For nearly thirty years an invigorating influence has come to library
work through the library schools. During that time hundreds of young
men and women, selected for personal and educational qualifications,
have been given training in the mechanics of library work and have
been placed in touch with the best library thought. As a result, fewer
libraries have been converted into laboratories for experimental work
in technique.
The library schools have been commended repeatedly by this association
and their services are too obvious for comment. In considering,
however, what they can do for the profession today, we shall assume the
role of the devil's advocate and endeavor to point out how they may
serve more fully in what they are doing and what they should do that
perhaps is not being done. In the time available we can do little more
than summarize.
The first library school was founded and conducted in connection with
a university library and for several years at least, its curriculum
showed the strong influence of university demands. The curricula of
the later schools have been modified somewhat, but changes have been
unimportant as compared to the traditions retained. These were carried
from the pioneer school to those established later with certain general
basic principles which doubtless always will be kept.
For several years a feeling has been sensed, although vaguely
expressed that changes and modifications in library school courses
were needed. There have been convictions that the schools were not as
closely in touch with certain growing activities in library work as
libraries themselves were with growing demands and new fields open
to them. These convictions have been most pronounced in the schools
themselves. As stated by one library school director,--"In some way,
the library school should train its students to meet the vital demands
that humanity makes upon all who come regularly in communication with
people." The aim of the school seems more clearly realized than the
means of attaining it, but efforts are seen in the shifts and changes
in curricula. In preparing its students to meet the vital demands that
humanity will make, it is evident the schools have concluded this can
best be done by additions rather than eliminations from courses of
study. The training conducted by the oldest school began with a three
months' course which in the second year was increased to seven months
and then to two years. Another school, typical of several, has never
increased the time period over one year, but has so increased the
work required that in eight and one-half months, including vacations
and holidays, instruction and examinations are given in forty-three
subjects, a minimum of three hundred and seventy-seven hours of
practice work is required, and a trip of six hundred miles in ten
days is taken when some fifteen to twenty libraries are inspected and
reported on.
In these crowded courses of study, the schools should be expected by
the profession to prevent its ideals from being smothered in the stress
of technical work. The usual incentive to enter library work comes from
a love of books but this love will avail little if it be unaccompanied
by a consuming desire that the community also share it. Generalities
and pseudo-sentiment concerning ideals have invited ridicule, but
no librarian, however reticent or how unrecognized his actuating
principles may be, can carry on his work successfully without following
the vision which vitalizes his professional life. From 1876 to the
present day, this association has cherished its aims and our schools
can do no greater service than imparting those guiding principles that
the means of work may not become the end.
No institution can create qualities lacking in a student and library
schools will concern themselves mainly with the mechanics of
library work, which is most difficult to obtain elsewhere. But this
instruction may either strengthen or weaken indispensable qualities
for librarianship and the profession reasonably can expect the schools
to foster such. Three related qualities which should be developed in
prospective librarians are: a sense of proportion in library work,
initiative and judgment.
When we consider the importance of a proper sense of proportion,
should we not congratulate ourselves that the schools are devoting
less attention to a particular handwriting and other incidentals, the
insistence on which always seemed to belittle the dignity of a great
work. Legibility in a medical prescription is more important than on
a catalog card, but medical colleges and library schools alike can
concentrate their strength on more vital needs.
In expecting the schools to develop initiative and good judgment in a
student, it is not suggested that students be encouraged to attempt
changes in systems of classification, cataloging and other technical
processes which have been perfected by the best library thought of two
generations. In such a course as book selection, however, after general
principles are presented, cannot students be thrown more fully on their
own judgment and their practice work be confined to evaluating current
publications? Their conclusions could then be verified by comparison
with selections in the order department. A year's work confined to
sitting in judgment on books from five to fifty years old, when these
books are known to be desirable through their presence on the shelves,
deadens initiative and judgment and makes routine of what should be one
of the refreshing pleasures of the work.
One of the profession's needs today is more men--men whose abilities
would qualify them for the highest positions in any work, and these
the library schools should attract. While many of the most useful
and talented library workers are women, the fact remains that the
demand for good men far exceeds the supply, yet we find an astonishing
shortage in the schools. Even the school most largely attended by
men, reports a decrease since the year 1903. More than one school has
attracted so few that the presence of a man is noteworthy and there
seem to be schools connected with universities where hundreds of young
men are preparing for professional life, that have yet to enroll one
man student.
