College and Research Libraries Public Interest and the Theory THE DISCUSSION of the relationship be- tween the public interest and library ob- jectives in this paper rests on the follow- ing two premises: ( 1) The American li- brary constitutes an integral part of the structure of its own society; it originated and grew in response to that society's needs. (2) The structure of American so- ciety is a political democracy. The democracy is here defined in terms of a variety of highly diversified and cross-related individual interests, which together create a pattern of multigroup interests, integrating the similar interests within each group, and segregating be- tween these groups in terms of their con- flicting interests. The method of accom- modating all of these interests in democ- racy is political, based on competition be- tween the groups for the sanction of their objectives by society at large. Thus, in a political democracy no individual, nor any group of individuals, is free from these powers of society, nor can it avoid its consequences. Therefore, the library, as a service institution, is the subject of political pressure, but at the same time it becomes a political institution with its own pressures used in the process of im- plementing its services. THE NATURE OF THE STIMULUS The pressures on the library are of varying degrees, coming from various di- rections and requesting different kinds of services. Thus, the role of the library as a social institution is to provide and to develop the means for a better book- reader relationship, in which different readers, or groups of readers, expect dif- JULY 1964 of Librarianship BY JOSEPH Z. NITECKI Mr. Nitecki is a librarian of the Woodrow Wilson Branch of the Chicago City Junior College. This essay is a revised and abbre- viated version of Chapter III of the author's "The Concept of Public Interest in the Phi- losophy of Librarianship; the Implications of a Multiple Approach" (Unpublished Mas- ter's paper, Graduate Library School, Uni- versity of Chicago, 1963). The original pa- per contains, in addition, an extensive dis- cussion of the contemporary theories of pub- lic interest and a review of ·recent library literature illustrating the application of the view here described to problems of modern librarianship. ferent kinds of books for different pur- poses. All of the group-interest pressures im- posed on the library may be classed into one of three basic kinds: ( 1 ) requests for service, i.e., to provide a given book; (2) requests for education, i.e., to pro- vide a book on a given subject; ( 3) re- quests for arbitration, i.e., to provide either (a) controversial books on a given subject, or, (b) books on a controversial subject. The convergence of these three types of demands is illustrated in Figure 1. In requesting service, a patron knows what he wants; in demanding education,. he wants to know what kind of book he should get; while in asking for arbitration, he expects assistance in choosing between opposing wants. Each of the above requests constitutes a pressure for service which increases in proportion to the number of such requests·. made. The pressure may be measured in terms of an aggregate of individual re- Group interest A (e.g., for service) Group interest B (e.g., for education) LIBRARY ~--------- Group interest C (e.g., for mediation) FIG. I.-Differing motivations for demands on the library. quests, or as a definite demand made col- lectively by a group in society. In addi- tion, such requests may be positive, for a specific kind of book (fulfilling the ser- vice) , or negative, against a particular service offered by the library. As an example of the way the different pressures might work for or against a particular book in different situations, let us consider a book on birth control. Pure- ly from the stindpoint of efficient service, it might be expected in a medical library but would only clutter up the shelves in an engineering library. As an educational instrument, it might be held to have in- trinsic value by a population expert but held to be pernicious by a devout Cath- olic. The subject is at this day contro- versial, and some segments of the com- munity might approve of its being sug- gested by a reader's adviser while others might condemn the suggestion. From the standpoint of the public, one form of de- mand is charged with about as much emotion as another. While the radical right wing group is excessive in its de- nunciation of books alleged to be com- munist, probably no bitterness exceeds that of a scholar who finds the library has failed to acquire a book he thinks it ought to have. Those who are devoted to effi- ciency feel as strongly about it as those who are concerned with education or ar- bitration. The library, as an institution of the whole community, can neither ignore nor succumb to any of these group pressures. A kind of response to these interests- which in itself is a sine qua non of library existence-constitutes the basis for the theory of librarianship, while its practical application implies an active participa- tion in the affairs of society, not only in responding to, but also in imposing on so- ciety a new set of pressures. Thus the li- brary, in fulfilling its obligations, becomes an interest group by itself, with