Major Problems in the Education of Librarians 9780231885959

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M A J O R P R O B L E M S IN EDUCATION

OF

THE

LIBRARIANS

MAJOR PROBLEMS I N THE E D U C A T I O N OF LIBRARIANS

Editor

R O B E R T D. L E I G H Contributors LAURETTA

G.

McCUSKER

KATHLYN JOHNSON F R A N C E S M.

New York COLUMBIA

MOSES

POLLARD

ip/ 4 UNIVERSITY

PRESS

COPYRIGHT

1 9 5 4 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS, N E W

PUBLISHED

IN GREAT BRITAIN, CANADA, INDIA, AND

YORK PAKISTAN

B Y GEOFFREY CUMBERLEGE, OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON, TORONTO, BOMBAY, AND KARACHI

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number:

54-6913

MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

FOREWORD

is the unpremeditated product of the reports and discussions of the 1952-53 seminar in Education for Librarianship at the School of Library Service, Columbia University. When L S 391, as it is called in the School's catalog, met last fall I presented the usual instructor's list of suggestions for individual reports to constitute the class members' contribution to the seminar. T h e seven seminar members chose from the list what seemed to me to be the major, current problems in the field of education f o r librarianship. Their reports were uniformly thoughtful and mature. Three of the seven, all of whom were on leave from professional positions involving the teaching of future librarians, asked to continue their work in this field for a second semester. T H I S BOOK

I protested that I had made whatever individual contributions I have to the subject in my presentations of background material drawn from the studies I had made for the Public Library Inquiry, the brief study made subsequently as consultant f o r the N e w Jersey Committee on Library Education, and the more comprehensive and thorough analysis of the needs of and facilities for the education of librarians in California that I had just completed for President Sproul and the Library Council of the Uni-

VI

FOREWORD

versity of California. I suggested, however, that I would serve as editor and critic if they wished to fashion the reports of L S 391 into a manuscript, perhaps a book, for a wider audience. T h e y agreed enthusiastically to this proposal and thus L S 392 was born. W e drew up an outline of organization with extensive suggestions for revision, restatement, and condensation of the L S 391 reports. T h e three seminar members accepted chapter assignments on this basis; there were fortnightly meetings for criticism and making further revisions, and I don't know how many midnight sessions of the three in Johnson Hall. A t the end of the semester they presented me with a completed manuscript. It is impossible to say just who wrote this book. T h e basis for three chapters and parts of a fourth, as stated in the footnote at the beginnings of these chapters, is contained in the reports of the four L S 391 seminar members w h o were not able to continue in the work of preparing the manuscript: Barbara A . Gates, Margaret Porter, John B. Stratton, and Irving Verschoor. In some cases the three continuing members, Lauretta G . McCusker, Kathlyn J. Moses, and Frances M. Pollard, discussed their revisions with the original authors, but the latter cannot be held responsible for the chapters that resulted. T h e three author-editors in some cases made their own and somewhat variant contributions to the final result. Because of their primary professional interest, the L S 391 reports of the author-editors were concentrated on the problems of training school and children's librarians and the related problems of accreditation and certifica-

FOREWORD

Vll

tion. Chapter 5 is their joint product, as are also, the introductory and concluding chapters. Perhaps I should say our joint product, for as I have read over the completed manuscript I find references, statements, and ideas that stem from m y presentations to the seminar group in the fall and from my written suggestions for revisions, chapter by chapter, this spring. Indeed, in the case of the introductory and concluding chapters my function, in the end, was that of joint author rather than editor. Whatever the artificial allocations of individual responsibility are for what was essentially a team product, this volume indicates, almost without exception, my own preferences as to the desirable road to travel in the development of education for librarianship in the United States. A f t e r working and writing in the field for six years under the necessary limitations imposed by official quantitative surveys I have enjoyed the opportunity of participating in an enterprise of relatively uninhibited commentary and recommendation regarding library schools and training. There was animated discussion and lively controversy in LS 391, for the seminar members looked at old problems with the boldness and freshness of younger members of the profession. Their thinking together is transmitted here in print to that larger seminar consisting of the library profession as a whole in the hope that it will lead to further lively discussion and controversy out of which the newer general program for library education in the United States will gain a solid base in broad consensus.

viii

FOREWORD

A F I N A L WORD ABOUT T H E OF T H E T H E THREE

MEMBERS

SEMINAR

AUTHOR-EDITORS

Lauretta G . McCusker, born in Quebec, Canada; graduate of Western Maryland College, 1942, with major in library science, education, and history; MS, School of Library Service, Columbia, 1951; school library positions in public and private high schools, 1942-47; Instructor, Iowa State Teachers College 1948-52, Assistant professor 1953-; on leave of absence 1952-53, from this institution to attend the School of Library Service at Columbia University to begin work for D L S degree, also serving as teaching assistant for the year. Kathlyn Johnson Moses, graduate of Spelman College, 1939; assistant and instructor in English, Social Studies, or Dramatics, at Dillard University (New Orleans), Fisk University (Nashville), Gilbert Academy (New Orleans), Booker Washington High School (Columbia, S.C.), 1939-1947; Librarian of Gilbert Academy, then C. A . Johnson High School (Columbia, S.C.), 1948-51; faculty of Department of Library Service, South Carolina State College beginning in 1951, from which in 1952-53 she was on leave on a General Education Board Fellowship at the School of Library Service, Columbia University. Frances M. Pollard, born in Alabama, graduate of Alabama State Teachers College (Montgomery) with B S in Education, 1941; MS in Library Service, School of Library Service, Western Reserve University, 1949, serv-

ix

FOREWORD

ing also during the year as Student Aide in the Children's Room of a Cleveland Public Library branch; teacher in grade schools in Alabama, 1938-1943; Library Assistant military library, Fort McClellan, 1943-46; assistant, cataloging department, then assistant librarian in charge of library of graduate division, with part-time teaching duties in library education department, Alabama State College, beginning 1947; on leave, 1952-54, on a General Education Board Fellowship to study for DLS degree. Also, she was a member of the A L A Subscription Books Committee and served as temporary assistant to the Chief of Publishing Dept. of A L A for a short period in 1952. THE OTHER M E M B E R S OF LS

391

Barbara A. Gates, born in Massachusetts, graduate of Simmons College (Boston), 1946, with a major in library science; cataloger, Iowa State College Library, 1946-49; cataloger at Vassar College Library, 1949-5 2 ; MS, School of Library Service, Columbia University, 1953; appointed to be Head of Technical Processes at the Brookline, Mass., Public Library, June, 1953. Margaret Porter, AB Colorado State College of Education (Greeley), in 1942 and MA in 1947; Library Diploma, University of Denver, School of Library Service, 1942; now librarian of the Laboratory School Library, Colorado State College of Education from which she was on leave of absence for the first semester, 1952-53, to take work at the School of Library Service, Columbia University. John B. Stratton, born in Ohio, graduate of Ohio Wesley an University, 1930; various positions in bookstores,

X

FOREWORD

life insurance, 1930-39; and in Army Air Forces, 1939-41 ; BLS, School of Library Service, Columbia University, 1942; MS, 1952; teaching assistant while working for DLS degree, 1952-53; circulation library staff, Ohio State University, 1939-41, and Assistant Circulation Librarian, 1946; Acquisitions Librarian, Oklahoma A&M College beginning fall of 1946. He was a member of the A L A Bookbinding Committee, 1946-51, and its chairman, 1951-52. Irving Verschoor, graduate of Fordham University with BS, 1936, graduate work 1936-39 in linguistics and psychology with AIA from New York University, 1939; graduate work in biological sciences, New York State College for Teachers (Albany), 1947; MS in Library Service, Columbia University, 1949, teaching assistant with work for DLS 1949-50; taught English in high schools of New York state, 1938-42, 1947-48; Operations Officer with rank of Captain, U.S. Army, 1942-46; in processing department, Columbia University Library and in New York State Library, 1948-49; administrative assistant and field representative, 1949, now Public Library Consultant, Division of Library Extension, New York State Library, Albany. ROBERT D .

July,

1953.

LEIGH

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

V

1

INTRODUCTION

3

2

CLINICAL EXPERIENCE AND THEORY

18

3

THE EDUCATION OF SPECIAL LIBRARIANS

34

4

THE TRAINING OF VILLAGE LIBRARIANS

47

5

THE EDUCATION OF SCHOOL AND CHILDREN'S LIBRARIANS

6

65

A GENERAL PROGRAM FOR THE EDUCATION OF LIBRARIANS

APPENDIX:

SUGGESTED CALENDARS FOR T H E

YEAR WORK AND STUDY PLAN

93 TWO102

BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTES

105

INDEX

I I I

MAJOR PROBLEMS IN EDUCATION

OF

THE

LIBRARIANS

I

INTRODUCTION

of experimentation with new library school programs, to what extent have the problems of education for librarianship been reduced? Progress has been made but a number of major problems remain unsolved. These problems are: 1. How to achieve balance in the basic professional year between theoretical training and the learning of practical techniques. 2. H o w to educate specialists for special libraries and the various other types of libraries. And what is the relationship of specialization to the general, basic program of library education? 3. How to educate librarians for work in small public libraries where conditions of part-time employment and small pay cannot justify full professional education. 4. How to bring into relationship the education of school librarians, now trained for the most part in undergraduate programs of teacher-training institutions, and that of children's librarians now being prepared as part of the general library curriculum on the graduate level, and of whom there is at present an alarming shortage. A F T E R FIVE YEARS

5. H o w to develop effective machinery for accreditation and certification which can bring into reasonable

4

INTRODUCTION

order, uniformity, and a rational relationship the various types and levels of training. This book is an attempt to define and analyze these major problems and to suggest the more general framework in which they can be resolved for the decades ahead. In other words, it is a presentation of a general program for the education of librarians in the United States—not only librarians of universities and large public libraries, but also special librarians, school and children's librarians, and small town and village librarians. In 1948, the Board of Education for Librarianship of the American Library Association recognized that rapid changes in library school programs made it impossible to continue to apply the 1933 standards that classified library schools as T y p e s I, II, or III. "With the expectation that revised standards would be completed in a relatively short time, the board suspended accreditation of new schools in August, 1948. T h e status of the library schools then accredited has continued without change." 1 W h e n recently the B E L attempted to standardize the new patterns developed b y schools, it was seen that other latent problems had come to the fore and that a larger and more inclusive design was needed than the one which had been suspended four years earlier. Thus this is an opportune time to give careful attention to the problems of education for librarianship and to utilize more than half-way measures in solving them. T h e major problems which have come to the fore, it will be seen, are not new; they have been apparent on the 1 "Proposals f o r A c c r e d i t i n g Professional Programs; A Statement of P o l i c y b y the A L A B o a r d of Education f o r Librarianship," A L A Bulletin, V o l . 4 j , N o . 1 (January, 1951), p. 9.

INTRODUCTION

5

horizon for a long time; they are the problems of library education that are being faced and dealt with in one way or another in countries other than the United States. Nor are they the only difficulties of library education. Before they emerged as insistent problems demanding some sort of solution, there were in all library schools the perennial difficulties of selection and recruitment of students, of obtaining sufficient financial support, a competent faculty, adequate research facilities, appropriate texts and other materials, and efficient methods of teaching and administration. These persistent problems will continue to exist when the new general patterns have been established. W e are not considering them here. Our attention is devoted to what seem to be the major questions of general educational design to be faced and resolved within the next few years, if there is to be any general design with meaning, consistency, or stability in the education of the library profession in the United States. T o use the ostrich technique is no solution, for though we may ignore these problems, they will not go away. The historical evoIution of the problems of education for librarianship in the United States has been described in detail so recently in the Leigh section of The Public Librarian 2 that only a brief indication of this development is related here. In that volume the evolution of library education was described as falling naturally into three periods and it was suggested that we are now in a fourth. These periods are: HOW THE PROBLEMS HAVE EVOLVED

2 R. D. Leigh, "The Education of Librarians," in A . I. Bryan, The Public Librarian, pp. 300-425.

6

INTRODUCTION

Pre-Dewey, Dewey to Williamson, and from Williamson to 1948. Pre-Dewey : The period before the establishment of the School of Library Economy of Columbia College by Melvil Dewey. University and college librarians and public librarians were the principal groups and they were on different educational levels. Retired professors were generally assigned the responsibility for libraries in colleges and universities, but public librarians were trained through apprenticeship or in practical training classes conducted by libraries. Dewey to Williamson: The period beginning with the establishment of separate library schools and continuing through the First World War. The location of the first library school in an academic setting for its first two years was accidental, and only three of the other schools established in this period were instituted at the outset as schools in a university. Library school curricula emphasized the technical and practical aspects of librarianship and the programs gradually came to include the traditional core subjects; cataloging and classification, reference and bibliography, book selection, and administration of libraries. Williamson to 1948: The period dating from the publication in 1923 of the report of the survey of "conditions . . . with respect to training for library w o r k " conducted by Dr. Charles C. Williamson 3 to the revision of curricula and degree structure that began in 1948. As a result of the recommendations of Dr. Williamson, library schools that had been operated by libraries and agencies other than teaching institutions were moved to academic 3

C. C. Williamson, Training for Library

Service.

INTRODUCTION

7

settings and reorganized as schools within colleges or universities. The basic library school program came to consist of one graduate year of study leading to a bachelor's degree, and a few schools offered advanced professional training beyond the first year. The first semester of the basic program was devoted to general library courses; the second semester provided opportunity for specialization for work in particular types of libraries. The Board of Education for Librarianship of the American Library Association, formed in 1924, has since served as the accrediting agency for library education programs, publishing lists of three classes of accredited schools determined on the basis of admission requirements and programs offered. 4 In the case of the T y p e III schools recognized by B E L , which offered the first full year of library science within a four-year undergraduate program, library education was not established on a graduate basis. The T y p e III school curriculum often emphasized the preparation of school librarians, and this role was generally accepted by those in charge; however, mounting criticism of the T y p e III school as a general training agency for all library positions and dissatisfaction with the degree structure of awarding a Bachelor's degree for a fifth year of work in the T y p e I and T y p e II schools led to a reexamination of the whole structure of library education. Criticism of the emphasis * Type I comprises library schools which require at least a bachelor's degree for admission to the first full academic year of library science and/or which give advanced professional training beyond the first year. Type II consists of library schools which give only the first full academic year of library science and require four years of appropriate college work for admission. Type III consists of library schools which give only the first full academic year of library science and do not require four years of college work for admission.

8

INTRODUCTION

on the technical aspects of library work in the fifth-year program was another major factor that prompted the revision of the curricula in graduate schools initiated in 1948. The Present Period of Transition: The present period, characterized by experimental changes in the curriculum and degree structure of library schools. The changes have been gradual, and differences in objectives of institutions have resulted in a variety of curricular designs. This variation is justified in the following statement from the Board of Education for Librarianship: The board believes that the nature of a program of professional education, and hence the minimum requirements for a library school offering such a program, depends upon objectives; that the responsibility for setting the objectives and standards for preparation for entry to the library profession rests with the membership of the profession including library education specialists; that the accrediting agency acting for the membership should properly set broad objectives as a guide to institutions sponsoring and proposing to sponsor programs of professional education; and that programs with differing objectives recognized by a national accrediting agency should be clearly identified.5 The general recommendations for the new five-year program were outlined as: 1. That the basic professional program shall represent five years of education beyond the secondary school level. 2. That the professional content of such programs may be arranged differently within the five-year period but shall represent a minimum of one academic year. 3. That the primary instructional objective of the five5 "Proposals for Accrediting Professional Programs; A Statement of Policy by the A L A Board of Education for Librarianship," A L A Bulletin, Vol. 45, No. 1 (January, 1951), pp. 9-10.

INTRODUCTION

9

year program shall be to develop professional personnel grounded in the fundamental principles and processes common to all types of libraries and all phases of library service. 4. That instruction for specialized service in libraries may occupy a place in this basic program but not at the sacrifice of necessary general academic and professional preparation. 5. That professional schools which do not have effective control over courses outside the professional curriculum through guidance or prescription shall be responsible for achieving overall objectives through selection of students and/or requiring relevant course work subsequent to admission to the professional school.9 B y 1948 a number of library schools had reorganized, or were reorganizing, their degree structure so that the Master's degree instead of the BS in Library Science became the first professional degree. A liberal arts background represented by the four-year undergraduate program was accepted in all of them as the foundation f o r professional education. T h e " n e w plan" represents a definite step forward in the evolution of the education of librarians. It is the latest stage in a gradual process of change from apprenticeship in libraries, then library school curricula that emphasized the practical and technical aspects of librarianship, then an attempt toward a more academic generalized concept of library education, to a program in which the full year is largely theoretical and attempts to generalize and professionalize the traditional techniques. THEORY AND PRACTICE

T h e former criticism of too much emphasis on memoriter techniques has been replaced b y the criticism that there 6

Ibid., p. 10.

