College and Research Libraries


By HAROLD D. LASSWELL 

The Science of Communicatioti 
and the Function of Libraries 

T HE FUTURE HISTORIAN of the intel-lectual life of our times will undoubt-
edly choose as a dominant theme the trend 
toward integrating the social sciences with 
one another and with policy. The develop-
ing science of commun~cation is a case in 
point. 

That there is a new scientific discipline 
in the making is by this time cleariy de-
monstrable. There are institutes and 
committees at Chicago, Columbia, Denver: 
Harvard, Ohio State, Princeton, Stanford, 
and Yale; and the list is not complete. The 
Rockefeller Foundation has supported re-
search programs in this field, chiefly at 
the initiative of the Humanities Division 
(David H. Stevens, John Marshall). Since 
the war the tempo has increased and closer 
working relations have been cemented be-
tween science and policy, notably m 
connection with radio. With the advent 
of broadcasting, it is possible for any bel-
ligerent to listen to the voice of the enemy 
and to interpret the meaning of what is said 
for every branch of policy, whether strategy, 
diplomacy, economics, or communication. 
Since the begi~ning of World War II every 
major power has set up monitoring services 
to record enemy broadcasts and to examine 
their total significance. 

_Converging Intellectual Development 

Even a cursory glance at the tributaries 
that feed the new interest in communication 
discloses that something new is taking place 
under the academic sun. We are accus-

tamed to think that the social and humanis-
tic sciences are becoming more specialized 
and more remote from the mother matrix 
of philosophy. For a century new branches 
of learning have struck out for themselves. 
In recent years, however, evidences of 
parallel and converging development are 
visible in every special discipline. 

The evolution of political science and 
public law is representative. of the new 
trend. During the age of separatism 
scholarly reputations were made by studying 
institutions and doctrines. The literature 
described the growth of parliament or the 
history of political speculation since the 
Greeks. In recent years interest has shifted 
from the "forms" to the "facts," from the 
"structure" to "what makes it tick." And 
this has led to research on one part of the 
process of communication, namely, public 
opinion. . A precursor of this tendency is 
the volume by A. V. Dicey, the distinguished 
specialist on English public law, called Lec-
tures on the Relation Between Law and 
Public Opinion in England During the 
Nineteenth Century. James Bryce, Gra-
ham W allas, · A. Lawrence Lowell, and 
Charles E. Merriam continued this line of 
growth. 

In the science of economics somewhat 
similar trends can be discerned. Among 
English, American, and Austrian economists 
the dominant tendency was to perfect the 
theoretical structure of the subject and to 
sacrifice "concrete detail" for a limited 
number of postulates. This emphasis was 

387 



by no means unanimous, and the reaction 
against it produced such subtle studies of 
economic life as the brilliant essays of Thor-
~tein Veblen. Concerned ·with other ele-
ments in behavior than the rational 
calculation of gain, Veblen gave full recog-
nition to the role of fashion and other 
nonrational determiners of conduct. 

The part played by "infor~al means of 
social control," expressed in the process of 
communication, was fully stressed by soci-
ologists. American scholars such as Sum-

/ ner, Ross, Cooley, and Park have had much 
to say about "fashion," "public opinion," 
"crowd states," "gossip," and other factors 

- of this kind. 
Specialists on language have always 

tended to go beyond the study of grammar 
to inquire in to the role of language in the 
whole of life. In recent decades one linguist 
and ethnologist, Edward Sapir, has given 
masterly treatment to selected aspects of 
communication and has inspired a number 
of emulators. Closely akin to linguistics in 
breadth is comparative literature. Among 
contemporary scholars, I. A. Richards has 
been very successful in analyzing the whole 
process of discourse. 

Since it is impossible for any school of 
psychology to overlook the communicative 
process, the subject has been enriched by 
praotically every group of specialists. Freud 
ge_neralized some of his own findings from 
the clinic to society, and the leaders of 
behavioristic and Gestalt schools have 
addressed themselves to this topic. The 
emerging synthesis has gained from the 
mother matrix, philosophy. Building on the 
work of George H. Mead, Charles S. 
Peirce, and others, Charles W. Morris has 
provided a provisional theory of communi-
cation in Foundation of the Theory of 
Signs. 

Side by side with converging develop-
ments within the central sciences of society 
has gone the professional expansion of edu-

cation, public speaking, drama, · creative 
writing, advertising, public relations, jour-
nalism, and librarianship. . 

The Structure of the Science 

The give-and-ta~e of many specialists has 
evolved a common point of view toward 
the nature of the communication process. 
The key question about . the process is: 
Who says what, to whom, . with what 
effect? The study of "who" is control 
a·nalysis .; the study of "says what" is. con-
tent analysis; the study of "effect" is effect 
analysis. 

A few examples will quickly show what 
is meant. Leo C. Rosten de·sctibed the 
social background and the personal charac-
teristics of newspapermen and of movie-
make:~;s in The Washington Correspo.ndents 
and Hollywood. All such studies of owners, 
·regulators, and contributors of each channel 
of communication are part of control 
analysis. The problem is to find out what 
they intend to communicate, how they in-
tend to do it, and what factors influence 
intention. 

German Radio Pr~paganda by . Ernst 
Kris, Hans Speier, and associates, is an in-
stance of content analysis. The book is a 
detailed quantitative and interpretative 
study of . German home broadcasts after 
1939. Other media and other situati~ns 
have been examined by other scholars for 
the purpose of giving an objective picture 
of "what is said." 

In the field of effect analysis may be 
mentioned a joint product of Paul Lazars~ 
feld, Douglas Waples, Bernard R. Berelson, 
and associates. During the presidential 

. campaign of 1940 a single county was in-
tensively described for the purpose of 
explaining the final vote in terms· of the 
influence of campaign propaganda and of 
previous political behavior ( predisposi-
tion). 

For many scientific purposes it is con-

388 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



venient to enlarge the threefold division of -
the field of communication. Media analysis 
may be devoted to the physical network of 
£ommunication. Content analysis may be 
subdivided into the study of "purport" and 
"style." A separate division may be made 
of "intention" in order to focus upon con-
ceptions of strategy and · tactics. 

Bibliography of Communication 

One way to obtain a quick view of the 
science of communication is to look at the 
problem of classifying ti ties in the field. 
The present writer was chairman of a 
committee appointed several years ago by 
the Social Science Research Council to in-
quire into the state of research on "public 
opinion and pressure groups." The com-
mittee decided to pool resources and edit an 
annotated bibliography as a guide to the 
literature. The framework devised at the 
time has since been used to classify titles 
and to cover the expanding conception of 
research on communication.1 

Part I includes titles that purport to be 
about general theori~s of propaganda, 
methods closely related to propaganda, or, 
finally, general theories of the symbolic 
process. Examples are: Sergei Chakhotin, 
The Rape of the Masses~· The Psychology 
of Totalitarian Political Propaganda; Fa-
rago and Gittler, eds., German Psychologi-
cal W tirfare: A Survey and Bibliography; 

John William Albig, Public Opinion. 
Part II brings together the titles that 

emphasize the maker of the communication, 
whether government, voluntary association, _ 
or private individual. Example: James L. 
McCamy, Government Publicity~· Its Prac-
tice in Federal Administration. 

t Lasswell, Harold D., Casey, .R. D., ~n~. Smith, 
B. L. Propaganda and Pr~tlonaJ Actl~ltles_; An 
Annotated Bibliography. Mmneapohs, Umverstty of 
Minnesota Press, 1935. 45op. A new volume forth-
coming from the Princeton University Press i~ 1.945 
is "Propaganda, Public Opinion and Comx;numcatton; 
An Annotated Bibliography" by B. L. Smtth, Harold 
D. Lasswell and R. D. Casey. 

SEPTEMBER~ 1945 

The third part includes every title that 
puts the stress on the goal of the communi-
cation, like Merle Eugene Curti's A meri-
can Peace Crusade~ 1815-I86o. Part IV 
is the place for titles that describe the sym-
bols used in making communications. Books 
and articles that describe the key symbols, 
slogans, and doctrines of a group or of a 
whole society or historical period, go in 1V. 
One such title is Wilhelm Bauer's History 
of Public Opinion (in German), the only 
survey of the entire history of opinion. 

Part V describes the channels; Part VI, 
the measurement of effects; and Part VII, 
the function and control of communication. 
Hence Part V embraces a book like Louis 
Round Wilson's Geography of Reading; 
Part VI, Cantril; Gaudet, and Hertzog's 
lnvasio~ from Mars: A Study in the Psy-
chology of Panic~· With the Complete 
Script of the Famous Orson Welles Broad-
cast; Part VII includes Free Speech in the 
United States by Zechariah Chafee. 

