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

H.32A
OF THE
FOR THE YEAR ENDED
Presented to the House of Representatives by Leave
by authority:
r. e. owen, government printer, wellington, new zealand—1958
The Hon. the Minister of Education.
Wellington, 16 July 1958.
Sir,
I have the honour to submit the following report of the activities of the National Library Service. The report covers the work of the Service as a whole and its four divisions—Country Library Service, School Library Service, Library School, and National Library Centre.
The functions of the Service may be summed up as the provision of such assistance to any New Zealand library maintained directly or indirectly from public funds as circumstances and policy permit. More specifically, help is given by a lending service to rural, borough, and county libraries, by the provision of books for school libraries, by advancing professional training through the Library School, and by maintenance of records of all library holdings of books and periodicals, as well as other facilities and stock to aid the cooperative use of this material.
The National Library Service was formed in 1945 from the Country Library Service by Cabinet decision with the strong support of the New Zealand Library Association. During the war the Country Library Service had been given responsibility for several tasks of national scope, such as the War Library Service, the Central Bureau for Library Book Imports, the formation of a Union Catalogue, and the operation of part of the inter-library loan scheme.