The Library and Society: Reprints of Papers and Addresses
History
The Library and Society: Reprints of Papers and Addresses
Libraries and society; Library science -- Social aspects
Library taste is placed low on this list of qualifications, because in
any administrative position, even in connection with a library, capacity
and willingness to work, united with common-sense and a fair education,
are much more useful than a taste for literature without the practical
qualities. And of the different grades of literary taste, general
culture and a wide range of reading are generally more serviceable to a
public library than the knowledge of the scholar or the specialist.
In selecting men of prominence for trustees, there is danger of
excluding too rigidly the younger men who might contribute to the
strength and efficiency of the board. There is so much activity and
progress in the library work of this generation, that the adage "Old men
for counsel, young men for action" is not wholly inapplicable to the
choice of trustees, whose work requires counsel and action in nearly
equal degrees.
With a large board it would seem wise to select members with some
reference to representation of different sections of the town, and
different occupations, interests, or nationalities among the
inhabitants. This tends to prevent dissatisfaction, and to adapt the
purchase of books and the general policy of the library to the needs of
the whole community, rather than to the wishes of special classes.
Neither politics nor religious opinion should of course enter into the
choice of library trustees, except so far as it is unwise to constitute
a board exclusively from one party or one denomination.
4. DUTIES, INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE
As an individual, the trustee of a public library ought to realize that
he holds a high and sacred trust from the people; that he has been
elected to preserve and extend the privileges and benefits afforded by
the library in its modern development as "The People's University"; that
library science is not to be comprehended by intuition, but can be
learned only by intelligent observation and study; and that he has no
right to accept or hold the position unless he can take a lively
interest in the library, be constant in attendance at meetings and
diligent in committee work, keep himself informed of the current library
ideas by reading every number of the _Library journal_, and, if
possible, by visiting other libraries than his own, and watch keenly the
tastes and requirements of the constituency he represents.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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