The library movement is no longer a crusade, it is a movement of
peaceful education. In truth, the library movement is not a movement
at all, it is an achievement. The library has come to be a center of
personal interest. People, one by one, are the object of our labors.
They are to be brought, through the personalities of those who preside
over books, into touch with the personalities that dwell within books.
There are many militant movements today, those for universal peace
(strange paradox), equal suffrage, labor reform, and for human
betterment in crowded cities--great social movements that are being
promoted through the vigorous propaganda and the emphatic zeal of
their leaders. Over against these dynamic social movements, the
library operates as a quiet force, at once personal, intellectual,
educational, persuasive but powerful, studying community interests,
serving community needs it is true, but accomplishing the work through
the individual. These other movements will, after their first victories
are won, likewise take on an educational aspect, but they will become
strong and far-reaching only as people are touched and served by them.
No cause can be greater than the personality which interprets it. It
matters little how proud the ideals of the leaders, or how great the
possibilities of the work itself, nothing can really be accomplished
except through the vision, ability, and knowledge of those who have
actual contact with the public. Technique and method in library work
are of less importance than the personality of the assistant, his
preparation for the work, his continued renewing of himself in interest
and knowledge, his immediate contact with affairs of the day, and his
ability to share his interest and information with others.
If this be true, behind the library must lie a personal force. This
must be secured, first, through the personality of those who labor
within its walls; then, through the personalities of the books
themselves that are ready if permitted, to answer every human need.
The vital connection between these depends upon the person that can
stimulate a love of books, or arouse a feeling for their need. Are our
libraries today manned by such assistants?
The plain matter of fact is that we are still over-technical. For petty
details in devotion to routine and technique, we crucify personality;
we kill the love of books among our library workers, for there is no
time to read, no opportunity to make or keep a real acquaintance with
books. Schemes to induce others to read are constantly being devised,
red tape is ever being wound around our system of details, professional
duties are allowed almost brutally to shut us out from contact with
the best in literature. There are too many meetings to attend; too
many papers to write; have you ever been obliged to forego an open-air
performance of Electra at your very door that would have brought
interpretation and understanding, because you had to rival Euripides
and prepare a paper for the American Library Association? Librarians,
alas, take their work too seriously, and too painfully do their duty.
"For each man kills the thing he loves,
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word."
The librarian of the older days was a crabbed and positively forbidding
guardian of books. Then for a period of years--and there are traces
of this time still with us,--the library worker had the attitude of
the clerk, so important seemed the details of library service. Now we
are approaching the time when the librarian shares in the spirit of
the social worker. The one big blessed thing that we all want to do
(and we are all assistants to the public) is to get people to love the
human messages in books, for "Books are not dead things and do contain
a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul whose progeny
they were." The only way to do this is to make sure that the person who
deals with the public knows books--is fairly radiant with book lore. He
should not be a rapt scholar absorbed in his own research, nor on the
other hand a spiritless, lifeless, or flippant clerk.
Within a decade there has come a change in the tenor of most library
reports, most noticeable within the last five years. The emphasis is
now largely on the myriad things that are done for the public which
require a knowledge of books and the ability to use them for people.
This new library service can only be carried forward by assistants
who know both books and people. The library assistant is now rapidly
becoming a constructive social worker and has the most potent spiritual
forces of all the ages at his command.
But in addition to personality there must be education. This is a
primary requisite for an assistant. Nothing can supply the lack of
knowledge. Where nothing is, nothing results. It is evident that our
libraries are recognizing educated assistants.
Mr. Anderson H. Hopkins in his report to the Board of trustees of the
Carnegie library of Pittsburgh, said in 1908:
"Near the beginning of the report appears a statement of the names
of members of the staff, in an arrangement showing the positions
that they occupy. I have long felt that this is not adequate,
although it is in accord with the custom of large public libraries
in this country. A number of the members of our staff have not
only academic degrees, but also degrees or certificates from
professional schools, and I believe it would be a good plan for
us to set these forth in our statement, as is commonly done in
the calendars of colleges. There can be no question that the work
done by the staff compares favorably with that done by any similar
professional body and I believe that it would be well to take this
step in recognition of the fact."
In the report of the Cleveland public library for 1909 this statement
is made:
"An analysis of the preparation of the various members of the
staff for their work gives this interesting showing: college
graduates, 47; partial college courses, 24; library school
graduates, 46."
