Page:Library Administration, 1898.djvu/23

 The staff of assistant librarians in the British Museum is selected by a double test. First, the three principal Trustees of the institution (the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Speaker of the House of Commons, and the Lord Chancellor) give "nominations" or permissions to compete to a number of candidates selected with a view to their usefulness, and then these compete among themselves for the place or places that may become vacant. The examination is in part qualificatory (writing, arithmetic, mathematics, or history) and in part competitive (translation from and composition in Latin and Greek, and two or three modern languages). No bibliographical knowledge is exacted, and herein is the most striking contrast with all other systems. The successful candidate or candidates are then received on probation in the library for two years. In that space of time their capacity to acquire bibliographical and other knowledge can be tested. For a considerable portion of the staff the antiquarian part of bibliography, so much insisted on in the Continental examinations, will be quite superfluous. At least two assistants are required to look after the supply of modern European literature, and for this require knowledge of languages and literature, and a capacity to thwart the wiliness or stir up the sluggishness of booksellers. Another will be concerned with the administration of the Copyright Acts, another with the binding department. A knowledge of early printers, for instance, or the Dewey system, will be of little service to these. The principle of