A title list assigns books somewhat dif-
ferently than does a scientific scheme. Hence, 
the bibliography does not classify books in 
terms that are exactly comparable with the 
subdivisions of the science of communication 
mentioned above. However, certain rough 
equivalencies do exis~. Control analysis is 
directly touched in Parts II and VII of 
the bibliography and in the sections of Part 
V that refer to owners, regulator s, and con-
tributors. Content analysis is especially in-
volved from II through V. Effect analysis 
is highly concentrated in VI. If media 
analysis is thought of s~parately, many 
appropriate titles are found in V. If inten-
tion analysis is also given special prominence, 
pertinent literature is in Part I. . 

Perhaps the foregoing sketch has been 
enough to provide an idea of the present 
scope of the growing science of communica-
tion. If so, we are . in a position to consider 
the connection between the science and the 
task of modern librarianship. 

389 



The Role of the Librarian 

Since I am a political scientist, I make 
the following remarks with all due reserve. 
I take it for granted that modern librarians 
are not satisfied to be the guardians of the 
community wastebasket, but that they play 
a dynamic role in deciding what to conserve 
and. what to neglect. Moreover, I take it 
for granted that one of the major functions · 
of the library in civilized society is to pre-
pare the sources for future historical and 
scientific understanding of the ever-expand-
ing present. This implies that in a profound 
sense the progr~ss of social intelligence de-
pends upon the energy and vision of li-
brarians, for intelligence in society depends 
upon insight and insight must be nourished 
upon research into the social inherit<~;nce and 
into the processes of social growth. And 
research is conditioned and limited by the 
sources; the ·anticipation of useful sources 
is the peculiar challenge of librarianship. 

The scientific study of communication 
provides at least one intellectual tool of 
great potential usefulness to the librarian 
who faces the burden of choosing among 
contemporary sources. This tool is a con-
cept, the concept of the focus of attention. 
Why this concept is important appears when 
we reflect on the nature of human response 
and remember that what people do is an 
outcome of two sets of determinative factors, 
one enviro~mental, the other predisposi-
tional. When people buy, vote, or fight, 
they are responding to changes in their en-
vironment on the basis of the predispositions 
with which they entered it. Through any 
given day, month, season, year, decade, or 
generation, the environment of social 

. groups is changing; and the acts of response 
by members of the group become part of the 
predispositfon for the next contact with the 
environment. The observing and recording 
of social history is the process of describing 
for any period of time the interrelations of 
response and environment. 

When we examine the social process frorri ' 
this point of view, we are made aware of 
another point: the part of the environment 
that most directly affects response is what' 
comes to the attention of the potential re-
sponder. If we want to explain individual 
or group response, it is necessary to give 
special emphasis to facts about the focus of 
attention. To some extent this is a matter 
of describing group exposure to media of 
communication and calls for the record of 
broadcasts, magazines, newspapers, lectures, 
sermons, speeches, demonstrations, posters, 
theatrical performances, film shows. But it 
goes beyond media to the world of immedi-
ate experience, to the persons and objects of 
home, neighborhood, and workplace. If we 
are to create a scientifically useful record 
of the changing experience of representative 
groups in America or in any society during 
a selected period, we must somehow keep 
a significant record of what comes to the 
attention of the group. 

What Librarian Should Do 

The problem can be tackled m a sys-
tematic way by the· librarian. The first 
question is to decide what communities are 
to be covered by the library in question, and 
with what degree of intensity. To some 
degree every repository in the world tries 
to provide some sources of information 
about the world as a whole. But in .practice 
this quickly fades into highlighting certain 
nations, continents, regions, cities, localities, 
and certain economic, political, social, racial, 
religious, linguistic, sex, age, skill, and other 
groups. That such coverage is incomplete, 
and will always be incomplete, is obvious. 
The problem gets interesting when one ·faces 
up to the question of how to make the in-
complete as rational as possible. · This calls 
for the application of selective principles, of 
which the first has already been stated: 
select communities (global, continental, re-
gional, local) · for "very intensive," "less in-

390 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



tensive," and only "extensive" coverage. 
After these choices have been made the 

next problem is to choose the social values 
whose ' distribution is to be sampled in the 
chosen communities. Representative social 
values are power, income, respect. (A value 
is an object of desire; the social structure is 
the grouping of people according to their 
share in the production and distribution 
of values during selected periods.) Special-
ists on social structure ' are usually sociolo-
gists, and the librarian can use them, 
together with economists who study popu-
lation shifts, as consultants. 

When the value list has been chosen, the 
next question is what population character-
istics to choose in studying the degree of 
participation in the values. In the Ameri-
can · natio~, for instance, it is common 
knowledge that people with black skins do 
not have the same relative share of power, 
income, or respect as people with white 
skins. Hence, this is a significant criterion 
to use. Sharing also varies according to 
age, sex, skill (.occupation, · profession), 
linguistic accomplishment, religious atti-
tude; and there are other differentiating 
indexes as well. Facts about the social 
structure are not only available from gov-
ernment reports and university research but 
from the commercial research of many pri-
vate firms, and the library can wisely en-
large its staff of consultants to tap these 
vats of material. 

Organizations in the Community 

The next question concerns the network 
of organizations found in the communities 
whose social structure is known. It is pos-
sible to choose from among the many or-
ganiz~d bodies th_ose bearing a characteristic 
relationship to social structure. Some 
associations, such as certain women's clubs, 
may be affiliated with upper income and 
respect groups; others, like some foreign 
language benevolent orders, may be heavily 

SEPTEMBER~ 1945 

concentrated among low respect groups. 
Still others, like some political associations, 
draw members and officers from nearly all 
strata of society. (Insight into community 
structure in our civilization can be gained 
from such authors as W. Lloyd Warner and 
P. S. Lunt describing Yankee City, a series 
published by the ·yale University Press.) 

When the foregoing decisions have been 
provisionally made, it is possible to proceed! 
rationally to the choice of sources that re-
veal the focus of attention on mass media~ 
The library itself circulates to individuals 
occupying a determinate position in the lo--' 
cal .structure of society, and proper library 
records are exceedingly valuable (and im-
provable) sources of knowledge about the 
changing focus ~f attention. 2 Publishers in 
.the larger cities know to what extent their 
newspapers circulate in high, middle, or 
low income 'areas. Information is also 
available about the popularity of radio sta-
tions and programs · in different income 
groups. 3 In a less satisfactory state is in-
formation about audiences at downtown and 
neighborhood motion picture houses. In .. 
ferences can be made regarding poster and 
sign audiences from traffic surveys or from 
occasional researches. 

It is perhaps needless to call attention to 
the fact that it is necessary to keep in mind. 
the distinction between channels originating: 
locally and those originating outside the 
selected area. From various public and· 
private sources estimates can be made of 
the circulation of outside newspapers, 
magazines, and radio broadcasts. 

When the mass media have, been chosen 
it is useful to return to the consideration 
of the public arid private organizations and 
to decide which sources about each ·are to 

2 See, notably, Doug!as ,Waples' Peopl~ and P:int: 
S ocial Aspects of Read~ng m the Depresswn. (U~tve,r­
sity of Chicago Studies in Library Science) Chtcago, 
University of Chicago Press, 1938. 228p. . 

s For general orientation, see Paul .Lazarsfeld's Radw 
and the Printed Page. New York Ctty, Duell, Sloan & 
Pearce, 1940. 354P· 

391 



be covered. This is a matter of gauging the 
nature and frequency of organized activities 
that come to the attention of members and 
nonmembers. Meetings of many types can 
be recorded, including the agenda and . 
minutes of business sessions of the member-
ship at large and of officials. (In many 
cases the material must be held in confidence 
by the repository for an agreed upon period 
of years.) 

Since committee meetings involve intense 
interaction between response and attention, 
they are of great social importance. . It is 

' .possible to describe different groups in the 
committee (conference, legislature, or as-: 
sembly) in terms of what it does and of 
what comes to its attention that others do. 

Direct Experience 

The next step is to bring the attention 
focused Qn mass media and ·on organized 
participations into proper .perspective in 
relation to direct experience. What are 
the typical patterns of attention . that char-
acterize various groups? Common sense 
and research unite in affirming that there 
are great differences in the daily, seasonal, 
and long-term attention patterns of many 
elements of any population. Some house-
wives limit themselves to the household and 
pay little attention to mass media or or-
ganized meetings. To some extent these 
differences vary according to income level, 
but they are related to many other factors, 
such as agrarian or urban environment and 
level of education. 

