INSTRUCTION IN THE USE OF A COLLEGE LIBRARY
Students who enter college are in an altogether hopeless state, if we are to believe the lamentations poured out in educational reviews and in library journals. In familiar phrase, "they have left undone those things which they ought to have done, and they have done those things which they ought not to have done, and there is no health in them." But it is not given either a college librarian or a college instructor to remain long hopeless, either for himself or for others,—the very nature of his calling demands that somebody do something. Discouragement over ignorant and untrained freshmen dissolves into the bewildering questions of who is to do what, and when, and where, and how. And so the college year begins.
It is undoubtedly true that a very large majority of college freshmen are not familiar with a large library such as they meet in college, that they have never used a card catalog, and that they would not even recognize it if they saw one.
But is it reasonable to expect such knowledge? The majority come from small places where such opportunities are not found, the work of the secondary schools does not demand extensive use of a library, and the mental immaturity of pupils of the secondary school age does not augur well either for an understanding of the intricacies of the card catalog, or for any special interest in the cataloging of books, or in general library history and administration. If the entering student had a knowledge of these things, one reason for going to college would be lacking,—he goes to college to learn what he cannot reasonably be expected to know before that time.
Cheerfully accepting then this condition of ignorance of all library procedure on the part of the rank and file of college freshmen everywhere, and unanimously agreeing that the college student must in some way learn how to use a library, diversity of opinion is found in regard to these two questions:—Is this instruction given better as an independent course to the entering students, or is it better to give it in connection with regular college work? Should the instruction be given by members of the library staff, or by college instructors?
The very fact that this question has been broached is helpful, since it is significant of the great changes that are coming both in library administration and in educational theory and practice. It suggests the increasing specialization in library work, the growing co-operation between the library force and those engaged in the more technical side of education, newer and, we believe, higher ideals of the object and therefore of the process of education, and the reflection of these changes in the development in the student body of independence, self-reliance, and the desire to do creative work.
Assuming therefore that we are all interested in securing for the college student fullness of knowledge at the earliest hour possible, I venture personally to differ somewhat from the report of the majority of the committee of the New England college librarians and to say that from the angle of the college instructor, it seems clear to me that the knowledge is better acquired in connection with regular college courses and that it can best be given by college instructors. It is with most of us a favorite occupation to see how many birds we can bring down with one stone, and this desire is in a sense gratified if we can incorporate knowledge of how to use a library with the subject matter included in a particular course,—it seems a saving of time for student, instructor and librarian. Everything is clear gain that can be picked up by the way.
But quite apart from this general desire to telescope several subjects, there are specific advantages gained by the student when the instruction is given by the instructor of a regular college class. The knowledge acquired falls naturally into its place in connection with definite, concrete work. Abstract theory has little place in the mental equipment of the fresh man, he seeks out relationships, adds new knowledge to what he already has, and quite reasonably is impatient, even intolerant in spirit when new ideas and facts are presented to him that he cannot immediately assimilate. To use a homely illustration, an article of food, like butter, that is essential for our physical diet serves its purpose much better when distributed through other articles of food than if taken independently and by itself. All new ideas in regard to library organization, cataloging, bibliography, searching for material, the handling of books, if gained through the usual channels of college work, are quickly and easily assimilated by the college student. If, however, these same ideas are presented to him unrelated to other work they are in danger of remaining unassimilated and of becoming a hindrance rather than a help.
On the other hand, the advantages in having the instruction given by a regular college instructor are that he deals with small sections of students, not with "numbers which are appallingly large;" that he knows the individual student; that he is able to relate the bibliographical work with the individual student on the one hand, and on the other hand with the special subject with which the student is working.
Personally, I can but feel that the assumption made by the committee of the New England college librarians, by the librarian of the Newark public library, by the dean of the collegiate department of the University of Illinois, and by others in the library field that college instructors are not interested in this matter and would oppose instruction in it is not really warranted by the condition that exists.
