H.—32

1933. NEW ZEALAND.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY LIBRARY. REPORT OF THE CHIEF LIBRARIAN FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st MARCH, 1933.

Laid on the Table of the House of Representatives by Leave.

To the Chairman of the Joint Library Committee. Sir,— I have the honour to report on the operations of the General Assembly Library for the year 1932-33. Accessions. During the year 2,176 volumes were added to the collection from all sources, as compared with 3,142 in the year 1931-32, 3,136 in 1930-31, 2,906 in 1929-30, 2,153 in 1928-29, 2,270 in 1927-28, 2,162 in 1926-27, and 1,501 in 1925-26. The total number of accessions to the end of the financial year was 130,250. The book stock, however, is many thousands short of this number on account of withdrawals through loss, dilapidation, or gifts. We have taken every opportunity to fill up gaps in old sets, and have been particularly fortunate in the year just ended in procuring from various sources many volumes of old official papers required to make good such gaps. Stocktaking. During the recess stock was taken in three small classes—namely, 100 (Philosophy), 200 (Religion and Mythology), and 400 (Philology). Considerable difficulty was experienced owing to the fact that many books in the original stock of the library had not been given numbers in the accession register, and others had been numbered more than once —slips which were almost inevitable in reaccessioning the stock after the publication of the printed catalogue. Binding. As in previous years, the money available under this head has been fully expended. We could with advantage have spent a good deal more. The dilapidation of books through lending out of the library is considerable, and if we are to maintain the book stock and keep the books in a proper condition for future use we will have to pay more attention to rebinding or replacing. Moreover, as an economy measure in 1921 it was unfortunately decided to suspend the binding of a great number of official publications from various British dominions. It is very important that a parliamentary library should be fully equipped with the official records of all other parliaments in the Empire. We have, therefore, been devoting much time to collating and binding these loose papers. While lying about unbound many had gone astray, and it is proving a matter of considerable difficulty to fill up the gaps thus caused. I hope that the binding of these important documents will never again be allowed to lapse, and that as we return to normal times we shall be able, as a matter of course, to bind and preserve the gazettes, debates, and parliamentary papers of, at any rate, all the British dominions. Donations. During the year gifts were made to the Library by His Excellency the Governor-General, Mrs. P. S. McLean, Messrs. John W. Rose, H. W. Kinney, A. P. Looker, H. F. Arendtz, H. S. Cordery, the Norwegian Consul, the Henry E. Huntington Library, H. M. Trade Commissioner, the Carnegie Corporation, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, and the Windsor Public Library (Canada). Reference and Research. There has again been a considerable increase in the work of the Library under the heads of reference and research. The investigations made at the request of members of Parliament steadily increase in volume, and every effort is made to meet this demand more and more efficiently. In addition, throughout the year University students and other research workers have been engaged constantly in the Library, and a great variety of requests for information, involving research on the part of the staff, has been received by post and from other sources.