Page 119 - Training for librarianship; library work as a career

TEAINING FOR LIBRARIANSHIP

not come to it. This extension work still con-
tinues, and in many localities gives the college
library much wider range than the precincts
of the college itself. The extension work
of the agi'icultural libraries, like that of the
free public libraries, has been one of the con-
structive contributions of modern American
librarianship. It has helped to make the
agricultural library a living organism in agri-
cultural endeavor and an important factor in
agricultural education.
Still another phase of the work of the agri-
cultural library exists. This is in connection
with the experiment stations. The purpose
of the agricultural experiment stations is to
conduct researches and to disseminate the
results of the research. Scientific research in
agriculture is no less important than is re-
search in industry or elsewhere, for it is only
through exact knowledge, supplemented by
new theories, facts, experiments and thought
that the fund of human information is in-
creased. Research is a process of working
from the known to the unknown; it rests
primarily on the work of others and the
107