The Chronicle PUBLISHED DAILY. LEVIN. TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 1914. PARLIAMENT LIBRARY.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 7 April 1914, Page 2

The Chronicle PUBLISHED DAILY. LEVIN. TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 1914. PARLIAMENT LIBRARY.

liecentiy The Chronicle wrote in support of a suggestion that recess privileges of Parliament library— now granted to some 500 people resident in Wellington City- - should he extended to dwellers in the country, districts. The only strong objections that could be made to it so far as The Chronicle sees, are (1) That extra work, and extra stalling of the library, would be involved and (2) That the risk of books being lost would bo increased. As to the first objection, the matter of £200 per annum would cover it, and that sum is neither here nor anywhere else when the Consolidated Fund is concerned. On the point as to loss of books : the leakages occur chiefly in the participants by right section (Members of Parliament) and it is doubtful whether any substantial losses of books would occur through an fxlension of the privilege system. In the last report of llie Parliamentary Librarian an interesting sidelight is flashed on iho doings of some Parliamentarians who use the library. "The heavy loss, noticeable also in 1902, in the sociology class is most significant," writes the librarian. He goes on to say: —

"The use of the sociology-room is during the session strictly confined to members. During l the recess no privilege-holder is allowed to enter this room unless mi the company of a library assistant. Yet, outside fiction, the worst loss is of books shelved in this room. This is doubtless accounted for, to some extent at- least, by the fact that the books in this room, dealing as they do with subjects such as law, education, finance, land, labour. statistics, and sociology generally. are necessarily in frequent demand. Tt must be assumed, •therefore, that the loss is here chiefly due to persons talcing 1 out books without entering l them in the day-hoolcs provided for that purpose. The hooks get taken into the House, into (lie Committee rooms and elsewhere, are overlooked and lost. Once lost there is no record of their having- been taken out, the difficulty of recovering' the missing l volumes is rendered exceptionally great. Time after time in my annual reports I have drawn attention to the importance of persons having the use of the Library seeing l that the books they take oul are duly entered. Circulars to tlm; effect have been issued and notices put up, but that the old evil still exists there is regrettable but unassailable proof in this report. The case is somewhat but not wholly different with reg'ard to the missingl list in the g'eneral literature and history classes. These classes are stored in the mam road in ffroom, to which, during- the- recess, the privilege holders have access. Here a certain proportion of the loss may be due to the carelessnses or worse of visitors. Coming now to the subject of ihe loss in fiction, it must be noted that far more fiction is demanded by members and has to be purchased than was at one time the ease. The value of the ordinary novel is small, and mauy of the books lost :ire not worth replacing on the shelves. The loss is here again, so T am convinced, mainly due to books being taken out without beingl entered. They arc taken away to hotels and boarding-houses and are picked up by unauthorised persons and all trace of Them is lost'. 1 wish to emphasise the fad thai no fiction is issued to re-

ceu-pririleff# holden, save to a v«ry limited number of persons on the full-privilege list. As showing how extremely careless some persons can be with regard to bonks borrowed from tlio library, I may state that on one occasion a member having died a number of library books were returned by his relatives. There were over twenty books in the parcel, and not hue of these books had been entered. Wore this library, like so many British and American libraries, a non-access library that is. library where books are askwl for from the catalogue and handed Qver the counter--I would guarantee that not five books would be missing each year. In a freeaccess library there must always be a certain proportion of loss. This library consists of eight separate rooms, not counting the two lobbies and the- basement. To have an assistant stationed night and day in each and every one of I he library rooms would necessitate doubling the staff. 17