Very little systematic information is at 
hand about ~e activity calendar, including 
the focus of · attention of representative 
groups. Several methods have be·en applied 
to the problem of acquir~ng such data, how-
ever. Volunteers have kept diaries or 
participant observers have noted the be-
havior of persons with whom they are 
associated. 4 Under these circumstances it 
may be feasible for librarians themselves to 

take the leadership in the gathering of data. 
I do not intend by this suggestion to imply 
that this is their responsibility solely; indeed, 
the respop.sibility is quite as much that of 
the historian, political scientist, sociologist, 
social psychologist, or other specialized arid 
well-equipped person. My only point is 
that among the many opportunities for 
leadership in the expanding of social intel-
ligence, the librarian can at least consider 
this one. By his initiative he may create 
a team of competent persons in his com-
munity and embark upon a continuing 
program of basic importance. In Great 
Britain the mass observation movement has 
succeeded in enlisting a great deal of volun· 
tary aid from citizens throughout the length 
and breadth of the country. In America 
social scientific development has tended to 
be the province of highly trained profes-
sionals who have made little effort to interest 
the community as a whole in the enterprise. 
And both science and the community have 
lost something. Our studies have a high 
technical poiish in many cases, but they 
do not contribute as fully as they might . to 
social insight into the processes and proble111s 
of our society. Under the impetus of the 
war, psycholog'ists and social scientists have 
taken the initiative in "rumor clinics" or in 
some other form of continuous observation 
and report oh trends in communication. 
'(he librarian who reaches out for contact 
with interested persons may discover a 
powerful ally in his local university, college, 
normal school, or high school. Also, the 
level of commercial research has been rising 
in recent years, and many able persons are 
now engaged ·in it. 

Librarian, s Consulta?Zts 

If the librarian organizes a team of con-
sultants, he may be able to launch many 

• For instance · see Pitirim A. Sorokin and Clarence 
Q. Berger's Time-Budgets of Human Behavior. (Har-
vard Sociological Studies, v. 2.) Cambridge, Harvard 
University Press, 1939. 204p. 

392 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



routines that contribute materta1 of _great 
usefulness to his resou;ces. Consider, for 
instance, the possibilities of a regular 
photographic reconnaissance of selected 
points in the locality or region. At periodic 
intervals the major traffic centers can be 
photographed in order to bring out the 
posters and signs, thus adding to our docu-
mentation of public attention. Local 
camera clubs are often eager for guidance 
and would gladly participate in a community 
history project. Members of such clubs and 
of local history societies can be prevailed 
upon to keep diaries or to make reliable 
participant-observer notes. 

By proper planning the librarian and 
his associates can introduce the serial princi-
ple into typ~s of records where it ha-s not 
previously applied. The simplest . way to 
introduce it is to look at the same place 
at regular intervals. This is the advantage 
of photographing the announcements visible 
at traffic centers at regular seasons of the 
year. Ordinarily records of this kind are 
left, if at all, in haphazard fashion, and 
their historical and scientific usefulness is 
much reduced. 

If the program here projected is carried 
, out, it is obvious that libraries must be 
willing to handle far more diversified types 
of material than has been conventional in 
the past. A library of recordings, for in-
stance, is necessary if radio broadcasts are 
to be properly covered. Scripts are of less 
value than what actually goes out over the 
microphone (although libraries can wisely 
arrange with local stations to turn over 
scripts, from which selections can be made; 
such scripts are usually destroyed after · a 
protection period running from six months 
to two years). Arrangements can be made 
to obtain recordings of locally originating 
programs of various types at all seasons of 
the year. A valuable source is the "log" 
of a radio station, since all programs are 
a matter of record. At regular intervals 

SEPTEMBER) 1'945 

the log shouid be photographed. Besides 
recordings, the library needs to make pro-
visions for films. By cooperating with 
local newspapers it is often possible to cover 
significant local events with proper sound 
and motion picture equipment. 

Another type of material of great po-
tential value is research data, especially 
original data sheets and other work papers 
used in local community studies. Local 
polls may be conducted after the pattern 
made well known by George Gallup and 
Elmo Roper (Fortune). Social psycholo-
gists also use intensive interviews and other 
means of data gathering. 5 

Librarians and library consultants will 
do well to give special thought to the task 
of sampling the highly specialized media 
of mass communication. Newspapers are 
recipients of thousands of words of material 
per day over the press association news 
ticker, by mail, by phone, by interview. 
Only a fraction of the "input" is eventually 
used. It is important to have the raw 
material available for selection at each step 
of the editing process. Hence, the "editor's 
wastebasket" ought to be emptied at stated 
periods as part of the social history of com-
munication. 

Conclusion 

In what has been said up to this point, 
no mention has been made of how the science 
of ·communication bears upon the communi-
cation problem of the library itself. I have 
deliberately sacrificed this part of the sub-
ject in order to focus upon the long-term 
contribution that wise librarianship can 
make to social intelligence. Emphasis has 
been put upon the ' scientific importance of 
describing the changing structure of com-
munity attention, but I cannot refrain from 

15 An excellent statement of the tools available for 
r esearch on communication is in Douglas Waples, 
Bernard R. Berelson, and Franklyn R. Bradshaw's 
What Reading Do es to People. (University of Chicago 
Studies in Library Science) Chicago, University of 
Chicago Press. 1940. 222p, 

393 



saying that the focus of attention is of more 
than scientific importance. By examining 
what comes to the notice of people we are 
enabled to gain insight into their inner lives. 
One way to kno·w the mountaineer, the 
plainsman, or the shore dweller; to permeate 
into the lives of city people, villagers, and 
countrymen; to get behind the masks of 
residents of Moscow, Chungking, or Chi-

cago--in short, one. way to understand the 
thoughts and feelings of man-is to become 
acquainted with what he has seen, heard, 
touched, and read. 6 

8 These and many other points are developed in 
Print, Radio, and Film in a Democracy: Ten Papers 
on the Administration of Mass Communications in the 
Public Interest, Read before the Sixth Annual Insti-
tute of the Graduate Library School, the University of 
Chicago, August 4-9, 1941. Waples, Douglas, ed. 
Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1942. I97P· 

Comment by GLEN BuRcH 

Communication and the Community 

Dr. Lasswell's suggestion th~t librarians 
take the initiative in promoting and carrying 
on a piece of social research at the community 
level-and specifically in the realm of the 
science of communication-is an extremely 
provocative one. It is refreshing indeed to 
find a scientist who thinks well enough of the 
profession of librarianship to believe that its 
members are capable of taking leadership in 
performing a piece of research in his own 
field. Public librarians (and I think it is 
clear that Dr. Lasswell's remarks are 
addressed primarily to them) are not popu-
larly supposed to have any great capacities 
for research. 

Dr. Lasswell apparently is not only willing 
to have librarians take the leadership in this 
research project; he envisages them carrying 
it out in cooperation with a group of amateur 
social scientists ! This is going to be pretty 
strong stuff for many of his fellow scientists, 
but I believe Dr. Lasswell is on firm ground. 
For it is perfectly true that "in America soCial 
scientific development has tended to be the 
province of highly trained professionals who 
have made little effort to interest the com-
munity as a whole in the enterprise," and it 
is probably high time that something was 
done about it. As a practical way in which 
to begin to get community participation in 
social research, Dr. Lasswell's proposal may 
be open to question. But in placing emphasis 
on the greater lay experience in and responsi-
bility for this kind of activity, he is beyond 
doubt pointing up one of the profound needs 
of our time. As a matter of fact, of course, 
the need for greater community participa-

tion in this kind of research is beginning to be 
met in some towns and cities through the 
medium of the social survey. Hundreds, pos-
sibly thousands, of communities have con-
ducted social surveys of one ki~d or another 
in the process of making plans for that post-
war world. Some have been pretty badly 
done. But some have been remarkably good. 
And in all instances quite a number of lay 
people have become acquainted with at least 
one tool of the social scientist. And in the 
process they have come into communication 
with one another and with the community 
at large. They may have made no "long-
term contribution ... to social intelligence," 
but they have taken a step in that direction. 

Librarians, along with representatives of 
other local agencies, have taken part in most 
of these surveys. I am afraid, however, that 
rarely have they assumed leadership. And 
this brings me back to. Dr. Lasswell's pro-
posal. How can he expect librarians to take 
the initiative in setting up a highly compli-
cated and indefinitely prolonged research 
project in the social history of communication, 
when they have on the whole not been able, 
for one reason or another, to take leadership 
in research projects at a much more elemen-
tary level and in which there -is already wide-
spread interest? Has he misjudged the 
librarians after all? 