From the report of the Boston public library for 1909 the following is
quoted:
"Three grades of educational qualifications are required. The
lowest grade, which includes a comparatively small number of
pages, sub-assistants, etc., requires a training equivalent to a
grammar school course. The middle grade requires qualifications
equivalent to a high school training and familiarity with one
foreign language. The third grade, including seventy-seven of
these persons, requires qualifications equivalent to those
obtained by a college course, and familiarity with two foreign
languages. The proper cataloging and classifying of books and
the reference work necessary to aid those using the library also
requires in many positions much higher qualifications than those
which could be obtained by the ordinary college course."
Libraries should secure more assistants with academic training, whose
minds have come in contact with the many subjects that reveal the
past and interpret the present. We must rely on the colleges for the
production of such assistants, that they shall come to us already
knowing the sweep of literature on the library shelves, already loving
books and knowledge, and filled with their power. Such workers can not
help radiating a passion for books. They will make the library a living
institution, a center of glowing personality. Of some it can be said:
"Who reads and reads and does not what he knows,
Is one that plows and plows and never sows."
It can never be said of the college bred assistant who has been fired
with the message of books that he is such an one, but rather, he will
sow day in and out that priceless seed of the love of books in the
living soil of human hearts. Because such workers have seen the vision,
have walked in its light, they will continue to make books a part of
their daily living, never losing the habit of systematic reading,
despite the routine and immediate demands of the library.
We have said that the responsibility for supplying this knowledge and
love of books a part of their daily living, never answer, however,
that they cannot bring to their students in four years this literary
culture if they do not come to college with some previous acquaintance
with books; and that, if the student must study all the practical,
social, utilitarian, and commercially valuable things demanded today,
the reading of books is crowded out. Is not then, the responsibility
for awakening the love of books for their own sake thrown back upon
libraries, and upon the book knowledge of those that serve within their
walls? Our book service, of which we have been boasting for many years,
ought surely by this time to show results among those whom we have been
serving. If the colleges claim that there are few among their students
who have any real knowledge of books, should not we count the failure
partly ours?
And what is the reason? The assistant who has given the book to the
growing boy or girl has done it mechanically, has done it as a clerk
has done it without knowledge of its message, and as a result has
failed to arouse a love of books, a love of reading. The failure is in
the library assistant. We have substituted for training in book values,
for appreciation of their literary content, for knowledge of their true
worth among assistants a mechanical skill in the handling of books.
The trained assistant must ever keep alert in himself the spirit of
knowledge that is in him. In this same spirit and by this same habit,
the reading of trained members of the staff must become a contagion and
quicken the love of books in the untrained. The library looks then to
the trained assistant to come with a knowledge and love of books that
shall be retained as his birthright, and used as a talent not hid in a
napkin.
Library assistants cannot all be college bred. Many library workers are
recruited locally, among those for whom the library itself has been
a university. These make up a large body of the assistants who fill
important positions in all types of libraries. For their book knowledge
and love of learning the colleges cannot be held responsible. The end
desired must be secured by the library itself. First, by choosing for
an assistant today one who has appreciated the environment of books;
second, by encouraging and aiding him to a fuller knowledge of books
through systematic reading; third, by creating an atmosphere of books
in which future assistants may grow up.
To the average assistant who feels her importance because she is
working in a library, librarianship means an ability to do things with
the hand, rather than with head and heart. Many seek a library position
because they think it involves only neat and easy work, having in mind
the purely mechanical and technical side, without a thought of its
meaning and strength. The line should be drawn very sharply between
those who know books, can think about them, and who can express the
reason that is within them about their values, and those who only know
their outside, their mechanical care, and the keeping of their records.
So we find the responsibility for the book shortcomings of even our
best educated assistants at our own door.
It is said that librarians do not know the great life interests, the
pervading charm of music, the thraldom of art, the abiding realities
of religion, the solace of the out-of-doors; have never sensed the
author's heart-throbs which have gone into the books they lightly
handle, or gloried in the transcendent mysteries which lie in poetry.
How many library assistants really do read books for the joy of it?
In how many has this joy been killed; in how many has it never been
created? For these is not the library responsible?
Some libraries are already seriously caring for the training of
their assistants. In the large city libraries positions are filled
chiefly from the training class conducted by the library itself where
a graded service has been established and promotion depends upon
examination. But much of this training, like all library training, is
of necessity technical and professional, rather than cultural. Many
libraries further report staff meetings for general discussion of
library matters, while a few report such meetings for the general book
knowledge of the staff.
