They are still at the stage of child-growth. If the staff has sufficient enthusiasm to make the library grow from year to year, it leads to a vexatious situation. The authorities seldom realise how quickly the sanctioned staff is out-numbered. They complain of frequent applications for increase of staff and turn them down. Even with the best of effort, the inadequate staff is unable to render even half the service which they announce and aspire to render.
Publicity brings in more readers than can be served and more books than can be organised.
The result is complaint and disappointment from all quarters, and ridicule and under-writing by a handful of cynics whose voice drowns the voice of others. Cowardly and selfish librarians feel frustrated and begin to drift at the risk of the library repelling readers. I have seen this phenomenon recur in library after library in the East and in the West alike. Till recently, I had taken this to be as providential and inexorable as an earthquake. Of late, I am able to see some light and think of some means of averting this form of frustration in the growth of a young library and in the spirit of a hard working enthusiastic, pioneering staff who put service above self-interests.