"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.