Should we not expect the schools to supply more men? Can they not
co-operate with the American library association in presenting the
claims and rewards of librarianship to young men in the universities?
Not only would such presentations interest both men and women, but they
would help to dispel many existing mediaeval conceptions of library
work which still survive. Our shortage in men cannot be due entirely
to the financial returns in library work. The average salary of men
in that work exceeds the average in several crowded professions, and
yet our greatest rewards are not in money returns. Men may regard
the school courses simply as means to an end, and if so, perhaps the
means could be made to appeal more strongly to men. It is rash in
these days to compare attributes of the masculine and feminine mind,
but may we venture to say women, as a rule, have more patience and
enjoyment than men in work requiring sustained attention to details.
Do not library school courses, as now arranged, appeal largely to the
house-wifely instincts and cannot courses be devised for men who never
intend to fill library positions where the exercise of these instincts
will ever play so important a part in their work as will problems of
administration and questions of library policy. We shall admit that all
students should have sufficient training in cataloging for instance, to
know good or poor cataloging when met with. But personally I fail to
see why a man destined for administrative work should necessarily have
to do expert cataloging in order to appreciate it, any more than he
would first have to write a book before his judgment in book selection
for his library could be relied on.
* * * * *
During the last ten years the library has undergone phenomenal
development in its relations with other educational and social forces.
Today we must co-operate not only with the public school, but with
the social settlement, the juvenile court, and various other special
municipal activities. The profession should expect the schools to
provide their students with a working knowledge of what the relations
of a library to these activities should be, what methods employed
bring best results and what some of the problems and possibilities are
from such relations. And most important of all, the schools should
be expected to provide candidates for library work with a proper
appreciation at least of the importance of the library's public
relations in general. No mastery of technique or high endeavor greatly
avails if the library's public relations be not handled intelligently
and skillfully. Rules and regulations are but the written creeds
of institutions in the details of loaning books, but back of all
of them are the great unwritten laws and principles of procedure,
more important than all the printed regulations in existence. Great
policies in public relations are being tried and tested today and
light on them should be focused through the schools so prospective
librarians can see ahead more clearly. Questions of relations with
the public are confronting all who, in the words quoted before, have
to meet the vital demands that come through constant communication
with people. In the Public service magazine of April, 1912, under the
heading "Public relations--the vital problem," the following is taken
from the president's address before the Illinois Association of Gas
Manufacturers:
"Slowly probably, but surely, the majority of owners and operators
of public utilities are coming to the realization that the most
important,--the most vital subject with which they have to deal in the
management of their properties today, is that of public relations. It
used to be that the man who could put the most gas in the holders at
the lowest cost, or could generate the most power at the electric or
street car plant, was the most important in the whole organization.
"It is different now. The basis of organization has changed and the man
who has made a study of public relations--the man who can create and
conserve the public good will is given the reins of control."
But should a man wish to make a particular study of the library's
public relations before he is compelled to assume the responsibilities
accompanying them, he may have difficulty. One school makes provision
for special students, but on account of the extra work each additional
student makes on the faculty, it is often impossible to enter.
Admission depends on available desk room and on condition that the
regular classes are not so large as to occupy the entire time of the
faculty.
The theory at present seems to be,--give every student a little of
everything he may need, as the process of forgetting what he will
not use is easier than the work of acquiring it should he need
it. We therefore see men destined for control of large libraries,
women planning for positions as catalogers in university libraries,
candidates for small public institutions, those who will specialize in
bibliographical work--all of them differing in natural inclinations,
special preliminary training and professional aims in library
life, being introduced to forty-three phases of library work, with
instruction in all of them varying from 2 to 101 hours, according to
the subject, with at least 377 hours of practice work and a library
trip--through all of which the student emerges in eight and one-half
months, possibly somewhat bewildered by the process but groping for the
ladder up which he is determined to climb.
Cannot the schools do the greatest service to the student and to the
profession by abandoning the plan of putting all students through the
same square hole? Instead of giving a little of everything, cannot
the school give much of what the student will use and nothing of what
he can dispense with or what can be got easily outside of the school?
