I recently read an article for class entitled, "The Personal Relationship between Librarian and Reader" from an 1876 public librarian. It provides a nostalgic and interesting look at how the role of reference librarian was established. The public librarian attempts to argue the importance of mingling among librarians and readers to best serve the needs of the community. He states, "The more freely a librarian mingles with readers, and the greater the amount of assistance he renders them, the more intense does the conviction of citizens, also, become, that the library is a useful institution, and the more willing do they grow to grant money in larger and larger sums to be used in buying books and employing additional assistants."
His description of a reference assistant gives insight into the political correctness of the time:
"Now, the policy advocated of freedom of intercourse between librarian and readers, when adopted in the conduct of these departments, does much to give efficiency to the efforts of the officers to get readers to take out wholesome books and such works as are adapted to their capacity and the grade of enlightenment to which they belong. It is a common practice, as we all know, for users of a library to ask the librarian or his assistants to select stories for them. I would have great use made of this disposition. Place in the circulating department one of the most accomplished persons in the corps of your assistants--some cultivated woman, for instance, who heartily enjoys works of the imagination, but whose taste is educated. She must be a person of pleasant manners, and -while of proper dignity, ready to unbend, and of social disposition. It is well if there is a vein of philanthropy in her composition. Instruct this assistant to consult with every person who asks for help in selecting books. This should not be her whole work; for work of this kind is best done when it has the appearance of being performed incidentally. Let the assistant, then, have some regular work, but such employment as she can at once lay aside when her aid is asked for in picking out books to read. I am confident that in some such way as this a great influence can be exerted in the direction of causing good books to be used."
http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/jrichardson/DIS220/personal.htm