The Function of the Library 

I do not think that it is so much a question 
of misjudging librarians as of misjudging the 
central function of the institution to which 
they are attached. It is true that one of the 

394 COLLEGE AND RESEA~CH LIBRARIES 



functions of the public library is to "prepare 
the sources for future historical and scientific 
understanding of the ever-expanding present" 
-especially those sources which relate to the 
particular community and region in which th'e 
library is located. But I think Dr. Lasswell is 
going a little too far when he goes on to con-
clude from this that "the anticipation · of use-
ful sources is the peculiar challenge of 
librarianship." 

This kind of statement, it seems to me, as-
sumes that the primary function of the insti-
tution in question is that of acting as a 
"storehouse of culture," and that the primary 
function of the librarian in such an institution 
would be that of preparing, collecting, select-
ing sources for future scientific and historic~! 
researchers. Now there should be, and there 
undoubtedly are, many libraries and librarians 
in this country to whom this description ap-
plies. But to suggest that this should be the 
major function-or even a major function-
of the public library is, it seems to me, to 
betray a misunderstanding of the role it plays 
in modern American life. 

It is difficult, as any librarian will confess, 
to talk in terms of the function of the public 
library, but William S. Learned came as close 
as anyone to describing it in a single phrase 
when over . twenty years ago he called it the 
"diffusion of knowledge." "A modern public 
library," said Learned, "can completely justify 
its existence only by means of a diversified 
service that makes useful ideas contained in 
print helpful and easily available to all of the 
elements in the supporting population." To 
put it another way, you might say that the 
public library exists primarily to assist in the 
communication of useful ideas. (And most 
librarians would not limit themselves to "use-
ful ideas contained in print" but would include 
other modern media of communication, such 
as films and radio.) The emphasis throughout 
is on service, not storage. Books and oth.er 
materials are for the most part essentially 
expendable items to be selected pr.imarily on 

the basis of their usefulness in communicating 
ideas. 

With a clear mandate to promote the dif-
fusion of knowledge, librarians have a much 
more dynamic role to play than simply that of 
"deciding what to conserve and what to 
neglect." They have to devise ways and 
means of taking these "useful ideas" to the 
people. They have to be active agents in the 
process of communication, and so far they 
have only just begun ·to perform this task. It 
is the performance of this task-the task of 
helping to keep the people in touch with the 
knowledge uncovered by modern science-
that is the peculiar challenge of librarian-
ship. . 

The need for greater participation in the 
scientific study of communication is, as Dr. 
Lasswell points out, very important. Theo-
retically there is .no reas<'n why librarians 
should not engage in it, should not at one and 
the same time be agents in the dissemination 
of ideas and collectors of sources for future 

,historical and scientific understanding. But 
since the · average library budget and build-
ing are painfully limited, the average librarian 
w.ill probably find himself unable to perform 
both functions. 

I suspect that the answer to Dr. Lasswell's 
proposal lies in making the collection and se-
lection of source material for future research 
in the science of communication a cooperativ.e 
project. It might be conducted by individual 
libraries strategically located in the various 
regions of the country but supported by special 
grants from public funds and from interested 
associations an.d foundations. In this way it 
would not be in competition with the public 
library's primary function of promoting the 
wide dissemination of the knowledge that is 
continually being placed at our disposal. For 
we live in an age of transition, and \ unless 
today's useful ideas are effectively communi-
cated to the people, our carefully collect~d 
sources for future investigation may tomor-
row be reduced to rubble. 

* * * 

SEPTEMBER~ 1945 395 



New Tools of Communication 

Approaching the subject of the science of 
communication from the viewpoint of the 
political scientist, Dr. Lasswell · has, in .his 
interpretation of the function of librarianship 
in the field of communication, placed · empha-
sis upon the research function of the library: 

... one of the major functions of the library 
in civilized society is to prepare the sources 
for future historical and scientific understand-
ing of the ever-expanding present. 
. . . the anticipation of useful sources is the 
peculiar challenge of librarianship . 
• . . it may be feasible for librarians themselves 
to take the leadership in the gathering of data. 
Emphasis has been put upon the scientific im~ 
portance of describing the changing structure 
of community att&ntion. 

Addressed as it is to the readers of Colleg e 
and Research Li'braries, Dr. Lasswell's ap-
proach to the subject has much to commend 
it, particularly for those readers who are 
librarians in university or other libraries in 
which the research function is dominant. Cer-
tainly librarians need to preserve and provide 
records and data for use by scholars, both 
contemporary and future. Certainly as li-
brarians we need to be active participants 
rather than passive observers; and the science 
of communication, as Dr. Lasswell points out, 
offers genuine opportunity for active and sig-
nificant study in the science of communication 
in terms of its community (broadly inter-
preted) irilplications. 

In the space at, his disposal Dr. Lasswell 
could not give a comprehensive discussion of 
the implications of the service of communica-
tion for libraries. One obvious, and to this 
writer important, relationship which he 
neglects is the responsibility of librarians to 
know and to utilize varied means of communi-
cation in their own work. Traditionally 
libraries have collected, preserved, and cir-
culated the printed page. The new science of 
communication has conclusively shown that 
the printed page is but one means of preserv-
ing and of transmitting knowled ge-is but one 
agency of communication. The radio, the 
motion picture, recordings, posters, slides, 
radio transcriptions are other usable aids to 
communication that have obvious value. 

Implications for colleges of the educational 

Comment by B. LAMAR JOHNSON 

programs of the armed forces have not yet 
been defined. It is clear, however, that in 
these programs aids to teaching other than 
books and lectures have played important 
~oles. . The experience and findings of the 
armed forces, plus the inevitable improvement 
in the quality of audio-visual aids due to 
technological advancements, indicate a trend 
toward significantly increased use of non-
printed aids to learning in the colleges of 
tomorrow. 

The writer has reported elsewhere 1 that 
although more than go per cent of some four 
hundred colleges studied provided visual edu-
cation science, less than 10 per cent of the 
colleges centralize this service in their li-
braries. Significantly, however, half of the 
colleges :indicate that in their judgment the 
library should be the centralizing agency for 
visual education service. 

This situation offers a challenge, an oppor-
tunity, and a responsibility to the college 
librarian. We, as librarians, can choose to 
be pass·ive observers of an inevitable trend 
which will change teaching, advance learning, 
and, whether we like it or not, modify the 
function of the library. On the other hand, 
as college lib-rarians we can be active leaders 
in providing through our libraries the very 
best aids to communication and to learning-
motion pictures, recordings, radio transcrip-
tions, slides, and other aids as they are de-
veloped . and prove useful. 

My initial thought in reading Dr. Lass-
well's article was one of regret that he had 
failed to stress the important fact that the 
library which recognizes the implications of 
the science of communication will broaden its 
concept of library materials to include the 
latest aids to communication and to learning. 
On · second thought, however, I am almost 
pleased ·that Dr. Lasswell neglected this im-
portant implication for the college library, for 
his neglect has given me an opportunity once 
more to state my conviction that as college 
librarians we must take leadership in pro-
viding and encouraging the use of the newer 
tools of communication. 

1 Johnson, B. Lamar. " A u di o-Vi sual Aids ~nd tJ:te 
College Library." College and R esearc h Llbranes 
5:341-46 . S eptember 1944 . 

396 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



Comment by JuLIAN S. FowLER 

Safeguarding the Sources: 
New Aspects of an Old Function 

Reduced to simplest terms, the essential 
functions of a library can be stated as two: 
preservation and distribution. During the 
past century, in the popular mind at least, the 
second has assumed the greater impo'rtance. 
Nor has this been discouraged by the librar-
ians themselves, as with the growth of the 
public library movement they sought to pro-
gress from the role of purve yors of polite 
literature to that of educational agents. Time 
was (and not so long ago) that scorn was 
freely directed against the preservative instinct 
supposedly inherent in the old-school librarian. 
Yet, since the effectiveness of the distributive 
function depends on the care and discrimina-
tion with which material has been collected 
and preserved, it can hardly be denied that 
collection and preservation still constitute one 
of the library's prime functions. Implicit in 
the term "preservation," however, is the duty 
of knowing what to preserve and how to make 
it available. 