Cannot the courses be simplified somewhat to permit this? Entrance
examinations are conducted early in June for admission to the school
in September. Cannot a study of the history of libraries, the history
of books and printing, the reading of library literature on publishing
houses and other non-technical work be required of the student
during the intervening three months? The literature would gladly be
provided by libraries over the country and the three months' reading
and intelligent observation in the library by the student before
beginning his technical training would be advantageous. Three months'
acquaintance and observation of the student by the librarian would make
his recommendations valuable to the school.
But school courses as at present outlined cannot be made sufficiently
flexible to provide specific training for specific work. Therefore,
cannot the schools divide the instructional field between them and
concentrate their individual efforts on special lines. This division of
work is done most successfully by libraries in large cities.
Such a division would have several advantages. A man loving
responsibility and the management of affairs could secure a maximum of
definite training for administrative work and a minimum of work less
important in his professional career. A woman under appointment as head
of a small public library, would receive a maximum of training for this
work and a minimum in the methods and features of work in a college
library. One of promise as a cataloger would receive a maximum of
technical training made possible through a minimum of time and effort
required in studying the problems of a children's librarian.
The objection can be raised that neither the school nor the student can
determine his future work and therefore a minimum number of hours in
as many as forty-three subjects is preferable as a foundation. But in
these general courses as outlined today, there is a great preponderance
of work in certain lines. In speaking of the time devoted to
cataloging, one school director said, "There is, however, much reason
for this, as a large number of the graduates become catalogers and many
others enter positions where a knowledge of cataloging is essential."
We shall agree that an expert knowledge of cataloging is essential in
many positions, but has not the large number of graduates from this
school who have become catalogers, been due partly at least to the fact
that twice the time in school was devoted to this work than to any
other, the aggregate equaling the combined hours of seventeen other
branches.
The fact that one's special training largely determines one's field of
work, is seen in another library school where a maximum of children's
work is made possible by a minimum in some other departments. The
result is that of the 148 graduates of this school, 107 were, last
year, engaged in children's work, principally as heads of departments.
The remaining 41 graduates were represented in other fields of library
work.
The division of the field between the various schools would have
another advantage of the student. At present, a school's geographical
location, or its entrance requirements largely decides a student
in selecting a school. But would it not be better if the student's
selection were based on what the school could offer in special lines of
work.
It may be thought that a prospective student lacks the self-knowledge
to determine his qualifications for special work. Many students have
and more should have library experience before schools are entered
and these will know their intentions and qualifications. Even if an
occasional mistake were made, the student still would have instruction
in the various lines of library work.
In the school referred to before, the 41 graduates who are not filling
positions for which special training was given, are successfully
occupying positions of honor and responsibility in other library fields.
Again, the law of supply and demand makes no exception to library work,
and with a division of the field, a student could receive the fullest
training in the work for which there was the greatest demand.
In conclusion, the profession should not expect the schools to turn out
finished products. Librarianship is not merely a process. It is also a
habit of mind--an attitude towards public affairs which seeks activity
through the medium of books. But in inculcating the principles toward
this attitude, the profession must rely and can rely with confidence on
the schools.
* * * * *
The CHAIRMAN: The paper just presented, and other phases of the
subject, will be discussed by Mr. William H. Brett of the Cleveland
public library.
Mr. BRETT: My good friend Mr. Hadley has stated so clearly the
problems, the purposes and the difficulties of the library school, and
I am so heartily in accord with so much that he has said, that I regret
that I must differ from some of his conclusions. In considering these
questions we must bear in mind that a majority of the students are in
schools giving only a one year's course, and only a minority are so
fortunate as to be able to attend the schools giving courses of two or
more years. Now, the problem and the difficulty in a one year school is
to arrange a course of study which shall be best for students entering
school with widely differing preparation, some with, others without,
library experience, and with differing aptitudes, abilities, ambitions
and plans for the future. To arrange a course which will best meet the
needs of such an aggregation of students is a serious problem.
The criticisms on the work of the schools in the paper, seem to be
mainly, first, that too much of the routine work, the technical work,
is unnecessary for those who may be so fortunate in the future as to
fill administrative or other important positions, in which they will
not need to do such work, and that routine work of that sort tends to
deaden those more important things, sense of proportion, initiative,
judgment, ability to deal with the larger problems of life. While I
fully agree as to the importance of these things, I believe there is
little occasion to fear that a solid technical course will lessen these
qualities in any one who is so fortunate as to have them in any eminent
degree. It seems to me that those qualities are rather the gift of God
to their fortunate possessors than the work of the library schools.
