INFLUENCE OF NOVELS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 270, 7 November 1908, Page 3

INFLUENCE OF NOVELS.

The association of British Librarians opened their annual conference at Brighton. The president, in his inaugural address, strongly recommended the adoption of the Libraries Act in conntry districts, saying that a penny rate would (.liable the average county council to reference libraries in various centres, and leading libraries, with relays of books, in every village. A long discussion tooK place witii regard to the supply of tio-tion in public libraries,

Mr F. F. Barrett (Glasgow) suggested the general adoption of the practice of the library of his city that no novel Khould be bought that was not a y;ar old, and that the amount spent on novels should not average more than 10 per cent, of their expenditure on new books.

"A public library," says Dr. E. A. Baker (Woolwich), "must have its recreative as well as its utilitarian sid .', but there is no call to make it a species of mental grog shop.''— (Laugntef). .Sir William Bailey (Manchester) took an optimistic view of the subject. "I don't believe," he declared, "that the novel degenerates anybody. As a rule, the novels of the present day are far superior to what they were ihi-:ty or fortv years ago. It is very seldom ] i that von find a novel which is objectionable. The cultivation of the imagination is what we want. Novel-reading lightens the cares of life, and the novel has a special function in prolonging life and in assisting the brain to use its imaginative qualities.'' Sir William drew a mournful picture of what hapipcncd to people who did not cultivate their imaginative faculties Iby Hovelreiuling. A portion of the brain became ossified, there was u partial paralysis of nerve functions, and people died before their time.

Ultimately the conference adopted resolutions expressing tlfc view that, while they are favorable to an ample supply of 'classical literature, the purchase of ephemeral fiction, of no literary or educational value, is not within the province of a public lending library.