Report of the National Library Service for the Year Ended 31 March 1958 | Page 2

reliance is being placed on the efficiency of our secondary industry the
necessity of providing the fullest technical information to aid
manufacturers will be apparent. Authority was obtained 12 years ago to
establish such a service but it was not then possible to obtain qualified

persons to begin it. It is hoped that conditions will permit a senior
appointment during the present financial year to inaugurate the service.
Regional and District Library Service--Study has continued on the
problems of ensuring an efficient and soundly based library service for
New Zealand's whole population. The problems facing a local authority
overseas with a population of 2,000,000 within a radius of a few miles
are minor ones compared with those facing New Zealand library
authorities, where the secondary cities are small, where the pattern of
local government is uneven, and where the population as a whole has a
high standard of education and is avid for books. Costs in New Zealand,
per head of population, are bound to be relatively high; vigilance is
necessary to ensure that they are no higher than they need be.
It has been apparent that cooperation between local authorities will be
the major factor in making economies on a national scale. A note of the
work of the Working Party on Library Cooperation of 27-28 August
1956 appeared in last year's annual report, and it was recorded that the
Minister of Education, at the request of the New Zealand Library
Association, had authorised payment of travelling expenses for its
Committee on Regional Planning to enable its work to be carried out.
The committee worked during the year and met in Wellington for two
full-day sessions on 6 and 7 June 1957 for consideration of the
"establishment of regional and district library services as the best
method of providing a more effective library service for the whole
country". Its report was made to the New Zealand Library Association.
After consideration by the executive of the Local Authorities Section,
some amendments were made and the report published by the
Association as Co-operation: A New Phase. Fifteen hundred copies
were printed and were circulated to all local authorities for discussion.
The report states:
"1. The main problems facing public libraries are:
(i) The unfair distribution over the whole community of the costs of
library service.

(ii) The continuing growth of the cost of municipal government to the
point where it has become an embarrassment to the cities and boroughs
concerned.
(iii) The failure of some local authorities to provide for library
services."
"8. The basic factor in improving library services will be cooperation
among local authorities. Such cooperation should be the condition of
increased Government assistance."
"10. Government assistance to such federations should take the form of
cash subsidies on all expenditure approved for subsidy by the
federation, and by the Minister (or National Library Board)."
This report formed the main topic of discussion at the New Zealand
Library Association conference in Invercargill in February 1958. The
Association approached the Government for favourable consideration
of the proposals contained in the report on 11 April 1958.
In the meantime the work of the Royal Commission on Local
Government Finance is being followed carefully, as its findings will
have considerable bearing on the problem of library finance.
An effort is also being made to foster among local authorities the
willingness to cooperate, but progress in this field is slow.
National Library Proposal--The report of the Working Party of the
Public Service Commission on the National Library proposal was
earlier considered by the Government, which had approved it in
principle. The House of Representatives last year approved the terms of
reference of a Select Committee to be appointed to make
recommendations for "ways and means of carrying out the decision of
the Government to establish a National Library" and to consider
various other associated matters. The decision to appoint such a
Committee was reaffirmed in February 1958, the Committee was
named shortly afterwards and has since met on several occasions.
Independently of any solution of the accommodation problems of the

Service which such a move might bring, the proposal merits the most
careful consideration.
Book Stock--During the year, 19,283 fiction and 35,573 non-fiction
were added to stock, a total of 54,856. Of these, 10,442 separate titles
of non-fiction and 205 fiction titles were added to the headquarters
collection, which now contains approximately 135,000 titles together
with 11,000 volumes of periodicals; 15,305 volumes were
withdrawn--12,134 fiction and 3,171 non-fiction--making the net
additions 39,551. The total of headquarters and Country Library
Service stock now amounts to 652,308, comprising 176,600 fiction and
475,708 non-fiction. As at 31 March 1958 the stock of the School
Library Service was 1,091,189 the grand total of stock in the Service as
a whole being 1,743,497.
Request Service--All libraries and groups receiving library service from