National library

“ As to the principles that should govern and the limitations to be laid down, these will depend much upon the scope of the library, and the amount of its funds. No library of the limited and moderate class commonly found in our public town libraries can afford to aim at the universal range of a national library, nor even at the broad selections proper to a liberally endowed city library. ”

“ The Nation has done almost nothing for the Library....
‘Considering the British Museum to be a National Library for research, its utility increases in proportion with the very rare and costly books, in preference to modern books.... I think that scholars have a right to look, for these expensive works, to the Government of the Country....
‘I want a poor student to have the same means of indulging his learned curiosity,—of following his rational pursuits,—of consulting the same authorities,—of fathoming the most intricate inquiry,—as the richest man in the kingdom, as far as books go. ”

“ It is perhaps the most important thing we have to do, and there have been apparently insuperable obstacles to success; but we have always hoped for one complete solution. And this was that it could be done at the National Library in Washington, with its printing presses, post-office facilities, copyright department and great central collection. ”

“ Free libraries and public reading-rooms are among the most important departments of library administration in our day, and constitute the most distinct expression of the growing conviction that the librarian is called upon to be a great popular educator. This sentiment has attained its fullest development in the United States, where the great free libraries have taken a most important place among national institutions. ”

“ While every consideration favors the most liberal hours of frequentation and use of the collection, it is manifestly not a proper function of a National Library to furnish a circulating library for the people of the city in which it is located. ”

“ It is more freely open to the public than any of these, everyone of suitable age being permitted to use its collections without the necessity of a ticket or formal permission, while in scope it is their equal, however much it may for the time being be inferior to them in certain branches of learning. Its aim in the accumulation of books is inclusive and not exclusive, as Mr. Spofford explains elsewhere in this Handbook, in his article on The Function of a National Library. ”

“ Country Library Service assistance to libraries has always been planned as service to assist local effort, not to supplant it. Where the local service does not reach a certain standard a certain proportion of the Country Library Service assistance loses its force. No matter how much the assistance is increased the local people cannot benefit fully from it unless the local authority houses it in a fair building, grafts it on to a reasonable local book collection, and has the whole serviced by an active and informed librarian. ”

“ The liberal library laws of the United States have produced a great number of very large and magnificently equipped public libraries, which are administered by well-educated officers, who are paid adequate salaries for the work they accomplish. No other country in the world can show such a scheme of libraries closely in touch with all the other educational bodies and recognized by the State as part of the national system of education. ”

“ The Council would bring this topic strongly before their fellow-parishioners, in the hope of inducing many to make presents in augmentation of the library that they now possess. Its after increase can be only a question of time. A free library is the corollary and supplement of national education. ”

“ It is not merely to open the library to persons who, from the engrossing nature of their engagements [Pg 41] of business, are at present utterly excluded from it, but it is also that the library may be made a direct agent in some degree in the work of national education. Let not anyone be alarmed lest something very theoretical or very revolutionary should be proposed. I merely suggest that the library should be opened to a class of men quite shut out from it by its present regulations. ”

“ It is a prime duty of every public library to collect locally printed books; the lacunæ in our national bibliography have been lamentable in the past in regard to locally and privately printed books, owing to the lack of such collecting, and they are not likely to decrease if this duty is not vigorously undertaken by the librarian of to-day. The search must be specially eager for the privately issued volume, but however limited the author intends his circulation to be, he is usually quite persuadable as far as a copy for the local collection goes. ”

“ The desire for an organization to give opportunity for the public exploitation of this sort of work produced in 1896 the Library Section of the National Educational Association. Not the schools alone, but women's clubs and social settlements, and, in general, all organizations whose members use books in their work, have been brought into friendly relations with the progressive libraries. ”

“ American libraries are planned on a larger scale than the British, and with more complete appliances, be- cause the library and the librarian are more regarded in America than here. It rests with librarians themselves, and with national instructors generally, to raise the British conception to the American standard, and with the public itself to demonstrate the inadequacy of the existing libraries by copious resort to them. ”

“ Index to New Zealand Periodicals—The 1956 issue of the index, the first for which the National Library Service has accepted the responsibility of publication, was printed by photo-offset and distributed. The 1957 issue is being prepared in the same way. The possibility of simplifying production by printing direct from the typed cards is being explored. ”

“ Libraries generously supported by their local authorities without exception have made full use of all the services the Government has offered, and the local people have benefited from a first-class library service in its fullest cultural and educational sense. ”

“ But above all, it is manifest that a rapidly growing nation, finding homes for thousands of foreigners and their children annually, must use every means of rapidly educating their new citizens, and the public library is one of the most efficient and ready ways of accomplishing this great national object. ”

“ Regional and District Library Service—Study has continued on the problems of ensuring an efficient and soundly based library service for New Zealand's whole population. The problems facing a local authority overseas with a population of 2,000,000 within a radius of a few miles are minor ones compared with those facing New Zealand library authorities, where the secondary cities are small, where the pattern of local government is uneven, and where the population as a whole has a high standard of education and is avid for books. ”

