Read Ebook: Report of the Chief Librarian for the Year Ended 31 March 1958: Special Centennial Issue by New Zealand General Assembly Library Wilson J O Burns A D Editor

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No great change was made in the wording of the rules, but it appears that at the end of the session members were taking books away, and in 1886 Mr James Macandrew from Dunedin admitted doing so. In the recess of 1885-86 Sir James G. Wilson had written to the Librarian asking for books to be sent to his home. The request was refused but following it the House passed a motion recommending the Joint Committee to prepare regulations for lending books during the recess to members living outside Wellington.

The Committee, however, did not favour the idea and reported that there were so many difficulties in the way that they would not carry it out. On the motion of the Premier, Sir Robert Stout, the House reluctantly agreed with the report.

There the matter rested until the session of 1891 when it was raised in a question addressed to a Minister. As a result the Committee brought down a report saying that they had agreed to a scheme for circulating up to six books at a time to members in the recess. Certain reference and valuable books, newspapers, and periodicals were excluded, but most other works could be borrowed. The Library would provide boxes or baskets for the transmission of the books, and six dozen were obtained for the following recess. During it 34 members borrowed 438 volumes, not one being lost, though two were damaged.

Both House and Council agreed to the scheme, though certain members were violently opposed to it. Since then it has provided members with reading material during many recesses. Certainly, some books have been lost, but probably there would be an even greater chance of losses if the practice of recess borrowing had not been regularised. In any case, books often disappear from the shelves in libraries with the best oversight and supervision and are never seen again.

The provision of fiction in the Library has been criticised, but novels have been purchased since the early seventies. The numbers purchased have always been small, and have given well earned relaxation and pleasure to legislators as well as building up what is the only collection of the minor nineteenth century classics that exists in the Dominion. These books are frequently in demand by students of nineteenth century English literature.

In keeping with the policy of allowing the widest possible use of the Library, while at the same time retaining all books necessary for Parliament, the Committee in 1909 drew up rules which would have permitted university libraries to borrow. Little use, however, seems to have been made of the privilege.

In 1936 the Committee gave approval for the participation of the Library in the New Zealand Library Association scheme. Libraries outside have not been slow to take advantage, and while considerable restrictions exist on the books that can be lent, only one book is borrowed by the General Assembly Library for every 20 or so lent.

Though the Library is primarily the Library of Parliament, it has always been generous in allowing the use of its resources to students and others. As early as 1875, while books could only be taken out by members of Parliament, heads of Departments, and Judges, the Recess Committee had discretion to allow the use of the Library for reference and study.

The minutes and correspondence show that the demands were many and that permission was frequently given. There was no general rule about admission, and as a result individual application was necessary. Mr Collier did his best to liberalise the privilege, but at the same time he wanted the use limited to genuine students rather than to those who wanted it for prestige and as a means of obtaining light reading.

A resolution of 1891 allowed the privilege to be granted on the recommendation of a member of Parliament, head of a Government Department, or local clergyman, but by the end of the century the right was restricted to members of Parliament. The recess privilege did not allow borrowers to take out current fiction though classic fiction could be borrowed.

The rules have long permitted the use of the library for brief periods by serious research workers. The position has now been placed on a permanent basis, and students at the honours stage at the University or undertaking serious research are allowed to use two special rooms in the Library.

Here it might be well to mention the request that has recently been made to allow the Library to keep open until 6 p.m. during the recess. This has been done three times in the past, in 1892-93, in 1903-04, and again in 1911, but the use was so small that the hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. were quickly reverted to.

Though the General Assembly Library is principally the Library of Parliament, many of its functions are those of a national library and this matter has been raised on many occasions. The earliest references are those of James Collier in 1888, and his remarks are of interest, "... the Library of the General Assembly develop or, as is more probable, bifurcate into a national library ..."

As the only large State library, it was natural that the General Assembly Library should be regarded as the basis of a national library and there were frequent references to this side of the Library's work in the debates on copyright deposit in 1903 and 1913. About the same time the Library Association meeting in Wellington carried a resolution saying that the Library should be regarded as the nucleus of a national reference library.

The matter was not forgotten but rather lay dormant until 1935 when the Munn-Barr report on New Zealand libraries suggested the amalgamation of the General Assembly and Turnbull Libraries, together with a country lending department, to form a national library. This suggestion more or less received the approval of the Government and plans were drawn up for a new library building.

The war intervened, but since 1950 the question has become increasingly prominent, and there have been two inquiries. While it is possible to combine a purely legislative and national reference library, I have doubts on the complete absorption of a parliamentary library by a national library. In the United States, for example, the Library of Congress gives both services, but Congress and its needs are supreme. The library seemingly envisaged for New Zealand would have wider scope and unless very carefully planned and managed, there could be conflict between Parliament and the department controlling the library.

The Library also played its part in the establishment of the Country and later the National Library Services. In 1935 Dr Scholefield travelled overseas at the invitation of the Carnegie Corporation of New York and on his return made a report on rural library services, which turned further attention to this matter.

A group of New Zealand librarians interested the Carnegie Corporation of New York in the proposal to organise a demonstration scheme in Taranaki and asked Mr G. T. Alley to prepare plans. In 1937, however, ?3,000 was placed on the Estimates for the Country Library Service and Mr Alley was appointed Director later in the year. For some time the Service was also located in Parliament Buildings.

Twenty years earlier the Library had also assisted in the reorganisation of the Turnbull Library as a State library. Mr J. C. Andersen was for some time on the staff, resigning to become first Librarian. In addition, both Mr Wilson and Dr Scholefield were in turn Advisory Directors to the Turnbull Library until the post was abolished in 1930.