My own conviction is that whether it be had in the first year of one
of the larger schools, or in a school giving a one year course, a
definite, solid basis of technical training is an absolutely essential
foundation for good library work. I believe that any specialization
in library work should be built on such a foundation, just as
specialization in law, in medicine and in the technical professions, is
based on a general professional training.
We should have, I think, in our library training, the opportunity for
specializing when the students are ready for it, but I believe that
whatever position one is to occupy, whatever work in the library one
may be fortunate enough to do, the solid, general training of one year
in a library school is none too much as an introduction and basis.
So that I believe that specialization in a one year course is not
desirable, even if it were practicable, which it is not for at least
two reasons: The time is too short and the expense too great. Such a
suggestion reminds me of something which I heard President Eliot of
Harvard say once upon a time at a meeting of school superintendents, on
the subject of enriching and broadening the course in grammar schools.
He argued in a very strong and interesting way for greater freedom
for the brighter child to pass along more rapidly by means of special
instruction. It was answered in various ways by the school men, but to
me the answer was very clear, namely, that what Harvard university,
with one instructor for eight or nine students, could do is not
practicable in grade schools with one instructor for fifty students.
So any attempt to specialize in a one year course would require an
increase of cost for instruction greater than the result would be
likely to justify. An important co-operation has been at various times
suggested and discussed as follows: If the courses of the one year
schools could be so closely approximated to the first year's work
in the larger schools that students having completed the one year's
course might afterwards, if able to meet the requirements, complete
their work, specializing, if they chose, in the second and third years'
work of the larger schools, this would seem a perfectly feasible and
desirable thing.
Another co-operation which I think would be of great value might be
arranged with the colleges if they would give credit for work in the
library school. A large part of the work in the library school, such
as book selection, the subject headings, classifications, the use of
reference books, and some other subjects, have a definite and high
educational value, equal I believe, we may fairly say, to that of
the average value of the college curriculum. If the college would be
willing to give credit for a fair share of this work, the student might
by some overtime work, graduate from college and from a library school
giving one year courses, in four years, or by adding another year, from
college and a two year library school. This would, of course, require
co-operation through the course. In one instance such a co-operation
has been planned and will be put into operation, the college proposing
to give a credit of six-tenths of one year for one year's work in the
library school. The initiative in that case came from the college. It
is true as we all know that we are trying to secure for the service a
preparation in college and in library school which is out of proportion
to the salaries paid. This is the inevitable condition of a new
profession. Adequate recognition will not be given to a profession
until it has by long service demonstrated its importance, nor will
individual members receive adequate salaries until they prove their
efficiency. This is as true in the library as it is in business. In
business salaries are usually based on the proven value of services
already rendered. No young man in a mercantile house is likely to
receive a salary in 1913 larger than he has shown his ability to earn
in 1912. In other words, the man or the woman who grows in business
relations must keep the work ahead of the salary. Keep the work away
beyond the compensation and the compensation will follow it along even
though it may not overtake it.
To bring about the best results the library schools should co-operate
with each other and with the colleges to bring up and maintain high
standards and to insist on a good, solid, general and technical
foundation, upon which specialization may be built.
The CHAIRMAN: I am not sure but that there should have been a second
paper, upon the subject of "What the library schools can not do for the
profession." I wonder if it has ever occurred to you that a medical
school confines a student for four years before he is permitted to go
at large. I wonder if you have ever put to yourselves the question,
how many medical students, in their first, or second, or third, or
fourth year after graduation, you have been ready to employ in vital
matters in your own family. I am quite sure that were any of the young
ladies here seeking to employ a lawyer in a breech of promise suit
against any of the young men, they would not go to the law graduate
in the first year of his experience. It seems to me, therefore, that
it is not surprising at all that we do not find in the library school
graduate, during the early years of his actual work, all the business
ability, the diplomatic qualities and the personality, book knowledge
and tact that we might expect. We cannot do everything in one year, I
think we all agree. What we do wish to know, and what we welcome very
definitely, I am sure, from the standpoint of the schools, is that you
let us know, in any way possible, what we can do that has not been done.
