Page 23 - Training for Librarianship Library Work As a Career

TRAINING FOR LIBRARIANSHIP
needed for his work? The question is quite
obvious and demands answer. The ordinary
person in any of our larger cities who
uses his pubhc library knows that certain
processes or necessary formalities must be
gone through before he can borrow a volume
for home reading. A card catalog must be
consulted to see if the book in question is in
the library ; if it is, its book number must be
secured so that it can be located. Sometimes
a slip must be filled out before it can be
brought. The reader's right to borrow must
be determined. If he already has a bor-
rower's card this step is unnecessary, since it
is evidence of his agreement to comply with
the rules of the hbrary and also of his right
to borrow. But even so his card must be
stamped, and the date his book is taken or the
date it will become due indicated. All these
steps are familiar to anyone who has used
his pubhc library. They are but outer evi-
dences of the machinery underneath.
The mechanics of librarianship is quite
complex; yet a thorough intimacy with it is
fundamental to intelligent work in the
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