IO

INTRODUCTION

is now too little training in techniques, so that the present grave problem is whether library schools in their trend toward graduate, professional, academic standards have thrown out the baby with the bath and are too far divorced from the day-to-day work in libraries. Similarly, the criticism that there is no distinction between professional and clerical work is being replaced by the criticism that library school graduates are so much impressed with the professional aspects of the work that they look with utter disdain on anything that has a tinge of the clerical. SPECIAL

LIBRARIANS

The broad area of provision for specialization in library work presents many associated problems. Specialized training is necessary for professional librarians who must provide a special literature and special services for a special clientele. Librarians serving industry, hospitals, business, research institutes, and banks as well as librarians in large subject-departmentalized public and university libraries need specialized knowledge of various subject fields not required for work in a small general library. H o w can library schools provide the specialized training needed in addition to the basic body of knowledge required of all librarians? VILLAGE

LIBRARIANS

Sixty-five percent of the public libraries in the United States serve the small villages with populations of less than five thousand. It is not realistic to expect that librarians holding these part-time, small-pay jobs secure graduate professional education. On the other hand, some training

INTRODUCTION

is necessary. Is the solution on-the-job training? If so, what are the most effective methods for providing it? SCHOOL AND C H I L D R E N ' S

LIBRARIANS

Service to children came as a part of the public library development at an earlier stage than school library service. T h e later emphasis on school libraries came as the result of curriculum changes and the move away from the textbook method of teaching. Despite similarities in the nature of the work, two distinct patterns of education for work with these younger age groups developed: one for public librarians and another for school librarians. Both public and school library groups recognized that a knowledge of psychology and education is needed in order to work effectively with children and young people. T h e public library did not require such knowledge for employment, however, and as the public librarians depended solely on the graduate library school to provide their professional education, this important area of knowledge was usually lacking. On the other hand, certification requirements demanded that school librarians have a background in education and psychology; therefore, the school librarians turned to the teacher-education institutions to meet these requirements. Eventually, the increased demand for school librarians, resulting from the pressure of regional accrediting agencies, led to the situation where teachereducation institutions took on the added function of educating school librarians. A major problem facing schools was how to meet the demand for libraries and library service resulting from the changing curriculum and the emphasis on a wealth of

12

INTRODUCTION

resource materials. W h o was to administer the new materials centers? In most instances teachers designated as teacher librarians were given the library as a part-time responsibility. Many of these teachers did seek library training through graduate library schools or through teacher-education institutions. But the quantitative standards of regional accrediting associations helped entrench the position of part-time librarian with less than a full year of professional training. H o w long this permanent emergency that permits the position of teacher librarian will be accepted as a reason for permitting inadequately prepared persons to hold professional positions in school libraries is one of the insistent current problems of librarian education. ACCREDITATION

Policy changes outside the control of the library profession and of the library schools have raised problems. T h e recent decision of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education to evaluate the total program of teacher-education institutions and departments brought about the need for criteria designed specifically for the evaluation of library science programs offered b y these institutions. T h e Board of Education for Librarianship of the American Library Association assisted by the representatives of the American Association of School Librarians, Association of College and Reference Libraries, and State School Library Supervisors developed standards for these programs. These standards were approved by the American Library Association and accepted b y the A A C T E early in 1952. A cooperative program f o r ac-

INTRODUCTION

13

crediting both centers of librarian education seemed in sight. But in February, 1952, the National Commission on Accrediting, a new general organization in the general field of accrediting, requested a moratorium on accrediting of all professional schools by professional associations until further notice. On December 8, 1952, a letter to the library schools from the National Commission on Accrediting requested that the A L A , A A C T E , and similar agencies cease their accrediting activities altogether. A L A did not accept this directive and has continued to accredit graduate library school programs. The final decision as to what body shall accredit library schools and which one shall formulate standards and criteria for accreditation will have its effect on the future development of library service in the United States. The role of the A L A Board of Education for Librarianship and its relation to other accrediting groups needs clarification. LIBRARY EDUCATION I N EUROPE

American librarianship has made and is making significant contributions to library programs throughout the world. Contributions to be meaningful, however, must be predicated on a give-and-take process. As other countries adopt what is best in our programs, we, too, need to study carefully their programs, for we can learn much from whatever progress and mistakes they have made in the constantly evolving patterns of library education. Some of our problems are easier than theirs in that we have consolidated into one structure the training of public and of university-college librarians. On the continent of Eu-

14

INTRODUCTION

rope, library education has developed on two different academic levels: the highly developed university-level training for research and university librarians and an emerging formal education for public librarians on a lower academic level. Other approaches and solutions in these countries may have suggestions for us: 1. The insistence on a combination of experience in libraries with theoretical training in the structure of preparation for basic professional certification. In England a rigid examination system, instead of formal library education, is the basis for certification. Candidates may prepare for the examinations by attending library schools, by working in libraries, or through independent study or correspondence courses. Germany has perhaps the most highly developed system for combining theoretical and practical work. A system of education which requires two years of apprenticeship, in addition to theory, resulted from the Prussian Act of 1895 and has served to the present as a guide for German education for university librarianship. Modifications in the Act have been made to meet the changing concept of the role of the library. 2. Development of advanced training for directive positions. In England, after the completion of the first two examinations, which include our basic library curriculum and English literary history, and after three years of additional experience, the candidate for executive positions is then ready for the third examination. This last examination tests for mature judgment and experience and for factual knowledge in the field of librarianship. T h e examination covers a second foreign language, literature of

INTRODUCTION

15

subject areas, bibliography, book selection, library administration, and an oral examination on the same material covered above. The third level of positions in Germany is designated as "superior service" and is designed for administrators of national and university libraries. Preparation of a candidate for these positions is equivalent to that required of an American PhD candidate, but in addition, he must have one or two years of library school training which includes a combination of theoretical and practical work in several types of libraries. Until recently, in France all training was designed to prepare for executive positions in the university and national libraries. The curriculum of the École des Chartes is a three-year program with emphasis on history, Latin philology, and civil and canon law. In 1932, the Ministry of Education introduced some technical courses—history of the book, library administration, and cataloging. The candidate for administrative positions also serves a three-month period of apprenticeship in a library approved by the Ministry of Education. 3. Uniform examinations for admission to professional status. In England, France, and Germany, admission to the library profession is controlled by a central agency. The British Library Association formulates and administers examinations for the various levels of library service. The unusual role played by the B L A as compared to that of the American B E L is interesting to librarians of this country. Even though the B L A assumes no responsibility for the education of librarians, it does assume responsibility for the examination system that controls the appointment of public librarians in Great Britain. As in Eng-

16

INTRODUCTION

land, appointment to each of the levels of position in Germany is determined by an examination system. Placement in German libraries is controlled by the Civil Service system, a factor that has had a strong influence on the highly developed program of education for university librarianship in that country. CONCLUSION

Thirty years have passed since the Williamson Report struck the library world with the impact of a thunderbolt. This seems ample time for recovery from the shock. It is now time to reexamine the Williamson recommendations as stated in 1923 and reemphasized by Leigh in the Public Library Inquiry in 1952. In our search for some general framework for the education of librarians, it appears that with modifications the Williamson proposals are still the best starting point. Williamson criticized the methods (existing at the time of the survey) for giving a background in the basic principles of librarianship and a knowledge of practical skills. He also recognized the inadequacy of unsupervised work in a library as a means of education. The ideal curriculum according to the Williamson recommendations would include a first year of general instruction in the basic subjects and a second year of specialized training. Between the first and second years, students should have a full year of library experience. Other recommendations emphasized the need for a system of accreditation for library schools, for voluntary certification of librarians, for preparation of better textbooks and manuals, and for summer schools and institutes to provide for in-service training of professional librarians.

INTRODUCTION

17

In the following chapters we analyze the five problems of librarian education which seem to us both important and immediate, and present our suggestions for dealing with them. In a final chapter we indicate how these suggestions form a consistent general pattern for the education of librarians.

2-

CLINICAL

EXPERIENCE

AND

THEORY

T H E QUESTION of practical versus theoretical training in the program of education f o r librarianship is much in the minds of those interested in the kind of education the y o u n g people entering the profession today are receiving. 1 W h e n library training agencies first came into existence, and f o r m a n y years thereafter, the stress w a s placed on the k n o w l e d g e of the practical skills involved in library w o r k . In the first announcement concerning the establishment of his school, Melvil D e w e y said, As the School aims to give not only information, but practical training, something more than the ordinary scholastic method is essential, and any means that promise to make more efficient librarians will be tried. . . . As mere lectures and text books, however good, will not give the best preparation f o r the law without practice in office work and moot courts and observations of the methods of ablest members of the bar; nor the best training to the physician without clinics and experience in the hospitals; and as no good working chemist was ever made without the laboratory, so lectures and reading alone will not achieve the best results in training for librarianship without the conference, problems, study of various libraries in successful operation, and actual work in a library. T h e aim of the School is wholly practical, and 1 This Chapter is based upon the paper prepared by Barbara Gates for L S 391, Seminar on Education of Librarians. Her paper was revised and condensed by Lauretta McCusker and by the Seminar instructor for use in the present volume.

CLINICAL

EXPERIENCE

AND

THEORY

19

therefore it will use all these methods in such proportion as experience proves will give the best results.2 Included in the training programs of the D e w e y era were courses now considered both clerical and professional: i.e., cataloging and classification, reference, book selection, book mending and repair, typing, lettering, and circulation procedures. Stress was placed on methods and techniques rather than on the basic underlying principles. F o r many years after library schools came into existence, the importance of the mechanics of the work persisted so that many practicing librarians reared in the tradition feel that today's library school graduate cannot handle reference questions or catalog books properly because he has not had the intensive laboratory practice formerly given in library schools. Librarians generally agree that a knowledge of the philosophy, theory, and principles of librarianship and library administration give the library school graduate a greater awareness of the scope and problems of librarianship; but they question the student's ability to assimilate this knowledge and put it into practice without some experience or some attention to the demands of a practical situation. In discussing the new program, library educators have been aware of this problem. Much attention was given to it at the 1948 Chicago conference 3 and by such writers as Danton 4 and Reece. 5 Reece reported that, - Columbia University, School of Library Service. School of Library Economy of Columbia College, 1887-1889; Documents for a History (New York, Columbia University, 1937), p. 43. 3 B. Berelson, ed., Education for Librarianship (Chicago, American Library Association, 1949). 4 J . Danton, Education for Librarianship: Criticisms, Dilemmas, and Proposals. 6 E. J . Reece, The Task and Training of Librarians.

20

CLINICAL

EXPERIENCE

AND

THEORY

However useful schools and courses of study may be, contacts with actual work remain indispensable. Even the most excellent formal professional discipline leaves a gap between itself and competency in performance. This view came to the fore repeatedly in proposals for prerequisite experience, socalled clinical schemes, and internships. It is the more pertinent since the subject matter of the suggested program, within library schools as elsewhere, promises to be weighted heavily with theory and with substantive knowledge, as contrasted with the consideration of processes. Some persons indeed, expanding on the truism that in any case methods cannot be taught apart from a working situation, pictured generous practical experience as an inevitable accompaniment of the plan needed.8 There are t w o groups of library school students requiring consideration—those with library experience (varying from routine experience of a clerical nature to considerable experience in subprofessional capacities), and those with no experience whatever. According to the Leigh study in 1 9 4 8 - 1 9 4 9 the ratio was about 50:5c. 7 T h e library school faces the problem of adjusting its program to meet the needs of these quite different groups. In 1948 the Public Library Inquiry made a study of the course offerings of the graduate library schools. In our Seminar in Education for Librarianship 8 these findings were examined; elective courses were omitted and a list of basic courses being taught in the graduate library schools was made. It was found that there was a quite general agreement on the basic ingredients of the academic 8

E. J . Reece, The Task and Training of Librarians, p. 58. R. Leigh, "The Education of Librarians." 8 R. Leigh, Seminar in Education for Librarianship, Columbia University School of Library Service, Fall Semester, 1952. 7

CLINICAL

EXPERIENCE

AND THEORY

21

professional curriculum. Comparison with the courses taught in foreign library schools showed similar agreement on the core material for professional library education. On this basis our Seminar constructed the following specific program of required courses for a graduate professional library school: cataloging and classification (3 semester credits); three courses in library resources, including one general reference course and a course in reference and book selection in at least two of three subject fields (3 semester credits each) ; library administration (3 semester credits); philosophy of librarianship, historic and contemporary, which would include the history and development of libraries, books and printing, and communication (two courses taken consecutively, 3 semester credits each); reader guidance (3 semester credits); and research methods and training (two consecutive courses, 3 semester credits each). Of these basic courses, cataloging and classification has borne the brunt of criticism in the new library school programs by those concerned with adequate training in techniques. Catalogers think that today's students are not receiving the type of training for the job to be done and are not as capable of cataloging and classifying when they graduate from library school as were yesterday's graduates. Formerly emphasis was placed on actual problems of cataloging and classification, whereas now, as E. J . Humeston states in his survey on teaching cataloging, laboratory work is the part of the program that has been diminished.9 Students are, however, learning more about the principles 9 E. J. Humeston, Jr., "Teaching Cataloging Today: a Survey," in Journal of Cataloging and Classification, VII (Spring, 19J1), 37-4'.

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and theories of cataloging and classification. Study and comparison of classification schemes and problems of the administration of catalog departments have been added to today's courses. The recurring problem in relation to this and other courses is how much laboratory or clinical work and experience should be a part of the library school students' professional education, what relationship should laboratory or clinical work and experience have to the professional education of librarians, and how may it be achieved? Reece reported that one consultant "cautioned that not much attention to work contacts could be attempted within the main program at a library school, assuming that to be limited to an academic year. In his judgment they should not encroach upon the basic study." Reece adds that if clinical experiences are to be included, "their aims may need to be examined carefully. If their purpose is to illustrate principles, and to help the young practitioner to gain facility where principles are to be applied, they would help to bridge a gap and would seem to be in keeping with the spirit of the proposed scheme." 1 0 The solution to the problem of adequate attention to both theory and practice may be found in a two-year course leading to the M S degree and patterned on the work-study programs in operation at such colleges as Antioch in Ohio and Bennington in Vermont. The Antioch program provides for the interspersing of work periods between study periods during the junior and senior years. Ninety cooperative credits are necessary for graduation. Each study term is given twice in succession so that one 10

E. J. Reece, The Task and Training of Librarians, pp. 58-59.

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group of students may w o r k while the second group is attending classes. T o facilitate alternation of w o r k and study periods the academic year is broken up into two eight-week sessions and two twelve-week sessions. Students have six weeks vacation during the calendar year. T h e popularity of the program is demonstrated by the following quotations: In 1921-22 there were 113 co-operating employers, of whom 112 were located in Ohio. Twenty years later the number of regular College employers had more than doubled, and nearly three-fourths of the jobs were located outside Ohio. . . . The great majority of the employers go on record as favoring the plan. 11 T h e Bennington plan divides the college year into three terms: t w o resident terms of about fifteen weeks each in the fall and spring and a nonresident term of ten weeks in mid-winter f o r work experience. Both of these plans have merit, but as library schools are an integral part of large universities that would find it difficult to adjust their academic calendars to such plans, it will be necessary for a library school to fit its w o r k study plan into the framework of the university of which it is a part. T h e two years would be divided into eight quarters coinciding with the university schedule. Certain adjustments can be made to adapt the program to the semester system. One solution would be to divide the semesters into t w o eight-week sessions, allowing one group to continue in school while the second group works. Alternative plans, however, can be devised which do not neces11

A. D. Henderson, Antioch pp. 125, 149.

College

(New York, Harper, 1946),

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sitate this splitting of a semester's work. (See Appendix for sample schedules). N o problem arises in schools that are on the quarter system, as that system lends itself naturally to alternating twelve-week periods of work and study. T h e library science work-study program suggested here would require thirty-six semester credits for graduation and four quarters of work experience. Students with substantial semiprofessional experience in one or more types of libraries would not be required to do the full forty-eight weeks of supervised work experience. The number of work periods to be omitted would depend on the scope and nature of the student's experience. T w o supervised work periods, however, should be required of all students. Requirements for admission would be graduation from an accredited four-year college with a good general education, knowledge of at least one foreign language, and an acceptable score on the Graduate Record Examination. N o experience in libraries would be made a condition of entrance to the library school. T h e suggested program is designed to give the student supervised experience in a variety of libraries. Through this experience the student will be introduced to the present programs, organizational patterns, objectives, and stated programs for achieving these objectives in the major types of libraries. The student would spend one work period in each of the following: 1. 2. 3. The

School, municipal, or county-regional libraries College or university libraries Special libraries fourth work period would be spent in the library of

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his choice. Arrangements should be made by the library school with libraries representing each of these three types of professional experience. The libraries becoming a part of the work-study plan should be considered as laboratory libraries. Unlike the Antioch plan which states, "Employers are expected to take neither more nor less responsibility for students than for other employees," 1 2 staff members of the participating libraries will have to share with the library school faculty the responsibility of educating young men and women to become professional librarians. W e must avoid the situation which existed with regard to field work when Williamson made his survey in 1923. A t that time he reported that "Student practice is in general poorly supervised and inadequately analyzed and reported to the school." 1 3 The student interning in a library should be given an opportunity to observe the operation of all departments in the library and to take part in more than one phase of their operation. The student, therefore, should not spend all of his time in one department or doing one particular type of work. The over-all work program should guarantee that the student have practical experience in the various activities concerned with book selection, acquisitions, cataloging and classification, serials, binding, reader guidance, reference, and circulation. The experiences should include performance or observation of such clerical tasks as accessioning, book mending, book marking, and charging and slipping books, since the pro12

P-123-

Antioch College Bulletin, "This Working Antioch," Vol. 41, No. 3, C. C. Williamson, Training for Library Service, p. 62.