The discussion will be carried on further by Mr. Edwin H. Anderson, of
the New York public library.
Mr. E. H. ANDERSON: I find myself in such general agreement with
Mr. Hadley's excellent paper that I fear I can do little to stir up
interest by discussion.
His point that in the first library school the influence of the
university library was too marked and that university demands have had
too much influence on the curricula of all schools, seems to me well
taken. It is only natural that it should be so; but since most of the
schools are now directly connected with, or closely related to, public
libraries, I think their courses of instruction are more and more
losing the marks of university influence. This influence should still
hold with the schools connected with universities. But these schools,
it seems to me, should frankly specialize and prepare students for
university library work.
Mr. Hadley very properly emphasizes the need for more men students
in the schools. I am sure all the existing schools are glad to have
as many good men as they can get. The difficulty seems to be to find
enough men of the right sort who are sufficiently interested in library
work to take a course of formal training for it. If the schools could,
as Mr. Hadley suggests, coöperate with the American Library Association
in presenting the claims and rewards of librarianship to young men
in the universities, I think the results would justify the effort. I
would suggest therefore that the A. L. A. Committee on professional
training consider this suggestion and arrange to act upon it as soon
as possible. There is a crying demand for more men from the schools.
The only remedy for the present condition is to induce more men of the
right sort to enter the schools. Mr. Hadley has suggested one method of
accomplishing this. Another and more direct method is for librarians
themselves to call to the attention of young men of the right sort the
opportunities which the schools open to them for professional library
work. I think the heads of the schools will agree with me when I say
that in general their best students are those who are sent to them by
librarians. Now if these same librarians would make a special point of
urging upon educated young men the advantages of the school training,
both the schools and the profession would profit by it. Nothing is so
effective as personal suggestion and explanation; and a librarian who
likes his work should have little difficulty in arousing the interest
of university men of his acquaintance who are not attracted by the
older professions.
Mr. Hadley seems to think that much of the instruction in the schools
at present is wasted upon one "destined" for administrative work. The
difficulty is to tell when a man or a woman is destined for work of
this sort. The inclination for it is not always accompanied by the
necessary qualifications. How are we to determine who is destined for
administrative work and who for work of another sort? A student might
enter a library school expecting to prepare for administrative duties
and find after a term's study that he preferred, or was better fitted
for, some other kind of work. Personally I can say that few of the
things I studied at the library school have proved useless to me in
administrative work.
Mr. Hadley makes one suggestion which has often been under discussion
in library school alumni associations, and which I happen to know was
very seriously considered by the faculty of one library school some
five years ago. This suggestion is that the schools provide courses
of instruction in general library administration for those who look
forward to administrative positions. Most of the schools have lectures
each year from librarians of various sorts of libraries--large, small,
public, university, etc.,--in which they are asked to tell in general
terms how their libraries are administered. The question is, can the
schools go further than this? Is there a science of administration
which can be taught? The qualities needed for administrative work,
library or other, are the gift of the gods, not of the schools. The
schools can give the students a firsthand knowledge of the various
phases of library work, and this is important. But they cannot give
breadth of view to a mind naturally narrow; nor can they endow the
student with personal force and poise, tact, _savoir-faire_, sympathy,
a sense of justice,--in a word with gumption. Now a course of formal
instruction in administrative gumption is one that no librarian with
any gumption would attempt to give. The whole school of life is devoted
to this course, and few degrees are conferred. He would be a god-like
instructor indeed who could impart to his students the gifts of the
gods as developed and perfected by the great school of experience.
Anything less than the thunders of Sinai would be an inadequate
introduction to such a course. What I am trying to emphasize is that
the essential qualities for administrative work are too general and
intangible to be taught formally in any kind of school. The schools
cannot give their students a knowledge and love of books; these, for
the most part, they must bring with them. Neither can they give them
a knowledge of life. Are they not, therefore, by the very nature of
the case, restricted to teaching chiefly the technique, I had almost
said the mechanics, of library work? A knowledge of the technique is
necessary to the administrator; but the ability to make the best use
of this technique is a natural endowment developed by experience and
environment through the course of years. Have we any right to expect
a library school to provide more than a small part of that experience
and environment? Are we not asking of the library schools what no other
profession expects from its special schools? Do we get our bankers from
business colleges, or the managers and presidents of our railroads from
schools of engineering?
