Much has intervened, but possibly some of you may remember that some
thing was said on Saturday about specialization in the library school
course. Discussion among the library school directors present showed a
consensus of opinion that specialization is undesirable in the first
year of a two years' course and practically impossible in a one year
course, nor did any radical plan of differentiation of function among
the schools, other than that which has come about already by natural
causes, commend itself as possible at present at least.
The only practicable form of specialization therefore seems to be
along the line of advanced courses for those who have acquired the
fundamentals of technique and who have had sufficient experience to
determine clearly the direction in which their aptitudes lie. Such a
course we are making toward at Pratt Institute and it is of our plans
and aims for this normal course in library training that I have been
asked to speak today.
The inception of the course came about not as the result of a desire
to do some new thing, but as a solution of two pressing problems with
which I found myself confronted last summer; one of these problems is
common, I am sure, to all library school directors, the difficulty
of finding teachers for their faculties or of supplying from their
graduates demands of public libraries for directors of training
classes. The other problem was local and peculiar to ourselves, and by
reason of it a possible solution was indicated for the former. This was
the suggestion made by the librarian of the Brooklyn public library
that the Pratt Institute Library school take over the instruction of
the Brooklyn public library apprentices. As the professional school
of Brooklyn, it was clearly our duty to perform this function for the
public library of Brooklyn, and it only remained to find a way,--first,
that would satisfy the needs and requirements of the Brooklyn public
library system; second, that would so strengthen the Pratt Institute
school as to recommend the plan to our trustees; third, would help to
alleviate the professional situation of which I had become so acutely
concerned.
In response to this need, almost an answer to prayer, for the idea
occurred to me in church, came the conception of a normal course to
fit advanced students for teaching positions in the profession. Now
for a normal course three elements are requisite. Knowledge of the
subjects to be taught, training in pedagogical methods and directed
practice in teaching. The necessary knowledge of the subjects taught
could be obtained by admitting to the course only those who had already
acquired library technique. Pedagogical training could be given at
Pratt Institute where there already existed a splendidly organized
department of education and for the practice teaching there was the
apprentice class of the Brooklyn public library for which the normal
students could prepare and conduct the courses in library economy under
the direction and supervision of our instructor of proved success in
teaching. These two indispensable factors inherent in our situation
seems to mark the Pratt Institute library school as distinctly the
place of all others in which this experiment of training for teaching
positions in library work could be tried. Now, does the need exist for
librarians who are trained to teach? What is the situation?
There are ten or eleven library schools offering courses of one or
two years. There are probably twice that number of summer library
schools. There are training classes in all of the larger libraries and
many of the medium sized libraries. There are many normal schools in
which library courses are now given and the trend in this direction
is unmistakable. There are school departments in many of the larger
libraries in which more or less actual teaching is done, and in which
a librarian who was at the same time a teacher, who understands the
teachers' point of view would connect school and library the more
completely. Many of you know that these positions are not easy to
fill. But could a course be planned that would fit candidates for such
positions? I believe so.
I am not going to degrade pedagogic training for teachers. That battle
has already been fought out in the educational world. Of course, the
best teachers are born, not made, and some few heaven sent may teach
the better for not having learned how, but there are not enough of them
to go around and the greater majority teach the better for training in
tried and approved methods, applied under competent direction.
The normal course will therefore consist of two main parts--theoretical
training and practice teaching.
The first part embraces educational psychology, a forty-eight hours'
course, a thirty-six hours' course in the history of education,
a general survey with a supplemental course on American public
education--high schools, normal schools and colleges--a thirty-six
hours' course in the theory of education taking up the conduct of
recitations and giving the presentation of subjects, examinations,
etc. A study of public institutions, both civic and philanthropic,
will also be included. So much for the theoretical side. The practical
application of the theory of education to the teaching of library
technique will be made by the preparation of the courses for the
Brooklyn apprentices and the conduct of the classes. The plan for this
work is as follows: The normal students will spend a month before
the teaching of the apprentices begins in the study of the Brooklyn
public library system and in the preparation for the classes they are
to conduct under the direction of Miss Julia Hopkins who is to have
charge of this work. This work has been planned in consultation with
the Brooklyn public library librarian and staff and between us we hope
to work out the ideal apprentice course. I will go into this somewhat
fully in order to show its value as teaching experience for the normal
student.