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fessional librarian m a y be called upon to instruct others in this work and in smaller libraries may have to do some of it herself. T h e successful operation of the work-study plan would require that the library school appoint a special administrator to be responsible for the planning and scheduling of the student's work experience. H e should have the assistance of the specialists on the faculty (i.e., professors of science literature, fine arts literature, children's work, etc.) to act as his advisers and as consultants for the students. N o rigid scheduling system should be set up, for the factors to be considered in planning the sequence of work and study experiences will vary for each student, a number of whom will come to library school with previous experience. In addition to the administrator of the program, one or more members of the library school faculty should be relieved of part of their teaching duties for a term at a time to serve as a clinical staff, the number depending on the number of students doing practicc work and the number and distance of the cooperating libraries. T h e s e faculty members should visit the students periodically and hold conferences with the student and his employers. Reports of both employers and clinical faculty members should become a part of the student's achievement record. T h e student should be required to make a written report describing and analyzing his experience in each laboratory library. As the number of students enrolled in courses at any one time will be just one half of the student body, the teaching load for the faculty will be less than it is at the present time. T h e present faculty personnel, therefore, should be adequate to

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cover the clinical work so that additional personnel will not be necessary. One might ask what benefits the participating libraries will receive. First of all, the library profession will have the opportunity of taking an active part in the education of its future librarians, which in itself is of value to the libraries. There are more tangible values. The libraries will receive as internees young people who have a professional interest in the work they are assigned, and the employers will discover many promising candidates to be considered for future professional vacancies. Students will have an opportunity to discover the type of library work for which they are best fitted and both student and library will benefit from having this "trial and error" period of adjustment over before the student takes his first professional position. The cooperating libraries will also have the benefit of the consultative services of the library school faculty, and the faculty in turn will benefit from their observation of the libraries and their close contact with practicing librarians. In return for the supervision of the trainees by members of the library staff, the library school might allot a certain number of free-tuition scholarships to the cooperating libraries. A student registration fee for supervised work periods would help finance them. The director of the library would allocate the scholarships to his staff as he saw fit, for no one person in the library should have exclusive supervision of the trainees. All members of the library staff should share in the responsibility of giving the student a rich clinical experience. Staff members cooperating in this project will take pride in advancing the

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future well-being of their profession. The library's director and heads of departments, of course, will bear the main responsibility. The free-tuition courses at the library school could be used to reward and encourage deserving and promising staff members. The student should be paid the prevailing nonprofessional salary for the type of library and the area in which he is working. (See the A L A , Salaries of Library Personnel, 1952, pp. 1 0 - 1 1 . ) His salary the second year should reflect the experience and study he has had and should be that which is paid subprofessional personnel. A description of the recruiting program of the Brooklyn Public Library may serve as an example. The Brooklyn library sends representatives to liberal arts colleges to recruit about twenty graduates to work in the library on a subprofessional level. Their initial salary is $2,615, a n effective competitive salary in the humanistic fields. These recruits cannot stay in this grade for more than two years. T h e y are encouraged to enter library school as soon as possible, and their salary becomes $2,850 as soon as they have registered. Upon completion of eight semester hours of professional work their salary is raised to $3,035. After graduation they will be given a professional position with an initial salary of $3,564. Brooklyn does not require that its recruits remain with them after graduation but has found that the majority do so. N o planned movement of the trainee from department to department is made, however, as would be necessary in an internship program, though the Personnel Office keeps in close touch with the work of the trainee and moves the worker if he is not fitting into the work of the

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department he is in. These trainees may work on a fulltime or a part-time schedule. Other public and college libraries are experimenting with similar programs, demonstrating both their need for and interest in work-study programs. One library school at Toronto is at present requiring work experience as part of its first-year program. T h e close connection of the library school with the University and Colleges and with the Public Library of T o r o n t o affords a full opportunity for laboratory work. . . . A r rangements have been made with the Board of the T o r o n t o Public L i b r a r y for practice work in the libraries of the city during a part of each week of the second term. In addition, each student will devote t w o continuous weeks to such practice w o r k . A n opportunity to practice in other libraries may be afforded students who wish to undertake such practice. 1 4

Learning the techniques and skills of library service in the work periods would permit their removal from the course content of the curriculum. Students constantly criticize the first-year curriculum for being overcrowded. T h e volume of work, reading, and report writing is so heavy that the student has little time to think about the material presented and to assimilate it. This was a general criticism received from students during the Public Library Inquiry. A plan that would relieve these pressures of the first-year program and would make it possible to put increased emphasis on the philosophy and theory of librarianship would receive a hearty response from library school students. T h e philosophy and theory taught in the academic work would be more meaningful as a result 14 University of Toronto Calendar, 1952-53. Library School, Ontario College of Education, pp. 7-8,

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of the students' experience. T h e work-study plan would, therefore, obviate the criticism made of library schools that a part of their course content is not of graduate caliber. On the other hand, those who criticize the present graduate school curriculum f o r not giving sufficient attention to the techniques, will be better satisfied with the products of the work-study plan. Mr. Fred E . Graves, in his study of the teaching of administration courses, states that library school faculty members report their greatest difficulty in teaching administration to be the student's lack of experience and lack of background. 1 5 T h e work-study plan would make the library administration courses more meaningful to the student and make it possible f o r the instructor to provide more depth and more background in his course. T h e work-study plan also offers an answer to the objections raised b y the special libraries and the countyregional libraries that their needs are slighted in the present library school programs. All students would spend at least one ten- or twelve-week period working in a special library, and many would spend a similar period in a county-regional library or a school library. On the basis of this experience they will examine the content of all of their courses in the light of its pertinence and applicability to the needs of various types of libraries. Miss D . E . R y a n , in her Master's essay, 16 pointed out that although 15 F. E . Graves, "Some Data on the Teaching of Library Administration," Report for L S 391, Seminar in Education for Librarianship, 1 9 5 1 - 5 2 (unpublished). 16 D. E . R y a n , T h e Place of Elective Courses in Public, College, School and Special Library W o r k in the Basic Year of Professional Library Training, Columbia University School of Library Service, 1950 (unpublished), p. 35.

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a greater percentage of distinctive tasks are performed in school libraries, the number of distinctive tasks among all types of libraries is negligible. What is needed is to help the young librarian to learn the ways and means of adapting standard library techniques to a particular type of library rather than to develop a variety of courses for each special library type in the crowded library school curriculum. The work-study plan should provide this kind of education in adaptation. Students would welcome a two-year plan that would give them an opportunity to pay part of their expenses. The Columbia University School of Library Service office reports that close to seventy-five percent of its student body is made up of part-time students. Though the number of students working part time would vary greatly from school to school, it seems likely that a large number are now taking two or more years to earn their MS degree. Another advantage of the plan is that it would help the student who does not have a backlog of cash, for he would not be called upon to lay out a large sum of money at any one time. The work-study plan would meet the standards for accreditation as prepared by the American Library Association, Board of Education for Librarianship, and adopted by the Council of the American Library Association in July, 1951. In all courses, the student would gain a broader understanding of methods and problems because of his work experience and would be able to share his experience with fellow students during class discussions. Also this broader understanding, based on both theory and practice, would make for a more successful study of com-

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parative systems of library w o r k . T o state it another w a y , the proposed program would bring clinical w o r k and experience into a closer relationship w i t h the program f o r professional education of librarians. T h i s is necessary if the library schools are going to turn out competent professional librarians. Dean Ralph T y l e r has v e r y clearly expressed the idea in his paper, "Education Problems in O t h e r Professions": Effective professional education requires this close connection between theory and practice. Without theory, practice becomes chaotic, merely a collection of isolated, individual cases. Theory gives meaning and unity to what would otherwise be specific and isolated cases. O n the other hand, without practice, theory becomes mere speculation. T h e realities of practice provide a check upon pure speculation, a test of the adequacy of theory. Practice also suggests the problems which must be dealt with by any comprehensive theory. Hence, these efforts to connect theory and practice more closely are important contributions to professional education. 17 T h e older learned professions require such a blend of theory and practice in the preparation of their students. T h e legal profession has its moot courts and observation of practicing members of the bar; the medical profession requires laboratory w o r k and hospital and clinic experience; the teaching profession requires practice teaching. T h e newer professions such as nursing education and social w o r k also require w o r k experience and observation as a part of their professional education. T h e demands 1 7 Ralph W . T v l e r , "Educational Problems in Other Professions," in B. Berelson, ed., Education for Librarianship (Chicago, American Library Association), p. 35.

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of librarianship are similar to those of these other professions. W e would do well to inquire sharply why librarian education should be an exception to the widely accepted practice of the other professions. It is obvious that something more than the ordinary scholastic method is essential in education for librarianship, and any means that promises to train efficient and professional librarians should be given a trial. T h e work-study plan is not a new phenomenon in library education. For years the German libraries have been educating their university librarians through a combination of internship and theoretical training and they have awarded the PhD degree for this program. T h e authors realize that it is essential to make careful analysis of what subject matter now taught in library school courses in the basic program can better be learned through the clinical experiences. Such a study might be carried out under the sponsorship of the BEL.

^

T H E E D U C A T I O N OF S P E C I A L

LIBRARIANS

SINCE 1909 w h e n J o h n Cotton Dana and others interested in the need f o r cooperation in special library w o r k formed the Special Libraries Association, m a n y important developments have taken place in the relatively n e w area of special librarianship. 1 A systematic review of the literature relating to special libraries attests to the phenomenal progress and g r o w t h of special library w o r k . T h e outlook f o r special libraries was painted in g l o w i n g colors as early as 1 9 1 5 : T h e special library has unlimited possibilities. If correctly handled the next five years should see an unprecedented growth. Where there are ten opportunities for a public library, there should be a hundred places for a special library. E v e r y city of 25,000 people has two or more large industries which could profit by a special library. W e must not be content until the demand for librarians is greater than the supply, until the Secretary's office shall have more requests f o r candidates than f o r positions, in fact, until every enterprise, whether utilitarian or humanitarian, involving any considerable number of people shall have within its ranks a special librarian . . .2 1 This chapter is based upon the material prepared bv John B. Stratton for the L S 391 Seminar. It has been revised and condensed by Frances Pollard and by the Seminar instructor, for use in the present volume. 2 Guy E. Marion, "Resume of the Association's Activities, 1910-1915," Special Libraries, 6 (November, 1915), 146.

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This forecast is approaching reality today. The rapid advances in science, technology, business, and industry have resulted in a tremendously increased demand for special libraries with services geared to the needs of workers in these fields. The qualifications for special librarians are determined in large measure by the type of special library in which the work is done. In actual practice, persons who have not attended library school and library school graduates alike hold professional positions as special librarians. A strong specialization in a subject field is rated by many as far more important than possession of a library science degree. Graduation from library school is not considered an all-important qualification for many special library positions, for although some library school curricula include courses for special librarians, this is not a general pattern. In fact, one of the criticisms of the present pattern for the education of librarians is that it seems to ignore the problem of training for special library work. Students frequently complain both of the lack of courses designed to equip them for their specialty and at the inclusion of courses that, in their estimation, have little relation to their future work in special libraries. This situation, however, has not daunted the special librarians. They may not have a ring in the main library tent, but they have developed quite an elaborate side show with rings of their own. Throughout library literature there are many articles stating that education for special librarianship should be provided, but they have failed to suggest an acceptable plan. Education for special librarianship was an important

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part of the discussion and study incident to the recent changes in curriculum and degree structure of graduate programs of library education. In 1948, there were t w o conferences on education for librarianship. One, held in August at the University of Chicago, included as participants educators outside the field of librarianship as well as librarians. T h e other, held in December at Princeton University, was attended by librarians and librarian educators. In each of the conferences the subject of education for special librarianship was presented and discussed. T h e Princeton Conference was sponsored by the Council of National Library Associations, and three of the nine recommendations unanimously adopted by this group had a direct bearing on the future of education f o r special librarianship. These recommendations were: 1. . . . that there be established a joint committee on education for librarianship for mutual exchange of information between library schools and various professional groups. 4. . . . that the Board of Education for Librarianship serve as the official accrediting body for Library educational institutions of all types and at all levels, and that it take into consideration the interests of specialized library groups by adding suitable consultants to its membership. 6. . . . that if and when a joint committee on education for librarianship is appointed, a thorough survey be made by the committee to determine the most desirable educational preparation for special librarians, to serve as a guide to library schools in developing programs of training.® T h e Council of National Library Associations agreed to be the sponsor f o r and to create a Joint Committee on 3 Harold Lancour, ed., Issues in Library Education: A Report of the Conference on Library Education, Princeton University, December n-12, 1948 (Council of National Library Associations, 1949), p. 5.

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L i b r a r y Education. 4 Composed as it is of members of all the various national library associations, most of w h o m are associated with specialties, the Joint Committee tends to think in terms of these specialties, and the Committee has given much attention to special librarianship. A s u r v e y of the most desirable educational preparation f o r special librarians was made the w o r k of a subcommittee created f o r the purpose. Actually the Joint Committee on Library Education has had t w o Subcommittees on Education f o r Special Librarianship. T h e first issued a broad statement of policy and then disbanded. T h e second Subcommittee has been at w o r k f o r several years. In the effort of this second Subcommittee to define special librarianship, all types of special librarians have been considered, including those holding specialized positions in general libraries. T h e Subcommittee has sponsored the development of desirable curricula in seven subject fields: Journalism, L a w , Medicine, Science and T e c h n o l o g y , Finance, Music, and T h e a ter. Another attempt to deal with the problem of education f o r special librarianship is the Queens College experiment with which the N e w Y o r k Chapter of the Special Libraries Association is n o w working. Queens College is planning experimental courses at three levels to meet the particular needs of special librarians. Clerical training is offered at the junior college level, subprofessional training is offered at the senior college level, and professional training is placed at the graduate level. In the fall of 1952, the Professional Training Committee of the N e w Y o r k Chapter 4

Ibid., p. 17.

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of S L A circulated a questionnaire designed to gather information on training needed for clerical and subprofessional positions as well as for professional librarianship. The special librarians were to tell the College what is wanted at the different levels of training, and presumably courses will be set up to fill the needs. This experiment is watched with interest by those in the New York metropolitan area concerned with the education of special librarians. The curricula for subject libraries that have been developed by the C N L A Joint Committee on Library Education were prepared by outstanding librarians in each of the seven subject areas. In the preparation of his special curriculum the librarian consulted with some of his colleagues. After the curricula were prepared they were circulated to approximately seventy-five persons for criticism. The criticisms received were discussed by the Subcommittee, then duplicated and distributed to a number of people especially interested in the work of the Subcommittee. During the summer of 1952, some of the curricula were discussed by appropriate committees or groups at meetings of the various national library associations. At a meeting of the Subcommittee held in October, 1952, it was decided to revise the curricula in the light of the criticisms and the firm convictions of the authors, and then to submit them for editing into a final report. In the preliminary report of the Subcommittee, the following curricula are suggested: 1. Law. The curriculum for law librarians specifies courses in high school, through college, law school, and library school. The college course is general with a concen-

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tration in the social sciences. Legal bibliography and law library administration are to be integrated with the general library course which is to include a course on government documents. The plan places much stress on the desirability of training to think in the law, holding that the lawyer and the law librarian do the same thing in the law library. The difference is that the lawyer then goes to court and the law librarian goes to another case. 2. Journalism. The curriculum for journalism librarians recommends a college course that consists of two years of general education followed by two years of electives with a major, a minor, and a combined newspaperlibrarianship extra minor. The library courses in this undergraduate combined minor are Principles of Librarianship, Introduction to Materials, Reference Materials and Service, Relation of the Newspaper to Its Library, and Internship. This is followed by a fifth-year graduate library school course which approximates closely the curriculum of the Columbia University School of Library Service. The curriculum for journalism librarians, however, includes six hours for Communications: Press, Radio, T V , and Printed Materials; three hours each for Government Documents and United Nations Materials, Special Library Service, Typography and Printing, and Preservation of Materials including microfilm, microcard, microprint lamination techniques, etc. 3. Medicine. For medical librarians the curriculum is outlined for high school, college, and library school. Latin is to be taken in high school or college. The college prescription includes survey courses in the sciences and social sciences. The library school program includes courses in

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general bibliography and reference, government documents, special library administration, rare book room administration, medical terminology, medical classification system, subject cataloging for medical libraries, medical bibliography and reference, special kinds of medical and related libraries, and audio-visual materials. Six months internship is also included. 4. Science-Technology. The curriculum for training science-technology librarians is the science and technology option offered at the Carnegie Library School. This option omits from the usual program the course in books for children and young people, takes one hour from the course in books for adults and substitutes a course in the administration of science and technology libraries for the course in administration of public or college and university libraries. The added courses are bibliography of science and technology and documentation and selection of scientific literature. The preferred college major is chemistry, although physics, mathematics or engineering are suitable. 5. Finance. For financial librarians the curriculum places paramount stress on principles and procedures and methods that are of special use in a financial library. Specialized subject knowledge specified for this area includes elements of banking, economics, investments, work of the stock exchange, and terminology. Subjects listed to be taught in library school are cataloging, classification, bibliography, administration, and subject headings for financial libraries. Other library school courses are orientation in the field of special librarianship, filing (all the various kinds of filing used in a financial library), sources

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of information (including government documents, trade associations), services (financial, trade, labor, etc.), and magazines, including special annual issues. 6. Theater. For theater librarians the most desirable essential is "theater in the blood." Subject courses in the theater and drama are suggested, but only two library school courses are specified: a course in research methods and another in the care and handling of non-book materials, prints, programs, posters, clippings, broadsides, etc. 7. Music. The curriculum for music librarians is based upon the curriculum plan of the University of Chicago Graduate Library School. Following two years of general education in college a three-year combined musiclibrary course is offered. The program has nine specified library courses, eleven specified music courses, and seven elective courses. There is also practice work in a music library. It is recognized here that the seven curricula prepared for the Subcommittee are not in final form and that revisions are expected. It is also recognized that these seven are only a beginning and that still many other specialized curricula arc to be developed. Although they result from the careful study and work of outstanding special librarians, in their preliminary form they present a situation of almost unlimited diversity and would make it quite impossible to include special library education within the framework of general library school programs. Special library education planned along these lines would make the library school curriculum extremely diverse, expensive, and impractical.