May I venture to describe somewhat in detail what is done in one college in showing students how to use books, how to become acquainted with the opportunities of a large library, and how to avail themselves of these opportunities in a direct personal way. In giving this account of what is done in Vassar College, may I emphasize the statement that the work done is by no means peculiar to one college,—other institutions all over the country are doing much that in principle is precisely the same, although the details may vary.
The first aid in knowledge of the library building, of its equipment, and of how to use its collections is given the Vassar College student literally during her first hours on the college campus. She is met by a member of the senior or the junior class and taken about the campus, and it is the duty of these student guides to give every entering student a copy of the Students' Handbook. In this she is urged to "become acquainted with the library as soon as possible." "The reference librarian," the Handbook tells her, "expects every new student to come to the reference desk to be shown about the arrangement of the library and the use of the catalog and to receive a copy of the library Handbook."
The guides point out the library and they are instructed to urge the new students to seek out the reference librarian at once and to make the library trip immediately. The new student goes to the residence hall where she is to live and she finds on the bulletin board in this hall an invitation to take the library trip. The records kept by the reference librarian show that a very large percentage of the entering students almost immediately avail themselves of this invitation extended by guides and reiterated by Handbook and by bulletin boards.
When the new student first enters the library she is given a plan of the building showing the arrangement of the different sections and a handbook explaining in full the library privileges. Armed with this, she is met by the reference librarian and then joining a group of three others she is taken through the library where she makes connections between the plan in her hand, the books on the shelves, "the inanimate reference librarian—the card catalog—" and the animate reference librarian in whom she finds a guide, counselor and friend.
This library trip can be, and is intended to be only general in character. The student gains from it first of all the consciousness of having found in the reference librarian a friend to whom she can always go for help and advice; second, her interest is aroused to become better acquainted with the card catalog and with the general facilities for work afforded by the library; and third she gains a determination to follow the injunction of the Students' Handbook, "do your part to make the library an ideal place in which to work."
It is at this stage, after this general instruction given by the reference librarian, that the majority of the entering students meet the officers of the department of history. We give them collectively during the first week, usually the second day, an illustrated lecture on the library. This includes slides showing the catalog cards of a few of the books they will use most in their history work, the cards of the most important reference works, periodicals, and atlases, slides showing the difference between a "see" card and a "see also" card, slides that explain incomplete series, continuation cards, and every variation that concerns their immediate work. Every slide concerns a work on history that is to be used almost immediately, and the form used in cataloging, the notation and the annotation, the hieroglyphics of the printed card, and the bibliographical features of the card are fully explained from the screen.
The students then meet their individual instructors, each one having previously provided herself with a pamphlet called "Suggestions for the Year's Study, History I." This pamphlet, besides giving detailed instructions for the preparation of the work, includes a plan of the library; suggestions in regard to its history, as also the description and the meaning of its exterior and interior; a facsimile and explanation of the catalog card of the text book used in the course; hints concerning the general card catalog; an analysis of the general form and different parts of a book; special directions for preparing the bibliographical slips or cards that must accompany every topic presented, together with an illustration of a model card; a full classification, with illustrations under each, of all the works of references the class will presumably use, including general works of reference, dictionaries, encyclopaedias, periodicals, year books, atlases, autobiographical material, including the various forms of Who's Who? together with biographical, ecclesiastical and various miscellaneous dictionaries and encyclopaedias; an elaborate chart devised to show the authoritativeness as history of the text book used in the course, accompanied by a full explanation of it; suggestions in regard to the purchase of histories for a personal library; and finally, a recommendation to make use of another pamphlet called Suggestive Lists for Reading in History. The main points in the pamphlet Suggestions for the Year's Study are talked over between instructor and students, and constant reference is made to it throughout the year.
The next step in the history work is to assign each student one or more questions written on a slip and drawn by lot. These questions are intended to test her assimilation of the bibliographical help already given, and her ability to apply to a concrete case what she has gained. As soon and as often as possible the students in the different sections of this class in history go to the library with the instructor for such additional and special help as they may need.
From time to time the students in History I prepare special topics on limited questions. A bibliography must always preface these topics and if it is in any way at fault, either as regards form or material, it must be presented a second time or as many times as is necessary to correct the defects.
