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IIIIIIIIIII?IIIII:ſſiſſſſſſſſ
º
Nº.
§



THE QUESTION OF LIBRARY TRAINING
By LUTIE E. STEARNs, Wisconsin Free Library Commission
HERE is a surprising and ofttimes ap-
palling misconception or total lack of
conception in the popular mind, and in the
minds of library trustees, concerning the du-
ties of a librarian or the qualifications which
a librarian should possess.
quently shown in the selection of a librarian.
A man was recently selected as the head of
a new eastern library who had not had an
hour's library experience, the only reasons
given for his appointment being that he had
reviewed books and that he bore the endorse-
ment of the local labor union. In an-
other instance, the librarian was chosen
solely on account of her “aristocratic
bearing.” Again the office is used for politi-
cal reward, as illustrated by a recent case in
Connecticut. As showing how little ex-
perience and training may be taken into ac-
count, the spectacle was presented a few
months ago of a board of trustees “selling
out” to a mayor of a large city, an increased
appropriation for the library, being guaran-
teed by “His Honor” if a non-resident,
trained librarian were deposed in favor of
a local untrained and inexperienced applicant,
In the “Handbook of library organization,”
in use by many of the library commissions of
the country, the fact is emphasized that the
usefulness of the library will depend upon the
librarian, and the greatest care should be
exercised in selecting that officer. It insists
that the librarian should not be chosen, as is
often the case, because she is somebody's
aunt, because she is poor and deserving and
needs the money, because she is kindly, be-
cause she belongs to a certain church, club,
or society, nor even because she has a reputa-
tion as a reader or confesses to a love of
books. Concerning this latter point—this
love of books — we would take issue with
the statement, recently made by a prominent
library worker, that the librarian does not
love books any more than a broker loves the
grain in which he deals; for we regard a
love of books as one of the essentials in li-
189697
This is too fre-
brarianship, but we would by no means give
it the prominence usually accorded it in ap-
plications for library positions. For with
this love of books should go culture, execu-
tive ability, tact, sympathy for humanity, and
a knowledge of modern library methods.
Save money in other ways, but never by em-
ploying a forceless man or woman as librar-
ian; for in a small town a $600 librarian can
do more with $400 worth of books than a
$200 librarian can do with $800 worth of
books. Trained, experienced librarians are
the best, but if you have but little money and
must be content to employ some local appli-
cant without training or experience, insist
that the appointee shall make an intelligent
study of library methods in some model small
library or through a series of library insti-
tutes, or in summer library schools such as
are conducted by five commissions, or in a
regular library School. The librarian should
be keenly alive to the tremendous possibilities
of her work. She should come in touch with
other librarians and with the vast stores of
experience found in books, library periodicals
and proceedings. She should identify herself
with local, state, and national library organi-
zations, commissions, and associations.
On the technical side, she should have a
knowledge of books from the outside — she
should understand book-maker's work: paper
— thickness and durability; printing — size,
face of type, leading, spacing, margin, ink,
press work; binding — materials, methods,
durability, cost; book-repairing — materials
and methods. From the commercial side she
should become familiar with publishers, edi-
tions, and prices. In these days of book-
trusts and combinations, she should know
where to purchase good editions cheaply.
From the business side she should have a
knowledge of book-keeping and business
forms. She should familiarize herself with
modern library furnishings, appliances, and
supplies, and should be quick to adopt time
and trouble savers. She should be a student
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of the latest and best methods of accession-
ing, shelf-listing, classifying, and cataloging.
In this connection it would be a revelation to
many trustees were they to ask the lifirarian
to show them the fourteen processes through
which a book must go from the time it is pub-
lished until it is placed on the library shelves
for circulation. -
In addition to this technical side, the librar-
ian must have executive ability, the power to
organize and to delegate work and to utilize
what Melvil Dewey calls the four m’s that
produce results — materials, machinery,
methods, men. On the mental side, she
should have an excellent memory, accuracy,
dispatch, and prompt decision, grouping im-
portant points to the exclusion of the unim-
portant. As a scholar, she should possess
the best education obtainable. She should
have a general knowledge of literature and of
what constitutes good and bad style in au-
thorship. A knowledge of languages will
prove of the greatest assistance. As for so-
cial qualities, she should be tactful and should
be at ease with strangers. She should not
be condescending nor patronizing. She
should not be afflicted with “a smile that
won't come off,” nor should she have Che-
shire proclivities, but she should possess a
sense of humor— in library work, unless she
be a cataloger, she is hopeless without it.
Physically, she should possess good health,
be able to endure strain, for “it is dogged as
does it.” Morally, she should be earnestly
altruistic, of great, big heart and tender sym-
pathies, a woman of character, of steadfast
purpose and faith. She should not despise
present opportunities in the vaulting ambi-
tion for larger ones. Unflinching fidelity in
a low estate is the discipline for larger duties
in a larger life. One of the great lessons of
life is to learn not to do what one likes, but
to like what one does. The library drudge
ofttimes has conscience and devotion, but
lacks insight, freshness, power, joy, and the
ability to grow. The library world has many
painstaking, overburdened people; what it
needs is a corps of enthusiastic workers that
are full of the spirit of joy in work. Work
done for individual ends, for personal grati-
fication, or work done which one would not
do if one did not have to — all this is un-
worthy the modern librarian, Recognition of
the true nature of her work, with a glad ac-
*:::::
ceptance of its noble responsibilities and pos-
sibilities will lift her fast and far out of diffi-
culties and cause her to realize in full meas-
ure the joys and power of life. As Hugh
Black says in his book on “Work,” “The true
nobility of life is honest, earnest service, the
strenuous exercise of our faculties, with con-
science in our work as in the sight of God
who gives us our place and our tool and our
work. At the end of life, we shall not be
asked how much pleasure we had in it, but
how much service we gave in it; not how full
it was of success, but how full it was of
sacrifice; not how happy we were, but how
helpful we were; not how ambition was grati-
fied, but how love was served ; for life is
judged by love; and love is known by her
fruits.”
You may think we have wandered far afield
from the question of library training; but
what we are endeavoring to emphasize is that
to fit one's self for the high calling of li-
brarian, there must be a training of head,
hand, and heart — all are essential. The
ideal we have placed before you may be too
high, though we are by no means ready to
concede the point. The trustees of a large
eastern library in quest of a librarian, three
or four years ago, set forth in printed form
the qualifications which they exacted. They
would not consider as candidate any school
teacher who seemed to have missed his call-
ing; any minister who had missed a parish;
any book-worm, who, under the name of li-
brarian, had delved among library shelves,
instead of making the library that he served
a living fountain of knowledge and culture
to the community about him; any one who
had been trained for any other profession
than that of librarian, and who had not had
valuable experience as a successful librarian.
The board would accept no man who was
not in the prime of life, who had not many
years of work ahead of him rather than be-
hind him. They wanted a man with a thor-
ough elementary, secondary and collegiate or
university training; a living interest in sci-
ence, art, literature, and philosophy as a
means of educating and uplifting society; a
deep sympathy with the physical, intellectual,
ethical, and religious needs of all social con-
ditions; breadth of vision and depth of con-
viction on important religious, social, scien-
tific and philosophical questions; excellent