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"Special librarian" is a generic term. Three elements taken alone or in combination differentiate a special librarian from a general librarian. These elements are the literature and materials of a special subject, special clientele, and special services. The definition of the field constituted from these three elements is broad enough to include all of the examples that are given to illustrate how the work of a special librarian differs from that of a general librarian. By this definition it appears that many types of librarians not commonly thought of as "special" could very well be so designated. The term "special librarian" thus may be applied appropriately to the librarian working in a specialized department of a general library. In common usage, the term "special librarian" is immediately associated with industry, business, science, technology, etc. In reality, the music, law, hospital, prison, and Armed Forces librarians, to name only a few, are essentially special librarians. At least the work of these groups includes one or two of the elements that differentiate a special librarian from a general librarian: the special literature and the special clientele. The point at which the difference is usually more pronounced is the special service, and it is on this point that the most emphasis is placed. The problem that is faced by library schools is that of planning for specialization in its broadest sense. T o plan curricula for "special librarians" according to the generally accepted connotation would not solve the problem for law librarians, music librarians, medical librarians, and the many other types of specialization. It seems unnecessary to prove that the practice of adding to the curriculum a separate "administration" course for each

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specialized area is unsatisfactory from many points of view. A better plan could be derived by looking at the end products desired and asking: "What do these students need (1) in order to become professional librarians, and (2) in order to meet the demands of the particular types of library positions they desire?" T h e answer could never be: " A course in special library administration." Instead the answer could better be expressed in terms of certain competencies without which the students could not do a successful job. With such reasoning, we could then say that special librarians need a certain body of general library knowledge and techniques, and in addition, they need to be able to understand and interpret the literature of their special subject as well as that in allied fields. T h e y need to know how to organize highly specialized collections of materials, not limited to books, but including the other various forms used to disseminate information. T h e y need to know how to ferret out information, that which is available both in print and in other forms, including that which is gained through personal contacts. T h e y need to know how to synthesize and analyze data; they need to know how to make a report of the findings. With statements such as these, we could approach the problems of specialization in terms of what the special librarian needs to know and what he needs to know how to do. Much stress is placed by special librarians on the fact that they cannot just show the patron how to use the catalog, but that they must use the catalog themselves and find the information for the person who requests it. N o consideration is given to the fact that, if any refer-

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ence librarian is familiar with a subject, it is simpler f o r him to find the material himself than it is to instruct someone else how to do it. T h e same thing is true f o r the writing of research reports. Workers in many areas outside of librarianship write important research reports. T h e y may write a report of their own research or they may be technical writers preparing a report of someone else's research. What all of these writers have in common is the ability to interpret, to make accurate observations f r o m a collection of data, and to record them in an intelligible form. These competencies are essential to the writer regardless of the area of specialization and regardless of the agency served. T h e case f o r this approach to the education of special librarians is stated effectively by Dr. Carl M. White, Dean of Columbia University School of Library Service: The approach I am suggesting is that instead of planning our specialist's education in terms of the ]orm of work he is to be paid for doing, we plan it in terms of the content of understandings he will require, and then see whether that content cannot be brought into relation with similar content required in other forms of library work. In this way, we shall avoid the excessive proliferation of separate courses or separate forms of work and thus not be beguiled into pulverizing the concept of a profession into a miscellany of educationally discrete activities.5 T h e use of this approach in planning f o r special library education should result in more efficient preparation of librarians to meet the demands of specialized forms of library service. It would mean that special library educa5 C. M. White, in B. Berelson, ed.. Education for Librarianship cago, American Library Association, 1949), p. 229.

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tion could not be considered as a thing apart, something different from anything else in the curriculum, only to be touched upon in a separate course. Instead, all along the w a y , in many courses, the student should be developing the competencies that are essential for his work. T h e solution to the problem of acquiring the necessary subject knowledge f o r special library positions depends to a large degree on the subject and on the individual. F o r those special library positions where the subject knowledge gained through an undergraduate program is not sufficient, then graduate courses should be taken. H o w many or how f e w depends on how much knowledge of the subject is required of the individual special librarian and the nature of his subject concentration in the undergraduate program. All library school programs now provide that a quarter or less of the work of the professional year be in electives. A more positive recognition that knowledge in one subject matter field beyond undergraduate specialization is desirable professional equipment f o r all librarians, might result in the purposeful organization of the electives around a chosen subject matter specialty. In regard to the other requirements for special librarianship that have already been identified: i.e., a body of general library knowledge and techniques, ability to understand and interpret the literature of a special subject and in allied fields, ability to organize a highly specialized collection of materials, ability to ferret out information, ability to synthesize and analyze data, and the ability to write a report of findings—each of these might well be included in the general training of all professional librarians.

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Some of the problems that now exist with regard to education for special librarianship might be reduced or eliminated in the two-year program providing for internship that is described in Chapter 2. In such a program students would have experience in special libraries and they would know the actual demands of specialized positions. Likewise, library school faculty members would have opportunity to become more aware of the demands in the field. Finally, the representation on library school faculties of qualified teachers with experience in special libraries and the inclusion of illustrative materials from special library fields in those courses in the areas of Resources and Methods would contribute much toward relieving the present situation.

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N E I T H E R T H E GRADUATE LIBRARY SCHOOL nor the undergraduate library school can solve the problem of training librarians who are employed in the numerous independent, small community libraries scattered across the nation.1 Large numbers of the nonprofessionals in this class of libraries are employed in small jobs, on a part-time basis with very little pay. Their responsibilities in their libraries, however, are of a nature that requires some training and professional guidance. H o w best to meet these needs in the face of the level of education they have attained, and in the face of their limited economic possibilities, constitutes no small problem. It is clear that some means, other than the professional library schools, must be found for preparing workers in the country's small libraries for the positions they occupy and for the functions they perform.

The libraries under discussion here constitute the largest group of public libraries in the United States, and may be delineated as the library unit serving a community 1 This chapter is based upon the paper prepared by Irving Verschoor f o r the Seminar, L S 391. T h e study of the impact of the N e w Y o r k State Division of Library Extension on a sample of fifty libraries in N e w Y o r k State serving populations of less than 5,000 was made by him f o r the Seminar with the records and other special facilities available in his position as Public Library Consultant f o r the State Division of Library Extension. His paper was revised and condensed by Kathlyn Moses and the Seminar instructor f o r use in the present volume.

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w i t h a population of 5,000 o r less, w i t h an annual budget of less than $4,000, and a total book collection of less than 6,000 volumes. 2 T h e percentage of such units in relationship to the total n u m b e r of public libraries in the c o u n t r y has been s h o w n as f o l l o w s : POPULATION

I. II. III. IV.

Population O v e r 100,000 25,000-100,000 5,000-25,000 Under 5,000

SERVED

Number of Libraries 135 577 1,888 4,808

Total

Percentage of All Public Libraries 2 8 25 65

7,408

TOTAL LIBRARY

EXPENDITURES

Annual Expenditure I. Over $100,000 II. $2 5,000-$ 100,000 III. $4,000-$25,000 I V . Under $4,000

Percentage of All Public Libraries 2 4 23 71

TOTAL BOOK STOCK

Total Number of Volumes I. 150,000 or more II. 25,000-150,000 III. 6,000-25,000 I V . Less than 6,000 2

Percentage of All Public Libraries 2 11 43 44

R. Leigh, The Public Library in the United States, pp. 53-54. Standards proposed in 1953 by a representative committee of public librarians in California and adopted by the California Library Association set the minimum below which professionally trained librarians cannot be expected to be employed regularly as 7,500 population with a collection of 7,000 volumes. This standard applied to the country as a whole would raise the percentage of nonprofessional^ manned libraries even higher. See California State Library, News Notes of California Libraries, Vol. 48, No. 3 (July, 1953), p. 379.

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These small community units will continue under any library system; in fact, the number must increase if the national plan f o r public library service—"An adequate, purposeful library . . . brought into the life of every American" 3 is to be realized. T h e size of the small community and the amount of money it is able to invest in library service is not at all equal to the type of library service the community needs or is entitled to receive. T h e profile of the contemporary American small library is seen thus b y Leigh: They are open on a part-time basis from a few hours up to twenty-four hours a week, with a single part-time librarian, in most cases not professionally trained in a library school, aided by a part-time, non-professional assistant.4 T o bring this picture into sharper focus, let us look at the public libraries in a relatively prosperous and well populated state, N e w Y o r k . Of its 643 public libraries, 452 serve populations of less than 5,000 persons. T h u s small independent libraries constitute seventy percent of the state's total public library units. Relatively f e w of the librarians in these small libraries have had library school training. Quite a large number were certified as librarians. But under the old certification laws effective in N e w Y o r k state, it was possible to advance to higher grades of certification without formal training. And when new certification regulations were made effective in 1950, many librarians were able to exchange their old certificates f o r new ones and were classified as professionals 3 Carlcton B. Joeckel and A m y W i n s l o w , A National Plan for Public Library Service. W i t h a chapter by Lowell Martin. (Chicago, American Library Association, 1948), p. 17. 4 R . Leigh, The Public Library in the United States, p. j6.

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without having to show any professional training beyond what they may formerly have possessed. In fact, the librarians in the small libraries under discussion did not have to possess even this "professional" certification. T h e N e w Y o r k state regulation requires public and association libraries serving populations of 5,000 or more to employ in professional positions only those persons holding a public librarian's professional or provisional certificate or a certificate of qualification. B y inference, the professional preparation of workers in the 452 smaller community libraries is held to be unimportant or impracticable. Clearly N e w Y o r k state does not look to the library school to serve as the training agency for its village librarians. Because of the nature of the position in these small community libraries and the economic inability to provide full professional training f o r such positions, the same is true in the other states of the country. Instead, quite generally, state library agencies have been given the training responsibility, but in very general terms and without the means of performing the task with any thoroughness. Following the general establishment of public libraries on a tax-supported basis in the United States in the latter part of the nineteenth century,® state library commissions were founded to assist in the establishment of libraries and in the improvement of their services. T h e actual functions of the state library agencies have differed in various states, depending upon the authority given the agency and the budget allowed it. In general, however, 0 In 1872, Illinois set a new pattern with a detailed municipal library act which specified an independent library board and made provision f o r a separate tax. Forty-seven states now have similar laws.

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one of the functions allocated to the library agency is to develop a high quality personnel in the libraries of the state through: (a) encouragement of training to meet the demands of progressive library service and of coordination among the library training agencies of the state and educational institutions; (b) legal certification of librarians. It is not clear in the law just how the library agency is to function in the training of librarians. T h e expression "encouragement of training" leaves the choice of means wide open, for while the certification provision may specify standards of training, it does not necessarily follow that the state library will itself act as the training agency. T h e laws, 6 however, have provided a sufficient legal basis for the state agencies to carry on the training themselves if they so determine. Where they have entered the field, they have usually developed a two-pronged program: giving advice and assistance to librarians where needed and holding institutes or short training courses. 7 In 1923 Williamson was concerned with the effectiveness of state library commissions in the training of librarians for the small-job, part-time, small-pay librarians in the small community, remarking: One of the main objects of the state library commissions has been to provide a little much needed training for unJ . C. Foutts, ed-, American Library Laws. Maine, V e r m o n t , N e w Hampshire, N e w York, W e s t Virginia, K e n t u c k y , Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, N e w Mexico, and Oregon have laws which make provision f o r the training or instruction of public library personnel in one or in a c o m bination of the following: library institutes, schools of library instruction, courses of library instruction, summer schools of library instruction. 6

T

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trained and too often uneducated persons actually in charge of small public libraries. In fulfilling this function use has been made of traveling representatives, often called "organizers"; library institutes, modeled to some extent on teachers' institutes; and summer schools. In regard to the work of organizers as a means of giving training in service, little need be said. While under any properly organized state system of libraries inspectors are needed to visit the libraries frequently and offer suggestions and criticisms, it would be financially impossible at present to assign organizers to all libraries having an untrained librarian f o r a long enough period to make the instruction effective. 8 Because of this situation, some states have adopted systems of local institutes to instruct librarians in small libraries. T h e system as it existed in 1920, and as it probably exists even today, was summed up b y M a r y Plummer: T h e institute was tried first and consisted of two or three meetings at some town or village containing a library. One of the meetings was usually open to the public and intended to arouse public interest in the welfare and development of the local library. Librarians from neighboring towns and villages were invited, papers were read, discussions encouraged, and a question box was a usual feature. Usually an official of the library commission, of the state library, or of the state association had charge; the local librarian was chairman of a committee on local arrangements, and a number of trained or experienced librarians assisted with the program. T h e chief value of the institute was a method of propaganda rather than of instruction, since the best effect was usually through the public session and the making of professional acquaintances outside the meetings. T h e librarians most in need of help often felt timid and constrained in the meetings and got most of their practical assistance from the individual 8

C. C. Williamson, Training for Library Service, p. 110.

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conversations between sessions. These facts pointed the way to the round table. This is a gathering of librarians living in towns and villages not far apart to whom is sent at their request someone capable of giving help in their daily problems and difficulties. At least two sessions are held at one of the libraries concerned, and attention is concentrated on the immediate expressed needs of these libraries. It is much easier to secure such expression under these circumstances than in the institute meetings. The older type of institute has largely given way to the round table, under whatever name it may be conducted.9 The terms institute and round table, especially round table, have probably been superseded by the more modern term workshop, defined as: "a special type of working conference with lectures, individual conferences and emphasis on small working groups. The work sessions are under the guidance of consultants and are used mostly for professional improvement and in-service training. Organization of the work-shop is built around problems which the participants bring with them." Wheeler, writing about twenty-five years after Williamson, also asserted that institutes are badly needed. He was enthusiastic about the need for short periods of concentrated training, preferably during the summer, and proposed a national program through the A L A under the following arrangements: Four to six regional two-week summer institutes to duplicate Chicago's methods; Twelve to fifteen tri-state two-week institutes for workers from smaller libraries, on practices, administrative problems, public relations, books, and library philosophy; 9

M . W . Plummer, Training

for Librarianship,

pp. 13-14.

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E v e r y state to have one or more one-week institutes or workshops. 10

Wheeler used the plight of workers in the small libraries as a cudgel to belabor the Board of Education for Librarianship: T h e Board of Education for Librarianship needs to reconsider its attitude or do something else for the "little people" who, we boast, are diffusing knowledge in small towns. Where do they get any help? V e r y little from the state commissions. In five or six states these are forging ahead valiantly but the staffs and coverage are all too meagre and thin. Everyone acquainted with rural library work knows that small town and village libraries should combine into larger county and regional systems, but there will always be thousands of part-time, small salaried workers who desire instruction. There is also opportunity and need for such instruction in subprofessional types of work in all libraries. 11

Although no one will take exception to the picture of need presented by Wheeler, some questions might be raised as to the efficacy of his recommendations for the training of the "small salaried workers." T h e librarian in the small library can rarely afford to attend workshops. From the educational point of view, one might challenge the soundness of proposals to take her away from her library chores to be set the task of examining, under guidance and in company with her peers, a segment of librarianship. An educationally sound, on-the-job in-service program, however, can assure the disciplines needed by the librarians in the small communities. These librarians 10 Joseph Wheeler, Progress and Problems in Education for Librarianship, p. 87. 11 Ibid., p. 85.

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are not and need not be professionals. Library summer schools, institutes, and workshops functioning under the aegis of state library commissions and as most of them are conducted, are inferior to good apprenticeship instruction in preparing these workers in small libraries for the tasks that confront them. W e turn again to N e w York state to see what is the effectiveness of "advice and assistance" from the state and of institutes and workshops. N e w York has a professionally manned Library Extension Agency as part of its State Library. The Extension Agency has, over the years, made attempts to train the nonprofessional workers in its small independent libraries. A study was made for our seminar of the actual kind and extent of aid provided by the state agency to a sample of fifty public libraries serving populations of 5,000 or less in N e w York state. The sample included libraries representing the geographical spread of the entire state, and the report offers data available for the year 1951. T o establish the data, the seminar member making the survey read all correspondence between individual library units and the State Library Extension Division, reports of visitations to units, studies that had grown out of the work of the Division, and anything else that had a bearing on the kind of services rendered the libraries or the librarians by the Extension Division. The range in population served by the fifty libraries in the sample was from 90 to 4,937, with a median population of 1,336. It should be noted that it is on the basis of population served that the state sets minimum hours for the library to be open each week. On this basis, nine of the fifty libraries, were required to be open a minimum

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of six hours a week, twenty-six were required to be open a minimum of twelve hours, and the remaining fifteen were required to be open a minimum of eighteen hours a week. A s in the smaller public libraries elsewhere in the nation, so in the fifty libraries studied in N e w Y o r k state the largest amount of service was rendered b y volunteer help. Sometimes a retired librarian or school teacher was found to work on a part-time basis. Salaries paid to all personnel employed were f o r the most part shamefully small; the janitor always seemed to be paid, whether anyone else was paid or not. T h e range in the N e w Y o r k state sample was from $22 to $4,290, with a median of $600. T h e median total expenditures f o r all purposes was $1,338 in a range of $ 12 2 to $ 11,094. Of the persons listed as librarians in the fifty sample libraries, only fourteen were college trained and seven were library school trained; ten held public librarians' certificates. There was no particular correlation between the size of the population served and the presence of a trained librarian, although the four largest units had professionally educated librarians. A s to types of information requested by librarians in these small libraries, as discovered in the correspondence passing between them and the State Extension Division, the study classifies it b y subject headings and then divides the classification into two groups. T h e first group represents the activities that are associated with state supervision of public libraries, and the second contains those items where professional help was asked and rendered. T h e survey also records that members of the Extension

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staff paid a total of eleven visits to the libraries in the sample during 1951 and that two visits were made b y librarians from the units in the study to the Extension office during the year. Unhappily, the study could not reflect the nature of the matters discussed between staff members from the Extension office and the librarians on any of these visits. In passing, it should be noted that the usual reason f o r a visit to a library by a member of the Extension staff was in connection with the chartering or registration of a library. In addition, it is expected in N e w Y o r k that an Extension worker will visit the libraries in his territory at least once every three years. T h e matters taken up in correspondence above referred to are seen in the following table: State Matters

Annual Reports State Aid Certification Retirement Civil Service Charters Hours Open Legal Opinions Library Standards

Professional

16 25 3 1 1 10 2 2 1

Matters

Personnel Periodicals Inter-library loan Rental collection Anniversaries Building Plans Professional Literature Cataloging and Classification Book Dealers

2 1 1 3 1 2 7 2 1

In all, there were sixty-one records of matters pertaining to the state and possibly resulting from state laws and regulations. In a sense, the Extension service acts in a liaison capacity between the public library and various departments of the state government. Only twenty items in the correspondence studied had to do with professional

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activities. The same results might be obtained should the library correspond directly with the governmental departments. In other words, the libraries would seem to suffer almost not at all were this kind of advice and assistance of the Library Extension division done away with entirely. Applying the experience of the United States Agricultural Extension Service, it is fairly safe to say that correspondence, furnishing of publications, or even the lending of professional literature for unguided use, does not have the importance of a personal visit by the extension worker to a given library. A study of the reports of visits made by the particular extension agency staff serving the libraries in the N e w York sample reveals that a total of 496 visits were made by five field workers in 1951 to libraries of all sizes, both those included in the sample of fifty and those not included. Four of these were out-of-state visits and were obviously not training visits. The purpose of the 492 visits fall into the following categories: Charter Advisory Organization

63 133 7

Workshop Conferences Other

61 122 106

In the categories listed here, the only two that are commonly associated with training appear to be those labeled as advisory and workshop visits. Perhaps those listed as advisory did relate in some fashion to the training of librarians. When it is discovered, however, that nearly forty of the sixty-one visits listed as workshop visits were for the purpose of explaining a new state form, it is at once apparent that they had but little, if anything, to do with improvement of personnel in basic librarianship. The large item appearing under the category "Confer-

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ence" had to do with attendance of staff personnel at one of the county or regional library association meetings or at an American Library Association or N e w York Library Association committee meeting. Apparently, the Extension workers felt the importance of their professional obligations toward various professional organizations. For haison purposes and for working together on legislation, this was doubtless useful; but as Dr. Alice Bryan has so well observed 1 2 not more than one eighth of the librarians in the country found membership in any of the professional library organizations very helpful professionally. This would seem to indicate that if library extension people are serious about the technical improvement of the librarians with whom they work, they would do well to seek to effect that improvement through some other channels than attending conferences. During 1951 the N e w York Extension agency had a series of workshops in public relations at ten different libraries in the state. T w o hundred and thirty-eight librarians and trustees attended, including six librarians from the small libraries in the survey. The librarians in attendance at the workshop were asked to register their preference for additional workshop experiences and they listed the following areas for future study: Book Selection 48 Weeding 23 Cataloging 23 Administration 21 State A i d 21 Finance 1 Displays 1 Children's Reading Clubs 1 12

Alice I. Bryan, The Public Librarian, p. 139.