This course in History I is required of every student in college. Those students who elect other courses based on this become acquainted with still other features of the library and acquire added facility in bibliographical work. Every student, for example, who elects the course in American history has a pamphlet called Suggestions for the Year's Study, History A, AA. This pamphlet includes a chart that shows the location in the library of all the sections of American history, each accompanied by the Dewey notation for each section, and also the notation for the sections in political science, law and government, American literature, English literature, and English history. It also considers at length the place in the course of the textbook, secondary works, collections of sources, almanacs, works on government, guides to literature, state histories, biographies, travels, and illustrative material. For the latter the students are again referred to Suggestive Lists for Reading in History.
Another section of the pamphlet considers specific classes of books which the student uses. It calls attention to the various kinds of bibliographies, as complete, selected, classified, and annotated; to library catalogs arranged on the dictionary, author, subject, and title plan, as also to trade catalogs; to documents classified by form and by contents; to official publications, and the publications of historical societies; to every form of personal record; to descriptions by travelers; and to general and special histories. It also takes up periodicals; manuscripts; special facsimiles, like the B. F. Stevens; geographical material; monumental records; inscriptions, and pictorial material.
Elaborate directions are given for preparing exhaustive bibliographies of the material in the college library on special subjects and suggestions for expanding these in the future as other opportunities for further library work are presented. In addition, tin trays of cards are provided in the American history sections. These are bibliographical cards that supplement but do not duplicate the catalog cards of the general library catalog.
During the year about twenty special topics are prepared by this class, each prefaced by a bibliography of the subject. At the end of the year, one special bibliographical topic is presented. This represents what each student can do in the time given to three classroom hours.
At the end of the first semester of this course the examination given is not a test of what the students have remembered but rather a test of what they are able to do under definite conditions. The class is sent to the library, each member of it usually receives by lot an individual question, and she then shows what facility she has gained in the use of books by answering the question with full range of the library.
Other pamphlets of Suggestions have occasionally been prepared for the most advanced courses. At the end of the senior year the students in my own courses are frequently given an examination that calls for the freest use of the library in the planning of history outlines for club work, in arranging for a public library selected lists of histories suitable for "all sorts and conditions of men," and similar tests that show how far they are able to apply present bibliographical knowledge to probable future experiences.
All this instruction and opportunity for practice in bibliography is not left to "the chance instruction of enthusiastic instructors" or to "the insistence of department heads" to quote Mr. Kendric C. Babcock.[8] It is definitely planned, it is systematically carried out, there is definite progression from year to year in the kind of bibliographical work required, and it is directly related to the specific and individual work of every student. From time to time conferences are held by the members of the library staff and the instructors in history and these conferences enable each department to supplement and complement the work of the other and thus avoid repetition and duplication.
[8] Library Journal, March, 1913, p. 135.
This division of labor enables the reference librarian to play the part of hostess, to make the students feel at home, to secure their good will and co-operation, to develop a sense of personal responsibility towards the library and its treasures. Her work as regards the library is
largely general and descriptive; as regards the students it is that of a friend and counselor; as regards the other officers of the college it is that of an ally and co-operator.
It is necessary to emphasize at this point the wide divergence between the work of the reference librarian in the college or the university and that of the reference librarian in the public library however large or small it may be.
In the public library the demand made upon the reference librarian is for definite information for immediate use; the library patron wishes, not training in acquiring information by and for himself, but the information itself; no substitution of deferred dividends will satisfy his insistent demand for immediate cash payment; he cares not at all for method but he cares very particularly for instant results. Moreover, no one intervenes between the reference librarian and the library patron,—he alone is responsible for giving the information desired. And again, the reference librarian has to deal with an irregular, constantly fluctuating clientele. The man who wants to know who first thought the world was round and whether he was a vegetarian or perchance a cannibal may never visit the library again, but the effort must be made to satisfy his curiosity. The reference librarian of the public library must always be more or less of a purveyor of miscellaneous information to an irregular fluctuating public.
