Page 64 - Training for Librarianship Library Work As a Career

TRAINING FOR LIBRARIANSHIP

In many places the negro has been a social
outcast. Opportunities for meeting together
and for self-education and improvement have
not been as freely available to him as to his
white neighbor. Reahzing this and also the
fact that its building offers an excellent meet-
ing place for the negro as for the white per-
son, the pubhc library has in some places
organized clubs for both young and old.
These clubs serve many purposes. They
satisfy a social instinct and at the same time
keep the young off the streets. They offer a
means for learning the lessons of self-govern-
ment, thus acting in effect as a training school
for service in a democratic society. They help
those who are members to learn how to ex-
press themselves. Clear expression comes
only from clear thinking. In addition to
these social and educational purposes, such
clubs serve an even more concrete use. Their
proceedings supply an informational back-
ground which is reflected in better economic
functioning. Society pays for knowledge
irrespective of the source from which it has
been obtained, and they that know are there-
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