College and Research Libraries


By C . C . W I L L I A M S O N 

Essentials in the Training of 
University Librarians—III 
Dr. Williamson is director of libraries and 
dean of the School of Library Service, Co-
lumbia University. 

A T COLUMBIA we seem not to have de-
jCx. veloped a definite philosophy for the 
training of university librarians—an im-
portant part of our program. Perhaps 
it would be more accurate to say that we 
have never attempted to formulate in a 
definite way a statement of the underlying 
policies which we follow in our program 
for the college and university library serv-
ice. W e seem to have gone on the assump-
tion that this field is not so essentially 
different from others that it needs a special 
philosophy. 

A s the term "university librarians" is 
used, the discussion should perhaps be con-
fined to the part which a professional 
school can play in the preparation of the 
chief administrative officer of a university 
library. T h a t is of course a problem of 
large enough dimensions to stand by itself, 
and yet I cannot easily think of that prob-
lem apart from training for the entire 
professional staff of the university library. 
T o my mind the idea of specific training 
for the head of a university library is 
somewhat analogous to planned training 
for the university president. It is a fairly 
simple exercise to set down the main re-
quirements in the way of education, ex-
perience and special abilities required 
either for the president or the librarian of 

a university, but it is not much easier to 
produce a successful chief librarian for a 
large university by any course of training 
than it would be to turn out university 
presidents by applying some formula to 
whatever raw material offered itself for 
the purpose. 

T h i s thought leads, then, to the first 
and perhaps the most important tenet in 
my personal philosophy of training for the 
university librarian, namely, that emphasis 
should be laid by the library schools and 
by all concerned on thorough training for 
the entire professional staff. F o r some 
years it has seemed that there is a serious 
dearth of men and women well qualified 
to assume the responsibilities of chief li-
brarian. T h i s , in my opinion, does not 
necessarily indicate a need for more atten-
tion to library school training for such 
positions, but rather to the need of ( I ) 
bringing into university library work peo-
ple of a higher level of ability with a better 
and different kind of general education, 
( 2 ) thorough professional training for the 
entire professional staff, and ( 3 ) more op-
portunity for intensive experience in posi-
tions of some responsibility in various 
departments of the library. 

Advises Training on the Job 

I want to lay special emphasis on the im-
portance of giving an opportunity to men 
and women who show some capacity for 
administrative work to gain a broad back-

30 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES' 



ground of experience. It seems to me that 
it is the lack of such opportunities at 
present rather than inadequate library 
school training that makes it so difficult 
to find material for the chief administra-
tive positions. I have no doubt that among 
the younger members of the professional 
staff of every university library are per-
sons who, if given an opportunity to sup-
plement their library school training by 
thorough practical experience in every as-
pect of the library's work, would make as 
good or better university librarians than 
those who now hold the positions. Not 
a great deal can be done through ex-
tending or improving the library school 
curriculum. M u c h can be done, on the 
other hand, by laying down and vigor-
ously following a rational plan for the 
practical training on the job of the library 
school graduate who shows any capacity 
for leadership. 

T h i s statement is likely, I fear, to seem 
less like a philosophy of training than an 
elaborate alibi for the library schools. 
Having tried above to shift much respon-
sibility from the professional school to the 
university libraries themselves, I now go 
back to register a complaint about the ma-
terial with which the schools have to work. 
It is all very well for the library schools 
to make an effort to admit only those who 
are superior in personal and educational 
equipment. A t Columbia we think we are 
pretty successful in weeding out mediocre 
applicants, but even the superior college 
graduates lack much of the basic knowl-
edge and training necessary for successful 
work in the college and university library 
field. Professor F a y , of the Columbia 
faculty, tells me that nearly 1 0 0 per cent 
of her students come from college with 
little or no knowledge of the literature 
or bibliographical sources of any subject, 