its own political powers in the areas of serving, educating and mediating among the needs of the readers. A clear perception of these influences upon society is needed not only for the purpose of defining the role of the librar- ian, but also in establishing the degree of library involvement. On the other hand, a misconception about these pressures leads to a confusion of goals and to inefficiency in library performance. One of the main reasons for this is a seemingly confusing maze of relationships emerging from the dual position of the library as a recipient and at the same time as a transmitter of different interest-pressures. Juxtaposed, they may be represented by Figure 3. As seen in Figure 3, each of the basic demands made upon the library (for ser- vice, education, arbitration) is met by a specific and direct response (provision of requested, selected, or balanced mate- rial). However, none of the above func- tions operates in isolation, and conse- quently none of the services is limited to a singular effect. Thus, for example, supplying a requested book most prob- ably also affects the educational status of its reader, at the same time strengthening or softening his stand on a given contro- versial issue. But even more important and significant is the orientation of the librarian himself. If his conception of li- 270 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES LIBRARY Service Education FIG. 2.-Differing responses to the demands on the library. brary objectives is limited to, or even merely inclined toward, one of the three functions indicated in the above diagram, his performance will produce an entirely different result. If, for instance, the li- brarian considers himself first and fore- most an educator, he will tend to provide preselected material (determined by his conception of educational goals) not only in response to requests for educational materials, but also in fulfilling library ob- · ligations to provide books asked for (by trying to suggest a "better" book as a sub- stitute), as well as in assisting the reader to make up his mind on controversial is- sues (by doing it for the reader). examples of attempts to solve precisely these difficulties in the practice of librar- ianship. A more detailed examination of the diagram above may prove useful in clarifying to some extent at least, the re- lationship between expectations and per- formance in library services. THE MECHANISM OF RESPONSE First, let us enumerate some obvious internal relations implied in the above- mentioned diagram. These can be grouped into library obligations and library limita- tions: · A. Three library objectives: This kind of interrelationship is not mere speculation. The literature ·of the profession provides an ample number of 1. To respond to the demand for ser- vice 2. To respond to the demand for ed- ucation GROUP INTEREST specific demand: L L L for for for SERVICE EDUCATION ARBITRATION r"f=~: ..... /' ..?fj'·· ... ---//lj ' .. . ,.., .. . . / . . / Requested ~ • Selected • • Balanced , . , . . / >;""'" ••• " •• / .,-"" ' / ..... . /, ..,.. . / . . . . .. ~ ,, .. provision of reading material: LIBRARY SERVICE FIG. 3.-Interrelationship between demands of group interests and library services. JULY 1964 271 3. To respond to the demand for me- diation (These relations are indicated in the dia- gram · as uninterrupted lines.) B. Six library limitations: 1. Not to provide service only, when asked for education 2. Not to provide service only, when asked for arbitration 3. Not to provide education only, when asked for service 4. Not to provide education only, when asked for arbitration 5. Not to provide arbitration only, when asked for service 6. Not to provide arbitration only, when asked for education (These services are shown in the diagram by interrupted lines.) In the objectives the stress is on the obligation of the librarian to respond to these requests, i.e., the concept of always trying to satisfy all the needs of a reader. The limitations, on the other hand, con- stitute an argument against a narrow spe- cialization (i.e., too limited a response) as evident in the two levels of philo- sophical response in librarianship: a. The personal philosophy of a li- brarian who is oriented and dedicated to one of the goals of librarianship exclu- sively (e.g., a cataloger, a reference li- brarian, or a library administrator) result- ing in a bias, evident in considering the remaining two objectives in terms of the preferred one (e.g., an overstress on clas- sificatory problems, overlooking the prac- tical needs of the library user, etc.). b. The institutional philosophy, in which the whole library's operations are defined in terms of one of the functions only (e.g., circulation, public and school library) , and in resisting demands which formally should be met by other types of libraries. A comparison of library obligations and limitations yields the following nine library functions : 1. To store materials required for service 2. To store materials required for arbi- tration 3. To store materials required for educa- tion 4. To aim at education by selected ser- vice 5. To aim at education by providing rele- vant instruction 6. To aim at education by providing ap- propriate data for arbitration 7. To organize a balanced service 