H—32a

By arrangement with the Taranaki Education Board, an office was opened in New Plymouth where service to Taranaki schools is now carried out. The Borough Councils of Hastings and Invercargill have agreed to their libraries being the distributing centres for schools in Central Hawke's Bay and Southland respectively. Distribution is now carried out from fourteen centres —North Island : Hastings, Napier, Wanganui, and Whangarei Public Libraries, offices of Country Library Service in Auckland and Palmerston North, and National Library Service, Wellington ; South Island : Dunedin, Greymouth, Invercargill, and Timaru Public Libraries and offices of the Country Library Service in Christchurch and Nelson.

The considerable expansion in the request and information service shown by the figures below indicates an increasing desire of teachers and children for access to a wider range of books: —

Requests unfulfilled were either unobtainable or beyond the scope of the Service. Loan collections of books on special topics have been more in demand, and have been despatched as follows : Number of loan collections .. . . . . . . 261 Number of books sent .. .. . . .. .. 10,996 A booklet containing the essential information for the organization of a school library has been printed and distributed to the larger schools. A select and annotated list of junior fiction published in the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand since 1940 has been compiled and is being printed. These phases of school library work— i.e., request service, loan collections, and bibliographical work —have been made possible only by the increase in trained staff, and it says much for the ability and training of the New Zealand Library School graduates on the staff that the demands of schools have been met in this way. POST-PBIMARY SCHOOLS One hundred and two post-primary schools (including 4 registered private schools and 3 Maori district high schools) were visited. Schools have stated that this is a most useful form of assistance, as all aspects of school library work can be discussed on the spot. Visits have been regrettably short, but it is hoped that longer periods at schools which are ready for library development, and would benefit by trained advice, will be possible next year. Ninety loan collections totalling 3,574 books were sent out in response to requests from post-primary schools or young people's sections of public libraries. Schools with limited resources have been able to profit from this service by receiving a representative range of material on specific subjects or by adding considerably to their stocks of recreational reading. These loans have been of particular advantage to district high schools, whose book stock is often inadequate. A booklet on planning a school library has been prepared for distribution to all post-primary schools, Education Boards, and other interested persons and is at present at the printers. Two book lists of recent fiction and non-fiction are in process of compilation, but the many calls on staff time have delayed their completion.

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— 1949. 1950. Books sent on request Requests unfulfilled 11,453 565 28,883 832