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These preferences seem to indicate the very practical help in operating their libraries that the small communitylibrarians feel that they need. Some kind of publication directed to the public libraries of the state is used by a number of state agencies. The N e w York state agency publishes in multilith format ten times a year a publication that proposes to serve public libraries in two ways: ( i ) by providing information about the services of the state library and lists of state publications; and (2) by providing a channel of communication on library matters between the state library and the public libraries. The publication also presents annotated lists of books to aid small public libraries in book selection. As part of the study, one volume of ten issues of this publication was examined for ascertaining the probable value of its contents in helping the small library worker. Each issue contained a leading article and annotations of books and state publications. There followed a round-up of news items from various public libraries arranged according to their county locations. In six of the ten issues the leading article was devoted to various parts of the state library system, presenting information that could well have been given in a small pamphlet or some kind of brochure. T w o other leading articles were on library recruiting and library schools, not particularly helpful subjects when it is remembered that seventy percent of the libraries are small units and are not, therefore, affected by either subject. The news items were no doubt helpful in giving librarians ideas about what other libraries were doing and in giving them a sense

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of kinship with other workers engaged in the same occupation. But that these items were able to further the training of librarians in small libraries in any direct way is extremely doubtful. This sample study of the actual training during one year of the village librarians of a state by the state library extension division is not conclusive. But it casts serious doubt on the efficacy of the methods of correspondence, occasional visits, publications, conferences, and workshops that are available to a state agency for training the librarians in the smaller communities. Indeed, because of the great distances and irregular contacts it is very doubtful if the state library agency is the logical or strategic unit for this important task. A much more promising development for the in-service training of village librarians is through county or regional headquarters within a state. Such library systems, federations, or associations providing a central unit with a professional staff that serves the smaller library units within a sizeable area are strongly advocated in the National Plan 1 3 and by the Public Library Inquiry. 1 4 T h e y are being planned for in many sections of the country and have been put into operation in an increasing number of states. How such a library system might provide the kind of regular, practical in-service training of small-unit library personnel that is needed is seen in the operations of Kern County, California. T h e Kern County library, with headquarters at Bakersfield, the principal city in the county, 13 14

C. B. Joeckel and A . Winslow, The National Plan, passim. R. Leigh, The Public Library in the United States, pp. 6j, 226-131.

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serves as the only library unit in a county region comprising some 8,000 square miles. T h e library serves this area through 160 agencies, half of them community branches and stations and the other half schools. In addition, a bookmobile unit brings materials from the children's and the school departments to rural schools, while a "traveling branch" supplements community services in the fringe areas of Bakersfield. In the small communities of Kern County a full-time branch librarian is not legally required. Moreover, it is often impracticable as well as impossible to employ a librarian from outside the community. Generally in such communities, library authorities have to depend upon a local resident without library training, but they take steps to provide these untrained workers with the preparation f o r the duties they perform. Eleanor Wilson, Librarian of Kern County Free L i brary, explains the steps taken in training the smallcommunity librarian: In the small branch the staff usually consists of one person who has to do all the tasks both routine and professional. For that reason she must be selected carefully for her knowledge of books and her interest in people. Once selected we try to indoctrinate her with a spirit of service and an interest in continued learning. Through preliminary in-service training at headquarters we give her a general, though superficial, knowledge of all phases of library work. More important than the facts that she learns is the knowledge how and where she can find the answers. Knowing the headquarters personnel and their sources of knowledge she feels she can write in for help and advice. We encourage her to ask for books. However, we do not depend on her to build up the collection but we select from

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headquarters semi-monthly shipments of books to add to her stock. W e instruct her in filing catalog cards which are sent with the books. T o help her publicize her material our staff artist visits the branch each month arranging bulletin board displays which are accompanied by the books themselves and a booklist. A number of the branch library assistants attend monthly book review meetings for discussion of adult and juvenile books. These conferences help them to know the new books so they can request those of special interest in their communities. T o help the branch library assistants with their routines we have a comprehensive manual of procedures. In order to use their suggestions and make them more aware of the manual, we asked, when revising it last spring, that they bring their suggestions to a regional meeting where we discussed the manual. W e hold these meetings in four different regions of the county so that the branch assistants can meet with us in small groups for discussion. W e hold such meetings periodically with some special topic for discussion, such as reference books or public relations. An annual meeting brings the whole group together for further training and inspiration. The branch library assistant is encouraged to read professional literature and to take part in community affairs. Regular visits by professional librarians from headquarters, a monthly bulletin and frequent letters, all help her to grow on the job. 18 T h i s practice of an almost tutorial service stemming from a strong headquarters appears to be the best solution f o r training the nonprofessional worker in the small community library. T h e visit made to the branch libraries b y the professional librarian is far more than to deliver 1 5 Letter from Miss Eleanor N . Wilson, Librarian, Kern County Free Library, Bakersfield, California.

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books; it serves to help the local librarian with the problems upon which her attention is centered. It is here, then, that the state library agency can function most effectively in training the large number of small-community librarians: not by attempting the impossible task of requiring for these low-paid, part-time workers an extended period of formal professional education in a library school or, indeed, of certifying them as professional in status; not by itself attempting from state headquarters or through a few traveling extension librarians to provide an in-service training for all the village librarians within its borders; but by the vigorous promotion of regional or county library systems throughout the state, to make it possible for these regional and county systems themselves to provide the regular, practical, thoroughgoing in-service training for the librarians in their smaller units. This is not a program which can be put into effect rapidly or uniformly. But it would seem to be the only sound program for the proper training of the village librarians in the United States. 16 1 6 In fairness to M r . Verschoor, who prepared the paper on which this chapter is based it should be said that despite his negative findings with regard to the present activities of state library extension agencies he feels that an enlarged state program using fully the modern communications media such as radio and television, and other devices employed b y agricultural extension agencies, could be an important part of any p r o g r a m f o r the training of nonprofessional village librarians.

T H E E D U C A T I O N OF AND CHILDREN'S

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LIBRARIANS

for preparing librarians to work with children and young people in schools and in public libraries are confusing in their variety; moreover, they exhibit no common professional standard or rationale.1 There are, currently, at least five distinguishable types of training: the special modified course of study in the thirty or more "accredited" (by A L A ) graduateprofessional library schools providing training for children's work in public libraries but not in schools; a different one-year graduate program in most of these schools to train school librarians; a few undergraduate (fouryear) library school programs purporting to educate librarians for professional positions generally but with a major emphasis on the training of school librarians; a much larger number of four-year programs in teachertraining institutions for training school librarians along with other special teacher positions in the school; a program in these same institutions but with half or less time devoted to library-training subjects to provide librariT H E P R E S E N T PROVISIONS

1 T h e material f o r this chapter came f r o m reports on various aspects of the problem presented to the L S 391 Seminar b y Lauretta G . M c Cusker, Kathlyn Johnson Moses, Frances M . Pollard, and Margaret Porter. T h e material was revised and organized f o r presentation as a chapter in this volume by Miss McCusker, Mrs. Moses, Miss Pollard, and the Seminar instructor.

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ans for part-time school positions (teacher librarians). T o complicate the situation further, the teachertraining institutions are subject to the varying accreditation standards of regional agencies and the certification standards for teachers of forty-eight different states. These certification standards in most instances include a sliding scale of number of hours of library training required for certification based on the number of pupils in the school's population where the school librarian is employed. Such a scale is defended on the basis of economic necessity. It implies, however, that a school librarian to serve 200 students in a comparatively small community does not need as much professional training as the librarian serving 500 or 1,000 pupils in a larger community. However justified economically, this is an educational absurdity, denying the concept of a common basic training required for the attainment of real professional skill in librarianship. The library education curricula for school and children's librarians appear in liberal arts colleges, teachereducation institutions, vocational schools, and junior colleges. Numerically the largest number of curricula are in teacher-education institutions. These undergraduate library service programs are offered in instructional units such as library-education departments, departments of education, English departments, and even departments of occupational therapy. In other instances, library education programs are a part of a service unit, the college library, or they consist of a combination of courses from various instructional units and the college library. Estimates of institutions offering undergraduate programs of

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some sort place the number at more than 600. In some of the schools professional training begins in the freshman year; in others, in the sophomore year; in still others in the junior year; while a f e w defer all professional courses until the student's senior year. In the teacher-education institutions the stated objectives specify education of school librarians, but in many instances courses are offered, also, for the general librarian. In the undergraduate programs examples of variety appear in terminology used in labeling courses and credit hours assigned. Many different titles are listed in catalogs for courses with similar descriptions. Plainly, there is no common design or standard for the professional education of librarians serving children and young people in the United States. This is in striking contrast to the common standard for the education of professional librarians for work with adults set by the new accreditation regulations of the A L A under which professional education means five years of post-high-school education, four of which shall be general or liberal education and one of which shall be professional-technical; the five-year span is to include a full graduate year in a professional library school. A n d it is worthwhile pointing out that the lack of any common standards of training for library work in schools will inevitably prevent the clear establishment of any minimum standard of education to achieve the status of professional librarian generally. Officially the teachers colleges, for the most pan, limit their library training programs to fill school library positions. But this limitation tends to break down in present practice.

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T o many public library boards in one-, two-, and threeperson libraries it makes no difference whether the candidate f o r local librarian learned her cataloging, reference, and other technical tricks of the library trade in a post-bachelor year, or in an undergraduate year as part of teacher-training, so long as she knows the tricks. Thus the graduate of the unaccredited (by A L A ) , undergraduate library schools are actually competing successfully for professional positions both in public and in college libraries.2 It is not proposed here that any absolute uniformity in training f o r the t w o major fields of librarianship is possible or desirable. B u t it w o u l d be of advantage to librarianship generally to have a standard of amount and level of education f o r the field of school and children's librarians, such as is n o w coming into existence f o r general librarianship. A n d it is essential that the t w o systems of professional training bear some rational relationship to each other. In respect to one of the five major institutional types n o w training school librarians, the new

accreditation

standards adopted b y A L A f o r general library schools are likely to s i m p l i f y the picture. In effect, these standards dis-accredit all undergraduate programs of terminal p r o fessional education f o r general librarianship. T h e f o r m e r T y p e III schools, the ones affected b y the new standaird, are discontinuing their programs, moving into a fifth-y ear program with the professional Master's degree, and are offering both undergraduate and graduate programs, or are limiting their programs strictly to undergraduate training f o r school librarianship. This is especially e:asy 2

R. D. Leigh, "The Education of Librarians," in Bryan, The Ptublic

Librarian, p. 321.

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for three of the thirteen T y p e III schools because they are pans of teachers colleges. But there still remain f o r the training of those wishing to be librarians f o r children and young people, different kinds and varying periods of education f o r those going into schools and into public libraries, into different sizes of schools, and into full- and part-time library assignments in schools. A n d the nature and quality of instruction, the equipment, and the facilities f o r instruction in the hundreds of training centers throughout the country vary enormously—so much so that no common expectation can be held with regard to the person called a school or a children's librarian in the various jurisdictions. T h e education of the school librarian f o r her tasks involves a kind of double professional preparation. She must be a teacher and she must be a librarian. T h e tasks that she is called upon to perform require more than is expected of the classroom teacher. T h e librarian is responsible not only f o r seeing that the school's library functions are performed, but must also be able to interpret these functions to administrators in order to secure the cooperation and support that are so necessary. T h e following statements indicate what the task involves: The school librarian is perhaps the most important factor in a full program of library service. A professional librarian who knows books and knows how to select, organize, and interpret them; a master teacher who understands children and knows what the school should do for them; and a practical executive who is skilled in organizing a variety of forces to produce effective action—all are needed in the person of the successful school librarian . . . 3 'Joint Committee of the N E A and A L A , Schools and Public Li-

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Another statement reads: School administrators rightly demand be grounded in educational methods, curriculum, in the use of educational praisal of what currently goes on in

that school librarians in knowledge of the literature, and in apschool progress . . .*

These statements illustrate the fact that the educational aspect is as important as the library aspect of the school librarian's job. Librarians must know the curriculum of the school and must be able to work with others in bringing about desirable curricular changes. On the other hand, school librarianship is not identical with teaching; the librarian's professional-technical skills must be an important part of the school librarian's training. The broad picture of the nature of the school librarian's function is clearly implied in the A L A postwar standards set forth in School Libraries for Today and Tomorrow.5 Although widely discussed and accepted among school librarians, the criteria for school libraries that it sets up have not yet been as widely accepted or discussed by school administrators. The Superintendent of Schools in Denver, Colorado, Mr. Kenneth E. Oberholtzer, through the responses that he received from questions mailed to a number of superintendents for comments, was able to present a "one man panel of opinion" of school administrators regarding school libraries. The questions that he mailed had been braries Working Together in School Library Service. (Washington, D.C., National Education Association of the United States, 1 9 4 1 ) , p. 1 1 . 4 J . L. Wheeler, Progress and Problems in Education for Librarianship, p. 80. 6 A L A Committee on P o s t - W a r Planning, School Libraries for Today and Tomorrow (Chicago, American Library Association, 1945).

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submitted b y F r a n c e s H e n n e ,

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then Chairman o f

the

A m e r i c a n Association o f School Librarians. His c o m ments in answer to the question " W h a t can school librarians do t o g e t school administrators to support them in achieving the national standards f o r school libraries that are described in School row?"

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for Today

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Tomor-

included the following statements:

One of the major groups that has struggled with this difficult problem of standards for good secondary schools is the North Central Association, and it thinks that your standards are too high. 6 I cannot help but feel that there is a definite need for developing a particular brand or species of librarian; namely, those who are educator-librarians. F r o m what I have gathered from reading the minutes of the various conferences of the A L A , and from the few library meetings that I have attended, I cannot help but recognize that most librarians spend the bulk of their time discussing the details of librarianship rather than extending their knowledge into various subj e c t and interest areas that librarianship was designed to serve . . . Colleges and universities which are turning out librarians should provide a definite program of training which will prepare men and women to enter the field of school library work. . . . This is a problem that cannot be imposed from above, but must come from the recognition of this need b y the library training institutions and b y the men and women w h o are at present in school library work. . . . School librarians should be able to think in terms of the teacher's point of view. 7 8 Kenneth E. Oberholtzer, "Administrators Consider Problems of the School Library." A L A Bulletin, 44 (January, 1950), 18. 7 Kenneth E. Oberholtzer, "Questions for the School Librarian," A L A Bulletin, 43 (December, 1949), 361.

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These are the reactions of some school administrators to the Post-War Standards. They are mentioned here in order that they will be recognized as real, current problems for the school librarian to be trained to face and deal with. Ideally, the educational center for the training of school librarians is the institution with both a library school on the graduate-professional level educating for general librarianship and a school or department of education training elementary and secondary school teachers, so that the school library training program can use the resources of both. The fact is, however, that the great bulk of training centers for school librarians are in teacher-training institutions and are on the undergraduate level. For placement and certification the school librarian is tied closely to the teaching profession and is almost sure to remain so. It is on this factual base that any realistic program must build. It was in recognition of this fact that the A L A in reconsidering its program of accreditation recently retired from the direct accreditation of all but graduateprofessional schools for general librarianship. Realizing, however, the effect of library education courses in hundreds of teachers colleges upon the professional training and status of librarians generally, the Board of Education for Librarianship of ALA has cooperated with representatives of the American Association of School Librarians, the Association of College and Reference Libraries, and the State Supervisors of School Libraries in drawing up minimum requirements or standards for institutions train-

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ing school librarians. These requirements were approved officially b y A L A in 1952. T w o principles in the statement agreed to, suggest a basic pattern for school library training. T h e y reduce considerably the needless diversity and lack of minimum standards in the present situation. T h e y are not an exact parallel in degree structure and other minimum standards with those that now exist f o r the education of general librarians, but they are rationally related to that structure and at the same time are related to the realities of the present training and certification structure of school librarians. T h e two principles are: 1. The basic program of education for school librarianship is legitimately to be given at the undergraduate level, but the amount of such work in library science should not be so great as to limit the amount of general and professional education common to all teachers; therefore these standards are intended to accredit only undergraduate curricula totalling not less than 15 and not more than 18 semester hours. 2. There should be articulation between the undergraduate programs in library science and the graduate library school programs in the same area.8 Because the B E L standards were drawn up at the request of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education to evaluate schools and departments of education, they deal with the training of school librarians only. But what about children's librarians? Should they continue to be educated professionally in an alternative curriculum forming p a n of the general five-year program f o r general librarianship? W h a t is the relationship be8

A L A , Board of Education for Librarianship, Standards for Science Programs in Teacher Education Institutions, p. 1.

