NOTICE TO LIBRARIANS. GEORGE WINTER, 52 Charing Cross Road, LONDON, W.C., Has a Large Stock of Fiction, Biography, Travels, etc., etc. Please send Lists of Wants and Replacements. LEATHER ANALYSIS. UNDER an arrangement entered into between the Council of the Library Association of the United Kingdom and their Official Examiner of Leather, the following Scale of Fees has been agreed upon : Samples of Leather, not less than six square inches, may now be WE would call the attention of Librarians to our stock of Second-hand Books. Our speciality if such we have is the Higher Text-Books and Books suited to Collegiate purposes; but we try to make the whole sphere of Literature, English and Foreign, our special province, and by a rigorous classification we trust that our endeavour is not an unsuccessful one. Please send us Lists of Desiderata, and let our reports be the criteria of our work. The following Catalogues will be sent post free on application: MATHEMATICAL BOOKS, 1,500 items (including the library of the late Prof. Sir G. G. Stoke). NATURAL SCIENCE BOOKS, 2,000 items. PHILOSOPHY AND ECONOMICS, 1,800 items. CLASSICAL BOOKS. W. HEFFER & & SONS, Second-band Booksellers, 4 PETTY CURY, CAMBRIDGE. Whitcomb House, Whitcomb Street, Pall Mall East, S.W. PROPOSAL FOR MEMBERSHIP. Annual Subscription, One Guinea. Full Name of Candidate Rank, Profession or Occupation Address being desirous of becoming a MEMBER OF THE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, we the undersigned do recommend him for election. Approved by Council Signature of Chairman Balloted for Result Signature of Chairman Tear off at line, and forward to the Honorary Secretary, at the above Address. The Library Association Record, 15TH JANUARY, 1906. This Magazine is Edited by the Publications Committee of the Library Association, who are responsible for all Unsigned Contributions. Contributions on Library Economy, Bibliography, and kindred topics are invited. Such Contributions, as also Letters to the Editor, should be addressed to The Editor, Whitcomb House, Whitcomb Street, Pall Mall East, S.W. Books for Review (which should come within the scope of the Magazine), and Catalogues, Bulletins, and other Library Publications, should be addressed to The Publications Committee, Library Association, London School of Economics, Clare Market, London, W.C. PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION AND REGISTRATION: SOME SUGGESTIONS. By W. R. B. PRIDEAUX, ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS LIBRARY, LONDON. YOU are all doubtless well aware that there are at present γου two schools of annotators-namely, annotators proper and evaluators. I hope that you will all belong to the latter at the end of this paper. Both schools are agreed in one particular, namely, that the special qualifications of the author should always be stated. The only special qualification for dealing with the education question that I can put forward is, that it has been my good fortune to have attended one or more courses of lectures arranged by the Education Committee every year since 1899. I am, in short, an experimentum in corpore vili. The subject has thus occupied my attention in a practical way for some years, and I venture to submit to your judgments the results of my cogitation thereon. I must begin by stating that this paper is not so fully worked out as I had wished, but I can plead in extenuation that it has been put down for a much earlier date in the session than I expected. We are all of us agreed-theoretically at least that one of the principal objects of this Association is the professional training of librarians, and the words of our charter are explicit on the subject: "The purposes of the Corporation are: (3) To promote whatever may tend to the improvement of the position and the qualifications of Librarians". Charters are granted to promote the organisation of a given sphere of work, and we should be neglecting our plain duty if we did not keep this question of education in the forefront. The cynic may say-in fact has frequently said— that the Council has done practically nothing so far in this direction. This is simply not true. It is not my purpose to detail here what has been accomplished, but I refer any one interested to the paper prepared by Mr. Roberts for the St. Louis Conference. I may also point out what an enormous advantage it is to have regular courses of instruction, especially if delivered in connection with a recognised educational body. To have worked through even an imperfect scheme of instruction is far more valuable than to learn little bits haphazard. No one who has gone into the matter can fail to recognise the good work done by the Council in the face of great difficulties, but it must be admitted that there still remains a great deal to do. The leaven is working slowly, for only a small fraction of library assistants have as yet risen to the opportunities of technical instruction now offered them. For the future of the profession it is necessary that the numbers undergoing a proper course of training should be largely increased, in fact this should be regarded as the normal qualification for any one seeking positions of responsibility in the library world. Why then have the numbers been comparatively so few up to now? First because we do not really believe in the value of education-for the most part we but pay it lip service. Belief is the ground of all action. We act on what we believe. I simply ask in this connection what proportion of the members of this Association press on their subordinates the claims of technical training? If even one-half or onethird of the members on our roll were to draw the attention of those working under them to the classes organised for |