1919.] Thomson.—Libraries of Science and Technology. 
357 
and perhaps those of other societies such as the New Zealand Institute 
of Civil Engineers and the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors, and the 
sectional libraries of Government Departments, may be taken over and 
incorporated in the central library, along with that of the Dominion 
Museum, which is already under the control of the Board of Science and 
Art. Such negotiations should be carried through with little difficulty, 
since each of these bodies would gain very largely by the proposed associa¬ 
tion. In the case of Government Departments a modus vivendi would be 
necessary by which any Department would retain such books as are con¬ 
stantly used by its officers, handing over the remainder, while the central 
library would provide special rooms beside the main reading-room in which 
departmental officers might work and keep their papers. 
As soon as the building and staff are provided, and the establishment 
of the library secured, a large number of books and publications of technical 
societies will be presented by engineers and others in Wellington who have 
become interested in the formation of a technological library, and have 
already promised valuable donations. 
The next step will be the collation of all the sets of serials thus acquired, 
with a view to filling the gaps by purchase or exchange. This will particu¬ 
larly be necessary in the case of the serials in the library of the New Zealand 
Institute, which contain many gaps through lack of constant supervision 
by a permanent librarian. On the other hand, there will be a number of 
duplicate sets, which can be used to supplement those in the provincial 
libraries. 
Then it will be necessary to increase very largely the number of serials 
obtained by exchange. Some time ago the Library Committee of the New 
Zealand Institute went thoroughly into this matter, and found that some 
eight hundred further exchanges for the Transactions were both desirable 
and practicable. The publication of this Journal has largely increased 
the exchange possibilities in regard to technological literature, and a number 
of serials that previously did not reach New Zealand are now being received. 
It should be possible to make such an arrangement that the publications 
of the Board of Science and Art, Dominion Museum, Geological Survey, 
Dominion Laboratory, Government Statistician, Department of Agriculture, 
and perhaps those of other Government Departments, together with those 
of the New Zealand Institute, should be separately or jointly available for 
exchange by the Board of Science and Art in the interests of the central 
librarjL This would ensure the receipt in New Zealand of practically 
every desired serial publication that can be obtained by exchange. In 
some cases also it may be possible to obtain back numbers of serials by 
exchange, but in the majority of cases it will be necessary to obtain these 
by purchase. 
The total number of proprietary serials already purchased by the 
Dominion Museum, the Wellington Philosophical Society, and various 
Government Departments is already considerable, but this number must 
be very greatly extended. If all branches of science and technology are 
to be represented, and the principal trade journals as well as the more 
strictly scientific magazines are to be filed, a total annual expenditure of 
something like £500 must be provided for this purpose alone. 
The number of scientific and technological books already available is 
also not small, but the exact sciences and technology are under-represented, 
and it will be necessary to make considerable purchases to remedy this 
defeet. Thereafter the more important books appearing each year should 
be purchased. 
