BOOKS IN THOUSANDS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 677, 31 May 1929, Page 18

BOOKS IN THOUSANDS

INCREASED DEMAND BY READING PUBLIC CITY LIBRARIES POPULAR The number of volumes contained in the city libraries, including the Leys Institute, is estimated to be 150,292 volumes. Of this total 70,567 volumes are located in the reference departments, 63,301 in the lending departments, 15,156 in the children’s sections, including the school libraries, and 1,268 in the music section. This information was contained in the annual report of the city librarian, Mr. J. Barr, presented to the City Council meeting last evening. The attendance at all the libraries, exclusive of the lending departments, totalled 592,139, a decrease of 66,621 compared with the previous year. The number of volumes consulted in the reference departments of the Central Library and the Leys Institute amounted to 122,127, representing a daily average use of 366 volumes. The volumes consulted in the previous year totalled 135,127, being 13,000 more than this year’s figures. The issues from the lending departments totalled 577,581 volumes, being an increase of 14,615 over the 192728 record. "The combined total of books consulted in the reference departments and issued from the lending departments reached the record figure of 699.70 S volumes, being a slight increase of 1,615 over last year’s total, and represents a daily average of 2,019 books. These figures do not take into account the large number of books consulted in the reading rooms of the branch libraries, nor the extensive reading within the buildings of the periodicals and magazines kept for that purpose at all libraries.