H.—32A.

1941. NEW ZEALAND.

COUNTRY LIBRARY SERVICE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COUNTRY LIBRARY SERVICE FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st MARCH, 1941.

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by Leave.

The Hon. the Minister of Education. Wellington, 9th July, 1941. During the year the Service has increased its activities still further. Libraries and library groups which participated, excluding 9 military camp and Air Force Station libraries, numbered 387, as against 323 in March, 1940. One hundred and sixteen persons used the postal service, an increase of 56 from 1939-40, while the number of books available through all divisions of the Service rose to 45,679 (31,066 at 31st March, 1940). The machinery of the Service was used in other ways, notably the War Library Service and the Central Bureau for Library Book Imports, which are dealt with below. A full description of the methods by which books, periodicals, and information are made available to country people has been given in the first two annual reports. Summarized briefly, these methods consist of (a) free loans of books on a liberal scale to libraries controlled by local authorities, which in turn agree to make their libraries free and maintain reasonable standards of library service ; (b) loans of books to independent subscription public libraries at a small annual charge per one hundred books lent; (c) loans of books through travelling hamper collections to isolated groups of readers at a small annual charge ; and (d) loans through the post of non-fiction books free of charge to readers requiring information. All libraries served under (a) and (6) received regular visits from one of the specially equipped book-vans of the Service, at least three visits being paid to each library during a full year. Further, all persons, whether served by the free public library or through the isolated group, may obtain loans of reference books by post from the headquarters of the Service. An extra method which was introduced experimentally with some success during the year is the " E " service, by which the stocks of the smaller libraries have been exchanged, using the vans of the Service a,s the means. _ Many libraries have co-operated in this way. A fuller description of the "E " service is given later in this report, since it has important implications for future policy and the development of country library facilities. Free Public Libraries : "A " Service. Libraries which took the important step of making their lending services free to local residents during the year numbered 7, bringing the total number of free libraries co-operating with this Service to 28. These libraries, serving a local residential population of 46,379, as well as a considerable