A WIDER USE OF BOOKS
Though, a book may suffer by much usage, it fulfils the purpose of its being^ better that way than by a more or less, ornamental existence,in a coloured row on the untouched shelves of a Jibrary. Too often in the reference departments "of* public libraries it is the fate of expensive volumes to blush, not unseen, perhaps, but, certainly, almost, unread on the inaccessible heights of tall bookcases. The modern librarian holds it to be bad ; business that books bought for the, public should not serve the public to the fullest possible degree, and the policy pursued by .the Wellington City Librarian (Mr. Norrie), with_ remarkable success, of popularising literature of all kinds is to be extended in the new Central Library, when it is built, to practically the
whole collection. It has been found by experience that books in the lending department are far more widely read than those in the reference section, as the condition of identical copies of the same work in the two divisions shows after a few months' trial. Within the cramped accommodation of the existing library building it has not been possible "to introduce . the new arrangement and, though books in the reference department have.been available under certain restrictions, with rather onerous conditions,- the use made of them has been correspondingly limited. The wider' conception of the functions of a- public library will find fuller scope in the new building, the interior arrangements of which will be designed io facilitate service to the public. In the peculiar flux of things in the modern world, the best safeguard of democratic institutions is a wellinformed democracy, and in the securing of this object the public library has a great and essential function.to fulfil. This service can best be performecl by a library in which all the best that is written on any subject may be easily .available to a y public deeply interested .in developments. It'need not go so far that "he who riinjs may read," but it may well remove the obstacles and pitfalls: from his path. '
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Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 128, 1 June 1937, Page 8
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347A WIDER USE OF BOOKS Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 128, 1 June 1937, Page 8
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