The Library has during its century collected many curios which should really have been given to a museum. The Library Committee has had to decide frequently whether historical relics could be displayed. In 1886, after the Taiaha of Wahanui presented to James Bryce had been refused, the Committee laid down that nothing but books, manuscripts, maps, etc., should be deposited without special permission.

However the Library possesses today many such relics. There are the caskets containing the Freedoms of certain cities presented to Mr Fraser, a similar collection of Mr Seddon's and of Sir Joseph Ward's, the pen used by Mr Massey to sign the Treaty of Versailles, a kava bowl, mats, etc., from Samoa, and many other items. The Library also had for a time the Bishop Monrad etchings and the Chevalier pictures, but these were handed over to the Turnbull Library and Academy of Fine Arts respectively.

The display of such objects tends to attract to the Library visitors not interested in the books, but whose conversation distracts more serious readers.

Though today books are purchased in many countries most of the books have always been obtained in England. The first books were bought from Smith and Elder in London, but this was not continued. Instead, an arrangement was entered into with a Mr Maberly of Auckland, partner in a London firm of booksellers, to obtain and bind books uniformly.

In the following years the Library had several London agents, none of whom were entirely satisfactory, while some were quite the reverse. What the Library Committee wanted was a reliable buyer who could provide books cheaply and in addition supply the more important books as they were published without duplicating them in later orders. Including the time taken for reviews to reach New Zealand, for them to be read, the books to be ordered and dispatched to New Zealand, it would be not far short of a year before a book published in England reached the shelves of the Library.

After several changes of agent in quick time the Committee in 1883 asked the authority of Cabinet to use the Agent-General in London to purchase books. This was given and book purchase was put on a happier basis. This was particularly so in the first years when Sir Francis Bell was Agent-General. Though the books were supplied by a bookseller in Edinburgh, Sir Francis, as a former member of the Library Committee, took a personal interest in the orders and anticipated the purchase of many popular books.

The High Commissioner in London, successor to the Agent-General, has continued to oversee the purchase of books for the Library either from booksellers or from the publishers. He has been of invaluable assistance to the Library in this task; and the assistance given in this field is only paralleled by that of the other overseas agencies of New Zealand, particularly those in the United States, Canada, and Australia.

A large and increasing number of books has also been purchased from booksellers in New Zealand. Particularly in the case of novels, it is of advantage to inspect the book before buying a copy.

For many years books purchased in England were rebound uniformly in morocco. In 1886, in an attempt to reduce costs, the Committee decided that works costing less than 10s. were to be sent out in the ordinary cloth binding. The more expensive and important works still continued to be rebound in leather, but as time went on this too was discontinued and all books were dispatched in the publisher's binding.

THE AIMS OF THE LIBRARY

What does the General Assembly Library exist for and what does it set out to do? Its primary function is to assist members to obtain information needed for the performance of their parliamentary duties and also to make available to them books, periodicals, etc., which may better equip them as men of affairs.

From the first the Library set out to obtain books on matters and topics likely to be the subject of legislation and on matters likely to be of interest to members. As funds became available and the Library grew it was also possible to purchase books for recreational reading, but this has always been a lesser aim.

The necessity for obtaining books on matters likely to be subject to legislation has directly led to the acquisition of books relating to New Zealand. The principal subject of legislation before the New Zealand Parliament is New Zealand, and in order to give the information required it is essential to have as complete a collection as possible on New Zealand.

The advent of the Liberal Government in 1891, and later of the Labour Government, led to wide extension of the field of legislation and consequently of the stock of the Library. Today the Library is strong in official publications, in economics, politics, administration, law, and statistics; there are good collections in history, biography, and travel, and also an excellent reference collection.

The staff have always given members of Parliament every possible service, but the scope has tended to grow. Last century members tended to do more of their own research, and relied on the staff to locate books rather than individual items of information. The desire for this last service grew and attempts were made to provide it.

To do so, however, required considerable advances in staff and technique. It involved the indexing of periodicals, often attempted by the staff which was rarely in a position to do it well and to continue it. Today much of this work is done either commercially or cooperatively and, although the results are not available quickly, the staff is freed for other work.

Today the Library is working towards the time when it can give a reference and research service similar to that of the House of Commons Library, or to imitate in a smaller way that of the Library of Congress in Washington. Such a service requires intelligent, well trained staff who are capable of locating and organising information into a form where it can be readily understood and used.

The Library is doing an increasing amount of such work, but it has not the staff to do all that is required of it. I am sure, however, that before the story of the Library is much longer, it will be giving a fuller service.

In this connection there is one aspect of the work that should not be passed over--the indexing of newspapers. Newspapers have always been important to the Library, giving as they do so much current history and opinion. Only in recent years has it been possible to index certain papers fully, and so provide quickly necessary references.

BOOKS AND MEN

Books are of little value without men to care for them and men to use them, so that to be successful a library needs good books and good men. The General Assembly Library has been fortunate in the men who have controlled it and the men who have used it.

No librarian can ask for more than the support and interest of those who control the library, or that the material and information he provides is being put to good use. No user of a library can ask for more than the real interest and help of the librarians in his research and reading. Again the General Assembly Library has been lucky in the interest shown by members of Parliament and by the staff who have served in it.

Some names have been mentioned here; many more should have been. Suffice it to say that as far as Parliament is concerned many members have given generously of their time and energy to help make the Library what it is today.

The same remarks can be applied to the staff. They are fortunate, for their work gives a pleasure that much work does not, and so makes doing it so much easier.

This support from members of Parliament and from the staff gives the Library such reserves that it faces its second century with confidence. Difficulties there may be, but they will not be so great as to prevent even better library and information service being given to Parliament.

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