BOOKS FOR EVERYBODY
THE CHANCE TO READ: Public Libraries in the World Today, by Lionel R. McColvin; Phoenix House, through Whitcombe and Tombs, English price 35/-. DISTINGUISHED librarian here examines, largely from first-hand knowledge, public library systems in the United Kingdom, United States, European and Iron Curtain countries, and some _ under-developed territories. His thesis is bluntly that mankind must choose between destructiveness and construction, that "growth, freedom, de- | mocracy . . . will best be encouraged ’ {continued on next page) |
(continued from previous page) when it becomes possible for all men to use books according to their needs and abilities." Mr. McColvinh’s masg of information is remarkably up to date, -although the rapid cevelopments in Cape Town have escaped hit. Though he deplores our free and freftal system, holding that libfary service should be entirely free, he places our services next after those of Great Britain and Denmatk and Sweden, because of the excellent coverage, high standards of the major cities, and the finé work of the National Library Service. A few of his | gzatements ate mistaken; our rental collections are not all fiction; Palmerston North is not a_ subscription library; library work hete began in Wellington (in 1841), not in Auckland: even if duplicated elsewhere, these do not detract from the argumefit. Mr. McColvin has caught the dramatic quality of modern librarianship as a means of civilisa-
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Permanent link to this item
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19560907.2.24.6
Bibliographic details
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 892, 7 September 1956, Page 15
Word count
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228BOOKS FOR EVERYBODY New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 892, 7 September 1956, Page 15
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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