WE HAVE ALERT MINDS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 914, 6 March 1930, Page 1

WE HAVE ALERT MINDS

NEW ZEALANDERS MAKE GOOD READERS POTENT FORCE OF BOOKS “New Zealand has an admirable population to work upon from a reading point of view,” said Mr. J. W. Shaw, lecturer in English at the Training College, Auckland, in addressing the Libraries Conference this morning on “Libraries from the Readers’ Point of View.” “The mind of “the New Zealander is j alert; the whole population literate,” Mr. Shaw continued. “The secondary school system has taught or ought to have taught certain standards of literary appreciation, or at least the ability to read with some degree of intelligence and discrimination.” In all periods there were forces of light and forces of darkness and a vast mass of indifference. Ours was no better and no worse than any other, but the war squandered spiritual force as well as material and we had some way to go before we overcame the effects of the sense of weariness and futility that overshadowed the mind of man. Everything that affirmed that man did not live by bread alone was a force of the spirit, an influence on the side of the angels. Everything that stood for the widening and deepening of the human mind, that was to say for culture, was part of the army of the spirit. The education system of a country was the most powerful of all agencies making for a true sense of values, and the public should be one of the most potent factors in adult education. It had already played a big part and there was no limit to the service it could render in the future CENTRE OF EDUCATION For a literate population the public library could be and should be tbe chief centre of adult education. The university touched only the few and the pursuit of pure culture was complicated there by the necessities of professional training. Judging from personal experience the public library more than anything else could provide the mental pabulum which should sustain the mind, said the speaker. It should also supply the contact with the world of thought which was essential for the citizens of an educated democracy, and would ensure that education did not stop with school days. For some readers the library would make available the books which were too expensive for their pockets. For others, the book buyers, the library would supply the lighter works they wanted to read, but did not wish to place upon their shelves. For most, possibly, the library would exist for entertainment. Each was a legitimate function of the library. There was, however, more than the i mere provision of books, the lecturer ; . continued. There must be a certain j amount of guidance to the reader. The i library could not possibly supply all j books printed. Presumably the tastes 1 of the readers were the determining ; principle, but that was an illusive factor, and, except in the case of books, much in the public eye, very hard to come at. Most people would take what was given them. Very many works of fiction on the shelves were scarcely read at all. Possibly it would be better if there was a more critical selection, fewer actual titles, and more copies of the better and more popular books. Beside that guidance, most readers would appreciate definite direction to books of quality. It might be possible, as was once so in Auckland, to reinforce the distribution of books by public lectures on some of the authors and volumes available. Or a monthly statement might be compiled calling attention to some of the books on the shelves. There were unlimited possibilities here for improving public taste and increasing the public * powers of appreciation.