8. To organize a balanced education 9. To organize a balanced mediation. This tabulation illustrates an approach suggested in this paper, in which the phi- losophy of librarianship is formulated in terms of three basic kinds of decision- making processes, diffentiated by the three objectives of librarianship, i.e., to collect, to educate, and to mediate. It is proposed to show that the shift of emphasis from the goals of librarianship per se, into their functional and specific aspects (i.e., limited), may contribute toward the clarification of the relation- ship discussed. That is, in anticipating readers' requests, the librarian organizes his collection in terms of the nine theo- rems formulated above, by aiming at stor- ing the material, which is selected and organized in such a way as to provide sufficient assistance in response to the requests for service, education, and arbi- tration. In consequence of such an ap- proach, when responding to a definite request, the librarian can provide a quick and efficient service by relying on a well- organized collection (i.e., planned, classi- fied, and administered in terms of the three objectives, namely service, educa- tion and arbitration). Similarly, in plan- ning the future development of the li- brary or in performing the reference func- tion, the librarian is not biased by one objective, ever-influencing the three func- tions, but considers each of the objec- tives in terms of their corresponding func- tional aspects. Consequently, each function and its 272 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES AsPECT OF LIBRARY THE LIBRARY DEVIC E Book spatial arrangement Subject ideological concentration temporal Use regulations Library in Abeyance: .... ... , ' LIBRARY FORM physical collection conceptual vehicle functional state Society of Readers to prepare the book collection Functional Library in Action: assisting in book- reader relationship for readers FIG. 4.-The contribution of three functional philosophies to library unity. corresponding decision-making process is essential in any library. The library spe- cialization, that is, the preferential treat- ment of any one of these functions, is ad- justed to the needs of a specialized reader of the library by changing the proportions of the three objectives, but not by elimi- nating them altogether. Thus, for exam- ple, in the specialized medical library, a number of various, unrelated titles and subjects will not be included in the collec- tion, although each of those which are in the library will be used for each of the three purposes, i.e., to provide concrete data, to explain their meaning, or to re- late their significance to other facts. Such a philosophy of librarianship pre- supposes a theoretical formulation which would relate the objectives of the library to its operations in a consistent, logical pattern. The view expounded in this paper con- sists of the differentiation between three philosophical premises: 1. The procedural, concerned with li- brary technology ("storing"), i.e., the arrangement of library resources for determined purposes. 2. The conceptual, concerned with li- brary planning ("aiming at"), i.e. , the JULY 1964 formulation of specific library objec- tives or purposes. 3. The contextual, concerned with the administration of library services ("balancing"), i.e., providing re- quired service. Thus, although in practice the library specialization may be manifold and dif- ferentiated by the form and/ or the func- tions performed, the theory of librarian- ship in its threefold formulation incor- porates all of the three functions cover- ing all of the forms of service. However, it is essential to note that in this theoretical formulation: procedure does not iq:tply routinism, planning does not imply dogmatism, organization does not imply bureauc- racy. That is, the theory proposed is not frozen by conventional, authoritative, or unvarying mechanical interpretations. Each of the three functions singled out is differentiated in terms of different roles called for, but within each of these roles there is leeway in the method of perform- ing these roles. Furthermore, although all of the three functions are mutually inclusive in the 273 TABLE 1 DIFFERENT PHILOSOPHICAL PREMISES ILLUSTRATED IN LIBRARY TECHNICAL PROCESSES INTERNAL MOTIVE Premise Devi ce Procedural . Classification system Conceptual . Code for consistency of application Contextual . Manual of operation sense that each of them is related to the problem of library goals, book arrange- ment, and administration, they do not necessarily lead to eclecticism. That is, although individually each approach is in a way incorporated in the other two ap- proaches, none of them alone--in this implied form-determines the goals of de- cision-making processes but merely par- ticipates in them as an organic part of the whole process. However, once the ob- jectives are formulated, the most appro- priate decision-making approach is cho- sen, and then it operates independently, excluding the other two approaches as self -contradictory. To illustrate this principle, we will use an example of the application of this theory to the roles called for in the ac- tivities of technical processes of the li- brary. Although technical processes in- volve mainly a procedural