And what is the reason? The assistant who has given the book to the growing boy or girl has done it mechanically, has done it as a clerk has done it without knowledge of its message, and as a result has failed to arouse a love of books, a love of reading. The failure is in the library assistant. We have substituted for training in book values, for appreciation of their literary content, for knowledge of their true worth among assistants a mechanical skill in the handling of books. The trained assistant must ever keep alert in himself the spirit of knowledge that is in him. In this same spirit and by this same habit, the reading of trained members of the staff must become a contagion and quicken the love of books in the untrained. The library looks then to the trained assistant to come with a knowledge and love of books that shall be retained as his birthright, and used as a talent not hid in a napkin. Library assistants cannot all be college bred. Many library workers are recruited locally, among those for whom the library itself has been a university. These make up a large body of the assistants who fill important positions in all types of libraries. For their book knowledge and love of learning the colleges cannot be held responsible. The end desired must be secured by the library itself. First, by choosing for an assistant today one who has appreciated the environment of books; second, by encouraging and aiding him to a fuller knowledge of books through systematic reading; third, by creating an atmosphere of books in which future assistants may grow up. To the average assistant who feels her importance because she is working in a library, librarianship means an ability to do things with the hand, rather than with head and heart. Many seek a library position because they think it involves only neat and easy work, having in mind the purely mechanical and technical side, without a thought of its meaning and strength. The line should be drawn very sharply between those who know books, can think about them, and who can express the reason that is within them about their values, and those who only know their outside, their mechanical care, and the keeping of their records. So we find the responsibility for the book shortcomings of even our best educated assistants at our own door. It is said that librarians do not know the great life interests, the pervading charm of music, the thraldom of art, the abiding realities of religion, the solace of the out-of-doors; have never sensed the author's heart-throbs which have gone into the books they lightly handle, or gloried in the transcendent mysteries which lie in poetry. How many library assistants really do read books for the joy of it? In how many has this joy been killed; in how many has it never been created? For these is not the library responsible?