In smaller libraries, both in this country and abroad, a great diversity of usage prevails. Instances are rare in which the librarian has the uncontrolled power of appointment, promotion and removal. The requirement of examinations to test the fitness of candidates is extending, and since the establishment of five or six permanent schools of library science in the United States, with their graduates well equipped for library work, there is no longer any excuse for putting novices in charge of libraries--institutions where wide knowledge and thorough training are more indispensable than in any other profession whatever. In State libraries, no uniformity prevails as to control. In some States, the governor has the appointment of the librarian, while in others, he is an elective officer, the State Legislature being the electors. As governors rarely continue in office longer than two or three years, the tenure of a librarian under them is precarious, and a most valuable officer may at any time be superseded by another who would have to learn all that the other knows. The result is rarely favorable to the efficient administration of the library. In a business absolutely demanding the very largest compass of literary and scientific knowledge, frequent rotation in office is clearly out of place. In a public or State library, every added year of experience adds incalculably to the value of a librarian's services, provided he is of active habits, and full of zeal to make his acquired knowledge constantly useful to those who use the library. Partizan politics, with their frequent changes, if suffered to displace a tried librarian and staff, will be sure to defeat the highest usefulness of any library. What can a political appointee, a man totally without either library training or library experience, do with the tools of which he has never learned the use? It will take him years to learn, and by the time he has learned, some other political party coming uppermost will probably displace him, to make room for another novice, on the principle that "to the victors belong the spoils" of office. Meanwhile, "the hungry sheep look up and are not fed," as Milton sings--that is, readers are deprived of expert and intelligent guidance. This bane of political jobbery has not been confined to the libraries of States, but has invaded the management of many city and town libraries also. We have yet to learn of any benefit resulting to those who use the libraries.