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tween the preparation of the librarians serving children in the school and the librarian serving children in the public library? True, they work through different institutions; they have some different specific purposes; and they may use variant methods. But for the professional knowledge of children's literature and other library materials, for the expert knowledge of children themselves, their interests and aptitudes at various ages, and for the skill to relate materials to children, the two groups need essentially the same type of preparation. Furthermore, the fully developed community program of library service for children and young people requires a high degree of intelligent cooperation between the public library and the school and its library. The more the librarian in each of the two institutions knows of the aims, methods, and problems of the other, the more likelihood of real cooperation. Finally, the two segments of the profession are in real though perhaps unconscious competition with each other for recruits, a competition in which the numbers entering library schools to train for children's librarianship and qualified persons to fill vacant children's library positions are now becoming so few as to constitute an emergency of scarcity threatening the maintenance in many public libraries of any really professional personnel for service to children. The graduate-professional library schools are still maintaining an official program for the education of children's librarians on the five-year basis, but there are almost no students enrolled in these programs. Viola Fitch's study of the graduating classes in the accredited library schools for nine recent years ( 1 9 4 1 49) showed that during that period only 63 children's

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librarians were graduated and available for placement.9 An ironic element in the situation is that under present certification requirements for school and public library positions in most states the librarian trained for work with children on a prolonged, five-year basis is unable to quali f y for a school library position, whereas the person trained for school librarianship on a four-year basis is frequently able to find employment in a professional capacity as children's librarian in a city or county library system. It was these and other considerations that led a large and representative group of school librarians and library school leaders meeting as a Workshop at the University of Chicago in the summer of 1951 to recommend that the basic formal training for children's and school librarians be the same, and that the undergraduate program in the teacher-training institutions include the professional education of both groups. In the Workshop discussion, considerable reliance was placed on the Master's theses written by Sara Fenwick and Ruth Ersted at the University of Chicago. These studies were made to determine the essential characteristics and needs in the education of school librarians and librarians working with children and young people in public libraries. Miss Fenwick, whose study related to the children's librarians, stated that "critics of the traditional training program for children's librarians have questioned whether there is any basis for the difference in professional training required for librarians serving children in a school and those serving children in 9

Viola K. Fitch, What Becomes of Children's Librarians? (Unpublished .Master's thesis, Columbia University, School of Library Service, 1950), p. 2.

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the public library, 1 0 and drew this conclusion from her investigation: There is evidence assembled in this study to support the hypotheses stated at the beginning of the thesis: that the professional training of children's librarians should include education methods, adolescent and child psychology, curriculum development, methods of teaching reading, and similar related content; that the evolving social objectives of the public library places broad community responsibility on the children's librarian which calls for professional education in fields of public relations . . . and that professional education should begin in an undergraduate; major. 11 She, therefore, recommended that there should be the same framework of education for both school and children's librarians. Similarly, Miss Ersted concluded that there should be one program for the education of all school and children's librarians. 12 Shifting the initial education of the children's librarian to the undergraduate years, will have the advantage of early recruitment, which may help relieve the critical shortage in this field. T h e r e has thus been set before the library profession as a whole in the A L A standards together with the W o r k shop recommendations, a clear-cut program in general terms f o r the education of librarians f o r work with children and young people. T h e program consists of an undergraduate half year ( 1 5 to 18 semester hours) of professional instruction as a part of four-year programs of general education designed for full or part-time library positions in elementary and secondary schools and in the 10 S. I. Fenwick, Education of Librarians Working with Children in Public Libraries, p. 18. " Ibid., p. 166. 12 R. Ersted, The Education of School Librarians, p. 119.

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children's departments of public libraries; this undergraduate training to be carefully articulated with a further, wholly professional year of training in the same field, in a graduate-professional library school, for those who seek to prepare themselves for the more important, supervisory positions in schools and public libraries. This program seems to us the direction in which planning of professional training, job classification, certification, and accreditation should proceed. There are important changes to be made and difficulties to be overcome in putting the program into operation. The teacher education institutions now carry, and will continue to carry, the major load in training of school librarians. If the undergraduate education of children's librarians is to be combined with school librarian education the criteria and programs of this education will have to be broadened. Instruction will need to be given in administration of school libraries and children's departments in public libraries; and observation, field work, and supervised practice in children's rooms in public libraries as well as in school libraries must be an integral part of the program. Faculties will need to have some specialized experience in children's public library posts as well as in school library work. In some state institutions permission must be obtained from the Board of Education to offer any course that is not specifically connected with the program of teacher education. The inclusion of the training of children's librarians could be justified, however, by pointing out that a larger proportion of library service on the elementary level is given by public libraries than by centralized school libraries. Teacher-training institu-

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tions might be expected to m o d i f y somewhat their professional education requirements f o r students planning to enter the public library field. Individual guidance and counseling are implied here. T h e second problem associated with the proposed program is that in limiting accreditation to institutions offering not less than fifteen and not more than eighteen semester hours, graduates of teacher-training institutions could not meet the current standards of many regional associations f o r full-time school librarians. T h e Northwest Association requires twenty semester hours, the Southern Association thirty semester hours, and the North Central Association twenty-four semester hours. T h e country over, regional educational association requirements f o r librarians range from six to thirty semester hours, determined on the basis of school enrollment. T h e philosophy on which the suggestion of fifteen to eighteen hours is based, however, is a sound one. A s Ersted reported, . . . the basic fallacy of dichotomy of training stems from the assumption that students in schools of a given size require less expert library services than students in the larger schools. . . . The objectives of school library service reported by the part-time school librarians did not differ substantially from those reported by the full-time librarians . . . the pattern of use made of library science subjects was the same for the part-time librarians as for the full-time librarians, with the exception that types of knowledge or skills reported by full-time librarians as being used daily were reported by part-time librarians as being used with less frequency. 13 13

R . Ersted, The Education of School Librarians, pp. 161-62.

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The problem of state and regional requirements is basic to the success of the undergraduate library education prog r a n as it is now being proposed. In states requiring only a four-year degree including thirty semester hours of library science, their certification laws might be reconsidered in the light of the emphasis being placed on the importance of general education in the teacher's and librarian's training. Similarly, all regional accrediting agencies should establish a minimum of fifteen to eighteen semester hours f o r school librarians. A n y additional requirements in library education should be obtained at the graduate level. A third problem bound to present itself is similar in nature to that discussed in the preceding chapter with regard to the small village library operating on a part-time basis and unable to afford the salary required f o r a professionally trained librarian. There are in all the states very small schools, also, that have similarly provided for parttime library service, using a teacher with or without training as part-time librarian. Such teacher librarians, as they are called, are often required to have a semester or less of training in library techniques. 14 T h e proposed under14 T h e teacher librarian has evolved f r o m the changing pattern of instructional methods in modern secondary and elementary schools. W h e n instructional methods changed and instead of one text many books were used, school librarians became essential. Large school systems hired full-time professionally trained librarians with suitable educational background which would enable them to w o r k effectively in a school library situation. Small schools, no less progressive or unmindful of the changing methods of instruction, also organized libraries and set out to find some one to care for them. D u e to the lack of adequate financial support and lack of adequately trained school librarians, the small school had to make do with what they could afford. In most cases, this person was not a professionally trained school librarian. Approximately 80 percent of the schools in the United States employ less than 10 teachers. It is in this type of school that the teacher librarian is usually found.

8o

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graduate program is intended as a minimum within the economic range of these school library positions. Such a minimum of professional training in small schools should be supplemented, however, by the school's affiliation with larger units or systems that will provide full-time professional supervisory library personnel who can furnish technical services and guidance to the part-time, smallschool librarian with her half year of undergraduate instruction in library subjects. T h e proposals for a common program of professional education for school and children's librarians on the undergraduate and graduate levels have not included any detail regarding the content of the curricula on the two levels or the means by which the undergraduate and graduate instruction can be articulated. From such discussions as have been held and from our own studies, however, we have drawn up the following suggestion for the courses of study. For the undergraduate in her half year of professional training there is need, first, for a basic philosophy of librarianship. Such a philosophy would give direction and motivation to the future librarian in her work. It would help her to elevate her position from that of a clerk to that of a functioning librarian with a sense of her role and the role of the library in the educational pattern of the school, or within the framework of the public library. There is, secondly, the need for a wide knowledge of books and of how to bring books and youth together. In addition, there is need for a knowledge of technical processes and audio-visual materials. T h e curriculum content for the undergraduate training program for school and children's librarians should include, therefore:

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Philosophy and functions of the library Children's literature Adolescent literature Selection and use of library materials (including reference materials) Teaching the use of books and libraries (which might carry education credit as a method course) Audio-visual materials (as part of the Education Department's requirement) Laboratory work Cataloging and classification Articulation of this undergraduate program with graduate programs is necessary if the education of school and children's librarians is to be a cooperative effort. It is an important fourth problem involved in putting a new program into operation. T h e Chicago W o r k s h o p concluded that . . . some satisfactory articulation should be effected which would not penalize the student who had completed the basic undergraduate library program and then desired to enter a graduate library school for advanced study. 15 Some idea in regard to the recent status of articulation can be drawn from the report b y Leigh that: In response to our question put to the thirtv-four [accredited library] schools as to how many favored combining the training of school librarians with work for the bachelor's degree in a four-year program, nine favored the arrangement (eight being Type III schools now operating in this way), and four were opposed. More than half the accredited schools ventured no opinion. Thus, it may be concluded that 15

A A S L , Newsletter

(September, 19J1), p. 3.

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the present arrangement for school librarian training is looked at with complacency, certainly not with general desire to change it. 16 Considering the present lack of articulation between undergraduate and graduate programs, we believe that a relationship with more definitely positive elements than are n o w evident is necessary. Librarians who have completed undergraduate programs should find at the graduate level the courses that are designed to integrate or to build on what has already been learned and they should be able to continue work at an advanced level. T h e graduate library school programs should provide sufficient flexibility to insure that students will not repeat courses taken at the undergraduate level, and also to allow students to take courses in other schools of the university as a means of producing the librarians required by today's standards. Keeping in mind the content of the undergraduate curriculum for school librarians outlined above, what type of program should be offered at the graduate level? Can this program be designed to reflect the demands from the field? L o o k i n g at the kind of person needed as librarian in the supervisory positions in school and children's libraries today, what educational experiences are necessary to produce this person? T h e following is suggested as appropriate to meet the needs: First Semester A perspective course that may be called anv of the following: Books and Libraries in the Growth of Civilization Contemporary Backgrounds of Librarianship in Relation to the Functions and Agencies of Communication in our Society 1 8 R. D. Leigh, "The Education of Librarians," in Bryan, The Librarian, p. 351.

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Philosophy of Librarianship. (Advanced, on discussion basis) Advanced course in materials. (To include criteria for evaluation and selection and methods of organization. Audiovisual materials should be included.) School and public library service to adolescents. (To include examples of and problems in cooperation; to be taken by librarians planning for work in public and school libraries) Electives Procedures and Programs of Curriculum Improvement. (An advanced course taken in the School of Education) Rural and urban sociology Education and community development Second Semester Literature for children and adolescents. (An advanced course, not repeating work done at the undergraduate level, to include adult literature suitable for adolescents) Theory of library administration. (A basic, general course) Research methods. (Survey of research project methods in the field of librarianship. Selected problem to be completed in next session.) Electives Improvement of reading in secondary schools Public school administration and supervision Summer Session Seminar (by appointment) on the research problem and completion of problem Electives One literature course: Science Humanities Social science Fine Arts Advanced information sources

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In the case of graduate schools requiring a preprofessional core of library service for admission, the fifteen to eighteen semester hours of undergraduate education obtained in teacher-education institutions could be substituted. An examination of course descriptions indicates that there is a similar content in undergraduate library courses of teacher-education institutions and these preprofessional cores. It would not be advisable to make undergraduate courses in library service a requirement for the graduate training of school and children's librarians. The graduate programs should continue to provide the whole professional preparation for those who wish to begin their preparation at this level. Modification and adjustments for such individuals would not be difficult. The problem of meeting the professional educational requirements for teachers in the case of those persons who shift to this area of librarianship at the graduate level, however, should not become the responsibility of graduate library schools. T o implement the program outlined above, strong, qualified departments of library service are necessary at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Accreditation of schools or departments of library education is necessary to achieve this objective for, as Miss Henne reports: T h e Division of Libraries f o r Children and Y o u n g People has had f o r t w o years a special committee to study education f o r librarians w o r k i n g with children and y o u n g people. W e already have enough evidence to show that there are many new schools, or rather departments, which have been coming into existence because of an expressed or implied demand within the state f o r the training of school librarians.

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The survey is also showing that many of these courses for prospective workers with children and young people, because of expediency, are being taught by people who are not children or school librarians but are college and university library people. We are also finding that courses are being given on the teaching of reading for those age groups with not more than five books for children on the whole campus. There is no doubt that we need standards and we need controls. 17 Stieg sums up the case when he says: . . . Granted that the exceptional student, even the very good student, can always overcome a bad school, for the average student, controls and standards are essential. Perhaps this is one place where we can take something from the most established of the professions, law and medicine, which have very elaborate programs, both of accreditation and of certification which supplement each other and both of which are essential.18 This need f o r really effective accreditation procedures constitutes the fifth crucial problem in instituting the new program f o r the training of school and children's librarians. Accepting its need, the next question to arise is what agency is best constituted to handle accrediting of these t w o levels of education. It is generally agreed that the "Standards f o r Accreditation" of the B E L of the A L A would apply to school and children's library training in the graduate schools of library service. These standards are designed to evaluate both the undergraduate core and graduate program of library service offered b y the institutions. N o revision of them would be necessary to fit the two-year graduate 17 18

H. Lancour, ed., Issues in Library Education, p. 31. Ibid., pp. 31-32.

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work-study program described in Chapter 2—for it includes a minimum of five academic years of study beyond the secondary school level and the professional library content does constitute approximately one-fifth of the five-year academic program.19 Should the A L A wish to make mandatory the two-year work-study graduate program, the standards would need to be revised to include specific criteria for the practice work. As was the case during the recent experimental programs, the A L A would probably wait until several schools had tried out the workstudy plan and demonstrated its economic feasibility and superiority over the traditional pattern before revising its standards for accreditation to make the six-year program mandatory. For the undergraduate departments of library service the A A C T E seems best constituted to administer the evaluative standards. The standards themselves, however, should be set up by the Board of Education for Librarianship in cooperation with the A A C T E , and the A A C T E visitation committees should always include a librarian. With the current mushrooming of undergraduate library service programs in teacher-education institutions without, in many cases, careful planning and support, it would seem premature to leave it entirely to the education profession, as yet not sufficiently aware in many cases of the professional requirements of school library education, to formulate library programs and apply library service evaluative standards. An instrument of evaluation, Standards for Library Sci19 See "Proposals for Accrediting Professional Programs . . . ," A L A Bulletin, Vol. 45, N o . 1 (January, 1951)1 p- ¡0.

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ence Programs in Teacher-Education Institutions, has already been designed by BEL and A A C T E working together, and only a few revisions are necessary to adapt it to serve for programs educating both school and children's librarians. These standards evolved by the B E L and A A C T E have come in for considerable criticism. The main objects of attack are: 20 1. The limitation of fifteen to eighteen semester hours of library service courses. This has been discussed earlier, and the wisdom of the standard seems evident to us. It poses a formidable task, however, to persuade state and regional agencies to readjust existing standards for certification of school and children's librarians. 2. The standard that the library service department be an "instructional unit." It is pointed out that this is the type of standard objected to by universities and colleges as interfering with the internal organization of their institutions. The theory underlying the standard is that the department will receive more attention and support if it is an instructional unit. That may depend entirely on the situation within the school. A library service instruction unit might, it is true, become the stepchild of the education department if included in it, but offering too few courses to be a really major department, it may be too weak to stand alone as an instructional unit. We suggest that each program be evaluated in terms of the effectiveness of its structure as an operating unit. 20

A summary of criticisms expressed verbally at the Chicago Workshop or in letters written to the authors of this chapter.

