LIBRARY SERVICE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 135, 30 July 1941, Page 5

LIBRARY SERVICE

NEW ZEALAND FORCES i * GENEROUS PUBLIC'S GIFTS "I have read and I have had personal experience of the wonderful work being done throughout New Zealand by the patriotic committees in supplying, collecting, and pack-r----ing parcels for our troops overseas, and I also appreciate fully the splen-' did work being done by women in providing knitted comforts. This another eye-opener of the great spirit of helpfulness and willing cooperation among our people," said a visitor, after seeing something of the books and magazines the War Librarl Service at present has in stock in Wellington ready for dispatch ti> the men of the forces'. The War Library Service is conducted on behalf of the National Patriotic Fund Board by the State Country Library Service, in conjunct tion with the New Zealand Library Association, and it has the use <">f part of what was formerly the main lending room in Wellington Public Library Builcfing. The public libraries act as collecting agencies and they forward the books amf magazines received; from the public for the benefit of the forces on lo this depot. Considerable help in tins scheme has also been given by ttw local returned soldiers' associations, and sorting done by libraries before forwarding the material they have received assists in reducing the work at Wellington. For all that, the sorting of the ma'teriali into the different classes is no small job; in fact, thera are times when the pile of books find magazines received is so prodigious that a layman would wrestTe. with the question of where to begin. Through this service books and magazines are supplied not only to the training centres in New Zealand but also for the benefit of the troops when they go overseas. Already over 56,000 books and over 56,000 periodic cals have been issued.

As the visitor remarked, however, to see the books and the magazines at the War Library Service's* depot makes it abundantly clear that th<? wells of generosity and patriotism among the people of this country are a long way from being anywhere hear dried up. In response to the appeals that have been made from time to time people have parted with books; of considerable value and interest. Sets of books have been given in some instances. For example, on tile shelves at the present time is a set of sixteen volumes of short stories In English by the French writer Guy <lc Maupassant. Unfortunately, one volume is missing or (the set vvoukl be complete. Well Known Authors. The books generally are in splendid order and are of a type that most people would be glad to have in their homes. There is hardly « well known author that one cau think of who is not represented. Theer are books there a't present by Oppenheim, Wodehouse, W. W. Jacobs, Sapper, Jelfery Farnol, Rafael Sabatini, Warwick Deeping, Baroness Orczy, John Buchan, Honore cie Balzac, Alphonse Daudet, Clarence Mulford, Sheila Kaye-Smitli, Edgar Wallace, Ethel Boileau, GustaveFlau bert, A. S. M. Hutchinson, Ethel M. Dell, Zane Grey, H. G. Wells, A. J. Cronin, Sir Philip Gibbs, Gilbert Frankau, P. G. Wren, Victor Hugo, Joseph Hocking, T'horne Smith, A. P. Herbert, Jack London, Rudy arc! Kipling, H. Rider Haggard, Comiiton MacKenzie, Rex Beach, lan Haj» r. B. Priestley, Ben Travers. Ruby* M. Ayers, G. B. Lancaster, Jolm Masefield, Hugh Walpole, Adlous Huxley, Stephen Leacock, Ri. Stevenson, Beverley Nicholls, Lowell Thomas, and many others. Another interesting aspect of the collection is that it provides an in-< sight into what people in this try read and also in some measure into the extent of their reading. T» addition to the more expensive volumes that have come in from a gett* erous public, a large number of the-hand-sized "Penguin'* novels has been received. There are large col-* lections of the popular present-day profusely illustrated type of maga,-* zine, as well as other published in Britain and which have enjoyed a wide following for many years.. All these have been made available for the troops through public co-operation with this flwe service, which represents an important branch of the Na'tional Patriotic* Fund Board activities, and which; has not yet stopped growing. Th© -nils on the service increase in proportion f o the expansion of NeW gland's forccs and this means more books and periodicals will he wanted to enable requirements tat • be met.