But the functions of the college reference librarian are altogether different. It is often his duty not to give, but temporarily to withhold information; not to answer but to ask questions; to answer one question by asking another; to help a student answer his own question for himself, work out his own problems, and find a way out of his difficulties; to show him how to find for himself the material desired; to give training rather than specific information; to be himself a teacher and to co-operate with other instructors in training the students who seek his help. All this is possible for him for he deals with a regular constituency and he can build up each year on the foundations of the previous year. But while progression comes for the students, there is always the solid permanency of subject with which the reference librarian deals. With the regularity of the passing calendar there come the questions of the feudal system and of the frontier, of the renaissance and of how to follow a bill through congress. The personnel of the student body changes, but there is always an unchanging residuum of subject matter. On the side of the regular college work there is therefore practically no demand whatever made on the college reference librarian for the miscellaneous information demanded of the public reference librarian,—he is not the one who writes for the daily papers the description in verse of the daily life of the reference librarian.[9] Just what his work is in the college, from the students' point of view is indicated by a recent experience.
[9] Library Journal, Oct., 1912. Public Libraries, June, 1913.
A class of seventy in American history was recently asked to what extent the members of it had availed themselves of the services of the reference librarian in that particular course and the replies seem to show that their inquiries had chiefly related to the use of government publications, early periodical literature, material not suggested by the titles of books, out-of-the-way material, source material, and current newspaper material not available through indexes. The many tributes to the help received from the Vassar College reference librarian are perhaps best summed up, so it seems to the teacher, in the statement of one student "she shows you how to go about finding a book better the next time."
If then it must be evident that the work of the college reference librarian differs widely from that of the public reference librarian, it remains to consider specifically what division of the field should be made between the college reference librarian
and the college instructor. Here a clear line of demarcation seems evident. The college instructor must know the student personally and intellectually, as he must know the conditions from which he has come and the conditions to which he presumably is to go. He must help the student relate all the various parts of his college work and help him relate his college work to the general conditions in which he is placed. Hence he cannot separate for the student the bibliography of a subject from the subject itself. Nor can he turn over to the librarian the instruction in bibliographical work. The reference librarian is the only member of the library staff who in the capacity of a teacher comes into direct personal relationship with the student, but his work, as has been seen, is entirely different.
In this division of the field that leaves to the college instructor the actual instruction of students in the use of books, a large unoccupied territory is claimed by the reference librarian as peculiarly his own. This concerns the "extra-collegiate activities" and includes help on material needed in inter-class debates, dramatics, pageants, college publications, Bible classes, mission classes, commencement essays, and all the miscellaneous activities in which the student, not the instructor, takes the initiative. This work corresponds somewhat closely to that of the general reference librarian in a public library and it demands about one-half of the time of the librarian.
Instruction in the use of the library is facilitated by unrestricted access to the shelves and here the students are able to put their knowledge to the test and to work out their own independent methods.
What are the advantages and the disadvantages of unrestricted access to the library shelves? The question was recently asked a class of seventy students and their replies show an almost unanimous opinion that the advantages are overwhelmingly in favor of the open shelves.
Among the educational advantages enumerated are that this fosters independence and self-reliance, through encouraging personal investigation; that it enables students to see books in relation to other books, to make comparisons, and therefore to select those that are the best to use; that it shows the library resources and, to a certain extent, the breadth of the investigation that has been done in specific lines. "The open shelf is an instructor, a great indispensable helper, an education in itself," writes one student, while another states, "It gives an opportunity to form a closer acquaintance with books already known by name, and for casual acquaintance with books one has not time to draw out and read at length."
On the more personal side the students have found the advantages to be the pleasure found in handling books; the appeal made by titles and bindings; the inspiration that comes from the feeling of kinship with books; the opportunity given for wide acquaintance with books and authors; more extensive reading; the saving of time; the satisfaction of being able to find what is wanted, freedom from the limitations of specific references. "We become interested in subjects and in books we should not otherwise have known at all," writes one, while another asked a friend who replied, "Well, I don't know exactly what it means, but I guess it means that I for one use books I never otherwise would have used."
