Additionals," which latter shall be printed every three years for transmission abroad. As the Bodleian in Durie's time had privileges of copyright, provision is made for the treatment of copyright books" by the ideal librarian. "I would have at the time of giving accounts the Librarie-keeper also bound to produce the Catalogue of all the books sent unto the Universitie's Librarie by the Stationars that printed them, to the end that everie one of the Doctors in their own Faculties should declare whether or no they should bee added, and where they should bee placed in the Catalogue of Additionals." These rejected books were to be kept, though not added to the catalogue.

The modern ideal of the librarian has been forcibly explained by one who was perhaps the greatest among them, in this country at least-we mean Henry Bradshaw. "A librarian is one who earns his living by attending to the wants of those for whose use the library under his charge exists; his primary duty being, in the widest possible sense of the phrase, to save the time of those who seek his services." 1 To achieve this end there is required a rare combination of three qualities— scholarship, character, and business capacity. The day is long past when universal erudition was possible, but the ideal librarian will be a man of catholic tastes and retentive memory, interested in all the developments of human knowledge, and able by his linguistic attainments to follow them

1 Address to the Library Association of the United Kingdom, 1882.

in the literature of the chief civilised nations. Such a man is almost certain to be drawn by his natural bent into one field of specialisation, and with the aid of his staff, among whom his worthy successors are to be looked for, will be able to furnish to readers the advice of an expert over a large domain of knowledge. This ideal pre

supposes in him the zeal and sympathy which incite to study and research, with which must be combined the care for detail and the firmness of character that belongs to the efficient man of business.

We have now first to consider the methods by which it is sought to select and train the candidates for this high office, and the internal discipline of a library staff. The system under which librarians. are selected and educated in the United Kingdom shares the virtues and defects of our general attitude in these matters. It lacks the precision characteristic of Continental and American methods, but is perhaps not less successful if we judge by results.

The staffs of the larger libraries, except that of the British Museum, are recruited without examination of the candidates. This is counterbalanced, in the case of the Universities at any rate, by the ability of the chiefs, which those seats of learning seem always able to provide, men in whom the absence of technical training is amply compensated for by scholarship and administrative capacity. Of these men the rarest and most brilliant example is found in Henry Bradshaw, late University Librarian at Cambridge.

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

the entrance examination is one that runs through the whole of the Civil Service examinations in this country to select men of general capacity, whose education rather fits them to learn than fills them with knowledge. Sometimes, luckily for the public service, candidates of special attainments are found and nominated, whose general knowledge enables them to take the first place in the competitive examinations. These are ideal candidates, and necessarily not common.

The only organised education and examination of librarians in this country is directed by the Library Association of the United Kingdom. The education takes the form of a "Summer School for Students of Librarianship,” which is "intended to give library assistants and others who are training for appointments in libraries an opportunity of gaining a practical insight into those subjects which, as a rule, they can only learn from books, and to enable them to compare the various systems of library management." The programme of the 1897 School, just brought to a successful close, will give a good idea of the methods of the school :

Monday, 31st May.

7.30 P.M. Reception in the rooms of the Association, 20 Hanover Square, W. Tea and coffee.

8 P.M. Inaugural address by the Chairman of the Committee, C. Welsh, Esq., F.S.A.

8.30 P.M. Lecture by R. Garnett, Esq., C.B., LL.D., on "History and Poetry in the Victorian

Age."

Tuesday, 1st June.

IO A.M. Visit to the British Museum.

12 noon. Visit to the Cripplegate Institute, Golden The Manager, H. W.

Lane, E.C.

Capper, Esq., will conduct the party over the building.

3.30 P.M. Lecture by J. J. Ogle, Esq., on "Aids to Readers," at 20 Hanover Square, W. 7.45 P.M. Tea and coffee at 20 Hanover Square, W. 8.30 P.M. Lecture and demonstration on Binding," by C. Chivers, Esq.

Wednesday, 2nd June.

IO A.M. Visit to the St. Bride Foundation Institute, Bride Lane, Fleet Street, E.C. Walter J. Picket, Esq., Clerk to the Governors, and F. W. T. Lange, Esq., Librarian, will conduct the party over the building.

II A.M. Visit to the Bishopsgate Institute, Bishopsgate Street Without, E.C. R. W. Heaton, Esq., M.A., the Director and Librarian, will conduct the party over the building.

3 P.M. Lecture and demonstration by J. Henry Quinn, Esq., on "Subject Cataloguing,"

at the Chelsea Public Library, Manresa
Road, S.W., to be followed by a

Lecture and demonstration on "Library
Accounts," by Frank Pacy, Esq.

7.30 P.M. Tea and coffee at the Guildhall Library. King Street, Cheapside, E.C, by invi

tation of the Chairman of the Summer School Committee.