=ORGANIZATION OF A LIBRARY.=
The organization of the average library consists of the following
component parts:
=1. Board of Trustees.=—The main function of the board of trustees is
to look after the financial interests of the library, to see that the
buildings and equipment are properly cared for, and to decide broad
questions of policy. Trustees should be (but are not always) elected
from the elite of the community. It is expected that in them will be
found a genuine culture, an appreciation of things pertaining to the
arts and sciences, combined with the advantages of education, travel
and sufficient leisure to look after public interests. “Cultivated
men,” says Edward Edwards, “familiar with books from childhood, have
usually a very inadequate perception of the toil and thought which have
to be given to the good arrangement, the accurate cataloging, and the
ready service of a library. What, then, is to be expected if a dominant
share in the management of a library be placed in the hands of men with
just enough of elementary education to bring into broad daylight the
intensest ignorance, in union with the most stolid self-conceit?” “A
little bookishness in a committeeman,” said Justin Winsor, “may be as
dangerous as a sip from the poet’s Pierian spring, particularly if
there is no deeper learning in any of his associates. He knows just
enough of books not to know that he knows nothing of libraries.”
=2. The Librarian.=—“A librarian,” said Henry Bradshaw, “is one who
earns his living by attending to the wants of those for whose use the
library under his charge exists, his prime duty being, in the widest
possible sense of the phrase, to save the time of those who seek
his services.” The librarian has been variously compared to the
commissariat in the republic of letters, whose business is not to fight
himself but to put others in fighting trim,—or to the host at the
banquet of knowledge who is assiduous in securing the comfort of the
guests and in placing before each one just the kind of food he likes
and requires. He knows that what is one man’s meat is another man’s
poison. Enthusiasm for the work is a prime requisite in the librarian.
Even a good staff cannot overcome the deadening influence of daily
contact with a chief lacking in enthusiasm.
To the librarian should be left the details of administration. The
librarian is the executive officer of the board of trustees and the
latter, if wise, will look to the librarian for getting the results
desired and will allow that officer as free a hand as possible. If the
librarian is not capable of administering the library, or worthy of the
fullest confidence, the sooner one is secured who measures up to this
standard the better.
=3. The Library Staff.=—The duties of the staff vary with the size of
the library. In the smallest libraries the librarian may be the only
one engaged in the actual work of the library, but in such cases the
library hours must be restricted to such as one person can take care
of. The next step in growth is to have some one relieve the librarian
at the desk and to do the more clerical work. Next come special
assistants to look after special tasks like cataloging and classifying,
desk work and so on. The staff, whether large or small, should consider
itself responsible to the librarian and should not, except in
extraordinary cases, go directly to the board of trustees with
petitions. The librarian should always be the spokesman for the staff.
Going over his head indicates a lack of sympathy and cooperation
between the librarian and staff that argues badly for the welfare of
the institution.
=Qualifications for Library Work.=—The best preparation for library
work is a thorough, systematic general education. To this should be
added a special preparation secured either through apprenticeship, a
training class, or a regular library school. Different positions call
for different qualities in assistants but library service in general
demands tact, perseverance, adaptability, habits of precision and
accuracy, with a fair amount of speed, ability to distinguish between
essentials and non-essentials, and a strong desire to be of service. A
certain familiarity with books and famous characters in history and in
fiction is expected of every one in a library. Personal neatness, good
temper, and a sense of humor are valuable assets in this as in other
lines of work. No one will succeed in library work who goes into it
merely for the money that can be got out of it.
Loyalty to the institution and its officers is essential to efficient
service. If the assistant cannot feel this sense of loyalty, the sooner
a new position is secured, the better for all concerned.
Dignity, self-possession, and self-reliance are valuable qualities in
any part of the library, but are especially needed by assistants at the
reference desk.
Qualities that unfit one for library work in general are physical
weakness, deformity, poor memory, a discontented disposition,
egotism, a lack of system in one’s method of work, and inability or
unwillingness to take responsibilities, a tendency to theorize,
criticise, or gossip, inability to mind one’s own business, fussiness,
and long-windedness.
One librarian advocates listing the virtues and personal qualities of
the staff and apprentices by having a questionnaire like the following
filled out for each assistant:
Has she tact?
Has she enthusiasm?
Has she method and system?
Is she punctual?
Is she neat?
Is she kind?
Is she a good disciplinarian?
Is she sympathetic?
Is she quick?
Is she willing to wear rubber heels?
Is she a good worker?
Is she accurate?
Has she a pleasing personality?
Has she a sense of responsibility?
Is she patient?
Is she courteous?
Has she self control?
Is she cheerful?
Has she a knowledge of books?
Are her vibrations pleasant?
Has she executive ability?
Can she speak French, German, Spanish, Italian, Yiddish?
Has she social qualifications?
Can she keep a petty cash account?
What are her faults?
Mr. Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress, gives the following advice
to aspirants for library positions:
“First, secure the best possible general education, including, if
possible, a college course or its equivalent; second, acquire a reading
knowledge of at least French and German; third, add to this a training
in a library school; fourth, if a choice must be made between the
special training in a library school and a general course in a college,
choose the general course, but make every effort to supplement this by
the special course if only for a brief period; fifth, if an opportunity
occur for foreign travel, utilize it; sixth, if you have not been able
to contrive either a thorough general education or special training,
your best opportunities in library work will be in a small library
where your personal characteristics may be such as to offset these
other deficiencies; seventh, without at least a fair reading knowledge
of French and German you cannot progress beyond the most subordinate
positions in a large library.”