On the side of the library as a whole, many have found advantages in the opportunity it gives of doing general and special bibliographical work and in the knowledge afforded of the general plan of arrangement, classification, and cataloging. "If we had to stay in a reading room, how much idea of library organization should we have?" is the clinching question of one enthusiastic student.
The moral advantages are found to be the feeling of responsibility towards books and the training given in not abusing the privilege.
But it is in the failure of some persons to avail themselves of these opportunities for moral training that students find the disadvantages of the open shelf. There are the periodic complaints that books are lost, misplaced, hidden, and monopolized; that the privilege is abused; and that the social conscience is lacking. "The open shelf is the ideal system but it is designed for an ideal society," feelingly writes one, while another, more philosophical, finds that the open shelf has its annoyances, but no disadvantages, and that these are probably to be charged up to human nature, not to the system.
Only an occasional one sees any other disadvantages. One student finds herself bewildered and lost in irrelevant material, while another brought up in the atmosphere of Harvard, thinks that the closed stack encourages greater precision and carefulness, "for if you have to put in a slip and wait for a book you are more careful about your choice than you are when you can easily drop one found to be unsatisfactory and lay your hands immediately upon another one." "It may be," adds a third, "that we do not get all we might from a book when it is so easy to get others. I find myself often putting aside a book when I do not immediately find what I want."
With an occasional plaint about the increased noise and that the open shelf really takes more time since it is easier to ask for an authority on a specified subject than it is to look it up for one's self, the case for and against the open shelf, from the side of the student, seems closed, with the verdict overwhelmingly in favor of unrestricted access to the library shelves.
I cannot forbear suggesting two directions in which it seems to me the library work could be extended to the advantage of both library and academic force.
The first is the desirability of having connected with every college library an instructor in the department of history who gives instruction in one or more courses in history and who is at the same time definitely responsible for the development of the bibliographical side of the history work.
The work of the history librarian on the library side would be to serve as a consulting expert on all questions that arise in cataloging books that are on the border lines between history and other subjects. Such perplexing questions are constantly arising and valuable aid might be given in such cases by an expert in history.
Another part of the work of the history librarian from the side of the library would be to keep the librarian and the history department constantly informed of opportunities to purchase at advantage works on history that are available only through the second-hand dealers. It now usually devolves on some member of the library staff to study the catalogs of second-hand books and report "finds" to some officer of the history department. Could facilities be provided for making it possible to have the initiative come from the history side it would seem a distinct gain.
The work of the history librarian would also include the responsibility for the classification, arrangement and care of the mass of apparently miscellaneous material that accumulates in every library but does not slip naturally into a predestined place. All is grist that comes to the history mill, yet it is difficult to know how it can best be cared for. Miss Hasse in her well-remembered article On the Classification of Numismatics[10] has shown that the utmost diversity has prevailed in regard to the classification of coins and the literary material dealing with them. This is but one illustration of the uncertainty, confusion, and diversity that prevails in classifying much of the material that seems miscellaneous in character, and that yet should be classified as historical material.
[10] Library Journal, September, 1904.
The work of the history librarian on the side of the students would be concerned during the first semester particularly with the freshmen and the sophomores. The bibliographical and reference work now done could be greatly enlarged and extended. It would be possible to explain still more fully the possibilities of assistance from the card catalog; to help students
locate the more special histories that might seem to be luxuries rather than the necessities of their work; to make them acquainted with histories as histories, rather than with histories as furnishing specific material; to develop their critical appreciation of books and their judgment in regard to the varying degrees of authoritativeness of well known old and recent histories. Encouragement would be given the students to begin historical libraries for themselves, advice could be given in making reasonable selections of books, and help in starting a catalog. Interest in suitable book-plates for historical collections might be roused as well as interest in suitable bindings, and thus through these luxurious accessories the student be led on to friendship with the books themselves and with their author.
