Page 138 - Training for Librarianship Library Work As a Career

TRAINING FOR LIBRARIANSHIP
is changed. Financial thinking of the pres-
ent is in national and international terms ; the
banker is required to have intimate knowl-
edge of affairs and conditions with w^hich he
has had no personal contact. It may be the
matter of a loan to a foreign city which the
banker has never visited, or of advice regard-
ing an investment in the stock of a steamship
company, the directive officers of which he has
never met, with whose equipment and service
he is unfamiliar. Yet he does his work with
perfect confidence in his judgment, because
modern finance has been forced to recognize
the use of information. The planned and con-
tinual accumulation of data, and their scien-
tific systematization so as to be available on
short call is an important branch of the
bank's activities. The Hbrarian here steps
in as the planner, accumulator and systema-
tizer. To plan weU he must be thoroughly
familiar with the business of finance ; to accu-
mulate sensibly and wisely he must know the
needs and interests of his own institution ; to
systematize he must be trained in hbrary
method. A good librarian in a financial
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