Some one has said that knowledge is the material with which wisdom
builds. The library schools can impart a knowledge of library methods.
They can hardly teach the wise use of those methods. They can suggest
and illustrate it; but courses of instruction in administrative wisdom
are, I fear, an iridescent dream.
The CHAIRMAN: This subject is open to discussion if there is any one
who feels moved to contribute to our wisdom.
Mrs. ELMENDORF: Mr. Chairman, may I put in one straw from the outside
world to show that other technical concerns are taking up this point
of view also. One of the great universities is about to establish a
technical school. They have called to the aid of the faculty three
men very high in the technical world, all of them having attained
great practical success. Those three men have agreed in recommending
to the faculty that they reduce the technical hours in the schools,
as compared to other technical schools, and devote more time to the
humanities.
Dr. BOSTWICK: May I say just a word from the standpoint of one who is
interested in the product of the library school, as making use of that
product? I do not think this point has been alluded to at all this
morning, which is my excuse for intruding it upon you for a moment.
I want to emphasize the value of library schools as selectors, which
it seems to me is very great, transcending even, perhaps, their great
value as trainers. I know a great many persons who use library school
students, who, if they were asked why they preferred one library school
to another, would say it was not because the training in that school
was so much better, or because the instructors in that school were so
much better, but simply because they always got better people from
that library school. Why? Because those persons, who exist in great
numbers, who are congenitally unfit to become librarians, are not
allowed to get into such schools, and, if they do, they are not allowed
to graduate. Consequently, if you choose graduates of those particular
schools you are always sure of getting good persons. Therefore,
I regard the selective function of a library school as extremely
valuable. No matter how good the training you give, no matter how good
the instructors you have, if you allow people in your schools who are
unfitted for library work, your product will be worth little.
* * * * *
Miss RATHBONE: The cap that Mr. Hadley has constructed, fits so well
that I could not forbear putting it on. I want to assure you all,
however, that its conical shape is not the result of inheritance but of
evolution. The curriculum of the particular school I have the honor to
be associated with has been a growth, and a growth very largely made up
from suggestions, the solicited suggestions, of its own graduates who
have worked in the library field. Subjects have been added, others have
been omitted, others have been reduced in time given to them, according
as our students have found in their practical work that they needed
things they did not get, or that certain things that we gave them were
not of the greatest practical value. Again and again we have sent
out circular letters, and have requested in personal interviews, the
frankest possible criticism from our graduates of the preparation that
they received in the school. I have seen a great many such letters,
and have talked with a great many people. I must confess, however,
that I have never yet had the criticism from any of the graduates that
too much time was devoted in the school curriculum to cataloging. That
criticism may come, and when it does we shall be glad to meet it, but I
have not yet happened to receive it.
* * * * *
One other point I want to make, and that is that I think the
libraries depend upon library schools for general assistants. That
is one reason why a one year school, I think, should give all of its
students experience in all of the different departments of library
work, because, though after they go out into the field, some become
catalogers, some children's librarians, some reference librarians, and
a few, administrators of large libraries, the average graduate that
goes out, three-fourths of our product certainly goes at first into
a public library as a general assistant. The heads of such libraries
want assistants who can go one week into the children's room; who, if
a shortage occurs in the reference room, can be put there; and if in
the meantime the work has piled up in the cataloging department, can be
transferred from the children's room, or the reference department, to
that department. I think that kind of all-round instruction, and the
flexibility that results from it, is one of the most valuable assets
that the trained librarian can take with him into general library work.
Dr. HILL: Mr. Chairman, in the first place, I would like to ask Mr.
Brett if he will give us the name of the college which is allowing the
library course to be taken as part of the rating.
Mr. BRETT: It is the College for Women of the Western Reserve
university of Cleveland, and the school that co-operates with it is the
Western Reserve library school.
