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Just Not Enough Books

Victoria University simply does not have enough books says the Librarian, Mr J.P. Sage.

In a report on refresher leave tabled at the May meeting of the University Council, Mr Sage outlined his impressions of American and European university libraries.

Mr Sage reported that he had encountered a number of variations in approach to the problem of providing for undergraduates in large institutions.

"The most interesting are undoubtedly the growing number of separate undergraduate libraries developed as a necessary support for research collections of several million volumes in which a student may easily be lost, in more senses than one".

"It is unlikely," Mr Sage continued, "that any New Zealand university library will in the immediate future achieve the size which would justify a separate undergraduate collection".

Mr Sage suggested that New Zealand universities could learn something from the heavy emphasis in American universities on providing multiple copies of books that students need for course use.

Comparing New Zealand library collections with those of the principal American and British libraries, Mr Sage said that though the Victoria University Library has substantial pockets of research material it does not have research collections of a kind that would be thought adequate for postgraduate studies elsewhere.