Public Libr^^ry Systems. 425 



of view, youth and freshness are not the best aids when you seek 

 some out of the way book or desire information on some by-path of 

 knowledge. 



English librarians work longer hours than American, but 

 reliable statistics as to South African Libraries are not available. 

 Many libraries here are apparently open 11 hours a day for six days 

 a week, and some hours on Sunday, too, with only a staff of one, but 

 so many of the South African libraries are open without any staff at 

 all, except the kindly person who drops in once a week to set things 

 straight, that without a personal acquaintance with each it were 

 hard to draw any conclusions. The same remark would apply to the 

 salaries paid in' South Africa to librarians, for the average amount 

 paid in salaries in the country is not £^20 per annum. Outside of 

 Cape Town. Port Elizabeth, Kimberley, Durban, Pietermaritzburg, 

 and Johannesburg the total salaries paid in any one library do not 

 exceed ;£2 5o per annum. Manchester pays in salaries nearly ^9,000 

 a year, while Chicago pays jQi-j, 000, and the higher efficiency of the 

 American librar}- is very largely due to the fact that she can not 

 only attract the best men to her service, but that she can afford to 

 pay them the salary which will be high enough to prevent commercial 

 life offering higher inducements. 



Of Associations of Library workers, America had the first, 

 which is of course numerically the largest. England has her own 

 Association, a very strong Association of Assistants, and an 

 independent Society of Public Librarians. England publishes 

 three Library Journals, and so does America. Though debarred 

 from all active part in the English Association, even of voting 

 at the Council Elections — South Africa has no Library Asso- 

 ciation, no Library Journal — but I trust that each year oppor- 

 tunit)^ will be found at the meetings of this Association to have a 

 meeting of those interested in the library development of this Sub 

 Continent. America believes in conferences of co-workers in libraries, 

 and so does England, and if the isolation of the South African 

 libraries makes it impossible in any other way I trust the annual 

 meetings of this Society may serve to draw together the workers in 

 the different library fields for exchange of ideas and comparison 

 of work. 



Before attempting to sum up the conclusions of this hastily 

 compiled and rambling paper I would desire to acknowledge the 

 great assistance that I have obtained from the writings of Mr. Andrew 

 Keogh, noAv of Yale, and formerly of Newcastle Libraries. From 

 an essay of Mr. Miller, of Bulawayo, on South African Libraries, 

 published in " The Librar}- Assistant," I have also gained much in- 

 formation, while the works of Thomas Greenwood, Edward Edwards, 

 W. I. Fletcher, and the Hon. P. M. Laurence have been laid under 

 contribution in my endeavour to place reliable information before 

 you. 



As the result of our examination of the three systems we may 

 conclude that the English librarian regards his library rather as 

 the storehouse of knowledcie than as its distributinsf centre. The 