Dr. HILL: In the second place, Mr. Chairman, the note in Mr. Hadley's
paper which attracted and arrested my attention, related to men,
naturally. Now, I want to say that as mere men we are not afraid
of anything, we are not afraid that we are going to be crowded out
of the library profession by our women friends, but we are looking
around to see that we do not get crowded too much; and this subject
of bringing into the profession more men and better men--although I
would say to the ladies that there are a good many good men among
us still available,--was taken up by the American Library Institute
last fall, and presented very clearly by Dr. Dewey. He said in a
paper which was submitted to the Institute that it was the duty of
the American Library Association to interest the universities so
that the work of our association might be brought to the attention of
the students, and that we ought to arrange to have lectures given by
librarians at the various universities. I became interested in this
subject and last winter, talking with a president of one of the Eastern
universities, asked if such lectures would be acceptable. He said that
he would be very glad as president of that university to extend an
invitation to the library association to send representatives there
to place before students the advantages of the library profession,
and to carry on a course which would enable interested students to
direct their work along library lines. He said, further, that he had
no doubt but what every college and university in the land would
welcome such co-operation. Such being the feeling of the president
of one university, it seems to me that it is time for the committee
named by Mr. Anderson to take some active measure to have the country
divided in such way that librarians in the neighborhood of the various
universities will arrange to lecture before the students. I think the
matter should be given immediate attention.
Miss KELSO: Mr. Chairman, I have made a study also this last winter,
not with college presidents, but with certain members of the graduating
class of Columbia university and Harvard university. In the dogma
expressed here it seems to me you treat the university graduate, who
has had four years' earnest study, as if he were in kilts, and the girl
in short skirts. Those men and women have wrested from the college
tradition the right to say what they are going to do, in their junior,
if not their sophomore year, and to come out after their graduation
from economical and sociological courses and to be presented to the
curriculum you have, is little short of absurd. Go to the professors
at the head of the economics departments of our universities, men or
women, and they will tell you that their students have known for two
years what they were going to be. I know several undergraduates that,
before their graduation, had opportunities of national importance, as
executive secretaries, to go in and organize a national office. To ask
those fellows, who have been taking volunteer practice work, as numbers
of them do, in health department work, in tuberculosis and a thousand
and one things, to go and take up this library school curriculum,--they
will not. Bring an undergraduate who is in his senior year to talk to
you; go to the professor at the head of one of these departments and
ask him to send you a young woman or a young man to talk to you about
what the aims of their classes and fraternities have been.
I do believe there is a way out, and that is to admit frankly that
the library schools can select, as Dr. Hill has well said, and send
students to the libraries for the trying-out process, and above all to
have the library association show very much more interest and attention
to what the library schools are doing. And I can say to you, as an old
librarian, that you are reaping what it seemed to me was a whirlwind
sowed some years ago. For a long time past, and when we first had
the schools, we shut the door on the possible entrance of politics
into libraries,--a very serious menace, as we all know. We all rushed
forward and talked about the library school, and if a community had
a man or woman who could fill the place, who had special literary
ability, had been well educated and was proved to have some executive
ability, we all roared, "You're lost if you don't take some one who
has gone through a library school training." You know we did. And the
poor old committee succumbed and got a library school candidate. We
cannot prepare librarians unless we relate them to the great field of
human endeavor and social affairs to which the library belongs, if it
is used in a proper way, and we must find other means in the library
association to evolve some system to afford the trying-out process.
Mr. WALTER: Although we get at the matter from different points of
view, I am quite certain that Miss Rathbone, Miss Kelso and I are in
exact accord on some points. One is in the recognition of the real
responsibility for the curricula of library schools. The library school
courses are what they are because the libraries want them so. Miss
Kelso may probably not be quite so familiar with the special demands
of libraries as those who are on library school faculties are. A great
demand exists at present along two lines. The most frequent demand,
I think, is for college or university graduates, who are masters of
every branch of library technic, and who possess as well a wide and
extensive knowledge of all subjects, which will make them valuable in
varied lines of work and in different departments; in other words,
universal specialists. This demand comes repeatedly from the smaller
libraries and not infrequently from the larger ones. The library school
is forced in many ways to make a concession to that demand and to teach
many things rather than a few specialties. I am not sure that the
concession is always as great or as harmful as has been asserted, and
one reason why I am not so sure of this is because I have been studying
the curricula of several schools of philanthropy (whose practical
character has just been commended) in order to make some improvements
in a proposed course in the institution with which I am connected, and
the differences in the general plans of the two kinds of schools are
so far from being radical that we have been able to take over many of
their specialized ideas and put them in our curriculum, with so little
change that I defy you to find where the joints are.
