THE ASSISTANT AND THE BOOK

The library movement is no longer a crusade, it is a movement of peaceful education. In truth, the library movement is not a movement at all, it is an achievement. The library has come to be a center of personal interest. People, one by one, are the object of our labors. They are to be brought, through the personalities of those who preside over books, into touch with the personalities that dwell within books.

There are many militant movements today, those for universal peace (strange paradox), equal suffrage, labor reform, and for human betterment in crowded cities—great social movements that are being promoted through the vigorous propaganda and the emphatic zeal of their leaders. Over against these dynamic social movements, the library operates as a quiet force, at once personal, intellectual, educational, persuasive but powerful, studying community interests, serving community needs it is true, but accomplishing the work through the individual. These other movements will, after their first victories are won, likewise take on an educational aspect, but they will become strong and far-reaching only as people are touched and served by them.

No cause can be greater than the personality which interprets it. It matters little how proud the ideals of the leaders, or how great the possibilities of the work itself, nothing can really be accomplished except through the vision, ability, and knowledge of those who have actual contact with the public. Technique and method in library work are of less importance than the personality of the assistant, his preparation for the work, his continued renewing of himself in interest and knowledge, his immediate contact with affairs of the day, and his ability to share his interest and information with others.

If this be true, behind the library must lie a personal force. This must be secured, first, through the personality of those who labor within its walls; then, through the personalities of the books themselves that are ready if permitted, to answer every human need. The vital connection between these depends upon the person that can stimulate a love of books, or arouse a feeling for their need. Are our libraries today manned by such assistants?

The plain matter of fact is that we are still over-technical. For petty details in devotion to routine and technique, we crucify personality; we kill the love of books among our library workers, for there is no time to read, no opportunity to make or keep a real acquaintance with books. Schemes to induce others to read are constantly being devised, red tape is ever being wound around our system of details, professional duties are allowed almost brutally to shut us out from contact with the best in literature. There are too many meetings to attend; too many papers to write; have you ever been obliged to forego an open-air performance of Electra at your very door that would have brought interpretation and understanding, because you had to rival Euripides and prepare a paper for the American Library Association? Librarians, alas, take their work too seriously, and too painfully do their duty.

The librarian of the older days was a crabbed and positively forbidding guardian of books. Then for a period of years—and there are traces of this time still with us,—the library worker had the attitude of the clerk, so important seemed the details of library service. Now we are approaching the time when the librarian shares in the spirit of the social worker. The one big blessed thing that we all want to do (and we are all assistants to the public) is to get people to love the human messages in books, for "Books are not dead things and do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul whose progeny they were." The only way to do this is to make sure that the person who deals with the public knows books—is fairly radiant with book lore. He should not be a rapt scholar absorbed in his own research, nor on the other hand a spiritless, lifeless, or flippant clerk.

Within a decade there has come a change in the tenor of most library reports, most noticeable within the last five years. The emphasis is now largely on the myriad things that are done for the public which require a knowledge of books and the ability to use them for people. This new library service can only be carried forward by assistants who know both books and people. The library assistant is now rapidly becoming a constructive social worker and has the most potent spiritual forces of all the ages at his command.

But in addition to personality there must be education. This is a primary requisite for an assistant. Nothing can supply the lack of knowledge. Where nothing is, nothing results. It is evident that our libraries are recognizing educated assistants.

Mr. Anderson H. Hopkins in his report to the Board of trustees of the Carnegie library of Pittsburgh, said in 1908:

"Near the beginning of the report appears a statement of the names of members of the staff, in an arrangement showing the positions that they occupy. I have long felt that this is not adequate, although it is in accord with the custom of large public libraries in this country. A number of the members of our staff have not only academic degrees, but also degrees or certificates from professional schools, and I believe it would be a good plan for us to set these forth in our statement, as is commonly done in the calendars of colleges. There can be no question that the work done by the staff compares favorably with that done by any similar professional body and I believe that it would be well to take this step in recognition of the fact."

In the report of the Cleveland public library for 1909 this statement is made:

"An analysis of the preparation of the various members of the staff for their work gives this interesting showing: college graduates, 47; partial college courses, 24; library school graduates, 46."

From the report of the Boston public library for 1909 the following is quoted:

"Three grades of educational qualifications are required. The lowest grade, which includes a comparatively small number of pages, sub-assistants, etc., requires a training equivalent to a grammar school course. The middle grade requires qualifications equivalent to a high school training and familiarity with one foreign language. The third grade, including seventy-seven of these persons, requires qualifications equivalent to those obtained by a college course, and familiarity with two foreign languages. The proper cataloging and classifying of books and the reference work necessary to aid those using the library also requires in many positions much higher qualifications than those which could be obtained by the ordinary college course."

Libraries should secure more assistants with academic training, whose minds have come in contact with the many subjects that reveal the past and interpret the present. We must rely on the colleges for the production of such assistants, that they shall come to us already knowing the sweep of literature on the library shelves, already loving books and knowledge, and filled with their power. Such workers can not help radiating a passion for books. They will make the library a living institution, a center of glowing personality. Of some it can be said:

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.

From the Dayton, Ohio, public library the report comes that monthly staff meetings have been held since January, 1908, for various stated library purposes, and that the members contribute anything of interest from personal reading which would be suggestive to other members for their own reading, or helpful to them in dealing with the public. Library time is allowed for these meetings.

In 1906, Mr. Dana reported that members of the staff met once a week to discuss library matters in general and to have a report by one of the class on the literature of some assigned subject. Among the subjects reported on were, photography, history of literature, French revolution, French history, travel in Japan, opera, etc.

In 1907, Mr. Brown, of the Buffalo public library reports:

"We have done more staff training this year than was possible before. Round tables are now held in nearly every department, at which methods and books are discussed. To this we can trace habits of greater carefulness and accuracy, a more comprehensive view of the work as a whole, and happier, better service."

In 1908, the report says:

"The staff round tables—'the part of our work which keeps us keen and alive' as one member expresses it—have been held as usual. At these meetings methods of work and books are discussed and frank talks upon the best means of helping borrowers are given; but the spirit of sympathy and comradeship which results from meeting together as library workers and talking over the work, its purpose and ideals, is really the most valuable and important result of these meetings."

From Cedar Rapids, 1905, comes the report:

"A meeting of the staff has been held on Thursday mornings for the discussion of current events and library problems." In 1908: "The Thursday morning hour has been given to the reading aloud of poems suggested in Dawson's 'Makers of English poetry.' Some time was devoted to Browning and Milton. New books were discussed and current events were considered." In 1909: "The staff has taken up the study of Brander Matthews' 'Development of the drama,' and has read several of the Greek tragedies. Current events and new books were also discussed." In 1910: "The weekly staff meetings have been continued and are most helpful."

The Cleveland report for 1910 says:

"The staff round table continues to meet; this year, more than ever, emphasis has been laid upon a broader and less superficial knowledge of books on the part of the staff, and it is believed that some progress has been made in this direction. * * * All this shows a flexibility of mind on the part of our staff which has made them grow with their work. There has also been the ability of the older members to train and inspire younger and newer assistants."

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.