Woman’s Work in Many Spheres

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 230, 17 December 1927, Page 8

Woman’s Work in Many Spheres

No. 15:MissM. McGuire

('MIIEF assistant to the city librariau is Miss McGuire, who, in 21 years at the Central Library, has garnered great wisdom about books and their readers and stands convinced that where - city shows its personality is in its book-store. It is not given to all ot us to realise the ambitions of childhood, but that has been Miss McGuire’s good fortune. At school her mind had been already made up. She would work in the library. “Someone told me that all I would have to do here would be to study human nature and read. When I joined the staff I was left for two whole days w-andering round the reference library until I was thoroughly frightened of it all and very glad to be transferred down to the hustle of the lending department. “Since then I have been in every department and certainly have had to study human nature. No one has such opportunities for doing so as a librarian has. One almost gets an insight into what is in the minds of people, and according to the dictum of a learned judge we share that privilege with Satan alone. “Just think of the growth of the city’s libraries since I came here. There were 40,137 books in stock and 39,938 issues from the lending department. There were 713 subscribers then. Now the stock has mounted to 138,622, including the Leys Institute, the schools and our six branches. The central library houses 71,435 books. We have 6441 subscribers now, 2,000

of them belonging to the central library. When T came to the library at first the lending department was stocked with light fiction but lacked up-to-date non-fiction, but I can trace the great increase in the non-fiction and the improvement in the status of reading. Mr. Barr took control, the influence of scientific iibrarianship began to work wonders, and now visitors a' ays compliment the city on the broad lines on which the books are selected. “The children’s library, which was separated from the lending department, is where we have to select most carefully. An adult has to be left to select his own books, but children must be protected from reading rubbish. “Our schools’ section enables children to have access to books free of charge, and that is the first step toward a free lending system. I hope that the day is not far distant when there will be a free library for both adults and children.

“As for the reference library, it is getting more and more popular every year. The arts and trades and commercial section is small yet, but it is up-to-date and growing rapidly. “No effort is spared to help the public to use the library. People often say, ‘Don’t bother. It’s too much trouble. I’m sorry to worry you,’ or something sympathetic when they have asked for some fact that is hard to find. But I can assure you that it is much more worrying to an assistant to be unable to find anything asked for than it is to be asked for it.”