During the second semester the work of the history librarian would be largely with the seniors and would be more constructive in its nature. The seniors are looking forward to taking an active part in the life of their home communities and they will be interested in the public schools, in the public library, in social work, in church work, in history and literary clubs, in historical pageants, fêtes and excursions, in historical museums, in the celebration of historic days, and in innumerable other civic activities, many of which are intimately connected with the subject of history. The history librarian would be able to give invaluable aid to the seniors in preparing lists of histories suitable for public libraries in communities where suggestions may prove welcome; in suggesting histories adapted to all these demands made by personal, co-operative, and civic activities. This constructive work of the history librarian would be capable of infinite extension and variation and its good results would be far-reaching and of growing momentum.
May I suggest one further possible direction in which the activities of the library staff would lend interest to the general work of the college. Every institution needs luxuries and the members of the library staff have it in their power to offer courses of lectures open to all members of the college and also to citizens of the community who are interested in educational questions. Such courses would include lectures on the history of libraries; on the great libraries of Europe and America; on the great libraries of the world; on great editors like Benjamin F. Stevens; on rare books; on books famous for the number of copies sold, of editions, of translations, of migrations through auction rooms; on the famous manuscripts of the world. The possibilities of such courses are limitless.
There are also the courses of lectures that we are all eager to hear on the plain necessities that are of even greater interest than are those that deal with the luxuries. The college wants to hear about the administration of a library and its general problems; about the special questions of cataloging, interlibrary loans, the special collections of the library as well as its general resources. From the standpoint of special departments, lectures might be given by representatives of these departments on the treasures of the library as they concern their special fields.
Joint department meetings of the members of the library staff and the officers of the departments of English and of history for the discussion of questions of mutual interest have at Vassar College proved stimulating and contributed much to a mutual understanding of each other's ideals and to a sympathetic appreciation of the difficulties attending their realization.
"Why cannot all this work with and about books be explained by the librarians,—" college authorities sometimes ask. "That is their business; it is the business of the teacher to teach."
The answer is simple. The good teacher must individualize the student, the good librarian must individualize the book; and both teacher and librarian must co-operate in helping the college student get the utmost possible from his college course in order that in his turn he may help the community in which he lives in its efforts to realize its ideals. The endless chain extends to the farthermost confines of heaven!
Discussion of the paper was led by Mr. J. T. Gerould, librarian of the University of Minnesota. He believed that most college teachers had neither the knowledge nor the enthusiasm necessary to give systematic bibliographic instruction. Training in the use of the library should, he thought be given by a member of the library staff, from a general point of view, introducing the student to reference books not simply in one field, but in all. The time had come for the university libraries to define their position as a distinct educational integer, not a mere adjunct to the academic departments. Of course, to take such a position, the library staff must be thoroughly equipped, and must include trained bibliographers in adequate number.
Dr. E. C. Richardson, librarian of Princeton University, called attention to the fact that the principle of unrestricted access to the shelves required hearty co-operation between the college public and the library staff. It should be recognized that the librarian is not responsible for the correct placing of every book on an "open shelf."
Mr. John D. Wolcott, librarian of the Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C., spoke of the questionnaire on the subject under discussion sent out in October, 1912, by the A. L. A. to two hundred colleges and universities. A summary of the results were included in the chapter entitled "Recent aspects of library development" by John D. Wolcott, which forms a part of the Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Education for the year ended June 30, 1912. Reprints may be obtained from the Commissioner.
Mr. H. C. Prince, librarian of the Maine state library, called attention to the courses in legal bibliography which were being given at various law schools. Those at the University of Chicago, though without credit, were eagerly attended by law students.
Mr. Goodrich reiterated his belief that the libraries should take a definite stand in insisting that college students must be taught how to use library resources to the full. They must learn the many "tricks of the trade," which in his opinion, were better known at present to the librarian than to the teacher. Miss Salmon replied that she thought it less a question of learning the "tricks of the trade" than of adapting the desired knowledge to the individual need and capacity of the student; hence her belief in the teacher as the proper medium of instruction. The discussion could not be pursued for lack of time.
Mr. H. E. BLISS, librarian of the College of the City of New York, read a paper on