564.
564. It will be difficult but it is desirable to attempt to resolve some order out of the terminological chaos at present existing.
The British Government has many library positions in its control, but the term librarian is only sparingly recognized. There are “librarians” of the two Houses of Parliament, the British Museum, the Board of Education, Admiralty, Patent Office and other Government departments, but only in the Houses of Parliament are there any assistant-librarians so-named. The heads of departments in the British Museum are called “keepers,” a traditional term, and the assistant librarians “Assistants in the Department of Printed Books” or “Manuscripts,” as the case may be, which as a term in no way connects them with librarianship. In the Patent Office the term “Custodian” was formerly employed, but was dropped some eight years ago for “Assistant in the Library.” In the other Government or Civil Service libraries the assistant librarian is usually rated and named as a first- or second-class clerk, as the case may be. It would be greatly to the advantage of librarianship if a proper Government recognition of the term librarian as representing a specially trained type of man rather than the occupant of a certain position could be obtained. At present it seems that clerks in any Government office possessing a library can be moved from the office proper to the library, and vice versa.