aspect of li- brarianship~ the other premises are ac- tive here, too. The conceptual approach is involved in planning and the contextual in the organization of the work. In Table 2 we notice that the main manifestation of technical processing is the provision of efficient and smooth op- TABLE 2 EFFECTS OF F AlLURE TO CONSIDER OVERALL OBJECTIVES Decisions Based Exclusively on Procedural system . Conceptual consistency Contextual manual Effects on the Process Over classification Inflexibility Artificiality EXTERNAL END MANIFESTATION R ESULT l } Efficiency Functional f Collection eration which in turn will increase the functional aspects of the collection. Yet this over-all procedural approach con- sists of a number of internal objectives of varied character. The efficiency of opera- tion is conceived in terms of a systematic classification (procedural aspect), its con- sistency (which is a conceptual goal aimed at), and a set of arbitrary deci- sions needed in controversial or conflict- ing situations (e.g., formulated in the li- brary's manual of operation, which is to be consulted in cases of conflict between the accepted procedure and exceptional situations-a contextual mediating de- vice). In this example we can see the distinc- tion between the internal motives and the resulting external process. If in this scheme the internal stimula were not sub- jugated to the over-all objectives, the process shown in Table 2 would result. That is, if each of the internal motives were independently responsible for the initiation of the process of operation, the collection would reflect the evils of not- so-unreal exaggerations, for example: the use of long and minutely subdivided call numbers in a relatively small library; lack of flexibility in not accommodating for new subjects not provided for in the printed classification schedule; and the artificiality created by rules made to fit the needs of day-to-day operations. The illustration of the relationship be- tween the relative roles of the different approaches can be extended to the library situation in general. Although each of 274 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES these philosophies operates autonomously within the library organization they do not destroy the unity of the library. In Figure 4 we can see· the analogy to the situation of a specific aspect of library operations, illustrated by the previous diagram, by distinguishing between the li- brary form, which is a set-up, a kind of organizational blueprint, and the func- tional library, conceived in terms of its operations. And again, in considering the library's dormant characteristics, we distinguish the internal differentiation between its physical, conceptual, and functional char- acteristics. That is, in each library organi- zation we have to make a distinction be- tween the problems related to the physi- cal book itself, to its subject, and to its use, each posing different problems and objectives. Consequently, different theo- ries are needed to formulate these differ- ent operations. None of the definitions of a part of the library would sufficiently de- fine the whole library (i.e., the library defined as a storage of books, as a con- ceptual vehicle, or as a functional unit, exclusively) . Only if combined in coop- erative functioning can these aspects ful- fill library expectations. Thus we con- clude with a restatement. of what was the opening assumption of this paper. The role of the library in a society implies an interplay of different factors in an over- all effort of the library to sustain its ex- istence. In other words, the library as an institution is not taken for granted, and its place in society is not sanctioned by external reasons, independent of itself. On the contrary, its constitution is de- termined by the rights arid obligations which emerge out of the competitive sit- uation among all the social institutions striving for their rights to participate in the life of society. The supreme justification for such ex- istence and the relative importance of the library in the society are determined by the degree of its involvement in the af- fairs of the society. The means of partici~ pation are political in nature, measured in relative terms by pressures imposed on the library by the group interests and the power of library influence over these group . interests. Library achievement is determined by the procedural, concep- tual, and contextual development simul- taneously; the more efficient the proce- dure, the better the possibilities of achieving its objectives, and the more re- spected the mediative .character of the library, the more powerful its influence upon society. THE CRITERIA IN DIFFERENTIATING AMONG THE THREE PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACHES The next step, after defining the me- chanism of the library structure in deal- ing with various pressures, is to analyze the pressures themselves. As we have al- ready noted, these pressures are used in a democratic society in order to promote the specific interests of various groups in TABLE 3 THE EVOLVING OBJECTIVES OF THE LIBRARY Approximate Time Sequence 17-18 Centuries 18-19 Centuries 19-20 Centuries Ultimate goals To read To educate To mediate Policies Book availability Book usefulness Book