The Library World Volume 49 Issue 8

Abstract

THIS journal is not devoted exclusively to public libraries; they are only part of the library fabric but, because the preponderant number of workers in our craft are in public libraries, they and their work naturally occur more often in our pages than do those of others. We have always urged that the profession is indivisable and that a librarian is a person who, in his fundamental training, should be equipped to serve in any kind of library. The tendency to create distinctions, based upon slight—and they usually are slight—differences of work, are unfortunate and have led to bickerings and sometimes recriminations. Even between the two arms of the public library service, the county and the urban, there has been an emphasis on the differences rather than the likenesses; and every wise librarian knows that the services of a fully‐engaged library in a town are exactly the same as those of a county except that the county has to cover longer distances. The emphasis is even stronger where public and nonpublic libraries are in question.