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3. The request for a full-time director, faculty, and clerical assistance. The problem here arises from the limitation of fifteen to eighteen semester hours which ordinarily determines that the program will be a minor rather than a major. With such a limitation the average college library service unit would be offering no more than nine semester hours in any one semester. The administrative overhead might well, in such cases, seem economically unsound. One partial solution may be found by organizing the library instruction as a major without increasing the number of strictly professional library science courses required for its completion. Courses offered by other departments can be credited toward a library service major. This is legitimate practice in curriculum construction. Such courses as mass communications, audio-visual education, storytelling, art exhibition techniques, etc., are of direct value to the librarian. Courses in education would serve the dual purpose of giving education credit and library science credit, and the others would increase the student's liberal arts background. Status as a "major department" brings greater representation in the institution's policy-making bodies; it usually encourages more students to enter the department. It also gives the library service faculty more control of the student's program, since a member of the department then becomes the student's adviser. The added responsibilities, such as scheduling, counseling, and membership on committees, that are involved in operating as a major call for a director for the department. This director might, however, carry a light teaching load in addition to his administrative duties; the recommendation

SCHOOL

AND

CHILDREN'S

LIBRARIANS

89

reads "the person responsible for the administration of the program shall have this function as his major responsibility," not as his "sole" responsibility. Insistence on a full-time clerical assistant may be questioned. Student assistants, with work time equivalent to a full-time secretary, are preferred in many institutions. It is true that their efficiency is cut down by the turnover in personnel and the limited number of hours each student works, but students are often more intelligent and better educated than the average secretary employed for a similar position. Such employment, also, offers financial help and experience to the student and is less expensive to the institution. 4. The statement that the administrator of the library service program should "have authority to select students, recommend faculty, etc." In many teacher-education institutions individual departments do not have the authority to select students. Selection is done by the Registrar and his Committee on Admissions. Once admitted to an institution, the student is eligible to enter whatever program he chooses. The requisite personality characteristics and educational background for successful teaching and for school and children's librarianship are presumably similar. The department adviser may counsel against his entering the department but cannot refuse to admit the student if he elects to enroll. Where selection of students is vested in a general admissions office, it should be recognized that the power to withhold recommendation of a student for a position rests with the library service faculty and can be

90

SCHOOL

AND

CHILDREN'S

LIBRARIANS

used to discourage a student from persisting in a field for which he is not suited. 5. T h e requirement of a collection of books for children and young people in addition to the collection in the laboratory school library. In many instances the laboratory school collection may be sufficient to serve both the school and the library service department. Size of enrollment in both schools, number of books and amount of duplication, reserve and circulation regulations, convenience of location and accessibility of the collection during evening and weekend hours would need to be taken into consideration. A separate collection f o r the use of the library service students is ideal, but in some circumstances would not be justified. T h e qualifications expressed here regarding the immediate practicability of some of the standards for accreditation are of a minor nature and are not intended to detract from our judgment that the standards provide an excellent instrument f o r the analysis and evaluation of the undergraduate programs of training for school and children's librarianship. Indeed, if the standards are rigorously applied, they would provide the answer to the present criticisms. F o r the criticisms already noted are primarily that the library instruction unit will be too small to justify the academic position, personnel, and equipment specified in the proposed standards. With a rigorous application of standards, even if modified by provisional accreditation f o r a period of four or five years for those institutions which meet all but one or two of the criteria, the result is likely to be a decrease in the present number of training centers. This, in turn, will mean larger enrollments

SCHOOL

AND

CHILDREN'S

LIBRARIANS

91

for those able to meet the criteria, and the criticized criteria could be fully met. A final problem in connection with the new program is how to prevent the "down-grading" of professional librarians, especially of children's librarians in public libraries for which the full five years of academic and professional preparation is, at least, traditionally expected. What is required is careful classification of the positions in both schools and public libraries according to their level of complexity, special knowledge, creativeness, and responsibility and the certification of library graduates of undergraduate schools only for those positions classified as of a subordinate nature, with the granting of advanced certificates to the superior and supervisory positions. Many city and school jurisdictions will require the full year of graduate training for the chief and supervisory children's and school library positions. Such positions would be open to those with the first certificate only after they had completed the work for the professional Master's degree on the graduate level. An alternative to certification on the basis of job classification and completion of specified educational requirements would be a series of comprehensive examinations comparable to the system used in England. Due to the size and diversity of our country and of its educational institutions, however, it would be difficult to frame a system of national examinations—one for completion of the undergraduate program and the other for the graduateprofessional year's work—that would be equitable and suitable for all areas. It is quite possible, though not likely, that some states

92

SCHOOL AND C H I L D R E N ' S

LIBRARIANS

might set up statewide examinations for the two grades as an alternative to certification resting on job classification and level of educational achievement. In the school field, however, certification, although not uniform from one state to another, has been quite widely adopted for all school positions on the basis of job classification and educational achievement. In public libraries legal certification on any uniform basis has not been widely adopted. The most practical line of advance would seem to be the extension of certification of specified classified positions on the basis of successful completion of library training at accredited schools. T h e long-time result of this step will be up-grading rather than down-grading, particularly in smaller schools and children's departments of public libraries where the shortage of qualified personnel and the inability to meet the salary scale for fifth-year library school graduates have forced the employment of personnel with little or no professional education.

VJ

A GENERAL PROGRAM

THE EDUCATION

OF

FOR

LIBRARIANS

initiated after the Second World War have had a set of basic assumptions that are now formally recognized by the library profession through their adoption by A L A two years ago as part of the standards for library school accreditation. These assumptions are that there is a common content for the education of librarians, that this content is of a professional character, that it should occupy one year of a five-year program of higher education to include four undergraduate years and one graduate year, that the successful completion of the five years of collegiate and professional instruction should lead to a Master's degree, that this graduate-professional degree should be the necessary qualification for professional positions in libraries, and that undergraduate courses of study in librarianship should be recognized as partial or preliminary in character, not by themselves conferring full professional status on those completing them.

T H E N E W LIBRARY SCHOOL PROGRAMS

T h e new programs based on these assumptions mark a significant advance in the education of librarians and the recognition of their professional status. But the five years of experimentation with them have brought to a focus a number of latent problems in the training of librarians

94

GENERAL

PROGRAM

FOR

EDUCATION

which are not yet solved. It has been the aim of the preceding chapters to define these problems and to suggest ways of dealing with them not only in order to arrive at discrete solutions but, also, in such a way as to provide an overall, internally consistent pattern for American librarian education. These problems and the suggested solutions are as follows: 1. HOW TO ACHIEVE BALANCE IN T H E BASIC PROFESSIONAL YEAR B E T W E E N THEORETICAL TRAINING AND T H E LEARNING OF PRACTICAL TECHNIQUES.

T h e solution offered here is that library schools reexamine the content of their instruction to identify those practical techniques that can be learned more effectively by clinical or intern experience in libraries than by instruction in classrooms; that they establish working relations with neighboring libraries of each of the five major types; that they organize a two-year program of professional education with one half of the time devoted to learning techniques through carefully planned, paid internship in the cooperating libraries, and the other half of the time devoted to academic instruction of a theoretical, professional character, the student to be judged on the basis of his performance in both types of work. 2 . HOW TO EDUCATE SPECIALISTS FOR SPECIAL LIBRARIES AND FOR SPECIAL DIVISIONS OF GENERAL

LIBRARIES.

T h e solution suggested is that careful analysis of the techniques and skills required for work in special libraries indicates that they are either a part of the basic content

GENERAL

PROGRAM

FOR

EDUCATION

95

n o w included in general library education or by modest revisions can and should be included as part of the basic education of all librarians; and that special subject matter knowledge required for success as special librarians, in addition to that obtained in an undergraduate major, and in concentrated electives taken during the graduate-professional year of instruction, should when necessary be added to the requirements of training for specialist positions. These will vary greatly between the specialties— in some cases, as in law librarianship, requiring work for the regular L L B degree as well as the graduate year of librarianship, in others involving no training other than the undergraduate major and a library school elective bloc. These specific adjustments and revisions rather than a separate library school curriculum for special librarians seem to offer the most desirable line of development. T h e solution suggested will be greatly accelerated by the adoption of the two-year work and study program in which both students and faculty of the general library school will come into regular and frequent contact with the personnel and problems of special libraries, with an almost inevitable broadening of library school instruction to include special library aims, methods, and problems. 3.

H O W TO PROVIDE T R A I N I N G FOR L I B R A R I A N S IN

SMALL

P U B L I C LIBRARIES W H E R E CONDITIONS OF P A R T - T I M E PLOYMENT

AND SMALL

PAY CANNOT

JUSTIFY

THE

EMFULL

F I V E - Y E A R P R O G R A M OF PROFESSIONAL E D U C A T I O N .

T h e conclusion from analysis of this problem is that training for this sizeable group of library workers is not within the proper province of either library schools or of

96

GENERAL

PROGRAM

FOR

EDUCATION

state library agencies so far as direct instruction is concerned. T h e scientific classification of library positions will necessarily exclude the small village librarians from professional status and certification. Their training can be most effectively carried on by regional or district headquarters of library systems with which they are affiliated through a regular, comprehensive program of in-service training. Library schools and state library agencies may, however, contribute indirectly to the training of these village librarians b y providing useful instructional materials and guidance in techniques f o r the use of regional or district headquarters librarians in carrying on in-service training programs. 4 . HOW TO BRING INTO RELATIONSHIP THE EDUCATION OF SCHOOL LIBRARIANS, NOW TRAINED FOR THE MOST PART IN UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS OF TEACHER-TRAINING INSTITUTIONS, AND THAT OF CHILDREN'S LIBRARIANS NOW BEING PREPARED BY GENERAL LIBRARY SCHOOLS ON THE GRADUATE L E V E L , AND OF WHOM THERE IS AT PRESENT AN ALARMING SHORTAGE.

Here it is plain that the realities of the present situation require some deviation from one of the central aims of the newer library school programs: to have a single basic five-year (post-high school) curriculum leading to the professional Master's degree, as the prerequisite training f o r all types of professional library positions. Just as plainly the realities of the present situation require some broader avenue of entrance to children's librarianship if positions in the children's departments of public libraries are to be filled.

GENERAL

PROGRAM

FOR E D U C A T I O N

97

So long as the certification of public school teachers requires four years of collegiate-professional education, rather than the five required for general librarianship, the training of school librarians certified fully for many of the school library positions will be on a four-year basis. This is true because the public school librarian is inescapably a part of the recruiting-training-certificating-salary systems of public school teachers. Our conclusion, therefore, is that a single line of education on two levels should be developed for librarians working with children and young people in school, public, and other libraries; that the undergraduate curriculum of teacher-training and other academic institutions should provide a full semester's work in library subjects specifically designed for school and children's librarians; that the four-year graduates of such institutions taking these programs should be certified for positions in school and other libraries that are classified as skilled and technical but not graduate-professional; and that the graduate-professional library schools adjust the year of professional instruction for school and children's librarianship to take full account of the semester's undergraduate program of courses and frame their instruction so that it is a progressive continuation rather than a duplication of content. With this two-level system of training, the school and public library positions in larger systems requiring supervisory ability will be classified as professional and will specify the professional Master's degree. It is recognized, of course, that there will be a steady stream of graduates of the four-year program who will, as certified school and children's librarians, fill the nu-

98

GENERAL

PROGRAM

FOR

EDUCATION

merous posts of a subordinate nature or with limited span of activity for a time and then retire to marry or go on to other work without further training in librarianship. But the undergraduate training program is not terminal; those making a permanent career of library work with children and young people will go on to the fifth year of work and the Master's degree. T h e two-level training system, in this way, provides an economical means of both personal and social investment in formal education for this important segment of librarianship. 5 . HOW TO DEVELOP E F F E C T I V E M A C H I N E R Y FOR ACCREDITATION AND CERTIFICATION WHICH CAN BRING INTO R E A SONABLE ORDER, U N I F O R M I T Y , AND A RATIONAL RELATIONSHIP THE VARIOUS T Y P E S AND LEVELS OF TRAINING.

Our conclusion is that the machinery already exists for both accreditation and certification of trained librarians. The Board of Education for Librarianship of ALA has the central position in the accreditation of the graduateprofessional library schools. It has a set of standards accepted by the profession which it is ready to apply in its task of accreditation. It needs only to work out some agreement with the newly created National Commission on Accrediting that will permit the new standards to be put into operation fully and without compromise as to the basic change to five years of professional-general education with the Master's degree as the first professional degree in librarianship. For accreditation of the schools training for school and children's librarianship on the undergraduate level the machinery has been agreed upon but not put into practice

GENERAL

PROGRAM

FOR

EDUCATION

99

as yet. T h e B E L of the A L A in cooperation with several national associations of school administrators and librarians has drawn up and adopted a set of standards for these undergraduate programs that establish a practical minimum of institutional resources and facilities for adequate instruction in this field. If vigorously enforced, the present wasteful dispersion of educational resources with far too many weak, poorly equipped centers offering plainly inadequate instruction would be greatly reduced. The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education has been designated as the most appropriate agency for administering these standards through accreditation. Its task will not be easy. It will be applying standards mainly to its own member institutions, the teachertraining colleges and university schools of education. Our conclusion is that the B E L of the A L A should maintain a continuing interest in the application of the standards for these programs of training for school and children's librarians. The maintenance of a rational relationship between the undergraduate programs and the full professional program on the graduate level for school and children's librarianship depends upon a reasonably good minimum standard in the undergraduate training centers. Whether or not the A A C T E will be able to establish accreditation securely so that unaccredited schools will disappear, the graduate-professional school accredited by B E L might well limit the granting of credit for undergraduate library courses to those institutions that have received the A A C T E accreditation. This, we feel, will promote the general acceptance of the undergraduate standards.

IOO

GENERAL

PROGRAM

FOR

EDUCATION

What emerges from our discussion of the current problems of education for librarianship, as we see it, is a basic content of professional instruction applicable to all types of librarianship. W e have suggested that not only is it of an advanced, theoretical character but also it has material and techniques best learned in the direct context of library practice so that professional education should include carefully organized clinical experience or internship as well as academic instruction on the graduate level. W e have suggested that the clinical work encompass direct experience in at least three major types of libraries. W e have suggested that in the professional education of persons entering special librarianship, provision be made for the additional advanced education in the special subject matter field with which the special librarian is concerned, this to vary with the particular specialty. W e have suggested that for school and children's librarians, provision be made for an undergraduate semester's program of technical training to be followed by a continuation curriculum in the graduate-professional library schools for those seeking full professional status. W e have suggested that the library schools and library profession clearly recognize that the library positions in very small public libraries are not professional in status and that those who occupy them should be trained in service under the supervision of the professional library staff with which they are affiliated. Whereas accreditation of the centers of training for librarianship on two levels is possible on a national basis, certification of library school graduates for particular jobs, and classification of particular jobs in such a way as

GENERAL

PROGRAM

FOR E D U C A T I O N

IOI

to relate them to the training needed for them are matters of regional, state, and local action. The effectiveness of a program of education of librarians in the United States, therefore, does not stop with the organization and operation of library schools or even with the accreditation of library schools. It involves the whole library profession in sustained efforts to gain official acceptance in regional, state, and local laws, regulations, and practice, of a common standard of professional training for professional positions. T h e problems of librarian education are central to the organization and recognition of librarianship as a profession.

APPENDIX

SUGGESTED CALENDARS FOR T H E T W O - Y E A R STUDY

WORK AND

PLAN-

A s THE DESIGN of the t w o - y e a r program calls f o r the alternation of twelve-week periods of academic study and w o r k experience, universities operating on a quarter system will have no difficulties with their calendars. T h e f o u r calendars given below show how the program m a y be adjusted to institutions with a semester system. Plans A and B provide an alternation of w o r k and study periods without making any change in the semester system. Plans C and D call f o r the splitting of the first semester of the first year into t w o eightweek terms. T h e s e plans are merely illustrative of a number of variations and combinations that can be worked out to fit the academic calendars of different universities. In a n y plan, however, it needs to be kept in mind that all students should have some course w o r k before going to w o r k in a cooperating library. Although it is preferable to alternate w o r k and study periods rather than to have t w o w o r k periods consecutively, this cannot be done under the semester system unless each semester is divided into t w o eight-week terms. PLAN A

July 7, i9j2-Aug. 16, 1952 Aug. 17-24, i 9 5 2 Aug. 2 j - N o v . i j , 1952 Nov. 16-23, 1951 Nov. 24, i952-Feb. 1,1953 Feb. 2-May 31, 1953

Summer Study Vacation 12 Weeks Work Vacation 1 o Weeks Work Spring Semester

103

APPENDIX (Mar. 29-Apr. 5) June 1-7, 1953

(Easter Vacation) Vacation

June 8-Aug. 29, 1953 Aug. 31-Sept. 22, 1953 Sept. 23, I9j3-Jan. 29,1954 (Dec. 21-Jan. 3) Feb. 1 - 2 1 , 1954 Feb. 22-May 15, 1954 May 17-29, 19J4 June 2,1954

12 Weeks Work Vacation Fall Semester (Christmas Vacation) Vacation 12 Weeks Work Conferences Graduation

PLAN B

Sept. 24,1952-Jan. 30,1953 (Dec. 23-Jan. 4) Feb. 2-Apr. 24, 1953 April 27-JuIy 3,1954

Fall Semester (Christmas Vacation) 12 Weeks Work 10 Weeks Work

July 6-Aug. 1 j , 1953 Aug. 17-N0V. 7, 1953 Nov. 8-15,1953 Nov. 16, I9j3-Feb. 1,1954 Feb. 2-May 31, 1954 (April 12-19) June 2,1954

Summer Study 12 Weeks Work Vacation 12 Weeks Work Spring Semester (Easter Vacation) Graduation

PLAN

c

July 7-Aug. 16, 1952 Aug. 17-Sept. 15,1952 Sept. 15-Nov. 7,1952 Nov. 8-Nov. 16,1952 Nov. 17,1952-Jan. 31, 1953 (Dec. 22-Jan. 4) Feb. 2-April 25, 1953

Summer Study Vacation 12 Weeks Work Vacation V2 Fall Semester (Christmas Vacation) 12 Weeks Work

April 26-Ju!y 3, 1953 July 6-August 15,1953 Aug. 16-Sept. 22,1953 Sept. 3, 1953-Jan. 29, 1954 (Dec. 21-Jan. 4)

10 Weeks Work Summer Study Vacation Fall Semester (Christmas Vacation)

APPENDIX

104 Feb. 1-21,1954 Feb. 22-May iy, 1954 May 17-29,19J4 June 2,1954

Vacation 12 Weeks W o r k Conferences Graduation PLAN D

Sept. 22-Nov. 14,1952 Nov. 21-Jan. 31,1953 Feb. 2-May 31,1953 (Mar. 29-April 5)

Vi Fall Semester 10 Weeks W o r k Spring Semester (Vacation)

June 1-7,1953 June 8-Aug. 29, 1953 Sept. 23, 1953-Jan. 29, 1954 (Dec. 21-Jan. 4) Feb. i-April 24,1954 Apr. 25-May 9,1954 May 10-July 17, 1954 Aug. 15, i 9 5 4

Vacation 12 Weeks W o r k Fall Semester (Christmas Vacation) 12 Weeks W o r k Vacation 12 Weeks W o r k Conferences and Graduation

