Bibliotherapy

Surely then, it should be the chief interest, joy and duty of hospital librarians?by which is meant professional or nonprofessional workers in libraries for hospital patients?to endeavour by instinct, training and human understanding, to link the appropriate book to each potential reader, sometimes by showing a genuine interest in whatever topic seems to raise queries, worries, or enthusiasm in the reader concerned; and having found that subject, the next step may well be a short, or not so short voyage of discovery on the part of the librarian as to the causes, motives ambitions or frustrations that seem to create certain interests, or to hold them back. In short, cmen do not dream the same dreams, and a successful librarian must therefore have both the natural and acquired ability (the latter born of experience and sympathy) to travel mentally, and practically, by reasonable knowledge of humanity and of books, into the minds, and to some extent, the experiences of his or her readers; and he should be able to visualise the field of opportunity open to those librarians working in rehabilitation hospitals for many patients with illnesses of a long standing nature. Amongst these, especially in these difficult interim years between two world wars, are anxiety cases of a psychological character, and physical cases, seemingly overcome at intervals by ideas which show no bright prospect for the future. Here again, quoting from Lord Beaverbrook, "I would give