There is nothing new, of course, in the 
thesis that librarians should act as custodians 
of the sources of research. This is what they 
have been for centuries, following as best they 
could the changes and developments of re-
search methods-sometimes overwhelmed by 
the mass of material; sometimes discriminat-
ing ir;t selection, sometimes not; often skeptical 
both of the type of material used by investiga-
tors and of the value of the conclusions drawn 
by them. What Dr. Lasswell has done is to 
enlarge our conception of the means by which 
social history can be observed and recorded. 
Many of us have long realized the value to 
research of newspapers, letters, diaries, post-
ers, photographs, business ledgers, minutes of 
societies, files of correspondence, scrapbooks, 
and numberless otli.er things. In my own 
case, I found at Oberlin both a well-estab-
lished tradition of this kind and a community 
already accepting the library as a natural 
repository and source o.f information on local 
matters. The general problem, however, is 
to continue to emphasize anew or, in some 
cases, to begin the exercise of the library's 

SEPTEMBER~ 1945 

function as a repository. There must cer-
tainly be added an appreciation of the newer 
media for influencing social attitudes and 
thought. 

When we begin to consider how to adapt 
our methods to these newer media, as sug-
gested in the article under consideration, two 
difficulties at once present themselves. First, 
there is that of determining the field in which 
we shall work, the material in which we 
shall specialize, and how to relate our efforts 
to research in the wider areas. It is my own 
feeling that research in these areas_:_regional, 
nation al, and intern'ational-has never been 
able to make sufficient use of the more in-
tensely. local sources. Whether this has af-
fected in any way the validity of such research 

·is hard to say, but it might well be that the 
availability of a greater mass of local material 
would broaden and strengthen !its founda-
tions. 

Now the accumulation of complete records 
of the changing experience of a whole com-
munity would be an appalling task, and prob-
ably a more or less fruitless one. Working 
on a more sensible basis of careful selection, 
neighbor communities might better choose to 
follow the reactions of certain of their own 
characteristic racial, social, or religious 
groups. Thus, a hea"ily industrialized large 
town with varied foreign language groups 
would provide data quite different from that 
available in a sma,ll industrial village with a 
homogeneous native or fully American popu-
lation. A nearby rural shopping center would 
yield another type, a purely residential town 
still another. Any such scheme, it goes with-
out saying, will be effective only after careful 
study and a well-planned allocation of func-
tion. For many purposes social agencies and 
institutions of elementary and higher educa-
tion offer perhaps the easiest avenues of ap-
proach, because they have often been called 
on before to furnish material for studies· and 
surveys. In finding and developing other 
sources of supply, excellent help can be ob-
tained by arousing the interest of competent 

397 

' I 



Citizens who will cooperate in a long-range 
program, particularly one involving personal 
contacts. Granting that the American public 
has become pretty thoroughly accustomed to 
being interviewed and polled, this part of the 
program w:ill have to be handled with skill 
and tact. 

Dr. Lasswell's suggestions for gathering 
the different types of material bring to mind 
the second difficulty. It is the very real one, 
on the one hand, of making the public realize 
the value of what it can contribute, and, on 
the other hand, of overcoming the reluctance 
to surrender materials to any agency. This 
is particularly true of current material. 
Something old may be respected; anything less 
than fifty years old is disregarded completely. 
Let us not overlook, either, the fact that 
right now the paper salvage drive is one of 
the most potent agents for destroying some of 
the very material which should serve as 
sources for our future historians. 

There has always been a time lag of about 
one generation in the stores of documents 
accumulated by any library. It is likewise 
evident that, with few exceptions, these come 
from families which have taken some part in 
public affairs and that all too often the papers 
are limited in their relevance to those public 

activities; also, that some of the most reveal-
ing-and therefore the best-are withhe.ld or 
destroyed because _of personal association. 

The lack of care g·iven to organization 
records is often amazing. To be sure, many 
groups are short-lived, but their activities 
nonetheless are of value to the future investi-
gator. Strange as it may seem, even files of 
official records are often wofully incomplete. 

In dealing with organization records a 
fairly s·imple procedure might be set up. 
Emphasis could be put on the acquisition of 
those of defunct or suspended organizations. 
Active groups could be carefully listed by 
name, with annotations as to changes of of-
ficers or quarters. A cross index showing 
objectives and accomplishments would make it 
fairly easy to direct ·investigators to the proper 
sources of information. Such a file could be 
kept up to date both by means of local news-
paper items and by contact with the people 
concerned. 

It seems entirely practical that librarians 
assume the leadership in a systematic but 
discriminating collection and preservation of 
data pertinent to the changing social con-
sciousness of their communities. A study of 
Dr. Lasswell's paper should bring a fresh 
realization of an expanding responsibility. 

* '* * 
Comment by BROTHER AuRELIAN THOMAS 

Cooperation in Communication 

The first reaction of.. the wartime librarian 
to the complexities inherent in the suggestion 
of enlarging the scope of the librarian's work 
will be one of irritation at the prospect of 
competing at this busy time with other mem-
ber~ of the profession in order to be abreast 
of modern movements. The . second reaction, 
primarily that of such librarians as those in 
colleges of engineering, is that there can be 
no relation between Dr. Lasswell's suggestions 
and the work of the engineering librarian. A 
third reaction may be that there has been a 
straining after effect in an effort to produce 
a science hom a collection of data, a science 
not justified by the presentation of a few 
isolated premises. 

To enlarge my first reaction, may I say that 
we should present this prospect in the light 

of the halcyon days ahead when war schedules 
shall have been outmoded, when budgets are 
once again normal, and when a whole new 
batch of library ass·istants is ready and eager 
to enter the field of service in the library. 
It is not necessary to deny the need of an 
expanded program to meet the needs pre-
sented in this paper. If the efficiency of the 
library can be increased, if the field of service 
can be adequately expanded, the compensa-
tions offered by the study of communication 
can be justified. But is this a propitious time 
to start such a project? 

It is true that the technological librarian, 
as such, can find small room in his program 
for interest in materials communicated. He 
has his own type of growing program. In this 
very field the means of communication have 

398 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



already given him a vast literature, as shown 
by the importance placed on communications 
engineering. He is engaged in the study of 
the myriad electrical phenomena that permit 
the spoken word to be recorded for sound 
tracks, to be broadcast and televised, or to 
be simply telephoned through wireless media 
or the more general communications circuits. 
He is himself enmeshed in an ever-widening 
umverse. He is ever on the frontier of new 
discoveries, particularly now that the war 
need has stepped up the movement of inven-
tion and research as never before. He is 
familiar with Morse's mighty "What hath 
God wro~ght ;" with Bell's frantic "Come 
here, Mr. Watson, I need you;" and with 
the familiar ''One, two, one, two . . Testing, ;, . 
of the modern public addr~ss system. From 
these, as a student of the social sciences, he 
might branch into a study of the materials 
communicated. As a member of the modern 
community, he might and should be interested 
·in the means of persuasion and informat~on 
so prevalent today. But as a strict technician 
he is the silent witness of all the babel, with 
no interest or stake in any of it. 

A Nebulous Basis 

For the third group, those who see in com-
munications study a science whose basis is 
more nebulous than real, Dr. Lasswell has 
produced an excellent groundwork. A fur-
ther clar:ifying of what the field embraces will 
provide for these a more assuring indication 
of its authenticity. 

Reversing these listings of the paper under 
discussion to focus on the genuineness of 
communications study as a science, the author 
has not only made an excellent case for his 
study as a distinct study but one worthy of 
the most general and universal consideration. 
We are, all of us, constantly confronted by 
the admonition to "say something." Only the 
cataclysm of war has brought to our attention 
the world-shaking importance of something 
we might say. The spoken word is a power-
ful means of opening the mind, of changing 
life habits, and of fostering philosophies that 
may, in time, shake the very foundations of 
our world. These tremendously important 
potentialities for the regeneration or damna-
tion of millions we have of.ten abandoned to 
forces whose use of this power might easily 
be the destruction of what we hold dearest in 

SEPTEMBER_, 1945 

the world. Cavil as we will about the banali- -
ties of the radio and of the screen, abandon 
them if we wish to the unlettered for whom 
they seem so often to be prepared, we still 
have in them a weapon of whose force we 
have been made more and more conscious. 

There is really nothing novel in this paper 
as concerns the things that are to be collected 
and stored for reference use. Librarians 
have already admitted microfilm, micropr:int, 
photographs, radio scripts, .and recordings into 
their collections. The utility of these ma-
terials and the ease with which they may be 
classified have already been adequately demon-
strated. What is now asked is a difference ·in 
approach and in the appreciation of the matter 
to be collected. 

Fate of Technocracy 

There is a certain danger of being so de-
voted to a passing idea that one might provide 
a tremendous outlay in order to be well sup-
plied with reference to a developing science, 
only to find that it has been outmoded, trans-
formed, or by-passed. Witness the upheaval 
some time ago on the subject of technocracy. 
True, its scientific contributions have long 
since been incorporated into the general litera-
ture of the field, and its ramifications, poten-
tialities, and influences have been relegated 
to their proper place in the general study of 
sociological trends; but the library upheaval 
at such a concept found laudable and ardent 
concern and enthusiasm over a science whose 
development promised to shake the world, 
only to run its course swiftly earthward to 
comparative unimportance. 