availability & use- fulness for diversified purposes Areas of achievement Storage Internal library Cooperation between organization libraries Public reaction Toleration of the Acceptance of the Participation in the ac- library library tivities of the library Library image Ornament Utility Tool JULY 1964 275 society . . A given group interest, when approved by the consensus of the major- ity of the members of the community in- volved, receives a public sanction which entitles it to be considered as an interest of the society at large, i.e., a "public" in- terest-thus, in tum, becoming a legiti- mate concern of the social institutions which are responsible for meeting such public demands. As we have already noted, the social institutions approach the problem of ful- filling these needs by developing three different kinds of attitudes, attempting to meet the three basic characteristics in- herent in these public interests-namely, to provide the proper conditions needed to (a) satisfy the needs which are already formulated, (b) to assist in the expres- sion of needs which are not fully under- stood by the reader, and finally (c) to mediate among conflicting needs. We have argued that each of these require- ments is generically autonomous, calling for an independent theory of its own, and we concluded that only the three ap- proaches combined together in a coopera- tive interaction can do justice to the va- riety of public interests in a political democracy. The problem we are facing in this sec- Public Interest: Procedural "Public" . Traditional "Interest" Legal Defined as Norms Philosophy of Librarianship: Goal . Preservation Role. Custodianship Process Technical tion is to establish a set of principles by which we could differentiate these ser- vices in librarianship. We propose to use three kinds of threads unifying the theory of librarian- ship: the role of the librarianship, its goals, and the kind of decision-making process developed. Each of these aspects should be considered in terms of the con- cept of public interest as it is interpreted by the three theories of public interest. This will be attempted by comparing the meaning of "public" and of "interest," and the relationship between them, as represented by the definition of public interest proposed by each of these theo- ries. Figure 5 is the tabulation of the cri- teria as an illustration of each of the theories of public interest.1 The characteristics defining the proce- dural, conceptual, and contextual theo- 1 For the sake of clarity, we abstract each of the three approaches from the totality of library func- tions, describing each in isolation and in terms of its own primary characteristics. Thus, by discussing pro- ceduralism, for example, we refer to these aspects which differentiate it internally from the other two approaches. A person who in a given decision-making process utilizes the procedural criteria, is, at that time, called a proceduralist in a positive sense ; if, however, he extends procedural principles to situations warranting conceptual or contextual considerations, then he becomes a proceduralist in a negative sense. INTERPRETATIONS Conceptual Contextual Durable Aggregate Collective Individual Forms Attitudes Interpretation Assistance Education Mediation Moral Political FIG. 5.-The philosophy of librarianship compared to the theories of public interest.* * For the bibliography concerning the themes of public interest discussed in this essay, see the author's original paper, pp. 131-40, and especially: a. Glendon Schubert, The Public Interest: A Critique of the Theory of a Political Concept (Glencoe, Ill.: The Free Press, 1960), for his threefold classification of theories of the public interest; b. Oliver Garceau, The Public Library in the Political Process: A Report of the Public Library (New York: Columbia University Press, 1949), for the historical generalization of library goals ; c. Howard R. Smith, Democrac.y and the Public Inter est. University of Georgia Monographs, No. 5 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1960), for the analysis of the role of the public interest in a political democracy. 276 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES ries of public interest can be briefly sum- marized as follows: a. Proceduralism defines the public interest as a means, i.e., the norms which determine the ways of achieving the over- all goals of the society. In this definition, the "public" is considered as an active manifestation of the values established in the span of its historical development. It is therefore viewed in the framework of traditions, which not only formulated the "public" itself, but also its mores, i.e., the basic values which are accepted and em- bodied in the fundamental moral fiber of the society. And finally, the proceduralist is not concerned with the search for these values. They are already stated for him in the legal code, regulating the coexist- ence of the group interests within the society. Thus, any group interest which is legal becomes also "public" by contribut- ing to the development of traditionally established values. The role of the pro- ceduralist is therefore to assist the reali- zation of these values by providing the best possible means of their attainment. This formulation parallels