Another demand is for real specialists to put in charge of special
departments of large libraries. I believe that demand is growing. But
you must remember, if you are going to have them, that two things are
necessary. If you want specialists trained in different subjects, you
must give them time to get their training and you must pay them enough
to attract them and to keep them when you get them.
In an engineering school you have lengthy courses full of engineering
technic, because you demand engineers. No good school would cut out
that technic simply because you needed an engineering student in your
technology department and couldn't afford to wait or to pay for a
graduate. Why should we have to stop doing what experience, and the
experience of years, has proved necessary, what most of the people
who go out of the library schools say is necessary--why should we
cut out general subjects simply because of a temporary or limited
demand for short-cut semi-specialists? You do not give time to prepare
specialists. You are prone to send in a letter on Saturday saying you
must have a man in charge of a special department next Tuesday, that he
must be a graduate of one of the best technical schools of the country
and that he must also have a thorough knowledge of library technic. At
present I do not believe there is enough demand for those people to
attract many of them, because, these specialists, in most cases, are
obliged to come into general library work and to keep in general work
until the special positions for which they are particularly fitted
become vacant or are created.
I believe thoroughly in the missionary spirit. I believe every
librarian ought to have in him the spirit of St. Francis, to enable
him, if need be, to go barefoot and get along with almost no food at
all, but I do not believe in the right of the public to demand that
he work for a salary so small that he must wear the habit and eat the
food of St. Francis. If you expect to find these exceptional men you
must pay for them and have places ready for them. You cannot expect
the impossible. The question of technic is a serious one but it is not
going to be solved entirely by omissions and short-cuts.
I might also say that the institution with which I happen to be
connected depends very largely, so far as the changes in its curriculum
are concerned, on the suggestions of the people who have gone out from
the school and who are working in libraries, and it often plans its
courses in accordance with what they suggest, as the result of their
own experiences. What is more,--and I am not speaking for ourselves
only, for similar conditions exist in other schools--in this way we
have (among others) the experience of more than thirty men and women
who are at the head of libraries in cities of the United States in
either the first or the second class.
Mr. JOSEPHSON: It may well be that the present library schools cannot
train both librarians and assistants; and perhaps, in consequence, we
must have two kinds of school, one school for assistants and one for
librarians. However that may be, either school must teach bibliography,
and by that I mean the knowledge of the records of books and the art of
describing books, so that the one who reads the description may know
what the book is. Description includes, of course, not only cataloging
but classification and annotation as well.
I would like to supplement Mr. Strohm's paper in one particular. I
think it would be well if chief librarians would do something to
encourage the continuation of professional studies among the members of
their staffs, particularly among the younger members, both those who
come from library schools and those who do not. We cannot expect them
to study too hard after a full day's work, but I think in most cases we
would find that such encouragement would be appreciated. The assistants
who are ambitious to go forward would be willing to spend a couple of
hours a week on further studies, and it might not be entirely out of
the way for the library to allow some time for such work.
Mr. GEORGE: It seems to me that in our discussion today a means of
practical relief has been missed by each of the speakers, and that
is that the ordinary, customary method of universities be adopted by
these library schools, and instead of attempting in a year's time to
issue a diploma of doubtful value at best, as representing anything
in particular, they should adopt the certificate plan, and allow
their course to extend over a sufficient time to guarantee something;
have their courses divided up in such a way that a certificate will
represent something definite to those of us who want to use library
school students. It seems to me in that way we can get some practical
value from the schools and get efficient aids and assistants in the
library service. The great difficulty about the whole thing is that
most library school graduates lack a sufficient background and there is
not time in one year's course, naturally, for them to acquire anything
of that kind, or an experience that can be of practical value to us. I
merely throw this out as a practical hint, because I have been waiting
for it to come from some of the speakers. By having a certificate
covering part of the ground, either cataloging or some other branch of
library service undoubtedly we would be perfectly willing to recognize
that as an authoritative guarantee from the schools, rather than a
diploma that, as I say, is doubtful at best as representing anything,
because of the varying courses and requirements of the different
schools.
At the conclusion of this discussion the session adjourned.