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.