly dependent on the books of the past, only one in a hundred breaking new ground. Even by a novelist a specialist library was frequently drawn upon for local colour. There were not many books published in New Zealand in the last 20 years that were not indebted to the Turnbull Library for some, if not all, their contents. Comparing this library with similar ones elsewhere, he considered that rarely by one man had so splendid a library been gathered, and it reflected the marked scholarship arid discernment of the late Mr. Alex. Turnbull.

Mr. Taylor’s tour was of the most extensive and comprehensive nature, covering America, Britain and Continental countries, with special attention to German collections.

Concluding the interview, Mr. Taylor said that some of the desirable methods used abroad appeared to be applicable to the Turnbull Library, and an official report was being submitted to the Department of Internal Affairs. It was probable that Mr. Johannes Andersen, chief librarian, would be able to institute some of them in the near