The question as to whether or not a library 
will take up the suggestions offered in this 
paper ·involves the viewpoint of novelty and 
fashions as opposed to the kind of opportunism 
that identifies leadership. In the former, the 
dissident librarian needs only to wait on the 
development of the science to cull what is 
necessary and useful for his public. In the 
latter, he assumes the role of pointing out the 
high points of progress and directs his readers 
and research workers toward the leadership 
they may attain under his impetus. How 
many a farseeing librarian of the past has 
grasped at a passing opportunity and has built 
up in his collection a mass of evidence and 
material whose worth can no longer be com-
puted in dollars and cents! Such ar.e the col-

399 



lect·ions of letters, papers, reports, and other 
seemingly trivial material of the early repub-
lic, for instance, that have become, with the 
passing of time, the chief sources for the 
reconstruction of the lives and thoughts of 
the men who made America. The more we 
intelligently record the passing scene, the more 
·is the need impressed on us of developing the 
historical sense that can aid in this recon-
struction of our era, in which revolutionary 
methods and ways of living have been brou ght 
into common practice by the revolving wheel 
of time. 

Impossible of Achiev em ent 

From the practical st a ndpoint the entire 
plan, as outlined by Dr. Lasswell, seems im-
possible of achievement, but the fact that it is · 
so all-embracing is no reason it should be 
rejected. As first outlined, it may have too 
broad a scope. As actually achieved, it may 
refine itself into something more workable. 
What is needed here ·is a broad general direc-
tion, a willingness to assume responsibility and 
control, and a conscientiousness on the part of. 
each librarian involved of the need for his 
part in the realization of the great plan. Li-
brarians are noted for their spirit of coopera-
tion. If adequate and definite direction can 
be given, if needs in each community can be 
pointed out, the ability, willing ness, and as-
surance of cooperation can be counted on. 

In the consideration of the community 
wastebasket versus the record of history, more 
emphasis must, of necessity, be placed on the 
public library than on the collegiate or uni-
versity library. In the latter the needs will 
always be tempered by the curriculum or the 
direction of graduate research, as well as by 
the interests of the faculties. They will con-
tinue to revolve about the diverse branches 
that may be included in curr·iculum content. 
The public library, more responsive to the 
community mores and qu ality fluctuations, 
will be the more logical depository of this 
wealth of material on community thought. 
Here the librarian will be able to pick out 
what is of value ~in the field, to select what 

no adequate record can be kept of the entire 
picture and its fluctuations. On so grand a 
scale the task would be impossible save for 
an institution especially equipped for this prob-
lem and for this work. But in each part of 
such a center there is the need to record the 
passing of one or more phases of urbanization. 
The. division here is more important than in 
some smaller community. The march of 
progress, often well recorded ~in the more 
historical or older areas, is oftentimes neg-
lected. The quiet backwash of a metropolis, 
approached today through the ramifications of 
state highways and city superhighways, is 
changing the composition of the community, 
its population, and its whole so cial. life. The 
picture .is a living one and still developing 
under our eyes. To put this into the general 
study of communications study will be a con-
tribution to the story of the city as well as to 
the over-all story of the nation. 

Privat e Initiativ e 

·Private initiative is the American means of 
achieving results. True, it is attended by 
enormous loss. Long after one member of 
the profession has gone through experimental 
work, he may find he has trodden the same 
ground more expertly covered by a fellow 
worker. And both may be ignorant of a third 
or a fourth, whose contribution might have 
made the general endeavor more complete and 
useful. Here ·is a waste of minds bent on the 
same scientific objective. As a group, li-
brarians are notoriously profligate of their 
time and energy. We constantly find the 
efforts of a dozen members of the profession 
on parallel, often on identical, lines. But this 
is but another indication of the isolation in 
which one often works. The present admir-
able union catalog cards, the indexes to peri-
odicals, and other cooperative and professional 
undertakings were not achieved until dozens 
of progressive men and women, feeling the 
need for these tools, had laid the groundwork 
for just the service they afford . So, in the 
field of communications study, we must publi-
cize our aims and the possible methods and 
results for obtaining the cooperation necessary 
to the fulfilment of our hopes, and also bring 

is germane to the objectives set, and to deter-
mine how the materials may be intelligently 
and judiciously garnered and organized. - scientific measurement to the efforts involved. 

There is a growing need for just such rec-
ords in our great urban centers. In a city 
center a~ great as New York, for example, 

In brief, it is my opinion that the admirable 
thes·is set forth by Dr. Lasswell defends suc-
cessfully the contribution to be had in our 

400 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



library systems from the garnering of material 
on communications study. This cooperative 
function must await the time when the pres-
ent crisis has passed and we are free to expand 
to meet the challenge of the work involved. 
The main source of cooperation should rather 
be the community library and universities 
within whose domain these studies fall. 

The liberal arts colleges will cooperate 

as far as their curricular outlines demand. 
The technological librarian, already swamped 
with new subjects, will have little or no time 
or place for the new branch. Finally, the 
effective and efficient cooperative studies called 
for demand a maximum of publicity as well 
as an inspired and responsible direction, if 
they are to fit into the general great plan 
and attain the·ir objectives. 

* * * Comment by RALPH R. SHAW 
Increasing the Usefulness of Libraries 

Dr. Lasswell's stimulating article outlines 
the field of research in the developing science 
of communication and indicates some of the 
types ·of information for which ' the social 
scientist of the future may come to the li-
brary. He indicates avenues of approach 
which are now foreign to our common con-
cept of library s~rvices, and fields · in which 
the librarian may act as a kind of laboratory 
assistant to the social scientist by collecting 
primary data which may be of value at some 
future time and which are not now being 
ga thered. 

The greatest problem to be faced in as-
sembling raw data of the types enumerated 
by Dr. Lasswell is that the collection of local 
data on the scale envisaged cannot be re-
stricted to the scholarly institutions which 
would, in the nature of things, be most in-
clined to undertake some or all of the projects 
outlined. R'ather, it would require intensive 
work on the part of thousands of librarians 
of small public libraries if the result is to 
help us "to permeate into the lives of city 
people, villagers, and countrymen .... " Since 
relatively few of the small public libraries of 
the country have developed collections which 
adequately cover the history of their locali-
ties even insofar as it is available in whole 
books or in periodical articles, it appears a 
little optimistic to hope that they will be able 
to collect, on any eonsiderable scale, the types 
of pr·imary materials required if we are to 
provide any portion of the aid to social scien-
tists envisaged by Dr. Lasswell. N everthe-
less, it may be possible for a few of the larger 
libraries to do some of the things which he 
suggests, thereby enriching themselves and the 
social scientists of the future. . 

SEPTEMBERJ 1945 

More important, from the practical point 
of view, is Dr. Lasswell's review of the field 
of communication research and his references 
to literature which shou ld be part of the 
equipment of every librariaR. 

Librarians have " always been vitally inter-
ested in "who reads what," in "what reading 
does to people," ·in "why people read what 
they do read," and in similar problems. The 
evolving science of communication may offer 
the key to many library problems which are 
now handled by empirical formulae and by 
slogans. Practically all librarians, regardless 
of the type or size of their libraries, will 
agree, for example, that the primary function 
of each of their libraries is to provide the types 
(and quantities?) of materials required by 
their particular clientele, or, ·in other words, 
that each must be fitted to its own clientele. 

Ranging back as far as Mary Wright 
Plummer's Seven l'oys of Reading and earlier, 
we have groped for the reasons which stimu-
late re~ding. If the developing science of 
communication will enable us to determine in 
advance what books are needed by our com-
munities (regardless of whether our service 
community be a university faculty, the mixed 
population of a large city, a more homo-
geneous rural group, or the staff of an indus-
trial organization) it will add much to a 
science of librarianship. 

Old Approach 
This approach to library service, although 

many of its terms are new and unfamiliar, is 
as old as our profession. While it is doubtful 
that we have ever consciously weighed the 
"total significance" of a novel, our selection 
and recommendation of novels implicitly con-

401 

' 



' 

veys our subjective consideration of the fac-
tors which make up part of the concept of 
total significance. Perhaps we have not 
thought in terms of little Mary's ''predisposi-
tion" when called upon to recommend a book 
for her, but we did consider her age, her sex, 
and her schooling in making the recommenda-
tion. To be sure, we have not thought con-
sciously in terms of "media analysis" in our 
everyday work, yet the preliminaries to any 
extensive search of the literature on a re-
search project have inevitably given weight to 
that. And if we have not consciously thought 
of "measurement of effects," one of our pri-
mary claims for support as representatives 
of a worthwhile social institution has been 
the socially desirable educational or other 
effect of the literature we purvey upon those 
to whom we supply it. 

