=67. Qualifications.=--As is the case with the prominent members of every other profession, good librarians are born, not made. Training and experience cannot create such natural endowments as enthusiasm, originality, initiative--in short, positive genius for the work; but training and experience in sound methods will provide a passable substitute. Experience, however, depends for its value upon its character, and long years in inefficiently-managed libraries will not suffice for modern needs. Owing to the wide difference between the methods of, say, thirty years ago, and the more scientific methods of to-day, it is necessary to judge the experience of any librarian by the school in which he has been trained. This does not mean that a library which has been in existence thirty years or more is operated by obsolete methods; most of the larger libraries, indeed, have kept pace with, and have helped to originate, the modern methods which are to be preferred. At the same time the practice of appointing librarians from larger libraries in preference to those from smaller ones is often mistaken. A small library may afford its staff opportunities for a more comprehensive training than a large one, but it may not be so extensive in detail. In short, the _size_ of the library in which a man is trained is no index to the character of its service, and this character is the main factor in considering experience. The physical qualifications of a librarian should include good health, freedom from deformity, defect or incurable disease, and his or her age should not usually be less than twenty-five. Age is not so important in cases of promotion, as the committee has first-hand and accurate knowledge of capabilities to guide it. As regards the physical condition of librarians, it may be said generally that the same principles which guide selection in business appointments should be the rule in library appointments.