executive ability; great power of discernment
of the character and qualifications of per-
sons engaged in library work; great tact and
skill in dealing with the public; wisdom in
practical affairs; trained for the special pro-
fession of librarian; great public spirit; in
short, an all-around citizen who would be
capable of shaping public sentiment in library
matters, of taking an influential position in
educational affairs, and one who would be
deserving the respect and support of the
whole community. The salary of the posi-
tion, the circular stated, would be commen-
surate to the merits of the man finally Se-
lected,
In this connection, we would remind mem-
bers of library boards of the trite saying
among housekeepers that you cannot expect
all of the Christian virtues in a domestic at .
$2.50 per week. Some trustees might retort
that people who take pains never to do more
than they get paid for, never get paid for
more than they do. It is a fact, however, that
librarians are the poorest paid professional
people in the world. They must be content
to “spare delights and live laborious days.”
Conditions have ever been favorable for li-
brarians to be numbered among those for-
tunate individuals who can labor for the
honor of being workers and not for the ac-
cumulation of wealth. Since time began, the
work of the librarian has been considered
of value except only as tested by a money
standard. Brains and talent that would com-
mand large revenues in law and medicine
are compelled to be content with meagre
grants in the library profession. The mind
and energy that manages a library system in-
cluding a main library, branch libraries, and
deposit stations, covering a tremendous area,
ofttimes receives but a fraction of the salary
paid to the manager of a department store,
while the librarian of one of the world’s
foremost depositories receives less than one-
fourteenth part of the salary paid the presi-
dent of an “execrable” life insurance society.
If a great philosopher is right when he says
that “culture grows only under conditions of
wealth and wealth only through accumula-
tions of capital, and capital only through
accumulation of the work of those who are
not justly paid,” then librarians are con-
tributing more to the general culture of the
3.
world than any and all other classes com-
bined. In 1876 the American Library Asso-
ciation took for its motto, “The best reading
for the largest number at the 1èast cost.”
While librarians everywhere are unsparingly
and unceasingly working to provide the best
reading for the largest number, they have
been appropriating to themselves or rather
have had meted out to them the “least cost”
section of the slogan, as may be shown in
Mrs. Fairchild's report in the St. Louis A.
L. A. proceedings. In this particular, women
are the greatest offenders and sufferers.
Women will accept much smaller salaries
than men of equal ability and preparation.
This is not in any sense to underbid the
latter, but arises from two causes – the gen-
eral fact that women are paid less than men
for equal service and the willingness of
women to work for the love of it, “without
money and without price.” Commission work-
ers all over the land have daily brought to
their attention illustrations of self-sacrifice
and heroism undreamt of by trustees or more
highly favored members of the profession.
The words “library spirit” are used ofttimes
glibly and thoughtlessly, and many claim it
who have it not; but it is the “library” spirit
that makes the underpaid and overworked
librarian go and go and go, morning after
morning, through storm, through headache
and heartache to the appointed spot and do
the appointed work and cheerfully stick to
that work through eight or ten hours, long
after rest would be so sweet. It should ever
be remembered by trustees—and we cannot
emphasize this point too strongly — that a
worker in a small library ofttimes must pos-
sess a good many more qualifications than
one in charge of a special department in a
large library and that such service should re-
ceive compensation in proportion. In the
question of library training is involved the
question of adequate compensation. After
a student adds two years at a library school
to three or four years of university or college
work, as required by at least two of our ac-
credited library schools, the graduate cannot
be expected in all reason to accept a salary
that will scarcely keep soul and body to-
gether.
A good librarian is worthy of his hire; a
poor librarian is dear at any price.


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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
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