BIBLIOGRAPHIC

NOTES

SELECTED SOURCES

Bryan, Alice I., The Public Librarian. With a section on the education of librarians by Robert D. Leigh. New York, Columbia University Press, 1952. 474PPA report of the Public Library Inquiry centered on the professional librarian. A sample of sixty public libraries was used as a means of obtaining a reasonably representative picture of selected library activities. Findings include material on personal characteristics, educational and economic status, career preferences, working conditions, and personnel administration. Chapters by Dr. Leigh present a picture of present conditions in library training, through study of the thirty-four accredited library schools in the United States. Beginning with material on the evolution of library schools, the section deals specifically with educational programs, students, and faculty and instructional resources of accredited institutions. Chicago University, Education for Librarianship: Papers Presented at the Library Conference, Univ. of Chicago, Aug. 16-21, 1948. Chicago, American Library Association, 1949. 307pp. A series of papers presented at the Library Conference in 1948 at Univ. of Chicago. The papers fall into four categories: ( 1 ) general orientation and background; (2) preparatory education; (3) professional education; (4) special problems in the education of librarians. The individual papers

io 6

BIBLIOGRAPHIC

NOTES

dealt with the problems of relationship of the professional school to the university and of library education to other professional education, the historical development of education f o r librarians, the education of public, college, and school and children's librarians, and special librarians, advanced study f o r librarians, administrative problems, and the training of clerical and subprofessional workers. It is evident from the papers and the discussions following each paper that the conference was characterized by conflicting ideas. Many valuable recommendations, however, were proposed as a result of the conference. Danton, J . Periam, Education for Librarianship: Criticisms, Dilemmas, and Proposals. N e w York, Columbia University School of Library Service, 1946. 35pp. Enumerates twelve major criticisms and problems facing education for librarianship. Considers each topic in detail and makes proposals f o r solutions and remedies. Fargo, Lucile F., Preparation for School Library W o r k . N e w York, Columbia University Press, 1936. 190pp. A study of the education and function of school librarians; the historical development of their professional education; outlines constructive suggestions for a revised program of education for school library work. Hoyle, Nancy, Report on Progress and Problems in Training f o r School Librarianship in the South. Alimeographed, 1

3PP-

Summary of training for school librarianship in eleven Southern states. Stresses the trend toward undergraduate library education and its affiliation with departments of education. Brief discussion of relationship between graduate and undergraduate programs. Joint Committee of the American Association of Teachers Colleges and the American Library Association, H o w

BIBLIOGRAPHIC

NOTES

Shall W e Educate Teachers and Librarians for Library Service in the School? N e w York, Columbia University Press, 1936. 74pp. A study concerned with desirable curricula for library instruction of teachers and school administrators, teacher librarians and school librarians. Presents principles to be applied in the reorganization of curricula designed to prepare for library use and for library service in the school, and general and special principles governing the education of teachers, teacher librarians, and school librarians. Includes a proposed library service curriculum f o r teachers and teacher librarians together with a statement of appropriate terminology prepared as a seminar project by a g r ° u p of teachers and school librarians at the School of Library Service of Columbia University. Reece, Ernest J., T h e Curriculum in Library Schools. N e w York, Columbia University Press, 1936. 220pp. A study of the curricula in library schools from the point of view of the duties performed by librarians. Includes statements of the past beliefs and practices in training librarians, a study of curricula in 1936, and recommendations for a new pattern of education. Brief discussion on the responsibilities of the B E L of the A L A and its influence on the education of librarians. Wheeler, Joseph L., Progress and Problems in Education for Librarianship. N e w Y o r k , Carnegie Corporation, 1946. 107pp. Report on the status of education for librarianship. Reviews progress, analyzes persistent problems, and makes recommendations. Considers the problem of recruiting, organization of library schools, faculties, and teaching methods, curriculum, training outside of library schools, and organizations within the profession directly concerned with education of librarians.

io8

BIBLIOGRAPHIC

NOTES

Williamson, Charles C., Training for Library Service; a Report prepared for the Carnegie Corporation of New York. New York, Carnegie Corporation, 1923. 165pp. Comprehensive report of library training that includes detailed study of the curriculum, entrance requirements, teaching staff, methods of instruction, and many other related topics. Particularly important are the revelation of inadequacies and the recommendations made for improvement. ADDITIONAL SOURCES

American Library Association, Board of Education for Librarianship. The Preparation of Teacher-Librarians. Chicago, American Library Association, 1937. American Library Association, Board of Education for Librarianship. Standards for Library Science Programs in Teacher-Education Institutions. Chicago. American Library Association, 1952. American Library Association. The State Library Agency: Its Function and Organization. Chicago, American Library Association, 1943. Cowley, J. D., Training for Librarianship in the U.S. London, University College, 1938. 19pp. Ersted, Ruth, The Education of School Librarians. University of Chicago, 1951. Unpublished Master's thesis, 192pp. Fenwick, Sara I., Education of Librarians Working with Children in Public Libraries. University of Chicago, 1951. Unpublished Master's thesis. 191pp. Foutts, James C., American Library Laws. Chicago, American Library Association, 1943. 1,247pp. Ganser, Helen A., "Teacher Librarians," in National Society for the study of Education, 42d Yearbook, Part II, The Library in General Education. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1943. Joeckel, Carleton B., Library Extension: Problems and Solutions. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1946. 260pp. Lancour, Harold, ed., Issues in Library Education: a Report

BIBLIOGRAPHIC

NOTES

of the Conference on Library Education, Princeton University, December n-i2th, 1948. Council of National Library Associations, 1949. 74pp. Leigh, Robert D., The Public Library in the United States. New York, Columbia University Press, 1950. 272pp. Metealf, Keyes D., The Program of Instruction in Library Schools. Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1943. 140pp. Mishoff, Willard O., "Education for Librarianship: The Current Pattern," Illinois Libraries, Vol. 3 5, No. 2 (February' '953)- PP- 74-79Munn, Ralph, Conditions and Trends in Education for Librarianship. New York, Carnegie Corporation, 1936. 49pp. Plummer, Mary W., Training for Librarianship. Chicago, American Library Association, 1920. 32pp. Reece, Ernest J., The Task and Training of Librarians. New York, King's Crown Press, 1949. Voigt, Melvin J., ed., "Education for Special Librarianship," Library Quarterly, 24 (January, 1954), 1-20. Waters, Edward N., "Special Library Education," Library Trends, I (October, 1952), 244-55. Woellner, Robert C., and M. A. Wood, Requirements for Certification of Teachers, Counselors, Librarians, Administrators for Elementary Schools, Secondary Schools, Junior Colleges, 1952-53. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1952. 125pp.

I N D E X

A A C T E , see American Association of Colleges f o r Teacher Education Accreditation, 12 f.; of new schools suspended bv B E L , 4; proposals for accrediting education programs, 7; moratorium on, 13; work-study plan would meet B E L standards for, 31; the teacher-training institutions subject to varying standards, 66; new regulations of A L A , 67; limiting, to institutions offering fifteen to eighteen semester hours f o r school librarians, 78, 79; need for effective procedures, 84, 85; how to develop effective machinery for, 98 ft. Administration courses, improved by work-study plan, 30 Administrators, training of, in England, 14; in Germany, iy; of work-study program, 26; opinion re school libraries, 70 American Association of Colleges f o r Teacher Education, evaluation of program of teachereducation institutions, 12; standards f o r evaluation of library science programs accepted b y , 12; accreditation by, 99 American Association of School Librarians, standards for evaluation of library science programs, 12, 72, 73 American Library Association,

new accreditation regulations, 67; basic assumptions of new library school programs adopted by, 93 Board of Education f o r Librarianship: accreditation of new schools suspended, 4; proposals f o r accrediting education program, 7; standards f o r evaluation of library science programs, 12, 72; plight of workers in small libraries used as a cudgel to belabor, 54; standards f o r institutions training school librarians, 72; "Standards f o r A c creditation," 85; central position in accreditation of graduate professional library schools, 98; standards f o r undergraduate programs, 99 Antioch plan, 22, 25 Association of College and R e f e r ence Libraries, development of standards f o r evaluation of library science programs, 12, 72 Bakersfield, Calif., K e r n County library, 61 ff. B E L , see American Library Association, Board of Education f o r Librarianship Bennington plan, 22, 23 B L A , see British Library Association Bookmobile serving rural schools, 62

I 12 British Library Association, role, 'i Brooklyn Public Library, recruiting program, 28 Bryan, Alice I., J9 Calendars suggested for two-year work-study plan, 102-4 California Library Association, minimum standards, for professionally trained librarians, 48 Carnegie Library School, science and technology option, 40 Certification, basis for, in England, 14; teacher-training institutions subject to varying standards, 66; of children's and school librarians, 91 f., 97; how to develop effective machinery for, 98 ff. Chartes, École des, curriculum, \5 Chicago, University of: conference on education for librarianship, 1948, 36 Graduate Library School: curriculum for music librarians, 4' Workshop of 1951: recommendation re training for children's and school librarians, 75, 81 Children's librarians, 10, 65-92, 9698; library service programs, 66; lack of any related standard for training of, 67; Master's degree for, 68, 97; relationship between preparation of school librarians and, 73, 77; shortage of, 74, 96; education on five-year basis, 74; unable to qualify for a school library position, 75; A L A and Chicago Workshop program for education of, 76; accreditation of programs, 78, 84, 85, 98; proposals for a common program for school librarians and, 80 ff., 96; curriculum content

INDEX for undergraduate training program, 81; curriculum suggested for graduate level, 82; certification of classified positions, 91 f., 97; suggested program for achieving full professional status, 100 Classification of jobs, 100 Clinical experience and theory, 18-33, 94; types of libraries in which work periods should be spent, 24 C N L A , see Council of National Library Associations Columbia University School of Library Service, part-time students, 31; curriculum for journalism librarians, 39 Conferences on education for librarianship, 36 Council of National Library Associations, Joint Committee on Library Education sponsored by, 36 Subcommittees on Education for Special Librarianship: curricula in seven subject fields, 37-41; County-regional libraries, work-study plan, 30 Curriculum, experimental changes in, 8; ideal according to Williamson, 16; curricula in seven subject fields, 37-41 Dana, John Cotton, 34 Danton, J. Periam, 19 Degree structure, dissatisfaction with awarding Bachelor's degree, 7; experimental changes, 8

Dewey, Melvil, 6; on establishment of his school, 18 Dewev to Williamson period, 6; training programs, 19 Directors, see Administrators Education for librarianship, problems and their evolution, 3 ff.;

INDEX Pre-Dewey, Dewey to W i l liamson, Williamson to 1948, 6; Williamson recommendations, 6, 16; reexamination of structure, 7; present period of transition, 8^9; in Europe, 13 ff.; clinical experience and theory, 18-33, 94; special librarianship, 34-46, 94, 100; 1948 conferences, 36; village librarians, 47-64, 95; school and children's librarians, 65-92, 96-98; problem of state and regional requirements, 79; general program, 93-101; basic content of professional instruction applicable to all types of librarianship, 100; calendars f o r two-year work and study plan, 102-4; see also Library schools; Teacher-training institutions Electives, 4-j England, library education, 14, ìy, 16; role of B L A , 15 Ersted, Ruth, 75, 76; quoted, 78 Europe, library education in, 13 ff.

Examination system as basis f o r certification, 14, 91 Executive positions, training f o r in England, 14 Fenwick, Sara I., 75; quoted, 76 Financial librarians, curriculum for, 40 Fitch, Viola, 74 France, library education, 15 Gates, Barbara, 18n Germany, library education, 14, 'J. 33 Graves, Fred E., 30 Great Britain, role of B L A in appointment of public librarians, >5 Henne, Frances, 71; quoted, 84 Humeston, E. J . , 21

Illinois, municipal library act, 50 In-service training of village librarians, 53, 54, 61 ff., 96, 100 Institutes, J3, 55 ff. Internship, two-year course providing for, 22 ff., 46, 94; f o r medical librarians, 40 Issues in Library Education (Lancour, ed.), excerpt, 36 Joint Committee on Library Education, see Council of National Library Associations Journalism librarians, curriculum for, 39 Kern County, Calif., in-service training of small-unit library personnel, 61 ff. Laboratory libraries, 15 Law librarians, curriculum for, 38,95 Leigh, Robert D., j , 16, 20; quoted, 49, 68, 81 Library agencies, state: responsibility for training village librarians, 50; doubt re methods available for training village librarians, 61 Library schools, new five-year program, 3, 8, 93; perennial difficulties, 5; evolution, 5 ff.; Williamson recommendations, 6, 16; reorganized as schools within colleges or universities, 7; Types I, II, and III, 7; experimental changes in curriculum and degree structure, 8; theory and practice, 9; basic courses in graduate library schools, 20 ff.; criticism of, 29, 30; problems of planning f o r specialization, 42; general program, 93-101; achieving balance between theoretical training and learning of practical techniques, 94;

ii4 Library schools (Continued) see also Education for librarianship McCusker, Lauretta, iSn, 6571 Marion, G u y E., quoted, 34 Master's degree, first professional degree in librarianship, 9, 98; f o r school and children's librarians, 68, 97 Medical librarians, curriculum for, 39 Moses, Kathlyn J., 47n, 65n Music librarians, curriculum for, 4' National Commission on Accrediting, 98; request for a moratorium, 13 National Plan, T h e , 61 N e w York Chapter of the Special Libraries Association, see under Special Libraries Association N e w York state, village librarians, 49 Library Extension Agency: aid to a sample of fifty village libraries, 4772, 5j ff. N o r t h Central Association, 78 Northwest Association, 78 Oberholtzer, Kenneth E., opinion of school administrators re school libraries, 70 ff. Part-time librarians, 66, 79 Plummer, Mary, quoted, 52 Pollard, Frances M., 65n Porter, Margaret, 6$?i Practice and theory, 18-33, 94 Pre-Dewey period, 6 Princeton University, conference on education for librarianship, 1948, 36 Prussian Act of 1895, 14 Public Librarian, The (Bryan), 5, W Public librarians, see Children's

IXDEX librarians; School librarians; Village librarians Public Library Inquiry, 16, 29, 61; srudy of course offerings of graduate library schools, 20 Public relations workshops, preferences of village librarians f o r future study, 59 Queens College experiment in education for special librarianship, 37 Reece, Ernest J., quoted, 20, 22 Regional educational association requirements for librarians, 78 Rural librarians, see Village librarians Ryan, D. E., 30 Salaries, of trainees in workstudy plan, 28; training of small salaried workers, 54, 95; of village librarians, 56 School librarians, 11, 65-92, 96-98; library service programs, 66; lack of any common standard f o r training of, 67; Master's degree for, 68, 97; institutional types now training, 68; double professional preparation, 69; for placement and certification tied closely to teaching profession, 72, 97; teacher-education institutions carry ma : or load in training, 72, 77, 96; basic pattern f o r education of, 73; need for cooperation between public library and, 74; relationship between preparation of children's librarians and, 73, 77; able to qualify as children's librarian, 75; ALA and Chicago W o r k shop program for education of, 76; accreditation of programs, 78, 79, 84, 85, 98; proposals f o r a common program f o r children's librarians and, 80 ff., 96; cur-

INDEX riculum content for undergraduate training program, 81; curriculum suggested tor graduate level, 82; certification of classified positions, 91 t., 97; program for, seeking full professional status, 100 School Libraries for Today and Totnorrow, 70 Schools and Public Libraries Working Together . . . , excerpt, 69 Science-technology librarians, the curriculum for, 40 Seminar in Education for Librarianship, program of basic courses in graduate library schools, 20 ff. S L A , see Special Libraries Association Small community librarians, see Village librarians Southern Association, 78 Special librarians, 10, 34-46, 94, 100; qualifications, 35; elements that differentiate, from general librarians, 42; what they need to know and to know how to do, 43; bulk of training centers for, in teacher-training institutions, 72, 77, 96; special subject matter knowledge added to training, 95; need for additional advanced education in special subject matter, 100 Special libraries, work-study plan, 30; training for work in, ignored in education of librarians, 3i. Special Libraries Association, 34 New York Chapter: work with Queens College, 37 Professional Training Committee, questionnaire, 37 f. Standards for Library Science Programs in Teacher-Education Institutions, criticisms of, 87-90 State School Library Supervisors,

H5 development of standards for evaluation of library science programs, 12, 72 Stieg, Lewis F., quoted, 8j Students, two groups, 20; supervised experience in a variety of libraries, 24 ff.; achievement record in work-study experience, 26; salaries for trainees, 28; criticism of first-year curriculum, 29; lack of experience and background, 30 Study periods, alternation of work periods and, 22 ff., 46, 94, 95; suggested calendar for two-year program, 102-4 Teacher librarians, 66, 79 Teacher-training institutions, the bulk of training centers for school librarians in, 11, 72, 77, 96; programs for school librarians, 6j, 67; subject to varying accreditation and certification standards, 66; limitation of fifteen to eighteen semester hours of library service courses, 78, 79. 84, 87 Theater librarians, curriculum for, 41 Theory and clinical experiences, 18-33, 94 Toronto, work experience required by library school, 29 Towns, small, librarians, see Village librarians Transition, present period of, 8-9 "Traveling branch," 62 Tyler, Ralph VV., quoted, 32 United States Agricultural Extension Service, experience with the small town libraries, 58 University librarianship, education for, in Germany, 14, 16 Verschoor, Irving, 4772, 64 Village librarians, 10, 47-64, 95;

116 Village librarians (Continued) responsibility of state library agencies, jo; on-the-job in-service program, 52, 53, 54, 61, 96, 100; salaries, 56; types of information requested by, 56; excluded from professional status and certification, 96 Village libraries, minimum hours to be opened each week, J J Wheeler, Joseph L., quoted, 53, 54- 70 White, Carl M., quoted, 44 Williamson, Charles C., 6; recommendations re library schools

INDEX and education for librarianship, 6, 16; on training of librarians for small communities, 51 Williamson to 1948 period, 6 Wilson, Eleanor N., quoted, 62 f. Workshops, 53, JJ ff.; in public relations, 59 Work-study plan, 22 ff., 46,94,95; over-all work program for internees, 25; benefits to participating libraries, 27; suggested calendars for two-year program, 102-4 Young people's librarians, see Children's librarians; School librarians