358 
The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technology. 
[Dec. 
Co-operation with the Provincial Libraries. 
No matter how good a Dominion Library is established in Wellington 
it will fall far short of its purpose if the books in it are not freely available 
to inquirers or investigators in all parts of New Zealand under adequate 
safeguards. This may be done in two ways : either individuals may be 
approved as borrowers, or the borrowing may be carried out through co¬ 
operating provincial libraries. Probably both methods should be brought 
into use, but it is important that in all cases a guarantee should be provided 
for the safe return in good order and in due time of the books borrowed. 
Any public library giving such a guarantee should be given the right to 
borrow books for its readers. In the case of individuals a deposit covering 
the cost of the books might well be required before the right to borrow 
was granted. The cost of postage should also be a charge on the borrower, 
in order to prevent indiscriminate borrowing, but in all cases where the 
central-library authorities were satisfied that the books were borrowed for 
bona fide research in the public interest they should have power to remit 
the postage. For convenience of posting, special postal packets, capable 
of being used over and over again, should be designed and used. The 
number of books to be issued to a given borrower should be limited only 
by the size of the deposit paid. The time for which books might be 
borrowed should be much greater than that commonly accorded by public 
libraries, with a proviso that where another investigator asked for the 
book it should be returned within, say, seven days after such notice was 
served on the holder of the book. 
A scheme of co-operation between the library of the New Zealand 
Institute and its various branches is already in existence, but it is seldom 
availed of, and for this two reasons are commonly given. The first is that 
when one writes to Wellington for a book that should be in the library of 
the New Zealand Institute one is informed that it is missing. This is, 
unfortunately, sometimes the case, and the remedy has alieady been sug¬ 
gested—-viz., the collation and completion of the serial sets by exchange 
and purchase. The second and more generally offered reason is that it is 
impossible to find out—say, in Dunedin—what books on a given subject 
there are in Wellington or elsewhere. This latter difficulty must be met by 
preparing for each library a complete catalogue of the scientific and tech¬ 
nological books, and by having copies of each catalogue easily accessible 
in each of the centres. 
This raises the question of whether printed catalogues should be prepared 
or multiple card indexes filed. What I recommend is that for serial publica¬ 
tions a preliminary catalogue should be prepared, printed in book form, and 
put on sale. This catalogue should be on similar lines to the well-known 
and much-commended catalogue of the scientific serials in Melbourne 
libraries published by the Eoyal Society of Victoria. 
A similar catalogue of books might also be printed; but I am not 
strongly in favour of this course, as books require a double entry under 
both author’s name and subject, which can 'be better provided for by 
card catalogues. After the publication of the initial catalogue or cata¬ 
logues, all additions to the central library, and preferably also to the 
provincial libraries should be entered in a card catalogue, and copies 
of every card should be filed in at least one library in each centre. The 
expense of providing the duplicate cards should be Lome by the Dominion 
Library, but it would be necessary for some library in each of the other 
centres to provide room for filing the cards and an assistant to insert the 
new cards added from month to month. 
