The Special Requirements of the Larger Unit In Personnel Administration

various as botanical subspecies. Put three regional librarians on a panel and before they can approach the subject under discussion, each will preface his remarks with “In our system, we....” If any common denominator exists between federated libraries, coun-ty libraries, city-county combinations, multi-county or true district unit libraries, it is the difficulty of administering a staff fragmentized by distance, wide variations in educational background, split loyalties, and vastly differing responsibilities. A regional librarian counts it rou-tine to drive several hours to an outlying community to settle a staff problem, which has been complicated by the jealously guarded pre-rogatives of the local library board and the blithe defiance of the local municipal authorities. The administrator of a regional library lives with the realization that the excellence or inadequacies of staff will make or break the service, and the equally blunt truth that personnel prob-lems will be the cause of most broken contracts between units of a system. The personnel problem and practices at the central agency are, on the surface, very much the same as those of any public library, es-pecially if headquarters serves as a direct circulation point. Gretchen Schenk divided this staff into “... those who stay at home, and... those who trave1,”and wisely added that the behind-the-scenes per-sonnel are more important than it would seem.l Catalogers, reference librarians, and administrative staff must learn to catalog every book, scan every request, and word every communication with little Mrs. Smith of the Beaver Forks Station in mind. If not, they can unwittingly negate the efforts of the extension workers. Pity the branch visito