Divisional Reading Rooms in the Small Liberal Arts College

Abstract

TRADITION has decreed for college and university libraries a conventional plan which emphasizes the large central reading room. If of late there has been some questioning, uncertainty, and even uneasiness with this emphasis, we must look for guidance, not only in the statements of our own profession but at the shift in methods and procedures which are compelling the library to assume a more important place in the scheme. W h e n the professor lectured and the student read a textbook, the library had its appointed place in the organization, but it was not one of first importance. More recently with the introduction of honors and independent reading courses, tutorial systems, and the stressing of the advantages of the small class, the education of the student has become a more individualized process which centers around teaching with books. As these new directions become apparent, librarians are discussing the type of library building best suited to fit in with these methods. T h e y are studying the library from the standpoint of educational effectiveness rather than its administrative efficiency.1 T h e large reading 1 Branscomb, Harvie. Teaching with Books: A Study of College Libraries. Association of American Colleges and A.L.A., 1940, p. ix. room as opposed to small subject or divisional reading rooms is, of course, only one phase in the discussion. T h e size and type of the student body and the character of the teaching of the institution are determining factors in the conception of the building, and the problem is one which must be solved independently by each library. Thus, in the new library at Rockford College, servi-ng a community of 300 students and 45 faculty members, we have chosen to omit the large reading room and to center our plan around the idea of divisional reading rooms. T h e general type of teaching to which this library contributes is best described in an editorial introduction by Professor Carl Becker: