College and Research Libraries KENNA FORSYTH and MARY Y. PARR Library Technicians at Drexel This is a study of Drexel's five years of experience in offering library school courses to persons interested in working in libraries at the subprofessional level. In some ways the program has proved useful, but in other ways it has not. A major problem has been the high in- cidence of early dropout. Yet almost a third of the students did B or better work, and two-thirds did C or better work. Efforts are being made to develop better screening procedures for admission and to improve the value of the program to the library community. THE CURRENT SHORTAGE of librarians has caused the role of the subprofessional to increase in importance. Twenty years ago the ALA Committee for Library Ed- ucation recommended initiation of a pro- gram to train library technicians in order to provide librarians with a trained re- serve force. Recent library surveys have recommended -certification levels for such personnel, and many large libraries now provide such positions at relatively high levels.1 A number of special edu- cation programs have been established for such personnel in order to prepare them for positions of responsibility.2 Five years ago the graduate school of library science of Drexel Institute of Technology formally instituted a pro- 1 Lowell Martin, Library Service in Pennsa~lvania; Present and Proposed (2 vols.; Harrisburg: State Library, 1968) ; The Free Library of Philadelphia lists a Library Assistant III level with pay scale $4,871 to $6,016. 2 "Junior Personnel for Libraries in Toledo," Wil- son L ibrary BuUetin, XXXVII (March 1963), 524; Jane Daniels, "Aid thru Aides," Library Journal, LXXXVIII (June 1, 1963), 2194-97; Gertrude Annan, "Library Technicians; Need, Training, Potential," Medical Library Association Bulletin, LII (January 1962) , 72-80. Miss Forsyth is Reference Assistant in the District of Columbia Public Library, and Miss Parr is Assistant Professor of Library Science at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. 120/ gram designed to introduce library ed- ucation to persons interested in librarian- ship but lacking a college degree. These students, called library technicians, ranged in age from twenty-one to fifty- five. Numbering sixty-nine since the pro- gram's inception, they were admitted to Drexel on credentials from their schools and colleges and on recommendations from references. This report has been prepared so that the program's value to the students involved and to the school can be calculated. Courses Taken.-The technicians were allowed to take the school's four intro- ductory courses, totaling fifteen quarter hours: Introduction to Cataloging and Classification, Basic Reference Sources, Library in Society, and Selection of Li- brary Materials. They were admitted to classes attended by graduate students. Since they made up such a small minor- ity in their classes, they did not inter- fere with the graduate students or slow down the classes in which they partic- ipated. It was necessary for them to maintain a grade average of seventy in order to complete these four courses; after two failures they were dismissed. If a student completed the first four courses with an eighty average he could TABLE 1 NUMBER oF CoURSES TAKEN BY STUDENTs Students Per Cent More than 4 . 7 10 3 to 4 courses 11 16 1 to 2 courses 50 73 No record (withdrew) 1 1 Total 69 100 obtain permission to take one or two more. In any case, the student remained a nondegree candidate not receiving graduate credit. Of the sixty-nine students enrolled, few took advantage of the privilege of taking four courses. Fifty, or 73 per cent, took only one or two courses. Only 16 per cent took three or four courses, and only 10 per cent went beyond the first four courses (See Table 1). Fourteen, or 20 per cent of the stu- dents failed to maintain the necessary grade average for the first four courses. Table 2 shows 35 per cent to have had grade averages between seventy and sev- enty-nine, and 28 per cent to have been in the eighty to eighty-nine range. Three students obtained averages above ninety, but took only one course. Two of these students had no college background, whereas one had two years of college; one was a medical school assistant li- brarian; the second was a DuPont Com- pany secretary, and the last held no posi- tion while at Drexel. Positions and Grades.-This program was expected to attract persons who Library Technicians at Drexel I 121 were already working in subprofessional library positions. Interestingly enough only two-thirds actually had library posi- tions (Table 3). Most of them were at the clerical or subprofessional level, but several were considered to be filling pro- fessional positions, and a few were head librarians in schools and business firms. Sixteen per cent of the technicians had other types of positions. Most of them were typists or secretaries. The group al- so included a nurse, a teacher, and a managing editor of a newspaper. It is interesting to match grade aver- ages with the types of positions held by these students. Those who had positions outside the library field had the best over-all average: eighty-one. Students with library positions maintained a com- bined average of seventy-five, but those students who held no positions had a combined average of only sixty-nine. About half of the technicians had some college background (Table 4), but they had surprisingly little better grade averages than those who had not been to 90-100 80-89 70-79 Below 70 . TABLE 2 GRADE AVERAGES Students 3 19 24 14 No grade (Audit, Incomplete) 9 Total 69 Per Cent 4 28 35 20 13 100 TABLE 3 PosiTIONs HELD WHILE IN LmRARY ScHOOL Students Per Cent Grade Average Library Positions 45 65 75 Other Positions 11 16 81 No Position 13 19 69 Total 69 100 75 122 I College & Research Libraries • March, 1966 TABLE 4 COLLEGE BACKGROUND With previous college work . With no previous college work Total college, seventy-six as contrasted with seventy-five. Evaluation.-The library technician program is valuable to the profession only if it produces capable subprofes- sionals whose capacity for superior work has been improved. Has the Drexel pro- gram been successful in achieving this goal? The answer must be yes in some respects and no in others. The program has produced a number of students who completed the intro- ductory courses successfully and went into the library world better prepared to make a useful contribution. Mter three or more courses, several of them achieved grade averages superior to those obtained by most graduate stu- dents ; no doubt these people became valuable employees. For these students and the libraries which employed them Drexel performed an important service by giving them an introduction to the essentials of librarianship. Less than a fourth of the entire group can be placed in this category. The majority failed to make good grades (above 80 or B), though they did make grades above 70 or C. Therefore, based on grades, the program has been only partially successful. The 55 per cent Students Per Cent Grade Average 35 51 76 34 49 75 69 100 with averages below 80 per cent can be compared to 14 per cent of the graduate student body with averages below 80 per cent. Perhaps more serious, however, is the fact that most technicians dropped out of the program early, only a fourth com- pleting three or four courses. For the early dropouts, the value of the program was reduced to the value of only one or two courses. Although some had to with- draw because of low averages, it is dis- appointing that the others did not take advantage of the opportunity to take more courses. It is hard to decide what factors could be used at the time of ad- mission which might better separate the early dropouts from those willing to stay through the entire program. Each quarter several technicians take courses at Drexel. Students presently in the program have had more college work than their predecessors and are main- taining a considerably higher combined grade average. A new pattern has been developed for admissions by restricting according to previous educational level, grades, library experience, and personal interviews. Through an improved pro- gram Drexel hopes to make a more im- portant contribution to the library world. ••