CONGESTED LIBRARY.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2150, 16 May 1914, Page 5

CONGESTED LIBRARY.

MORE SPACE NEEDED. Tho.City Librarian (Mr. Herbert Baillio) endorses the Mayoral announcement to tho effect that tho congestion at tho Central Freo Public Library must bo relieved. Mr. 'Baillie stated yesterday that despite tho exercise of extreme economy, a difficulty was being experienced in finding room to store tho books. On an average, ho said, about 3000 new volumes were purchased every year, and consequently .there was a constant call for more shelving to arrange them on. Occasionally they had a clearance of a lot of old books that were not worth keeping, books that were either never inquired for or that were too kuocked about to retain in circulation or have repaired. But no librarian liked to destroy books—it' hurt them to throw out anything, yet cartloads were from, time to timo sent to tho destructor to bo destroyed. They were mostly ephemeral works of fiction, which had served their turn, and were too decrepit to continue going the rounds. These occasional clearances gave a little relief' from timo to time, but not sufficient to prevent tho incoming volumes from catching up to tho space limits of the library. Tho referenco rooms are shelved as high as wae deomed expedient, and Mr. Baillie's privato office is shelved to tho ceiling, without spaco enough for another twenty volumes.. . i

Mr. Baillie etated that tho library had 1850 subscribers on tho list of tho Central Library and 1000 on the Newtown list. By way of comparison tho Central Municipal Library at Auckland only had 680 members, and the librarian was asking that it be made a perfectly free library, as was the case in Dunedin, where they had 2942 adult and 1462 juvenile borrowers.