“ Every member of the public over fourteen years of age has the right of free access to the library. The trustees have evolved an admirable system of a “travelling library,” for circulation among country residents of the state. ”

“ The headquarters office at Wellington is responsible for the coordination of the service, for the selection, ordering, classifying, and cataloguing of new books and their dispatch to district offices, the maintenance of a comprehensive collection of children's and young people's books used to meet requests which cannot be supplied from local offices, and the distribution of books to schools and public libraries in or near Wellington city and the Hutt Valley. ”

“ We shall never have great libraries in the United States until the typical librarian exalts his calling and takes his place in our modern life seriously—as the ruler of our civilization, the creator of the environment of a nation and as the dictator of the motives and ideals of cities, the discoverer of great men and the champion of the souls of the people. ”

“ Exchanges are made at least once a year, with further exchanges during the year for smaller schools to the extent that books and staff make possible. Where satisfactory arrangements for storage and adequate use can be made, exchanges of suitable books are also sent to the smaller public libraries which provide free service in their children's and young adults' sections. ”

“ Libraries for schoolrooms, to be composed of reference books, books for supplementary reading, class duplicates, and professional books for teachers, should be provided for in the public school law. School funds should be used and school authorities should manage these libraries. The business of lending books for home use is better and more economically managed by a public library, having an organization that is independent of the school authorities. ”

“ The chief reason for this is no doubt the cherished tradition that libraries are to be made as large as possible, because they are the repositories of the literature of the ages and the storehouse for every kind of printed matter. The museum idea of a public library, however, is now giving place to the workshop idea, and few librarians nowadays of average-sized municipal libraries hold the view that it is their function to provide and retain every book, irrespective of its value or appeal, and to attempt to rival the British Museum or Bibliothèque Nationale on a reduced scale. ”

“ The short course for librarians from smaller centres, held at the Library School from 12 to 30 August 1957, was of great value to the participating librarians. The demand for training is very great and, with such eagerness to learn, the training given is immediately effective.
Cooperation between libraries participating in the Country Library Service has been developing slowly. A little more interest has been shown in the cooperative book-buying scheme fostered by this Service. There are now 22 libraries taking part. ”

“ Costs in New Zealand, per head of population, are bound to be relatively high; vigilance is necessary to ensure that they are no higher than they need be.
It has been apparent that cooperation between local authorities will be the major factor in making economies on a national scale. ”

“ If its leading libraries have not yet matched those of the old world in extent, they are, nevertheless, unique in their freshness, exceptional in their number, original in their systems, and most effective in their uses. And what is here said of the leading libraries is still more true of the smaller, for in no country has the library system so ramified as in the United States, and come down to such close touch with the people. ”

“ Difficulties occur from time to time in connection with the service to prisons and mental hospitals. They arise from the lack of supervision of these libraries by trained library staff. Officers engaged in other duties are not in a position to organise the full service which would be of such benefit to patients and prisoners.
From the special TB collection 1,620 books were exchanged at four-monthly intervals for 15 sanatoria and tuberculosis wards of public hospitals. Three hundred and thirteen books were sent on request (250 non-fiction and 63 fiction) . ”

“ Scientific, Technical, and Commercial Library Service—A recommendation has been made by the New Zealand Library Association that impetus be given to scientific and technical library service, chiefly through public libraries. At a time when increasing reliance is being placed on the efficiency of our secondary industry the necessity of providing the fullest technical information to aid manufacturers will be apparent. ”

“ The shortage of trained librarians continues. Three students from the 1957 Library School professional course accepted positions in public libraries serving centres of under 20,000 population, but they were all replacements for qualified librarians who had taken library work in other fields, so there was no net gain. ”

“ It contains many provisions that make for economy in the public printing, but I will only mention what is of more immediate interest to the libraries of the country.
To begin with, the law will permit selection, at stated intervals, of the class of publications that a designated library is able or desirous to handle. What a relief that will be can best be appreciated by the officials in charge of the smaller libraries. It will serve them, and it will likewise save money to the Government. ”

“ Give the people at least such liberty with their own collection of books as the bookseller gives them with his. Let the shelves be open, and the public admitted to them, and let the open shelves strike the keynote of the whole administration. The whole library should be permeated with a cheerful and accommodating atmosphere. Lay this down as the first rule of library management; and for the second, let it be said that librarian and assistants are to treat boy and girl, man and woman, ignorant and learned, courteous and rude, with uniform good-temper without condescension ”

“ This Service continues to assist in making available material on good overseas practice and New Zealand achievement. Assistance is also given in the design of the interiors of libraries and in specifications for equipment.
The best results are achieved when a local authority and the librarian prepare a written building programme, specifying the functions of the library, the various areas to be provided, the relationship between each, the number of books, readers, and librarians to be accommodated, and the equipment to be housed for efficient service. ”