Some Problems in College Librarianship

Abstract

IT IS not the purpose of the remarks that follow to summarize, abstract, or recapitulate the papers that been presented to this conference. Instead, it is my intention to try to isolate and point to a few of the major problems, trends, or observations that been mentioned by the speakers in their separate analyses of various aspects of the college library. First, I asked myself whether, out of the papers that been presented, there has emerged a picture of the college library in operation that is markedly different from the rather clear and definitive picture already given us by Branscomb, Lyle, Randall, L. R. Wilson, and other writers on the subject. It seems to me that the answer to this question must be No, if we limit our examination to the broad outlines of the college library as a social structure. In these terms the college library is doing what these authors told us it is doing, and it is doing these things in approximately the ways in which they, a decade or more ago, described. Similarly, if the question were asked, Have the papers of the conference produced a unified, unambiguous, and definitive statement of the function of the library in the modern college? I would also, I believe, answer, No. I would hastily add that such a statement was not anticipated from a conference which has as its primary purpose the presentation of ideas, suggestions, trends, and problems. What then, you may ask, have we accomplished? It seems to me that we reaffirmed our acceptance of a rather broad body of procedures, principles, and theories relating to the college library-which is a desirable thing to do from time to time with social institutions. We similarly reaffirmed the existence of basic questions for which we do not the data for answers, and, perhaps more significantly, we recognized certain trends and directions in which the college library has moved or is very likely to move if it is to be successful in fulfilling its functions. We also recognized a number of important difficulties that may affect the operations, the purposes, and the successful adaptation of the college library to the needs of the college. Thus, while little that is dramatically new has been stated, some old problems been restated with greater clarity and insight, and new directions been set forth for our guidance. These are not negligible accomplishments if we are able to make use of them. It seems to me that one of the most pervasive elements of the conference has been the underlying sense of critical urgency attached to the values of a liberal education in modem life. While most of us always believed in the values of a liberal education, there is an implicit recognition in much that has been said during this conference that, unless we are able to transmit such values to a very substantial part of our population, those parts of our civilization that free men must hold most dear are in actual danger of extinction. We are at last coming to recognize that a knowledge of science alune will not make us free men,