Page 194 - Training for librarianship; library work as a career

TRAINING FOR LIBRARIANSHIP :

constructive and frequently of a pioneer
character. It requires an intimate knowledge
of library technic, of community need and re-
sources. It entails broad vision, sympathetic
understanding and above all executive abil-
ity. A former agent of the Massachusetts
Free Library Commission won for himself
"
the title of the travelling bishop," descrip-
tive both of the estimation and affection with
which he was regarded. Work with the
library commissions combines the spirit of
the executive and the scientist with that of
social service, for here one must not only be
able to do, but know how, and have the
willingness to do for others without thought
of personal benefit.
State library commissions exist at present
in thirty-seven states. In a few states such as
in California, New York and Utah, the state
library or the state board of education, in lieu
of a library commission, exerts the functions
that such a commission would have.
On the following pages is a list of state
library commissions, or of state agencies
serving in such a capacity, together with their
addresses and the names of those in charge
176