and that this is just as true of those who 
have Master's and Doctor's degrees as of 
those who have only a Bachelor's degree. 
Even in the fields in which the holders of 
higher degrees have specialized, their 
knowledge of the literature and bibliog-
raphy of their subject is quite inadequate. 
T h e library school must therefore do what 
it can to supplement a deficient college 
training. But fundamental training for 
university librarianship will be inadequate 
until students come to the library schools 
with some knowledge of the bibliography 
and literature of the subjects they have 
studied in college. If this is too much to 
expect from college and university facul-
ties, then perhaps the library schools will 
have to assume full responsibility and add 
another year or two to the one year now 
generally given to the fundamental train-
ing. 

Special Difficulties 

M a y I return for a moment to the 
problem of weeding out the mediocre ap-
plicant for admission? It has seemed to 
me that at this point the library school has 
two special difficulties not encountered, at 
least to the same degree, by professional 
schools in other fields. And these special 
difficulties relate rather more specifically 
to students aiming to enter college and 
university work than other types of library 
service. T h e first difficulty arises because 
for so many of the applicants the main 
reason for a library career lies in the fact 
that they had to work their way through 
college and found that an appointment as 
student assistant in the library offered the 
advantages of a flexible schedule, pleasant 
and socially respectable employment, and a 
dependable if not munificent income. 
Pressure is sometimes put on the librarian 
to employ needy students without regard 

D EC EMBER, 1939 31 



to their ability or aptitude for the work. 
Indeed in some institutions scholarship aid 
automatically takes the form of a student 
assistantship in the library, the librarian 
not even being consulted. T h e work be-
ing of predominantly routine character 
puts a premium on patience, regularity, 
and a certain kind of dependability, rather 
than on imagination, initiative, and the 
higher levels of ability. T h e type of stu-
dent assistant who sticks to the job and 
earns the commendation of his superiors 
easily persuades himself that he is cut out 
to be a librarian. A t all events, that is the 
line of least resistance for the mediocre 
student assistant and the stage is all set 
to make it easy for him to get into the 
library school after he graduates. 

A Surprising Attitude 

Responsible library authorities in their 
recommendations unconsciously overrate a 
certain type of student assistant of medi-
ocre ability. Deans and professors, know-
ing that the student was able to hold his 
job in the library, and not being too sure 
that he would succeed at anything else, 
lend a willing hand to get him accepted 
by the library school, with a scholarship if 
possible. T h o u g h no one would think of 
him as a good prospect for law or medicine 
or engineering, all are willing to agree 
that he will make a good librarian! It is 
surprising how often this attitude on the 
part of college officers and teachers is met 
with in handling applications for admis-
sion. Sometimes they say quite frankly 
that the applicant is too good for library 

work. O f t e n they rate him average or 
less in general, but exceptional for library 
work, obviously assuming that less is re-
quired for librarianship than for other pro-
fessions. 

Having pointed out what I have come 
to look upon as a serious problem in the 
recruiting of library school students who 
wish to go into university library work, 
I must hasten to add that I do not mean to 
classify all students who have to work 
their way through college as mediocre, 
though I think the student who is entirely 
selfdependent suffers a serious handicap in 
getting the kind of education he needs to 
make a successful career in university li-
brary work. T h o u g h I suspect that the 
ratio of mediocrity is high among student 
assistants who are tempted to go on to 
library school, I must add that some of 
our ablest students—the men and women 
who are certain to go -to the top—would 
have been lost to us if they had not dis-
covered the library profession through ac-
cidental employment as student assistant 
in their college library. 

T h i s leads us, then, to one final obser-
vation : that in training for university 
librarianship the library schools are de-
pendent in a peculiar way on the responsible 
members of college and university library 
staffs for aid in selecting for admission the 
right kind of student material. Y o u have 
a heavy responsibility for the kind of stu-
dents you send us, as well as for practical 
training on the job after we have done 
the best we can for them in one or at most 
two years of professional training. 

32 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH L I B R A R I E S '