No library school, or any other school, for that matter, turns out a finished product. I cannot say to you that the best pupil in my class at the end of one or even two years is a first-rate cataloger. I can only say that I hope and think that she understands the principles and their relation to the rest of the work, and with experience will prove competent, having shown capabilities which point in this direction. On the other side, I have talked with many library people of experience and they all say that, anxious as they are to give the persons under their care all possible instruction, they are so busy with the pressure of accomplishing so much work every day, that when they find a person who does one kind of work well, they are very apt to keep her at that, rather than to give her an opportunity to do all the kinds of work, for the sake of her education.
I always have the greatest admiration, not unmixed with reverence, for those who can conduct the business of a large department and a training class at the same time, as either alone seems to me to take all the energy of an ordinary person; also the more people you have to do work which can be done by fewer, the greater the economic waste.
From the point of view of the employer there is something to be said on both sides. Nowadays the old plea is seldom heard that library school people know too much and have no idea that any method is feasible but the one they have been taught. I did have once a graduate from a so-called library school, to assist in my department while I was ill; after she had been there about a week, she announced that she did not like the way the library was classified and during my brief absence she thought she would re-classify it. We had about 150,000 volumes at that time and more than a million cards in our various catalogs. Thus did ambition disqualify her, as we had regretfully to let her go, but fortunately her kind is rare enough to be interesting.
The other objection to the employment of trained people is the question of expense. The niece of the president of the board must have occupation and is willing to work for her spending money, so as an economical measure, it would be a good thing to employ her. This has two fallacies: First, someone has to pay for the education of every person and it is better from the point of efficiency to have this done by the employee herself rather than by the institution. Secondly, we should all be willing to pay for what we get, and you certainly get more for your money in employing the skilled person than the amateur.
Miss Sutliff, after years of experience as a library school teacher, and with both apprentices and graduates, said to me that she thought that a person who was trained for a certain piece of work, at the end of one year, did that work better than the school graduate, but at the end of five years the second was a much better employee.
There is also this to be said on both sides of the question. There are people constitutionally unfit for library work, training or no training, just as there are people who can never run an aeroplane or climb a greased pole or be a third-term president; they are not fitted for it, and all of us have had more or less experience with these both in school and out. They may be excellent people; in fact, it is exactly this class of whom her friends say, "Isn't it too bad Mary never married; she would make such a fine wife for some good man."
I have had a green girl who could never be taught to write a dozen catalog cards correctly because she had no bump of accuracy; I also had a library school graduate with the same failing, and when I mildly suggested that the number of corrections seemed excessive, she replied, "Oh yes, but, you see, I knew you were going to revise them, so I was not more careful." She also did not remain with me.
There are many bright girls who will pick up knowledge of all parts of the work on their own initiative and without any special effort on your part, will be perfectly qualified to step into your place should necessity arise. There is one danger which may be mentioned here and that is the possible injustice done to this exceptional person when library boards refuse to consider any person except library school graduates. During the time students are at school, they and the faculty are carefully considering for which branch of the work they are best adapted, so the employer runs less risk in this respect also, than when he takes an unknown quantity which he hopes may fit some particular place. If the various library schools are not turning out people with broader horizons and greater adaptability, they are not doing their full duty; but if the students they have taught are better qualified for the work, this fact should have due consideration in the selection of assistants or librarians.
Miss JOSEPHINE A. RATHBONE, vice-director of the Pratt institute school of library science, described a projected normal course.
A PROJECTED NORMAL COURSE AT PRATT INSTITUTE SCHOOL OF LIBRARY SCIENCE