the proce- dural philosophy of librarianship, stress- ing the importance of technical processes in preserving the cultural heritage of the society. The procedural librarian is there- fore a custodian of the past; his goal is best fulfilled by protecting the collection in such a way that it will be simultane- ously accessible for use by the contem- porary public and preserved for public use in the future. His attitude toward public interest is best defined in terms of the procedural theory of public interest. b. The conceptual philosophy of pub- lic interest rests on the acceptance of an ideal, "durable" conception of the pub- lic, which becomes a model or "form" for the aspirations of society. For this reason, the conceptualist rejects the sig- nificance of any specific public interest, if it leads to a preferential treatment of the inte;rests of one group in society. To him, all the conflicts between segments of JULY 1964 society should be resolved in terms of the interests of the whole society. Conse- quently, his goal is to contribute toward the unification of society by redirecting and re-interpreting group interests in terms of the ultimate interests of a so- ciety. In short, his function is to educate. A corresponding role of the librarian is expressed in the educational aspect of librarianship, which is aimed at interpre- tation of the cultural values of society. The process involved in this conceptual function of the library calls for a selec- tion of suitable reading materials for the library collection and its actual use. The selection is based on a value concept of "suitable" and "proper" material, and therefore it is ethical in essence. The con- ceptual librarian is a planner in the sense that he is concerned about the "ideal" kind of library collection and services. His role is to determine the goals of li- brarianship, transcending the immediate interests of any segment of the public. c. The contextual interpretation of public interest is exclusively concerned with the specific group interests as they emerge in actual conflicting situations. The goal of the contextualist is to assist in resolving the conflict, and not to sup- press the interest. In other words, he con- ceives the public as an aggregate of indi- vidual group interests, each striving to- ward the achievement of its specific in- terests, while the society, as conceived by him, is the aggregate of these interests at any particular moment. The public inter- est should be attended to, not because it is a common good, but because it leads toward it. It formulates the attitudes which in turn determine the co-existence of multiple interests. The role of a con- textualist is to encourage the expression of these interests and to assist in resolv- ing the ensuing conflicts. In librarianship, this is precisely the function of the li- brary administrator who strives to estab- lish library resources which are open to all group interests and which are suffi- 277 ciently varied to meet a variety of con- flicting demands. In achieving his objectives, the con- textualist relies on a political process de- termining the proper course of action in terms, not of efficiency (proceduralism) or moral values (conceptualism), but of the consensus of the majority of the li- brary public. Since consensus has to be won, the librarian has to lead the fight for library approval and consequently is con- cerned with problems of promotion, pub- lic relations, etc. QUEST FOR PARTICIPATION The concept of involvement is a pre- requisite of the notion of public interest. The organization which does not actively participate in solving the contemporary problems of its society, such as, for ex- ample, the Museum of Natural History, is relatively free from the direct influence of public interest pressures upon its activi- ties. Such was also the case of the library in the beginning period of its develop- ment. In the premodern stage of librar- ianship, the librarian combined the roles of a scholar and a custodian together with that of a bibliophile, and the library collection was a result of the demands made on him for books and their content. In the modern period the trend is re- versed, since it is the librarian who im- poses his activities upon the society by developing different kinds of services in anticipation of a variety of expected de- mands for his services. The following outline summarizes the development of the library's objectives in the last four centuries. In Table 3 we may notice the emerging over-all pattern of modern librarianship, beginning with the stress on book content, through at- tempts to enlarge the scope of its influ- ence into an integrative role of the library as a cultural unit, constituting an organic part of the society. The growth of the modern theory of librarianship may be characterized as a gradually emerging concept of library in- volvement in the affairs of its community. It began with the emphasis on the value of reading-in-itself which was a belief closely related to the dominant philoso- phy of that period, stressing the impor- tance of the humanistic notion of self- improvement of individual members of the community, which together would strengthen the general will of the society. It was the period of enlightenment in both political and library