The Library World Volume 24 Issue 9

FORTUNATELY few local authorities in recent years have distinguished themselves in the manner that Tunbridge Wells has done in the matter of the appointment of a public librarian. Our readers are familiar with the facts that an advertisement for a librarian appeared for whom a salary of £300 yearly was offered, which is rather less than N.A.L.G.O. expects an ordinary municipal clerk of 30 to receive. When some fifty or more candidates had been put to the trouble, expense and jeopardy (in some cases) of making application for the post, a section of the Tunbridge Wells Council, of whom the spokesman was Sir Robert Gower, discovered that the salary was ridiculously too high, and actually persuaded the Council to disown the advertisement and to re‐advertise the post at £150! Not only so, but each candidate received a letter asking him if he wished his application to stand at the new salary. Comment is needless. As we say, it is fortunately rarely that ignorance and impertinence are so publicly flaunted; and we hope that no trained librarian or library assistant will be found willing to accept the starvation position offered.