The Library Assistant's Manual (Classic Reprint)

Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Library Assistant's Manual A rural visitor at the Philadelphia Library Company after gazing with open mouth at the well filled Shelves turned to the reference assistant and said in a confidential tone, Now, isn't there some book that has it all in? He was referred to the bulky and voluminous encyclopedias. N he demurred, I mean some small book. Librarians are frequently asked many questions as to the nature of their work, not only by outsiders but by people in authority who ought to know at least the rudiments of librarianship. A library is a place where people seem to be doing the greatest amount of useless work, is a remark (probably spurious) attributed to one visitor to Harvard University Library. Others seem to think that library assistants have infinite leisure to read all the books under their charge. There is apparently a need for some small book on the general subject of library work. It is hoped that the free distribution of the present booklet by the Michigan State Board Of Library Commissioners will get it into the hands of untrained assistants and library appren tices who are in need of a brief introduction to library work. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.