From the Dayton, Ohio, public library the report comes that monthly
staff meetings have been held since January, 1908, for various stated
library purposes, and that the members contribute anything of interest
from personal reading which would be suggestive to other members for
their own reading, or helpful to them in dealing with the public.
Library time is allowed for these meetings.
In 1906, Mr. Dana reported that members of the staff met once a week
to discuss library matters in general and to have a report by one
of the class on the literature of some assigned subject. Among the
subjects reported on were, photography, history of literature, French
revolution, French history, travel in Japan, opera, etc.
In 1907, Mr. Brown, of the Buffalo public library reports:
"We have done more staff training this year than was possible
before. Round tables are now held in nearly every department, at
which methods and books are discussed. To this we can trace habits
of greater carefulness and accuracy, a more comprehensive view of
the work as a whole, and happier, better service."
In 1908, the report says:
"The staff round tables--'the part of our work which keeps us keen
and alive' as one member expresses it--have been held as usual. At
these meetings methods of work and books are discussed and frank
talks upon the best means of helping borrowers are given; but the
spirit of sympathy and comradeship which results from meeting
together as library workers and talking over the work, its purpose
and ideals, is really the most valuable and important result of
these meetings."
From Cedar Rapids, 1905, comes the report:
"A meeting of the staff has been held on Thursday mornings for
the discussion of current events and library problems." In 1908:
"The Thursday morning hour has been given to the reading aloud of
poems suggested in Dawson's 'Makers of English poetry.' Some time
was devoted to Browning and Milton. New books were discussed and
current events were considered." In 1909: "The staff has taken up
the study of Brander Matthews' 'Development of the drama,' and has
read several of the Greek tragedies. Current events and new books
were also discussed." In 1910: "The weekly staff meetings have
been continued and are most helpful."
The Cleveland report for 1910 says:
"The staff round table continues to meet; this year, more than
ever, emphasis has been laid upon a broader and less superficial
knowledge of books on the part of the staff, and it is believed
that some progress has been made in this direction. * * * All this
shows a flexibility of mind on the part of our staff which has
made them grow with their work. There has also been the ability
of the older members to train and inspire younger and newer
assistants."
Constant study is required among those who have attained academic
distinction, evidenced in advanced degrees, in record of profound
research, in contributions to learned societies and journals, and in
published monographs and books. Even teachers in the grades must pass
examinations to hold their positions, and excel in order to secure
promotion. No one employs a physician who does not keep abreast of
scientific and medical discoveries by graduate courses or private
study; few listen long to a preacher who does not keep in touch with
the spirit of the times. Can it be that the library profession is the
only one in which a systematic progression is not generally demanded?
A definite amount of reading should be required of all library
assistants. They must not be allowed to stagnate, nor to think that
because they live in an atmosphere of books they are exempt from
reading. There should be on the part of the librarian a keener
feeling of responsibility for his assistants and for their growth
in the knowledge and love of books. Whether this shall be brought
about through organized classes, whether it shall be through weekly
reading with required reports, or whether it shall be through the
subtle influence of the librarian's personality and love of books
which inspires him; or whether it shall be a combination of all these,
remains to be worked out by each local institution,--but worked out
it must be, unless with our boasted free books, we are to become the
by-word and the laughing stock of future generations.
We all acknowledge that the assistant is a most important individual.
Have we looked well to his necessary book qualifications and to his
continued opportunities for improvement while serving the library? And
have we analyzed what these opportunities should be? We say frankly:
First, the librarian is brother's keeper of all the assistants. Second,
the educated library assistant in creating a love for books, owes as
much to his fellow assistants, who have been less fortunate in the
matter of education, as he does to the public. Third, that the library
itself should become a progressive training school for love of books
and reading.
It is the assistant who has caught the message of books, who has heard
the gods calling him to celestial heights, who realizes what Robert
Louis Stevenson expressed when he said that he felt like thanking God
that he had a chance to earn his bread upon such joyful terms--it is
such an assistant who makes the library a place where people want to
read. And that is the true library whose books are read.
