Page 26 - Training for Librarianship Library Work As a Career

TRAINING FOR LIBRARIANSHIP

a wide knowledge of available sources of
information whether books, pamphlets,
newspapers, magazines, institutions or indi-
viduals. The librarian is everywhere a recog-
/ nized intellectual guide, and clearly, before
one can guide, one must know. Knowledge
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is power, and to the man or woman who
knows, the world of opportunity is open.
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The community, like the corporation, is only
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too eager to employ such persons, and the
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more they know the greater is their value and
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the better the salaries they can command.
X. Besides possessing administrative abiUty,
sound common sense, a liberal and open mind,
knowledge and zeal in the advancement of
learning, the librarian must be courteous and
tactful, willing to aid every inquirer no mat-
ter how learned or ignorant. Patience and
ability to apply himself to a task until it
is completed are valuable qualities to pos-
sess ; the apathetic and those of uneven tem-
per will not succeed in the work. In the past
the belief has at times prevailed that the
library was a sinecure which one incapaci-
tated by accident or other infirmity, too old,
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