OFFER OF £100

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 23, 27 July 1945, Page 10

OFFER OF £100

. TRAINING OF LIBRARIAN/ After hearing Miss Mary Parson* of the American Library Service, ad». ' dress members of-the Dominion-execu-tive of the New Zealand Red Cross society yesterday on the importance of $ the work of specially-trained librarians for hospitals, Mrs. T. H. Lowry (Hawke's Bay) stated that she would give £100 to assist the first New Zealander to go abroad for the purposes . of study. ' "I am overjoyed to think that- we •are going to have something on. these lines at last," said Mrs Lowry. ' - Miss Parsons stated that, as. far as she was aware, the only course of . training for hospital librarians was at the University of Minnesota. • The speaker was introduced by Miss , H. Iris Crooke,1 Director-General, New Zealand Red Cross V.A.D.s, who said that the sending of. a New Zealander to the United States for the purpose mentioned should be the national peacetime objective of the society. The Minnesota University authorities had informed her, said Miss Crooke, that they would do everything possible to assist a New Zealand student. The work of librarians in hospitals had been developed in several countries, said Miss Parsons, and notably in the United States. A permanent organisation had developed there after the last war, and the work had been extended to the army 'and the naVy, and to many civil hospitals, including mental institutions. It was found, she said,' that one fulltime librarian could serve 250 patients in an ordinary hospital twice a week, and it was necessary, of course, for her to work in close co-operation with the medical and nursing staffs. The scientific treatment of disease by the use of literature had been vecognised.' The field was one that offered all manner of possibilities for the properly-trained person. "Though it is still a pioneer profession, its value has been acknowledged, and much good work has been accomplished," concluded. Miss Parsons. "I am sure that there is as much scope here in all the hospitals, including those for children, as there is elsewhere." The chairman (Mr. C. G. White) stated that the conference, would discuss the proposal at-1 a later stage.