a—32a

One hundred and twenty-eight of these schools are Maori schools ; 105 are district high schools with a post-primary roll of 9,097. There is now no waiting-list and all schools eligible have been informed of the reading facilities available from the Service. It was also approved that consideration should be given to requests from public libraries giving service to schools in the four main cities. A request from Dunedin Public Library for books to extend its service to all children in the standard classes of Dunedin city schools has been fulfilled. By an arrangement with the Napier Borough Council, the Napier Public Library now acts as the centre of distribution for schools in and near Napier. Distribution is carried out from eleven centres —North Island : Napier, Wanganui, and Whangarei Public Libraries, offices of the Country Library Service in Auckland and Palmerston North, and National Library Service, Wellington. South Island : Dunedin, Greymouth, and Timaru Public Libraries and offices of the Country Library Service in Christchurch and Nelson. Increase in trained staff has made possible more visits to schools, with a consequent better understanding of individual requirements and stimulation of the use of the reference service. The expansion of the request and information service is shown by the figures below:—

Bequests unfulfilled were either unobtainable or beyond the scope of a school service—e.g., text-books. Post-primary Schools. —The appointment to the staff of Miss K. McCaul, M.A., has enabled the planned extensions of service to post-primary schools to become more effective. In 1948, through an arrangement of the New Zealand Library Association with the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Miss McCaul, a graduate of the Library School in 1947, studied post-primary-school library administration and young people's reading interests at the School of Library Science, Western Reserve 'University, Cleveland, Ohio. Visits to schools, advice on book-selection, library buildings, furniture and equipment, assistance in general library organization, combined with loan collections and request service, have helped schools to make wider and more profitable use of available reading-material. Members of the staff also gave assistance in planning and lecturing for a refresher course for post-primary teacher-librarians held at Wellington in January, 1949. A manual containing the essential information for the organization of a school library has been prepared and is at present in the press. The work of the Service has become increasingly difficult to carry out efficiently in Auckland, and more especially in Wellington, because of the inadequate accommodation, which makes for cramped working conditions and causes much unnecessary handling of stock.

7

— 1948. 1949. Books sent on request 4,127 11,453 Requests unfulfilled 130 565