AN OFFER OF ADVANTAGES.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 August 1940, Page 4

AN OFFER OF ADVANTAGES.

()N the simple merits of the case, only one decision should be possible 'when, the Masterton. Borough Council deals tomorrow evening with the question- of linking up with the Country Library Service. Great advantages are offered in taking this course and the reasonable policy evidently is to accept them. Against the offer free of cost of 700 books, half of them fiction if desired, and renewable in whole or part three times a year, the council is asked to sacrifice only the right to collect subscriptions from residents within its rating area. Subscriptions collected last year amounted to about £lBO, but these included payments by persons resident outside the borough which may still be collected. In addition, a “pay collection” system may be instituted, if desired, for new books in the category of light popular fiction. Some people have spoken of the Country Library Service as offering something for nothing, but the fact of course is that the service is paid for by taxation. Of this the people of Masterton. pay their share and they have every right to participate in the benefits the service offers. The great merit of the Country Library Service is that it offers a means of removing some of the disabilities under which small independent libraries inevitably labour. Books, like other things, tend to become increasingly expensive and the purchases of a small library are almost bound to include a certain amount of dead stock, acquired at unprofitable, cost. The service in which Mastertoil. in common with other towns, is now invited to participate, offers a remedy for that state of affairs. Book's which are found to be lacking in appeal and which remain on the shelves unread can be exchanged for others.

'I he principal immediate effect of the change now proposed in Masterlon will be to make available a larger and more varied select ion ol books, and there should be an increased opportunity, in these circumstances, lor catering for and meeting all tastes. It is, of course, an aim of the Country Library Service, as it. is of all library organisations of a worthy kind, to foster and cultivate an improvement in reading standards, but it is recognised that there can be no question of trying to force on people books ol a kind they do not desire to read. All reasonable provision is made for those who seek only reereational reading.

In addition to the benefit it offers to the general body of readers, I he service will make readily available to all who desire them a wide range of books of reference. The total benefits offered are already considerable, and no doubt as time goes on they will be extended and enlarged. It is, of course, very possible that in the conditions now proposed the Masterton Library before long may have to be expanded to cope with increased and growing demands. That, however, is not a prospect from which any modern and progressive community need shrink.