DEVELOPMENT OF PUBLIC LIBRAPvIES 283 



experience were learning their trade, and that many were con- 

 demned to stagnation because the new Hbrarian simply 

 plodded on Tsith more or less stumbling in the footsteps of his 

 predecessors. The solution first suggested was apprentice- 

 ship; the next, more radical and more efficient, was a hbrary 

 school, corresponding in thoroughness to the schools that fit 

 men to be doctors, lawyers, and ministers. There are now 

 four such schools, whose graduates are eagerly absorljed )jy 

 hbraries, to say nothing of the summer schools, which give 

 those who can not afford a full course such a smattering of 

 liljrary^ knowledge as can ])e acquired in six weeks. Besides 

 this, a number of large libraries take apprentices, from whom 

 their staff is recruited or the neighboring small hbraries are 

 supplied. 



As a natural result a change has come about in the ap- 

 pointment of librarians. Formerly it was too often the man 

 who had failed in the pulpit, the court, the schoolroom, or even 

 the shop, who got the votes of compassionate committees. It 

 is an advance that these votes are often given now to men who 

 have succeeded in some such occupation, vrith. the idea that 

 they will therefore succeed in a Hbrar)\ Xor are these ap- 

 pomtments always unfortunate; after all, ability is the main 

 thing; yet they leave something to desii'e, for though it is true 

 that a man may guide himself by the practice of his predeces- 

 sors, yet the greatest success does not rise from followmg prece- 

 dent, but from knowing when rules can be disregarded and 

 when they can not — a knowledge that comes only from a 

 thorough acquaintance with the subject matter. The next 

 step will be for all appointing bodies to require, as many do 

 now, both ability and experience. 



Architect lue has lagged behind other branches of Hbrary 

 practice, partly because the needs of a Ubrary have been ex- 

 panding so fast, partly because hl^raries have been designed 

 not so much for use b}^ men who had used them and had 

 learned their defects as for show by committees and builders. 

 Bad ventilation is common, bad lighting universal; one hears 

 of Hbraries without class rooms for the public or working rooms 

 for the staff; they are continually made with no pro\'ision for 

 enlargement, though nothing grows more surel}' than a libra- 