Thus, regardless of the types of libraries 
with which we m'ay be associated, the science 
of communication outlined by Dr. Lasswell is 

an integral part of the fabric of our everyday 
work. Rudimentary as its applications to 
daily library practices have been so far, they 
offer great promise for the future. Every 
step ahead in. the science of communication 
should be regarded with keen interest by 
librar·ians as a possible aid in what Jennie 
M. Flexner used to call "pondering the im-
ponderables." The science of communication 
should gradually push back the curtain of 
the unknown, not only in the selection of print 
and other types of library materials, but also 
in readers advisory services and in other edu-
cational uses of print. 

Careful study of all the titles mentioned 
by Dr. Lasswell, particularly those which he 
lists in footnotes 4, 5, 7, and 8, would be a 
good way to start. These studies offer the 
beginnings of a rich field for research and for 
development of the profes.sion of librarianship 
by increasing scientifically the usefulness of 
libraries to their public. 

* * * 
Comment by RALPH E. ELLSWORTH 

Communications Study and University Librariahs 

Since the study of communications is new, 
its province is still uncharted, its terminology 
is still uncertain, and its methods are almost 
entirely borrowed. It is possible to divide 
communication into two approaches-physical 
and cultural (to borrow two terms from 
anthropology). 

Thus, physical communication in a univer-
sity library concerns itself with problems of 
preparing and using audio-visual aids, print-
ing, radio, motion pictures, and other similar 
media. Cultural communication concerns 
itself with an analysis of the effects or results 
of the media. 

Physical Communication 

Librarians in universities have not been 
campus leaders in this field. The number of 
libraries that have incorporated the prepara-
tion and use of audio-visual aids in their 
organization is very small indeed. In most 
universities there are strong departments of 
visual aids, usually associated with the ex-
tension div·isions, and librarians have had 
little to do with the work. 

This situation promises to be an' embar-
rassing one now, because out of the experi-
ences of wartime teaching we have learned 
that nonprint media are often mo:re effective 
than are print media. If our instructors wish 
to take advantage of what we have learned in 
recent years, they will want t~ use audio-
visual aids when making their assignments. · 
Their reserve lists will include books, films, 
slides, models, etc. If they have to divide 
their lists and send part of them to the library 
and part to departments of visual aids, the 
procedure will be cumbersome. Likewise, 
from the student's point of view the syllabus 
will require him to study books, films, etc., 
but the materials will be located in different 
parts of the campus and he will have much 
difficulty in getting the two together. From 
the point of view of instruction and research, 
therefore, it appears that the library should 
store and provide facilities for using all types 
of learning tools, print and nonprint. 

From the point of view of preparation of 
materials, there are also unsolved problems. 
Several colleges and universities, as well as 

402 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



commercial agencies, have prepared radio and 
motion picture scripts and films that are 
first-rate instructional and research tools. 
The films can usually be purchased at the 
source and so can the scripts of the radio 
programs. But one cannot buy the script of 
a music broadcast, and the script of a speech 
is not the same as the speech. It is not eco-
nomical for each university library to make 
recordings of the university's rad~o broad-
casts. 

Thus, it would seem that educational 
broadcasting stations should make and sell 
recordings of their important programs, and 
librarians should be able to purchase these 
just as they now purchase books. They 
should start buying educational films and 
providing facilities for using them along with 
ordinary library materials. Their viewing 
equipment should be primarily for the indi-
vidual. They should also have viewing rooms 
for classes if they have the space. Other-
wise, they should be prepared to lend the films 
to professors t.o use in classrooms equipped 
for the purpose. 

Thus, preparation of nonprint media need 
not be done in the library. It can be done 
in the existing bureaus of visual aids and in 
the broadcasting studios. But it seems diffi-
cult to escape the conclusion that the resulting 
products must be stored and used in and from 
the library, which is the logical and natural 
place for study. 

We librarians should have foreseen this 
difficulty years ago, but since we did not, we 
should hasten to correct the situation now 
before the war is over. Postwar students 
who have experienced Army teaching methods 
will not be patient with the situation as it 
now stands. This situation 1is presented 
merely as one illustration of a problem in 
physical communication on a university cam-
pus. A careful study of the activities of 
progressive schools of journalism will suggest 
many other similar problems. 

Cultural Communication 

This branch of communication concerns it-
self with studying the effects on the individual 
and on society of the use of means of com-
munication. In its simplest aspect, it asks 
what is the most effective medium for tea~h­
ing a s-pecific fact, idea, or project. In its 
most complex aspect, it tries to find out how 

SEPTEMBER~ 1945 

existing means of communication determine 
what people know and think and it may also 
try to evaluate the effect of a specific medium 
on specific groups or individuals. It may even 
examine a given community to try to find how 
the beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge of its 
members are formed by the various communi-
cation media used in the community. 

There is a growing number of students of 
social communication in universities. U niver-
sity librarians who wish to do so might well 
make this field the center of their research 
and might teach courses in some branch of the . 
discipline. If they do so, they will find their 
campus a very satisfactory communications 
laboratory. A few specific projects around 
whi.ch they might organize research programs 
are as follows: 

1. Select specific courses and study the effec-
tiveness of various communications media for 
accomplishing the objectives of the course 

2. Make careful studies of the learning habits 
and practices of individuals throughout their 
undergraduate years. Find out to what extent 
individuals acquire their basic ~md specific atti-
tudes as a result of class instruction or of other 
noncurricular influences 

3· Try to trace the influence of the propa-
ganda materials that come into all libraries 
from organized interests 

4· Study the availability of the various means 
of communication in terms of individuals and 
groups. How does residence in dormitories and 
fraternities affect availability? 

5· Study the influence of student groups {re-
ligious, political, social, and scholastic) on the 
use members of the group make of learning 
tools. 

These five problems ·serve to :illustrate the 
approach university librarians can take if they 
wish to apply the study of communications to 
the activities of the library. 

The study of communications offers to the 
·university librarian, who is try·ing to find a 
field of activity that is related to his daily 
work and that is intellectually satisfying, a 
province that is both challenging and fruitful. 
It is, of course, not the only province wo_rth-
while of study, but it is a good one for the 
librarian who does not wish to confine his 
thinking exclusively to the mechanics of his 
craft. 

If the university librarian wishes to study 
communication on the campus, he will find a 
natural bond of interest with. the professor of 

403 

, 



communications who is using society as his 
laboratory. The librarian who does some 
useful research in this· field might well con-
tribute to the intellectual life of his campus. 

Lasswell's sta tement makes it very clear 
that university librarians do not now have the 
kind of source material a student of com-
munications works with . Even more discour-
aging is the fact that unless the librarian 
understands the library needs of the social 
historian, he will not be able to organize a 
collecting progra,m that will insure the pres-
ence of the relevant materials for future 
researchers. 

The librarian who is associated with a uni-
versity that does not have scholars actively 
engaged in the study of communications will 
have a difficult time stirring up interest in 
collecting for communications research. One 
who is associated with active scholars in the 
field will be more fQrtunate. 

Area study, as the concept is now evolving, 
may be the curricular outlet for communica-
tions study in universities that are not now 
interested in cultivating the subject directly. 
Although area study thus far has concerned 

. 
itself with large geographic units, it can just 
as well adjust its focus from that of the tele-
scope to that of the microscope. In time it 
will inevitably do so. Insofar as it does, the 
librarian will find understanding colleagues 
to help organize a collecting program and a 
research program that will bring the relevant 
documents into' the library. 

The librarian who tries alone to organize 
a collecting program on the basis of Lasswell's 
concept of communication will feel like the 

· man (as Waples once said) who tries to walk 
through a crowd all headed ·in the opposite 
direction. If his objective is the right one, he 
should be willing to go even though the going 
is hard. Lasswell has, indeed, paid librarians 
a great compliment when he holds out to them 
the possibility of developing a positive pro-
gram which may not be appreciated today but 
which will be taken for granted tomorrow. 

Lasswell is admittedly talking about only 
one part of a library book collecting program, 
but in this particular sphere he has offered a 
concept that seems clear cut and understand-
able and he has even told us how to go about 
organizing it. The next move would seem to 
be up to us. 

