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October 20, 2008
LITA Forum 2008 Take-aways
Posted by swortman at 10:40 AM | Comments (0)
October 03, 2008
College Libraries as Aids to Instruction - 1880
The Hathi Trust offers an interesting little volume on the history of academic library instruction in the form of College Libraries as Aids to Instruction and the issues presented are surprisingly similar to those facing today's libraries. This short volume, published by the then Federal Bureau of Education is written by Harvard University Librarian, Professor Justin Winsor and University of Rochester Librarian, Professor Otis H. Robinson.
Here's a list of the most important books the academic library of 1880 should own, according to Winsor:
1. Brunet’s Manuel du Libraire
2. Various bibliographies by Querard, including La France littéraire and La littérature française contemporaine
3. Watt’s Bibliotheca Britannica
4. Lowndes’s Bibliographer’s Manual
5. Allibone’s Critical Dictionary of English Literature
6. Whitaker’s Reference Catalogue of Current Literature
7. Leypoldt’s Uniform Trade List Annual
8. American Catalogue
9. Bibliotheca Londinensis
10. History of Printing in America
11. Türbner’s Bibliographical Guide
12. Roorback’s Bibliotheca Americana
13. Larousse’s Grand dictionnaire universel du xix siecle – Note: expensive, according to Professor Winsor but “worth some sacrifice to get.” – much better than Encyclopaedia Britannica (p. 11)
14. Johnson’s Universal Cyclopaedia Note: you get more for you money with this rather than Appleton’s New American Cyclopaedia or Chamber’s Encyclopedia
15. Wheatley’s What is an Index?
16. Handbook for Readers from the Boston Public Library, 1875
17. Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature or see also Nineteenth Century Masterfile
Here are a few quotes from Justin Winsor's brief essay The College Library.
"To fulfil (sic) its rightful destiny, the library should become the central agency of our college methods, and not remain a subordinate one, which it too often is." (p.7)
The science of bibliography is "the key to all knowledge and the sparer of unfruitful pains." (p.14)
Winsor suggests librarians make their own index of useful articles which have been frequently requested, as this librarian "is much better prepared for all such questions than he who lets the memoranda pass into dim corners of his unassisted memory." (p.14)
And here's a good one:
There is often a feeling that books are, or ought to be, sensible enough to maintain their own ranks, without the need of a drill sergeant. A good deal of the librarian’s work is doubtless that of the drill sergeant; but the genuine custodian of a library knows that his best work is a general’s who has campaigns to plan and territory to overrun; in other words, he has got to force his ranks into action, and make each book do the work for which was made. Books skulk. Few are aggressive and compel attention, unless the librarian puts each on its own vantage ground. (p.7)
Here is what Professor Otis H. Robinson has to say when talking about his experiences with the smaller college library.
The idea that a college librarian may serve the classes as an instructor quite as successfully as the professor of Latin or of mathematics is beginning to take root...How to get [the books] used most extensively, most intelligently, and at the same time carefully, is becoming [the librarian's] chief concern. (p.15)
And evidently librarians had some of the same issues back in 1880 as they do now.
We are reminded every year by students about to leave that at first the library was to them little more than a blank…We are thus made to feel the importance of creating such an atmosphere in our library as shall attract those who, never having enjoyed the use of one are not prepared to appreciate it. Whatever we fail to do, it is our purpose to make every student a reading man for life. (p. 17)
No matter if it's 1880 or 2008 students remain the same.
It remains to awaken and direct an interest in the books, for very few students will become regular and systematic readers merely from a sense of duty, whatever may be their facilities for finding the best reading when they want it. The trouble is, in many cases, that they do not want it. The want must first be created and then supplied. (p.19)
Lastely, Robinson recommend that librarians be aware of the dangers libraries must avoid. These include becoming just a place to get questions answered and not a place for deep concentrated reading and study which takes time and effort. He recommends librarians relax a little about the "pecuniary" issues involved with the collection. The books are to be used and not locked up for fear of damage. After all, he ends his essay,
With the eyes of nearly all the faculty continually on the work done in the library it is not easy for an evil tendency there to escape observation. (p. 27)
Posted by swortman at 09:33 AM | Comments (0)