e being placed on the shelves and 470 volumes
were rebound. Included in the latter were some volumes of newspapers,
for many originally bound in leather have needed repair. They are
rebound in canvas, a material which should wear much better than
today's leather does.

USE OF THE LIBRARY

Twenty-eight thousand two hundred and nine books were borrowed from
the Library in the year under review, compared with 27,462 in the
previous year. Of these 494 were sent to libraries other than those of
Government Departments through the New Zealand Library Association
interloan scheme. The Library in its turn borrowed 23 books from other
libraries under the same scheme.

In addition to members of Parliament, some thousand people have access
to the Library and enjoy borrowing privileges of one kind or another.

REFERENCE INQUIRIES

Once again there has been an increase in the reference questions to
which the Library staff has had to attend. One thousand seven hundred
and seventy-seven inquiries were made, an increase of 322 over the
previous year. Of these, 563 were answered in less than five minutes,
569 took between five and 15 minutes, and the remainder, 645, took over
15 minutes to answer. This statement of times does not record the fact
that many of the inquiries took much longer than 15 minutes. Indeed
some had several days spent on them by one or more members of the
reference staff. Such questions are not answered by merely marking a
passage in a book or two; they require the material to be abstracted
and rewritten ready for use by the member making the inquiry. This
service is becoming increasingly popular with members who cannot
themselves afford the time needed to do all the research involved.

Seventy-eight new research students registered for the first time
during the year, the largest number yet to have done so in any one
year. Some are university students working on theses; others are
engaged on research for publication. The use of the Library in this way
shows how valuable its resources are for many students.

INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE

Twenty-four cases were received by the Library for its own use during
the year, while 5,823 packets were received from abroad, 3,685 being
posted, the remainder being forwarded by Internal Affairs messenger.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I should once again like to thank the Librar