No one has a richer opportunity to be a public servant in all the fine
significance of that word, than the assistant to the public in the
public library. He may unlock the treasures of the past, for those
treasures are committed unto him not for keeping but for sharing
freely. This public servant may extend the knowledge of the discoveries
and innovations of the present, and thus become an interpreter of the
scholar's message. This public servant may match the answering book
with the inquiring mind, the responsive page with the hungry soul. This
public servant may lead out the spirit of youth, lift the burdens of
middle life, may speak solace to old age through the thoughts and songs
of poet and prophet, dramatist and seer. This public servant must be a
great personality, either an achieved personality, or a personality in
the making; this public servant must be a lover of people, a lover of
life, and therefore a lover of books.
The CHAIRMAN: The next paper on the program is by Miss EDITH TOBITT,
librarian of the Omaha public library. Miss Tobitt herself, I regret to
say, is detained, but she has sent her paper and it will be read by Mr.
Frank K. Walter, of the New York state library school.
TYPE OF ASSISTANTS: ABILITY TO DISCERN QUALITY AND ESSENTIALS OF BOOKS
AND POWER TO GIVE INFORMATION RATHER THAN ADVICE
When gathering the material for my part of this discussion of "Type of
assistants," my inclination turned constantly to another wording of the
title, that is, "the value of the book to the public dependent upon the
intelligent discrimination of the assistant," so while I shall try to
adhere more closely to the original subject than this would indicate, I
hope that you will pardon me if I now and then talk on the second title.
"Efficiency in business" has received so much discussion of late that
it is a brave person who dares assume the privilege of continuing the
subject, but having seen the statement that "the more books of the
right kind are read, the more efficient a nation becomes," a librarian
naturally believes that the discussion has no end but may be continued
indefinitely, for this means not only a supply of the right kind of
books but also an efficient distribution of these books.
When speaking of the efficiency of the employees in a library, it would
seem that the same general rule would hold as in other occupations,
but this is scarcely true. The people who are served by an institution
maintained at public expense expect a higher grade of service than when
served by the employees of some private institution or business. No
doubt, this is because a higher grade of honor or integrity is expected
in the occupant of the office which is maintained for the public good,
at the public expense, than one which is maintained for private gain.
Naturally the same general rules regarding adaptability, politeness,
industry, and various other attributes should be applied to the
occupant of any position but in the case of the public servant only the
very highest standards should be tolerated.
Aside from the public the librarian's first interest should be in the
employees of the library. Again and again the statement has been made
to the effect that the "work of getting the right book to the right
person falls upon the desk assistant chiefly," but as almost all of
the employees of a library are desk assistants at some time during
each day, it follows that all of the employees bear almost equal
responsibility.
It would seem that the selection of books for the library should have
first attention, but books are easy of selection compared to employees,
and easily disposed of if not found to be useful, while the assistant
must be carefully placed in the department for which she is the best
fitted. For taking all of the valuable characteristics of all of the
assistants into consideration, there are to be found as many grades of
value as there are books in the library. To be able to do the subject
of "the library assistant" justice, the writer should have a very
thorough knowledge of human nature, a knowledge generally possessed
by successful teachers and sociological workers, but not often by the
librarian. Such knowledge comes from a kind of experience not easily
obtained by a librarian. It is more to a librarian's credit to know
thoroughly the members of the staff and consequently be just to all
than it is to have succeeded with any other one piece of work, because
perfect justice toward employees will produce the best work for the
library.
While the actual work of getting the right book to the right person
may fall chiefly upon the desk assistant, the manner in which this is
done emanates from those who decide the policy of the library. If those
who are at the head of affairs have forgotten or have never realized
that the library exists for the people, and that it is maintained at
public expense for that purpose, and because of this lack of knowledge
maintain an attitude of arrogance toward the people, the assistants
will do the same. It is true that an indifferent and unsympathetic
librarian cannot always prevent a capable and efficient assistant from
doing her work well, yet the lack of efficiency at the head will often
discourage capable assistants and will never better the work of poor
ones.
In a library of medium size having thirty employees or less it is a
comparatively easy matter for the librarian to keep in close touch with
the work of the members of the staff and by personal effort maintain a
definite standard, while in a large library this duty must of necessity
be detailed to others. But whatever the means adopted, every library
must have a definite standard of efficiency which bears directly
upon the service to the public and although a full knowledge of the
technical details of the work of the library are without question
necessary, a proper knowledge of the right attitude toward the public
is a greater necessity and should receive from the librarian much
greater emphasis than the technical side.