* * * 
Comment by ELIZABETH BoND 

New Materials for Library Collections 

New mediums of communication have 
brought us new forms of material. Our col-
lections will of necessity include not only 
books and pamphlets but records and tran-
scriptions and films. ·History is no longer a 
dead thing to be studied from books alone. 
Armies go into battle equipped, not only with 
the latest inventions in ordnance and air 
support, but with motion picture cameras and 
recording apparatus. We can hear on-the-
spot accounts of the liberation of Paris, of 
the turning over of the Philippines from 
General MacArthur to President Osmefia, 
of the siege of I wo Jima. These are pre- . 
served in transcribed form. Doubtless, also, 
we shall be able to hear accounts of the 
entrance of our armies into Berlin and Tokyo. 
Should not libraries collect these transcrip-
tions? 

Many libraries now have record collections, 
particularly in tpe field of music. Should not 

' 

these records be expanded to include records 
for the teaching of languages, recordings of 
great literature such as the Maurice Evans 
Shakespeare ,records, and recordings of his-
torical events? And should not the music 
record collections include a few Frank Sina-
tras and such popular items as "Mairzy 
Doats" and "Accentuate the Positive"? If 
the things to which people are exposed are 
important, as Dr. Lasswell says, then these 
items, often passed over, should receive atten-
tion. Why be jubilant over the acquisition of 
a collection of popular sheet music of the 
nineteenth century and forget to preserve the 
popular songs of the present? 

Libraries must increase their holdings of 
films, not only microfilms, but motion picture 
films. Films, like transcriptions and records, 
are joining . the ranks of historical source ma-
terials. History would be more vivid if we 
could see and hear Cornwallis surrendering 

404 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



, 

at Yorktown or Washington bidding fare-
well to his troops at Fraunces' Tavern. His-
tory will be more vivid because we will be 
able to see and hear the events of today. / 

Library buildings and equipment will most 
certainly be affected by trends in communica-
tion. As these trends bring in new materials, 
they will have to be housed. Not too long ago 
the vertical file and the pamphlet and the map 
case were adequate adjuncts to the bookshelf. 
Now we must think about the film case, or 
cabinet, and the record and transcription file. 
The librarian will have to buy, and be fa-
miliar with the workings of, various types of 
reading- machines and projectors. If records 
and films are to be circulated, containers must 
be developed for them for their protection in 
transport and for the convenience of the 
patron in handling them. 

New Techniques 

The acquisition of these new types of ma-
terials will demand new developments in the 
field of libra.ry techniques. The cataloging 
and indexing of these films and records must 
be developed and revised. A collection of 
films and transcriptions concerning World 
War II, for example, will need to be as 
carefully analyzed and cataloged as ·is a col-
lection of books covering the same period. 
The reference librarian of the future will 
need to know to what audio-visual aterials 
she has access covering a certain subject or a 
certain period. Does the library have the 
Maurice Evans records of Rlchard II or the 
Paul Robeson records of Oth ello? Is a tran-
scription of General Eisenhower's charge to 
his troops on D-Day available? What lan-
guage records can be lent in Russian? In 
Portuguese? The use of these new types of 
material will acquire significance in time. 

One of Dr. Lasswell's points is that the 
library must decide upon the area of its cover-
age-must decide which areas, whether global, 
continental, regional, or local, will be covered 
''very intensive y," "less intensively," or merely 
"extensively." Each library must determine 
these matters for itself. Without doubt the 
area of coverage and its intensity will be 
greatly expanded for all libraries. "Very 
intensive" coverage should be' made by each 
library in -its own local area, however. 

Each librarian, no matter how small his 
community, should be responsible for the 

SEPTEMBER~ 1945 

acqms1t10n and preservation of the records of 
that community. And it must be remembered 
that even the most ephemeral of present-day 
material will acquire significance as time 
goes on. 

It goes without saying.that local newspapers 
should be preserved and they should be in-
dexed minutely for local news. Indexing is 
expensive, it requires time and special skill, 
but it must be carried on if local records are 
to be conveniently accessible in the future. 

Photographs, and their negatives, of local 
subjects should be kept, also. These, too, 
must be adequately classified and indexed. 

Other important forms of local materials 
are diaries and letters. These manuscript 
materials will present their own special prob-
lems of cataloging and ha;dling, but they will 
be well worth the effort. The Leningrad 
Public Library, for example, has acquired a 
large number of diaries kept by all sorts and 
conditions of people during the siege. What 
a store of important, firsthand information is 
here for the social historian of the future! 

Theatre and music programs should be 
acquired. It is surprising how useful even a 
small collection can be. Local orchestra pro-
grams are important to keep. If your town 
has a summer festival, a winter carnival, a 
series of lectures, preserve the records of 
these events. They will be important for you 
to have someday. 

Transcriptions of local radio programs of 
significance should be kept as well as radio 
scripts. Minnesota libraries, for example, 
will find importan l the transcriptions or 
scripts of the popular dramatizations of the 
report of the Minnesota Resources Commis-
sion, which have been coming over the air 
for some weeks past. 

Reports of all kinds of organizations and 
groups and of individual events, insignificant 
though they may seem at the moment, should 
be saved. It should be remembered, too, that 
library records in themselves are records of 
social meaning. 

As Dr. Lasswell says, "Research is condi-
tioned and ·limited by the sources; the antici-
pation of useful sources is the peculiar 
challenge of librarianship." Libraries will 
have to set limitations upon their collection of 
materials in wider fields, but they c'an be ex-
tremely thorough in their collection ·of those 
at the local level. 

405 



Comment by ELEANOR M. WITMER 

Providing the Sources for Research 

Many librarians will concur with the state- on the basis of a clear definition of functions 
ment that ·"the progress of social intelligence and a hardheaded look at what will be in-
depends on the energy and vision of librar- volved. 
·ians." This is one of the reasons why li- Have -librarians the vision called for to 
braries exist. But comparatively few of make a wise decision? Vision in this in-
these "prepare the sources for future histori- stance infers insight and discernment which 
cal and scientific understanding of the ever- goes beyond present horizons and which is 
expanding present." The task of providing built upon education and experience. Formal 
the sources for research into the social in- education for librarians in the art of gather-
heritance and into the processes of social ing and preserving source materials now being 
growth has been assumed to require resources made useful for the first time by the develop-
of personnel and equipment not . commonly ment of new scientific tools is only begin-
found in community libraries. Now Dr. Lass- . ning. Even today- the professional library 
well suggests that in a quite different way schools offer those in the field little aid, for 
many libraries can and probably should par- they lack the laboratories in which to test 
ticipate in the gathering of resources being their theories. Discussion in print also needs 
illuminated by the · new scientific study of the tether of experience to make it realistic. 
communication. The profession and the library schools need 
· Two roles not entirely separable emerge the benefit of experiments which can be carried 
from this . picture-the librarian as preserver on only by libraries which have · the financial, 
of many media of communication (those nor- physical, and personnel equipment to give the 
mally acquired and those more recently de- idea a fair trial. Once the limits of library 
velo'ped) and the librarian as one of the participation are clear, the education of bo.th 
community's recorders of the things which librarians and library trustees can proceed in a 
come to the attention of community groups lucid manner. The best that any librarian can 
selected for observation. Both of these roles do, in the absence of educaton, experimenta-
in their fuller sense are new to most li- tion, and <experience in this particular field, is 
lnarians. They have not been tested for their to hazard a guess at what might be done in 
practicality or vaiidity1 although the time is the meantime. 
obviously near when this should be done. It is clear that social scientists should take 
Librarians who are eqflipped to deal only the leadership in working out with community 
with the printed word are not likely to meet agents and interested individuals a nationwide 
the ''-Qeeds of the new world a'coming. The plan for channeling the resources revealed by 
quest'ion is largely how far shall which li- the developing science of communication. A 
braries go, in what direction, and to what clear statement of methods and goals should 
purpose. be prepared. If libraries equipped with the 

Dr. L~well makes it clear that social and tools for preserving and translating the col-
political scienti ts of the future will want to lected records appear to be the best deposito-
tap many vats o Il;l~terial in__!.l:Leir research ries, ways should be found for giving them 
into the processes o soctal growth w i.ch~ additional financial support. Personnel trained 
hitherto have been by-passed througli tgnor- for this special undertaking w: uld be scarce, 
ance and unavailability. ' One of the first but some librarians would welcome an oppor-
questions librarians should ask is how far are, tunity for 'participation in well-formulated 
or should, these records be preserved by their plans for the gathering of local sources and 
producers? Data on this will help the li- for the scientific study of communication. 
brarian to keep his vision fixed on his special Freed from some of the pressure of other 
responsibilities and his energy stretched to manifold duties, . some of these might also 
cover th.em all in an adequate way. If selec- take the initiative in leading community in-
tion of resources must be made it should be terest in the enterprise. 

406 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES