Page:The library a magazine of bibliography and library literature, Volume 6.djvu/150

138 sphere of labour, and proving that they can do work of this kind quite as well as their brothers. There they have more opportunities of getting a fair trial than we in England possess, for library committees are convinced that librarianship is a profession eminently suited to earnest women of education and refinement, and give them every encouragement accordingly.

The Library School at Albany seems to be doing a good work in training and sending out women ready to labour for the uplifting of those in the towns where their lot is cast, and that good may be done amongst the readers, especially young readers, cannot be denied.

Now that so much more education is considered necessary for every station in life, libraries will soon be found in every town in the kingdom, and this will open up a vast field of labour for both men and women. It is only lately that librarianship has been included amongst the professions at all, and it depends mainly on librarians themselves whether their work is recognised by the outside public or not.

A paper was read at the second annual meeting of the Library Association, held in Manchester in 1879, by the late Alderman Thomas Baker, who was then chairman of the libraries' committee, on "The Employment of Young Women as Assistants in Free Public Libraries." Mr. Baker said he believed the plan was first tried in the Manchester libraries, and had proved a success. At that time they were only employed as assistants; but since then ladies have held the position of librarians in the branches of the Manchester library, who have, doubtless, in the first place, served in the capacity of assistant in one of the libraries under the corporation.

A girl who enters a library as assistant, and intends to make the work her life-work, if we may so call it, neglects no opportunity of learning as much as possible of the technical part of librarianship, and at the same time tries to improve herself in general knowledge. There is not much time for very deep study of any subject, for the hours in a library are usually very long; but a librarian, male or female, who is always on the alert to find out the books which will be most useful to borrowers and persons who come to seek information of various kinds, will make the institution under his or her charge more popular and flourishing than one who is very learned in any one subject, and, perhaps, oblivious of the fact that the visitors to a