1. There are to be two apprentice classes a year, beginning in October
and March respectively. To these classes four months of instruction
will be given. This gives each normal student the opportunity of
preparing and conducting different courses each term.
2. The four months of instruction will be followed by three months of
practical work in selected branches of the Brooklyn public library,
during which time the apprentices will learn the technical details of
branch work under the supervision of the branch librarian, thus freeing
the course of these details and making it possible to spend the class
room time on the broader professional and culture side of the subjects
taught.
3. 160 hours of instruction will be given to apprentices, on three days
of the week, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, the alternate days to be
devoted by them to study and preparation. Full library time will be
required of them, which will ensure three hours of preparation for each
hour of class room work or lecture. This means the compiling of full
reading lists by the normal students to accompany the instruction.
4. The subjects taught fall into three groups, cultural, technical
and professional, with strong emphasis on the first and an effort to
correlate the first two quite closely. Besides a review of the classics
of literature, there will be a study of the important literature of
different subjects--history, biography, sociology, science, and to
this study will be related as far as possible both parallel courses of
classification and reference books, the apprentices being thus required
to handle a great many books and to get at their subject contents
quickly. They will be required also to make a great many short reading
lists on related topics. In the course in children's work, which Miss
Clara Hunt will supervise, emphasis will also be laid on the book. Miss
Hunt will examine and criticize the lectures prepared by the normal
students. We wish to strengthen this phase of the work both because it
is needed by the apprentices and because it will be of the utmost value
to the normal students, especially to those who go into normal school
work later.
The technical courses will take up the usual subjects. In
classification the emphasis will be laid on the subject content of the
classes to add to the general information of the apprentices and the
course related, as I said before, to the study of the literature of the
subjects.
In cataloging the emphasis will be laid on an intelligent understanding
of the use of a catalog rather than on the details of cataloging. On
the professional side the course will be stronger than is usual in
apprentice courses.
Now of what value will this course be in providing teaching experience
to the normal student?
1. As preparation for directing apprentice classes in public libraries
I feel that it will be of direct utility.
2. For giving instruction to high school students in bibliography,
reference works, classification and the use of the catalog it would
seem to give adequate training.
3. For conducting courses in normal schools these mentioned subjects
plus the course in children's books and perhaps the history of
libraries would seem to be a good preparation.
4. The courses in classification, reference work, history of libraries,
work with children, loan desk work, compare favorably in length of time
given to them and in thoroughness with the average one year library
school course and the preparation, to say nothing of the conduct, of
such courses would be an excellent foundation for the teaching of the
same subjects in a library school.
In addition to these main features of the course, the pedagogic
training and the practice teaching, there will be lectures on normal
and high school library work and permission has been obtained from the
public school system for the normal students to have practical work in
the library of the buildings, training school and in some of the high
school libraries. Opportunity to study the organization and methods of
presentation of other library schools has been promised.
The first year or two will, of course, be experimental and experience
alone can show how the whole thing will work out, but we feel that the
opportunity is a great one and we mean to approach it open-mindedly and
to allow it to develop organically.
Its success will, of course, depend on our securing the right kind of
material for the class and for this we must look to the profession at
large and especially to the other library schools. We do not want large
classes, ten would be the outside limit, five or six the desirable
number. But our own school could not supply even so many, and if you
believe the plan a good one, the need real, and if the theory of
differentiation of function seems wise, I ask you to send us those
of your students who seem fitted for such work, and by coöperation,
council and support help us to make the course a benefit to the whole
profession.
There seems to be some misapprehension in the profession as to the
relation of the Brooklyn apprentice class and the general course of
our own school. So far as our one year course is concerned the only
connection is that the Brooklyn public library has graciously permitted
us to put our students in the branches of the Brooklyn public library
for practical work, while the apprentices are invited to attend the
course of lectures by librarians. There is no thought of combining the
two classes in class-room work, which would not be advantageous to
either group.
Miss Mary W. Plummer gave the following outline of the work done during
the past year at the library school of the New York public library and
the plans for the second year.