"Our Men Want Books This Winter"

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 147, 17 April 1942, Page 7

"Our Men Want Books This Winter"

"THE War Library Service wants more books," said the Hon. H. G. R. Mason, Minister of Education, in a recent broadcast. He asked the public, the libraries, and the schools each to do their part in restocking the War Library Service. Here is portion of his broadcast:

HE provision of books and magazines for the men in our fighting forces is a never-ending job. The appeal launched early in the war was responded to nobly and something like half a million books and magazines have been distributed. But, books wear out and more and more men join the armed forces. The need for material increases and the supply of good material has been decreasing. This winter we want not only to continue the supply to our men overseas, we want to provide a-worth-while service to the men who will be in camp in New Zealand. Examine your book shelf. Perhaps you have given already all the books you can spare easily. Examine the shelf again, and think of the men who will spend the long winter evenings in camp, away from their homes, away from the amenities of large towns, in camp guarding New Zealand. The time has come to give not just what we can spare easily, but to give our best books. Don’t use the War Library Service as a dump for rubbish. There is a place for your old worn out books, but.it, is not the War

Library Service..Old books can play a part in our war effort if they are pulped but I am not here to-night to tell you about that. The War Library Service wants books which are in phyiscally sound and clean condition, amusing books, serious books, exciting books, sparkling, controversial books, up-to-the-minute books. Methods of Collection Magazines are always in demand. Get ready all the good material you have available, whether books or magazines. If there is a public library conveniently near take it there; if your local branch of the R.S.A. or any other organisation collects regularly for the War Library Service let them have your contribution. But in many cases these media of collection may not exist or may not be convenient. This is where I am going to ask the teachers and boys and girls in our schools to give a hand. I want to ask every boy and girl in Standards IT. and IV. and Forms I. and II. in our primary schools, and all boys and girls in secondary schools to collect for the War Library Service ten good

books or magazines during April. Full directions will be sent to schools shortly regarding the transport of the material to camps. In the meantime, start canvasing your friends to get some really good books and magazines ready for you Material collected should be kept at the school until you are told where to send it. The details of the method of collection I leave to head teachers, and I ask confidently for their co-operation. So far I have been speaking of the gifts from private individuals. I want now to ask the public library authorities of New Zealand to mobilise a small proportion of their stock for presentation to the War Library. The Council of the New Zealand Library Association ras expressed its willingness to endorse an appeal to library authorities for a grant of books of general interest from their stocks, and has suggested that the minimum quota each library should aim at giving should be equal to two per cent. of the population served by the library. Most libraries have upon their shelves a fair number of good books, some of them duplicates which are not being used much now, because most of the library’s readers have seen them already. Put these books at the service of the men who have left your district to serve in the forces.