The characteristic most to be desired in a library employee, in no
matter what position, is that of the self-disciplined and well trained
servant who understands the rights of others and what they should
expect of him in his position, and who attempts to respond to this
demand. These characteristics, if they exist, are inherent but may be
more fully developed by experience.
It may be well to try to outline in a general way what should be
expected of the occupants of some of the important positions in a
library, for the final outcome of the work will depend upon the
librarian's ability to discriminate in the selection of the right
persons to fill these positions. For the children's librarian, the
first requirement is a knowledge of children and the ability to feel
and show sympathy and affection without being sentimental. Many
attractions may be introduced into the children's department but the
vital things are to know the children and the books. A mistake in the
appointment to this position might be more nearly fatal than a mistake
in any one of the other departments, for the ability of the children's
librarian to discern intelligently those qualities in a book which
are right for the child may permanently settle that child's taste in
literature. The future well being of the library often depends upon the
wise choice of the children's librarian.
A knowledge and love of people may also be put as the first requisite
for the head of the circulation department, extending not only to the
people who are generally called "the public" but also to the employees
of the library. This position may well be considered the most important
in the library, next to the librarian and assistant, for from this
source the other employees will instinctively acquire the standard
for their treatment of the public and obtain their ideas of what is
the amount of knowledge of books which should be expected of a desk
assistant. The personality of the head of the circulation department
and her ability to be helpful and to teach those in her department to
be helpful, can do more toward increasing the usefulness of a library
than any other one characteristic. The employee given to much detail
is not generally a success here. Rather that employee who, by strength
of personality, leads others to do good work, is the best. The head of
the circulation department has the best opportunity of any one in the
library for making a direct path from the borrower to the book.
Scholarship, without question, must be considered the first requirement
for the reference librarian, and if the public is to learn to have
confidence in the library as an educational institution, no mistake
must be made here. But the scholarship must always be allied with the
desire to do service.
Frequently the cataloger appears to the other members of the staff
to be so far removed from direct contact with people that it is
assumed she cannot intelligently know what the public wants. Except
in very rare instances this is a mistake, as has been proved by some
of our great catalogs, the makers of which probably rarely waited
upon the public. It is the ability to put oneself in the place of the
questioner, to have a sympathetic interest in the people, that counts,
and also to realize seriously that only by means of the catalog can the
public have a true knowledge of what is in the library.
The same general rules may be followed all through the library.
Different positions require different qualifications and it rests with
the librarian to see that the employee fits the position. If this is
not done it will make little difference how good the collection of
books may be, the contents of the library will not reach the public in
a direct way. The library is what the librarian and assistants make it
by their intelligent use of the material supplied.
This may all seem very commonplace. If it is, then why have we not
profited more by what we already know? It must be granted that many
libraries inherit employees who are not particularly well fitted for
the place they are expected to fill. The only thing to do in this case
is to put them where they will do the least harm. We cannot expect to
maintain an all star cast, but by studying carefully the people in the
employ of the library the librarian can generally so manipulate things
that eventually the right person will be in the right place.
The program makers asked to have discussed "the ability to discern
quality and essentials in books." For this we must have first the
student and careful reader who, through the study of various subjects
is able to judge the literature of those subjects. It cannot reasonably
be expected that library employees will be able to have a first hand
knowledge of all classes of literature, but all employees may become
reasonably familiar with the names of the best writers on many subjects
and the character of their work. It is by means of the various literary
tools provided and the ability to acquire a more general knowledge of
many subjects by much reading that the library employee increases in
value. In this particular part of the work the library assistant gains
more by much reading than she does by experience.
It is not my duty to discuss the kind or the extent of the education
possessed by those who become library employees. We all agree that this
should be the broadest and the most general possible with emphasis
placed on literature and history. Most of our assistants enter the
library training classes at the close of a high school course, and,
generally speaking, librarians do not expect more than this because
the salaries which are offered will not attract people of higher
education. Therefore, if an assistant is to learn to discern quality
and essentials in books some provision should be made by which this
knowledge may be acquired in the library after entering as an employee.
Just as the librarian is responsible for the attitude of the assistants
toward the public so are the librarian and heads of departments
responsible for the growth of the efficiency of the employees in this
particular phase of library work.
