Much has intervened, but possibly some of you may remember that some thing was said on Saturday about specialization in the library school course. Discussion among the library school directors present showed a consensus of opinion that specialization is undesirable in the first year of a two years' course and practically impossible in a one year course, nor did any radical plan of differentiation of function among the schools, other than that which has come about already by natural causes, commend itself as possible at present at least.
The only practicable form of specialization therefore seems to be along the line of advanced courses for those who have acquired the fundamentals of technique and who have had sufficient experience to determine clearly the direction in which their aptitudes lie. Such a course we are making toward at Pratt Institute and it is of our plans and aims for this normal course in library training that I have been asked to speak today.
The inception of the course came about not as the result of a desire to do some new thing, but as a solution of two pressing problems with which I found myself confronted last summer; one of these problems is common, I am sure, to all library school directors, the difficulty of finding teachers for their faculties or of supplying from their graduates demands of public libraries for directors of training classes. The other problem was local and peculiar to ourselves, and by reason of it a possible solution was indicated for the former. This was the suggestion made by the librarian of the Brooklyn public library that the Pratt Institute Library school take over the instruction of the Brooklyn public library apprentices. As the professional school of Brooklyn, it was clearly our duty to perform this function for the public library of Brooklyn, and it only remained to find a way,—first, that would satisfy the needs and requirements of the Brooklyn public library system; second, that would so strengthen the Pratt Institute school as to recommend the plan to our trustees; third, would help to alleviate the professional situation of which I had become so acutely concerned.
In response to this need, almost an answer to prayer, for the idea occurred to me in church, came the conception of a normal course to fit advanced students for teaching positions in the profession. Now for a normal course three elements are requisite. Knowledge of the subjects to be taught, training in pedagogical methods and directed practice in teaching. The necessary knowledge of the subjects taught could be obtained by admitting to the course only those who had already acquired library technique. Pedagogical training could be given at Pratt Institute where there already existed a splendidly organized department of education and for the practice teaching there was the apprentice class of the Brooklyn public library for which the normal students could prepare and conduct the courses in library economy under the direction and supervision of our instructor of proved success in teaching. These two indispensable factors inherent in our situation seems to mark the Pratt Institute library school as distinctly the place of all others in which this experiment of training for teaching positions in library work could be tried. Now, does the need exist for librarians who are trained to teach? What is the situation?
There are ten or eleven library schools offering courses of one or two years. There are probably twice that number of summer library schools. There are training classes in all of the larger libraries and many of the medium sized libraries. There are many normal schools in which library courses are now given and the trend in this direction is unmistakable. There are school departments in many of the larger libraries in which more or less actual teaching is done, and in which a librarian who was at the same time a teacher, who understands the teachers' point of view would connect school and library the more completely. Many of you know that these positions are not easy to fill. But could a course be planned that would fit candidates for such positions? I believe so.
I am not going to degrade pedagogic training for teachers. That battle has already been fought out in the educational world. Of course, the best teachers are born, not made, and some few heaven sent may teach the better for not having learned how, but there are not enough of them to go around and the greater majority teach the better for training in tried and approved methods, applied under competent direction.
The normal course will therefore consist of two main parts—theoretical training and practice teaching.
The first part embraces educational psychology, a forty-eight hours' course, a thirty-six hours' course in the history of education, a general survey with a supplemental course on American public education—high schools, normal schools and colleges—a thirty-six hours' course in the theory of education taking up the conduct of recitations and giving the presentation of subjects, examinations, etc. A study of public institutions, both civic and philanthropic, will also be included. So much for the theoretical side. The practical application of the theory of education to the teaching of library technique will be made by the preparation of the courses for the Brooklyn apprentices and the conduct of the classes. The plan for this work is as follows: The normal students will spend a month before the teaching of the apprentices begins in the study of the Brooklyn public library system and in the preparation for the classes they are to conduct under the direction of Miss Julia Hopkins who is to have charge of this work. This work has been planned in consultation with the Brooklyn public library librarian and staff and between us we hope to work out the ideal apprentice course. I will go into this somewhat fully in order to show its value as teaching experience for the normal student.
1. There are to be two apprentice classes a year, beginning in October and March respectively. To these classes four months of instruction will be given. This gives each normal student the opportunity of preparing and conducting different courses each term.
2. The four months of instruction will be followed by three months of practical work in selected branches of the Brooklyn public library, during which time the apprentices will learn the technical details of branch work under the supervision of the branch librarian, thus freeing the course of these details and making it possible to spend the class room time on the broader professional and culture side of the subjects taught.