ADDRESS BY MR. REEVES.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2363, 2 December 1908, Page 6

ADDRESS BY MR. REEVES.

HIS NEW APPOINTMENT.

MANAGEMENT OF LIBRARIES

The Hon. V. Pern her Reeves, High Commissioner for New Zealand, delivered his inaugural address as the •director of the London School of Economics, -at the Royal School of -Medicine 20, Hanover Square, London, ou October 12. Mr. A. E. Baker, M.A., D. of Lift., presided. 3lr. He eves, who mot with a very hearty reception, said that he had" some connection with libraries and librarianships, because for some years he had been vice-chairman of the London University Library at South Kensington, and was now director of the London School of Economics. W hen he thought of them and their accommodation, lie was inclined to heave many sighs. The public was supposed to be a great patron of libraries, and to have a great interest in them, but if they compared tlie libraries of to-day with those of a past generation lie supposed it would be said that we had a more enlightened public. There was, however, still a great deal to be done. To describe. the attitude of the public towards libraries was similar to the old lady who went into a bookseller’s eliop for a Bible. She said she would be satisfied with a cheap one, small and light, but it must be printed in the very largest type. (Laughter.) That was the attitude of the public to libraries. They did not_ want the money wasted oil sites, fine equipments, or librarians ami assistants — they wanted a building equipped with the best books, and to be done with a penny rate if possible. Could anything be done to improve libraries, librarians, the staff, and the useful-' ness of libraries to meet the case of the public ? . He was of the opinion that a great deal could be done. There was such a thing as matter in the "wrong place, and when books had ceased to have any value, and encumbered the walls of libraries which were pressed for space, and books of no value continued to be added, they should be got rid of. Two of the great evils with which librarians and those concerned in books had to contend were the tendency to preserve old books, simply because they were old, and also a. tendency to buy new books, merely because they were new. Because a book was old it was not necessarily useful; a number of the old books were extremely bad books—really rubbish. The difficulty of the librarian, said Mr. Reeves, was to deal with the enormous quantity of books that were turned out. They must remember that libraries were made for the public, and not the public for tlie libraries. (Cheers.) If the public had not lost its way, and was utterly bewildered among its labyrinth of contemporary literature, they probably would not hear half so much obout libraries anclj tho troubles of librarians. The publishing trade was not organised and never had been, and the extreme -and keen competition among the whole of the numerous tribe of publishers led 'to an. enormous number of books being issued. A great number of them never ought to have been published, never ougm to have been printed,, and as infants should have been -strangled in the cradle without delay. (Laughter.) There were nxun.heirs of books coming into life every day that ought to be. destroyed as quickly as possible. The speaker said lie was. not referring merely to immoral books, but to stupid, brainless, idiotic books—there were plenty of them in the realms of fiction. Heaven only knew how ‘they got printed; Hip did not know. They knew that uov->

.‘lists wore credulous and ambitions', nd many had a littlemoney when they ieg a li —(laughter)—he did not say that .hey had at the finish. How so n-any of those books got into print, mwever, was a thing that no one outide the walls of the publisher’s office louhl understand. He was not press tin,4 only against immoral and imiccile books, but against unnecessary ,;üblications. So far as the public wore concerned, there was no guarantee that what they clamoured for were head and shoulders above other books, or that they were, in any way the best • but they, were tlie books that were pushed. "There was never an age oi the world when well equipped, wel’ trained, well qualified librarians,wort moTc pressiiigly needed than, at the present time. The moral of his discourse was that their services were wanted, secondly that a great deal more than their services was required, and there was wanted from them a great deal more in the future than they had done in the past, or wort allowed to do,- in the past, and they would have to qualify themselves loi the great task before them. (Applause.) ~ -