THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 38, 8 November 1907, Page 4

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY.

Something' of the eminence among the professions which the modern spirit has awarded to the pedagogue, is at last being extended to the librarian. And rightly so, for in the future pedagogy and librarianship are likely to appear more and more as twin-factors in the work of education, and. the public school and the free library will co-operate in their intersecting orbits both easily and' naturally. Nowhere are the signs-of the

times more evident than in the United States, which leads in library .Science, and especially in that development of it which tends to make the library an essential element in the life of the ordinary individual.. The. American librarian does not wait for people to look him.up; he looks them up, and draws them to him, by means of travelling- libraries touring the country in trolly-car barns! by sending out parcels of books to the homes and to the schools, and by the perfection of a mul-

titudc of small details which go to make up the difference between an active, attractive system, and a passive, repellent one. "Mere Yankee pushfulness ! " ' comment some critics; • but of seeking for the .reader, instead of waiting for him, has 'come to stay, also the recognition of the fact that effective librarianship needs business qualities as well as literary ones,-if the library is to be the coordinate link in public education that it is surely intended to be. At the last annual conference of the Library Association held in Glasgow,, Mr. Andrew Carnegie recalled how the old system of heterogeneous appointments to the post of librarian had become a thing of the past. Said Mr. Carnegie:—, All kinds and conditions of men had been selected for such posts. At one timo it was thought that any. man who could read, write, and cipher 'was good enough to be a { librarian, but tho establishment of public libraries maintained by the taxation of tho' people founded other conditions. It was soon found that if a library was to bo wor-,h

having at all it depended on the librar.nn. .... Ho could think of no more important work than that of training librarians. Ho was' glad to think that librarianship as a profession was now an accepted fact.

To be a perfect librarian, as to be a perfect teacher, involves, indeed, the p6ssession. of a combination of many virtues. There are such a number-of things to do, and to avoid. On the one hand, the librarian should not be a mere-recluse; on the other, he should not sink himself entirely in business details and. in the work of organisation. One of the speakers following Mr. Carnegie, Mr. ll'. E. Tedder, E.S.A.,' librarian and secretary of the Athenaeum Club, was impressed with this danger when he remarked that: " The development of co-operative cataloguing, the exclusive use of guides to book selection, uniform, systerms of classification, adoption of common schemes of mechanical mej thods, all conduced to the suppression of the librarian's personality." _ But there is no reason wliy the adoption of the most business-like course to a definite end should prevent him "taking a pride in taking some share in ,the choice, "the cataloguing, and the classification of his library." Mr. Tedder states a truism when he lays down that " all these efforts to produce hotter work by co-operation were good so far as they established a higher standard of efficiency; they were mischievous when they prevented the natural progress of individual exertion coping with special cases of difficulty." So far has the United States progressed in the field of library science, and so valuable must it be to a New Zealand librarian to consult with, and have actual working experience alongside, the eminent men in that older and wider field, that the decision of the City Council last evening to allow its chief librarian (Mr. Herbert Baillie) opportunity to make an American tour cannot fail to give satisfaction to" those who have noted the improvements, present and prospective, in our local library administration. The Council's _ Libraries Committee has made many

improvements, for which, no doubt, both the Committee and its chief expert are entitled to credit; and the things that have been done arc an encouragement to hope for those which are still to come. In the United States Mr. Baillie will be able to meet freely with the leaders in his own branch of science. Some years ago he was invited, by Dr. Putnam, Librarian of Congress, President of the American Library Association, to attend the annual conference of that body at St. Louis, but was unable to be present. A paper contributed by Mr. Baillie, on " Libraries of New Zealand," was read before the Conference, and appears in the printed report of the proceedings. The invitation was renewed for the conference of 1906, and again for that of 190S, and for the latter date will now be accepted. The American Library Association's annual conferences have an average attendance •of about 700, and are. held in various parts of the United States. The President for the year is Mr. Bostwick, of the New York Public Libraries. Mr. Baillie has also received invitations from Messrs. Dana, of the Newark' library—at ■ which was developed the widely-copied card-cataloguing system which won the admiration of the present Minister for Lands when collecting old whaling data in American and British libraries—from Mr. TVellmann, of Springfield, Massachusetts, and Mr. Hill, Chief Librarian of the Brooklyn libraries. In each case Mr. Baillie is invited to spend a little time in the library—a rare opportunity, as these three institutions are regarded as typical of the modern progressive library. Mr. Baillie also intends to visit Boston, Cleveland, Ohio,' Pittsburg, and Washington, all of which cities have 'libraries with special features of interest, and he should return to the Dominion better equipped than ever to carry on the important duties in the performance of wheh he has already achieved so large a measure of success. '