In the Boston Public Library, all appointments are made by the trustees upon nomination by the librarian, after an examination somewhat similar to that of the civil service, but by a board of library experts. In the British Museum Library, the selection and promotion of members of the staff are passed upon by the trustees, having the recommendation of the principal librarian before them. In the Library of Congress, appointments are made directly by the librarian after a probationary trial, with previous examination as to education, former experience or employments, attainments, and fitness for library service.
In smaller libraries, both in this country and abroad, a great diversity of usage prevails. Instances are rare in which the librarian has the uncontrolled power of appointment, promotion and removal. The requirement of examinations to test the fitness of candidates is extending, and since the establishment of five or six permanent schools of library science in the United States, with their graduates well equipped for library work, there is no longer any excuse for putting novices in charge of libraries—institutions where wide knowledge and thorough training are more indispensable than in any other profession whatever.
In State libraries, no uniformity prevails as to control. In some States, the governor has the appointment of the librarian, while in others, he is an elective officer, the State Legislature being the electors. As governors rarely continue in office longer than two or three years, the tenure of a librarian under them is precarious, and a most valuable officer may at any time be superseded by another who would have to learn all that the other knows. The result is rarely favorable to the efficient administration of the library. In a business absolutely demanding the very largest compass of literary and scientific knowledge, frequent rotation in office is clearly out of place. In a public or State library, every added year of experience adds incalculably to the value of a librarian's services, provided he is of active habits, and full of zeal to make his acquired knowledge constantly useful to those who use the library. Partizan politics, with their frequent changes, if suffered to displace a tried librarian and staff, will be sure to defeat the highest usefulness of any library. What can a political appointee, a man totally without either library training or library experience, do with the tools of which he has never learned the use? It will take him years to learn, and by the time he has learned, some other political party coming uppermost will probably displace him, to make room for another novice, on the principle that "to the victors belong the spoils" of office. Meanwhile, "the hungry sheep look up and are not fed," as Milton sings—that is, readers are deprived of expert and intelligent guidance.
This bane of political jobbery has not been confined to the libraries of States, but has invaded the management of many city and town libraries also. We have yet to learn of any benefit resulting to those who use the libraries.
In the case of a few of the State libraries, trustees or library commissioners or boards of control have been provided by law, but in others, a joint library committee, composed of members of both houses of the Legislature, has charge of the library interests. This is also the case in the Library of Congress at Washington, where three Senators and three Representatives constitute the Joint Committee of both Houses of Congress on the Library. The membership of this committee, as of all others in Congress, is subject to change biennially. It has been proposed to secure a more permanent and careful supervision of this National Library by adding to the Joint Committee of Congress three or more trustees of eminent qualifications, elected by Congress, as the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution now are, for a longer term of years. The trustees of the British Museum are appointed by the Crown, their tenure of office being for life.
In several States the librarian is appointed by the supreme court, as the State libraries are composed more largely of law books, than of miscellaneous literature, and special knowledge of case law, and the principles of jurisprudence, is demanded of the librarian.
Where the trustees of a public library are elected by the people, they have in their own hands the power of choosing men who are far above party considerations, and they should exercise it. In no department of life is the maxim—"the tools to the hands that can use them," more important than in the case of librarians and boards of managers of libraries. The value of skilled labor over the unskilled is everywhere recognized in the business of the world, by more certain employment and larger compensation: and why should it not be so in libraries?