A standard of efficiency must be maintained along this line of
education as well as personal treatment of the public, therefore it
is impossible to emphasize too strongly the necessity of continuing
the education of the library employees after finishing the work of the
training class and after having become an employee of the library. It
can scarcely be considered advisable to attempt to give much practice
work in all departments to all employees but it should be one of the
requirements of the library that provision be made whereby all of the
employees in a department shall learn to know the general character and
the value of most of the books in that department.
From the library periodicals of England one may gather that there
is some rather severe criticism of the assistants in libraries, the
general feeling being that a lack of efficiency deprives the public of
their proper share of service. I should like to quote from a paper by
Mr. John Bar, which appeared in the Library world (vol. 13).
"If the library would only adopt a policy whereby a guarantee could
be had that the assistants in the library would be taught their
profession in a thorough manner, I am positive that the now prevalent
lament regarding the apathy and carelessness of assistants would be
reduced to a vanishing point, because from observation, I believe
that the assistant is the product of his environment; he is what the
conditions in the library make him. The policy of the library should
be to provide the staff with every opportunity for improvement in
general, literary, and technical knowledge. In order to meet the first
part of the proposal, the time of the staff should be so arranged as
to allow a reasonable portion for private study as well as recreation.
And in order to fulfil the latter part--that relating to technical
knowledge--the work of the library should be so organized as to ensure
that every assistant shall, in a series of progressive steps, obtain
an adequate and thorough knowledge of all the practical details of
librarianship."
The people of America cannot offer quite as severe criticism of their
library employees as this would imply has been offered in England, but
the suggestions regarding further education after entering the library,
are such as we might well follow.
The second item suggested by the program makers reads "the power to
give information rather than advice." This naturally would come
through the ability of the employee to eliminate his own opinion and to
put forward instead the opinions of those who are qualified to know.
Here again the employee may, by much reading, become more efficient.
There is nothing so offensive to patrons of a free institution as to
have unsolicited opinions and advice offered by employees. And yet this
is a characteristic of the new employee and is prompted not by conceit
but by a desire to be helpful and to please. The best way to be helpful
in a library, as elsewhere, is to help people to help themselves. In
this as in all of the work of the library the standard must be that
established by those highest in authority, and ways and methods must be
put forward whereby the assistant may know what plan she is to follow.
The ability to be helpful comes by much experience, both personal
experience and the experience of others. To quote, "experience is the
force which makes life possible ... and books alone give permanence
to the facts of experience." Therefore to busy people in need of the
experiences of others, the greatest help comes by much reading.
We may attempt in every way possible to make general rules governing
the efficiency of the library staff, and attempt to maintain certain
definite standards, both for the sake of the public and in order to
keep down the expense of maintenance, but with all this we shall never
be able to reach a perfect system, partly because many employees give
promise of much, but soon reach the limit of their capacity and cease
to grow, and also because of the frequent unavoidable changes.
There is some variance in the minds of librarians regarding the place
of the library in a city, but without discussion we must all agree
that first of all the free public library is a collection of books
maintained for the use of the public. In order that these books may be
available the employees must not only give efficient service, but they
must also have a clear understanding of the public.
It has been said many times that a few books in the hands of an
intelligent and discriminating employee are of greater value than a
large collection poorly handled. The employees constitute the medium
by which the books reach the public and it rests with the buyer,
the cataloger, the desk assistant, the reference librarian, and the
children's librarian to see that these get into the hands of the right
people at the right time. It is here that the careful discrimination of
the librarian and assistants is necessary.
The average library is much too large to be well used by the public
and the employees of the library. In most libraries of 100,000 volumes
there are possibly not more than 10,000 which are of real value. If
the employees could know the authors, titles, and something of the
contents of most of these it is quite as much as may be expected. If
the assistant comes to the library with a reasonably good education and
something of a desire to add to what she has, and will read regularly
of books which are of general interest there is no reason why she
should not learn to discriminate quite as carefully in the selection
of books for the individual borrower as the assistant who has made a
special study of the criticism of literature.
No mention has been made of requirements for special positions in a
library. This can only be settled after the employee has shown some
fitness for special work. As the library is what the librarian and
assistants make it, it rests with the librarian and those in the
highest positions in the library to decide definitely on a policy, the
result of which shall be prompt and efficient service from the time of
the purchase of the books to their final distribution into the hands of
the people.
The CHAIRMAN: Next upon the program occurs the paper, "The efficiency
of the library staff and scientific management," by ADAM STROHM,
assistant librarian Detroit public library.