philosophies. The second library period, character- ized by the progress made in the improve- ment of library techniques, was again in accord with the common belief in the pre- cepts of natural law, which by the nature of their "inevitability" imposed a har- mony of all interests in the uniformly or- ganized society. In librarianship, this was a period in which an effort was made to propagate reading as a cure for social maladies, on the assumption that all such maladjustments are the result of uninten- tional violation of the laws of nature. In contemporary political theory, the stress is on the relativism of goals de- manding a correspondingly relativistic method of achieving them. In both the political and library theories of public in- terest, it means the maximization of the participation of social institutions in the actual life of society, aiming at the mini- mization of conflicts. This is achieved by searching for a common ground of under- standing. In both cases, it is a period of complete involvement in the affairs of so- ciety, rejecting any evaluation of its prob- lems from the position of an outsider. The stress on the ideals of conceptual- ism was developed in a historical period of great optimism and faith in human po- tentialities, the approach of procedural- ism reflected the age of scientific preoccu- pation in improving the physical aspects of human conditions, while the contextual stress on the problem-solving method of today is formulated in the contemporary language of relativism. Therefore, both the political theory of public interest and (Continued on page 9~5) 278 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES have been rewritten. As in the older vol- ume, articles are relatively brief, but clearly and objectively written. There are only rare bibliographic citations, but contributors are indicated by initials. The principal departure in the new work is the omission of biograph- ical articles as such, as well as the several appended tables of sovereigns and other officials. British Political Facts, though limited to PUBLIC INTEREST . . . (Continued from page 278) the philosophy of library science were, and are, the semantic expressions of con- current ideas. Both expressed the general philosophy of their time. PRACTICAL 1M PLICA TIONS Concluding this essay, we are faced with the perennial question which arises in connection with any theoretical work, especially in a predominantly practical field such as library science-the question of relevance: "So what?" The basic approach of this paper con- sists in a search for a unifying principle -for consistency-to prevent internal contradiction between various specialized activities within the library. We have con- sidered in this paper the peculiar nature of library operations, characterized by both an internal diversification of roles and at the same time a unification of these library activities into a general li- brary service to society. Thus, the spe- cialist must apply his specific approach within the context of a general library operation, while a general theory of li- brarianship must both include a formula- tion of the basic postulates of the disci- pline itself, which distinguish it f~om other disciplines and at the same time account for the existence of a number of subtheories, reflecting the diversified ob- jectives of library specializations. An awareness of unity is expreS6ed in the over-all functioning of the library in society, while competition between the JULY 1964 the twentieth century, is a collection of con- siderable amount of ready information, tab- ular in form except for some explanatory notes and introductions. The twenty chap- ters treat such materials as ministries, par- ties, sovereigns, elections, ci~il service, trea- ties, public communication, and a wide se- lection of economic and social statistics.- J.N.W. •• various specialized approaches enriches the dynamic growth of the discipline, re- sulting in an efficient, valuable, and useful service to the reader. This view of the library can be applied by the librarian in his dual role as both recipient and initiator of social pres- sures. The library will not only serve the interests of its own corp.munity but also contribute to the development of new in- terests. Thus, although the library is pri- marily an institution designed to serve the reader, its contemporary position in . society suggests an active initiation of ideas rather than a passive providing of books. In short, there is a need for the de- velopment of a philosophy of librarian- ship which will probe into the complexi- ties of its nature, discussing, enlarging, or refuting syntheses similar to the one presented in this paper. Such a philosophy may clarify the in- terpretation of our purposes, thus solv- ing the practical difficulties diagnosed sometime ago by C. 0. Houle: " ... li- brarians speak at cross purposes ... . They fail to understand one another be- cause they do not appreciate in what dif- ferent ways they approach a common problem. Often they do not even know how to ask one another the question which will make their differences clear, much less resolve them. " 2 • • 2 Cyril 0. Houle, " Basic Philosophy of Library Ser- vice for Adult Education," Library Journal, LXXI (November 1, 1946) , 1513. 325