Page 108 - Training for librarianship; library work as a career

TRAINING FOR LIBRARIANSHIP

this difference between the special and other
libraries succinctly:
" Select the best books, list them elabo-
rately, save them forever—was the sum of the
librarian's creed of yesterday. To-morrow
it must be, select a few of the best books and
keep them, as before, but also select from the
vast flood of print the things your constit-
uency will find helpful, make them available
with a minimum of expense, and discard
them as soon as their influence is past/'
The special Hbrary collects only for the
needs of its special constituency, and collects
only whatever will be useful to those whom
it serves.
Service is its keynote. Therefore, it pre-
pares digests, summaries, reports of the mate-
rial as it comes in, or as these reports are
required. It advises regarding the rehabihty
of information. It tries to gauge the de-
mands of the organization and gathers to-
gether everything it can that will make the
information it has more complete and more
accurate. By correspondence, by personal
inquiry and by other means it will try to sup-
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