Page 120 - Training for librarianship; library work as a career

TRAINING FOR LIBRARIANSHIP

knowledge adduced by them. Therefore the
prime need in agricultural research, as in all
scientific investigation, is full acquaint-
ance with the state of knowledge to the time
of the present inquiry. This entails knowing
what has been done, for in no other way can
the status of the subject be determined.
Furthermore, the evidence must be examined
so as to test its soundness. It is only when
this necessary preliminary acquaintance with
all that has been written and accomplished
has been secured that the research student is
prepared to develop new facts, concepts and
theories, and engage in experiment to test the
accuracy of his inductions and deductions.
Since the work of the past is to be ascer-
tained almost exclusively from printed
sources of information, it follows that the first
task of the investigator in entering upon any
inquiry is to have at his command, and so
arranged as to be easy of access, every bit of
information that is likely to be of help to him.
It is here that the librarian steps in as the
person best fitted to give the investigator this
initial service. As the work goes on it may
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