630 Proceedings. 



What are we going to do with them when we have found out what books we 

 possess ? We have no room to store them in the Museum in the way they should 

 be stored — accessible for use — and we are not likely to have a building in Wellington 

 suitable for the purpose placed at our disposal for a long time to come. Moreover, as 

 I have tried to show you, it is neither necessary nor desirable that we should continue to 

 try to store them all in any one place. The books belong to the members of the Insti- 

 tute, and are required by the working members scattered all over New Zealand ; and 

 where these members are, there should the books be. Let us decentralize our library : 

 send the geological journals and books, for example, to Dunedin, or to any other place 

 where they are likely to be most used ; the botanical to Auckland ; and so on. In the 

 four large centres it would probably be easy to find some library belonging either to 

 the district Institute or to some other institution in which the books could be stored, 

 and to get the librarian or some other person interested in the particular subject to take 

 charge of them. In this way we could at once get rid of the difficulties about the 

 library building and the want of funds to employ a librarian with sufficient time 

 to attend to the duties of the position. But how are we going to manage even if we 

 separate our library this way ? You will perhaps say that we must, first of all, have 

 a complete catalogue, so that any member may know what work is in the library, and 

 where it is to be found. But this is quite unnecessary, if by a catalogue you mean an 

 ordinary printed catalogue giving a list of the whole of the books. Such a catalogue 

 may be desirable in a circulating library, the subscribers of which do not know what 

 book they wish to consult, and use the catalogue to find some book suitable to their 

 taste. But for a research library such a catalogue is unnecessary, and is only a useless 

 " survival." I well remember years ago going into the library of the University of 

 Edinburgh and being shown the catalogue which was being prepared. It then con- 

 sisted of about thirty large manuscript volumes ; it was far from completion, and it 

 had been found impossible to go to the expense of getting it printed. It would be quite 

 unnecessary for the person engaged in special research if it could be printed, because 

 during the progress of his research he always finds out the particular works that he wishes 

 to consult, and all he wants is some method of ascertaining if they are in the library 

 or not. If I want to find out whether a particular work on Crustacea is to be found 

 in the library, it is only a hindrance to offer me a large printed volume containing 

 a complete list of works on all subjects, and to waste my time in making me turn over 

 many pages containing lists of works on geology, botany, and other subjects, until I 

 come to the special page devoted to the Crustacea. 



If you agree with this you will probably say that what we want is a card catalogue, 

 and that if our library is decentralized there should be a complete card catalogue of the 

 whole of it in each of the four large cities. But even this, though it might be useful 

 in some cases, is by no means necessary. The person who is in charge of any portion 

 of the library must, of course, be able to find out what books he has under his care, and 

 to get them when wanted, and for this he may make a card catalogue or adopt any other 

 suitable method he pleases. But all that is necessary for the worker is that he should 

 know where the section of the library dealing with the subject in which he is working 

 is kept, so that when he finds he wants a particular volume or paper he can send a 

 post-card asking if the volume is there and, if so, if he could have it, and receive an 

 answer or the volume by return of post. 



It might be thought that all this will require elaborate organization, and will lead 

 to a large amount of clerical work ; but if you consider the small number of men in 

 New Zealand who are engaged in research in each particular science or branch of science, 

 and if you remember that the library may be subdivided to any extent that may be 

 found desirable, you will see that the work required will also be so divided that it could 

 be accomplished without difficulty, and without appreciably increasing the labours of 

 the persons in charge of the different sections. For instance, if you send the books 

 dealing with geology to the place where the greatest amount of geological work is being 

 done, they will be accessible without trouble to the workers there, and probably there 

 will not be more than a score of applications by workers from other districts in the 

 whole of the year ; and it would not be a difficult or arduous task to reply to a score 

 of post-cards in the course of twelve months. As a matter of fact, this method is 

 already in operation to a limited extent, and in a few cases books have been sent from 

 the local Institute libraries to workers in other districts on the few occasions on which 

 they have been asked for. 



It will be objected that if we scatter our library in this way we run the danger 

 of losing many of the volumes. Naturally, we should stamp the books and take the 

 usual elementary precautions to ensure the safety of the volumes, and a list of the 

 works at each particular place would be made and a record kept of the books sent on 

 to individual workers. It is, however, possible that, notwithstanding such checks, a 



