The Education of Community College Librarians
The library schools have a role to play, in being continually aware of changes taking place in general education and business, and in every phase of social, cultural, and educational development. They should be alert to changes, to interests, and to the needs and ever ready to make changes in library education which will be responsive to these needs.1 THIS STATEMENT by Martha Boaz, dean of the School of Library Science, University of Southern California, seems a fitting prefatory statement for this article on education for community college librarianship. What role if any, library schools should play in the education of community college librarians has been a matter of speculation and debate. Some educators would contend that the preparation of community college librarians is sufficient in its present form; that is, the pursuit of a masters of library science degree with academic library emphasis. Others would contend that although this preparation may have been sufficient for the 1950-70 period when this institution was developing and experiencing rapid growth, with the 1970's, the community college has established itself as a viable and responsive institution in the higher educational spectrum. These educators would contend that a significant change in the educational preparation of community college librarians is in order, in fact, over-due. A. M. Cohen and F. B. Brawer wrote:
Needs For Improvement Of Professional Education In Library And Information Science.
ABSTRACT A review of recent professional literature on graduate education for library and information science reveals that many improvements are being actively sought, but most of these desired changes would take the form of minor curriculum adjustments to existing programs. What is needed, however, is a redefinition of the whole field of library and information science, in terms of future information needs and the probable shape of future information service institutions. On making a tentative forecast of these needs, there can be delineated several fundamental improvements needed. in library education, including the strengthening of continuing education, the adoption of newer instructional strategies, and the recognition that a single unified program of study is no longer adequate for a profession with such varied concerns. But the single most vital task involves the positing of goals responsive to changing societal needs and the formulation of clearly stated learning objectives which will identify specific competencies to be acquired.
Personnel For Junior College Libraries
THESIGNIFICANCE of personnel for a library program is undisputed today. Louis Wilson and Maurice Tauber, for instance, in their volume on the university library, listed “Personnel” next to “Resources for Instruction” as an element fundamental to the successful operation of a 1ibrary.l Today library staffs in institutions of higher learning-universities, senior colleges, and junior colleges-are commonly divided into three principal categories: professional, non-professional or clerical, and student assistants. The following brief account traces the development of the library staffs in junior colleges, devoting principal attention, as the literature has, to the professional category. I t is noteworthy that the first comprehensive survey of the American junior college gives only scant attention to the library. In the index to this pioneering investigation by Leonard KOOS,published in 1924, are only a few references relating to the library.2 The role and training of the librarian are not even mentioned. Only seven years later the library receives quite systematic consideration by Walter Eells in a t e ~ t b o o k . ~ As an illustration of the rapid increase in esteem of the library, Eells compares the standards of the American Association of Junior Colleges adopted in March 1922 with the revised statement of standards of this Association adopted at Atlantic City in November 1929. The standards of 1922 required merely that a very modest book stock be maintained. The 1929 library standards of the American Association of Junior Colleges increased the book requirements, but above all provided that a trained librarian shall be in charge of the l i b r a r ~ . ~ This requirement, as spelled out in part of Standard X reads: