College and Research Libraries


By W I L L I A M H . J E S S E 

The University Library and Its 
Services to Students1 

IN P R E P A R I N G to meet the educational 
needs of the r e t u r n i n g veteran, the uni-

versities of America set up scores of courses 
which w o u l d teach rapidly and efficiently 
w h a t educators sometimes call "marketable 
manipulative skills." T h e s e courses w e r e 
designed to teach the veteran how to make 
a living and to teach him this as rapidly as 
possible in order to help him make up for 
his lost years. N a t u r a l l y , the veteran 
would not care where he learned his trade, 
once he learned it, and for this reason the 
largest increases in enrolment were to be 
taken care of by adding technical and pro-
fessional courses in most existing schools of 
every type. 

W h a t actually has happened in the case 
of the r e t u r n i n g veteran has made some of 
us question w h e t h e r those years could prop-
erly be classified as " l o s t ; " for while the 
r e t u r n i n g veteran, to as great or even 
greater extent than anticipated, is seeking 
an education, he is in astonishing numbers 
passing up the opportunity to learn a mere 
skill rapidly—a fact proved by his unwilling-
ness to take advantage of the types of course 
provided for him and his unwillingness to 
obtain that education just anywhere. H e 
is, much to the surprise of most educators 
and certainly of the A r m y , very much con-
cerned w i t h where he receives his educa-
tion and even more deeply concerned w i t h 
w h a t t h a t education is to be. N o , the years 
cannot properly be termed " l o s t " if out of 
them have come an insistence upon knowing 

1 P a p e r presented at the meeting of the Association of 
College and R e f e r e n c e L i b r a r i e s , Buffalo, June 18, 1946. 

" w h y " and an apparent dissatisfaction with 
merely knowing " w h a t . " 

As you will recall, the literature of higher 
education a few years ago was filled with 
w h a t amounted to last and desperate stands 
defending the liberal arts in general and 
the humanities in particular. I n the light 
of present enrolment figures these defenses 
appear to have been superfluous; for the 
r e t u r n i n g veteran is, to the capacity of the 
institutions, requesting a course of study 
which would gladden the hearts of those 
who put understanding before knowledge. 
H e is, in addition, attacking the problem 
of understanding w i t h enough vigor and 
success to raise the academic standing of 
the total campus, presenting therefore an 
opportunity to many institutions to elevate 
their f o r m a l academic requirements. 

T h i s veteran influence is being felt so 
thoroughly throughout the universities that 
already it is possible in many cases to classify 
the total university as being preponderantly 
" w h y " conscious rather than " w h a t " con-
scious, an extremely hopeful situation as re-
gards the educability of the university stu-
dent of the present and immediate f u t u r e . 
I t means at least this m u c h : the university 
student in greater preponderance is more 
eagerly seeking to be an educated man than 
at any time in the memory of most of us. 
N o w librarians have always claimed, and 
legitimately, that they were constant spon-
sors of this total education and that they 
could, w i t h books, meet the needs of it. 
T h e principal question in the past has been 
who is to provide the impetus to start the 

OCTOBER, 1946 301 



student in motion or, more specifically, who 
is to inspire the student to w a n t to read 
the books which will give him this total 
e d u c a t i o n s / S o m e have said that this is the 
function of the f a c u l t y ; others, of the li-
brarians ; and some have agreed that per-
haps it is an obligation of both. If this first 
year's experience w i t h the veteran in the 
university offers dependable evidence, the 
question of who is to provide the impetus or 
inspiration may well be shelved while w e 
deal directly w i t h methods of meeting the 
already overwhelming demands on the fac-
ulty and l i b r a r y / I say overwhelming not 
solely because the universities have been 
temporarily unable to find housing, class-
rooms, and faculty rapidly enough, or be-
cause the librarians are unable to seat and 
f u r n i s h w i t h a book enough of the students, 
but rather because I am willing to concede 
that the existing facilities of the universities, 
including their libraries, are nowhere nearly 
ready to meet the demands n o w being made 
upon them by a student w h o w o u l d be 
totally educated. 

I t is not necessary to list here all the cur-
ricular devices designed in recent years to 
offset the specialization necessary as equip-
ment for the college g r a d u a t e of today. I 
do think it might be recalled to your minds 
at this time that the divisional system was, 
at the outbreak of the w a r , rapidly becoming 
the most popular approach to the p r o b l e m ; 
whether or not it was the most valid is for 
others to say. T h e university library, in its 
effort to keep up w i t h the curriculum, had 
already begun to experiment w i t h a divi-
sional breakdown in the library, more or 
less matching a similar change in the cur-
riculum. B u t by n a t u r e of its being a serv-
ice agency w i t h i n its institution, it must 
follow r a t h e r than lead. I n the average 
university which had adopted the divisional 
plan in one f o r m or another, the library 
had made little or no effort to rearrange 

its collections' and to reconsider its services 
in the light of the curriculum of its insti-
tution. As a service agency, it would seem 
the library must a d j u s t to the curriculum 
of its institution even if the curricular ex-
periment is invalid; otherwise, the institu-
tion w o u l d never k n o w w h e t h e r or not its 
experiment had had a f a i r trial. 

W e arrive, then, at one concrete method 
by which the library may a d j u s t itself to 
the changing needs of the university stu-
dent. T h e collections and services of the 
library and the attitudes of the library staff 
must be adapted to changing curriculums 
more rapidly and more efficiently than in the 
past, if the library is to assist materially 
in readying a university student for life in 
the atomic agev- M a n y of us will freely 
admit t h a t at the present time the arrange-
ment of our collections, the type of services 
offered, and the attitudes actually encoun-
tered by the student in the library are not 
entirely in harmony w i t h the educational 
philosophies, curriculums, and experiments 
present in our respective institutions. 
W h e t h e r or not the university library is 
entitled to carry on its own educational 
system in the face of a totally different one 
on the part of the institution is highly con-
jectural. T h e r e is, however, one aspect of 
student education which can best be carried 
on in the library and by the librarians^- T h e 
close association of related ideas and the 
fitting of these ideas into their proper back-
ground can be most economically accom-
plished by showing the relation of one book 
to another by various devices of arrange-
ment, display, and b i b l i o g r a p h y ^ T h i s as-
pect of university education has so long been 
considered the library's responsibility that 
in our search for new ways in which w e can 
help educate we have sometimes not been 
on the alert for new opportunities and 
methods to help meet this old obligation. 
I n this respect the increasing doubt con-

302 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



cerning the lasting value of f o r m a l classifica-
tion may be considered an encouraging note. 

T h e third manner in which the university ! 

library can help meet the needs of the uni-
versity student of today and t o m o r r o w is to 
redefine its f u n d a m e n t a l responsibilities so 
as to include the preservation and presenta-
tion of recorded knowledge.- W h i l e the 
term "audio-visual aids" is not descriptive 
enough to cover everything that might be 
included in this redefinition, it will serve to 
illustrate w h a t is meant here by redefinition. 
T h e university library will not w a n t to 
delay much longer in deciding whether or 
not it will accept responsibility for nonbook 
teaching m a t e r i a l s / f o r , if the library does 
not accept them very soon indeed and on* a 
much broader scale than has yet been done, 
other agencies will be found to preserve, 
organize, and serve materials which are in 
many cases undoubtedly more efficient re-
cording and teaching devices than the book 
has ever been or ever will be. N o r m a n 
Cousins' article, " M o d e r n M a n Is Obso-
lete," which so took the fancy of librarians, 
stated that there must be many more years 
spent in acquiring an education or there 
must be no education at all. T h e r e would 
seem to be one possible solution short of the 
t w o extremes offered by M r . Cousins, and 
that is that a speeding up of the educational 
processes- might be effected, and by speed-
ing up I do not mean here f r a n t i c concen-
tration nor f o u r - q u a r t e r attendance, but 
rather employment of the more efficient 
teaching methods. U n d o u b t e d l y , these more 
efficient teaching methods will involve re-
corded knowledge in some f o r m less cumber-
some than the printed book. T h i s must be 
so, at least, if the university student is to 
acquire in fewer than thirty years even the 
beginnings of the education M r . Cousins 
advocates as an alternative to chaos. 

T h r e e concrete methods have been pre-
sented here which are believed to constitute 

important and valid devices by which the 
university library can meet the ends of the 
university student in the atomic age. I t 
w o u l d be absurd to claim that these three 
devices are the most important three devices 
which might have been considered, and it 
would be even more ridiculous to claim that 
they are any more than three of w h a t might 
well be an extensive checklist of desirable 
devices for consideration. But they are, 
nevertheless, thought to be particularly per-
tinent to the topic assigned./*The first p a r t 
of this paper can be summarized, then, by 
simply restating the three points that have 
been under consideration: first, the desper-
ate and almost universal need for each in-
dividual university library taking its cue on 
collections, services, and attitudes f r o m its 
own university's educational philosophy 
rather than f r o m pure library science; sec-
ond, the equally desperate but perhaps less 
universal need for reminding the university 
library that it still has the primary responsi-
bility for certain types of student education, 
particularly that of showing relationship^ 
( m a y I say here t h a t ideally education's 
greatest internal struggle could be easily 
solved if the library could indeed manage to 
show relationships, leaving the faculty to 
pursue the specific; but perhaps this is too 
much to hope f o r even in an idealistic 
state) ; (third, a redefinition of the functions 
of the library to include w i t h o u t reservation 
all recorded knowledge except artifacts, 
specimens, etc., and the organization and 
representation of that knowledge, in order 
to facilitate the teaching processNwhich is as 
indubitably on the verge of -a neW age, 
atomic or otherwise, as is the capture, con-
trol, and release of energy. 

Several peculiarities surround most peo-
ple's thinking concerning the atomic age for 
which these university students are being 
prepared. I n the first place, almost no one 
is willing to call it the atomic age, but rather 

OCTOBER, 1946 303 



the age of the atomic bomb. T h i s is deeply 
significant, f o r those w h o t h i n k of it as 
the age of the atomic bomb will confess t h a t 
they believe t h a t because of the atomic bomb 
there w i l l be no atomic age, or perhaps any 
kind of a g e — a n a t t i t u d e w h i c h makes M r . 
Cousins' t h r o w b a c k to the Stone A g e seem 
a relatively pleasing a l t e r n a t i v e . N o t only 
may t h e r e be no age, they say, b u t it may 
well be t h e r e w i l l be no e a r t h , in the pres-
ent sense of the w o r d , upon the face of 
which an age m i g h t be in progress. N o w I 
w o u l d like to speak of the atomic age w i t h -
out the necessity of b r i n g i n g in the a t o m i c 
bomb, t r e a t i n g it a f t e r t h e fashion of some 
of o u r committees as a t h i n g w h i c h , if ig-
nored, w i l l go a w a y . M y m i n d is no more 
w i l l i n g to accept the idea of the atomic 
bomb going a w a y f r o m O a k R i d g e t h a n it 
is ready to accept the idea of O a k R i d g e 
itself going a w a y . 

I t is indeed u n f o r t u n a t e t h a t w i t h the 
atomic age m u s t also come the atomic 
bomb, b u t w e had better concern ourselves 
w i t h w h a t is instead of w h a t w e wish w e r e 
so. T h e place of the university s t u d e n t a n d 
the l i b r a r y in the atomic age w o u l d be a 
w h o l l y d e l i g h t f u l subject w e r e it n o t f o r the 
bomb a n d , I m i g h t add, bacteriological w a r -
f a r e and all the other u n p l e a s a n t m e t h o d s 
of destroying the peoples of the e a r t h . 
W e r e it n o t f o r the bomb w e could look 
upon this n e w age as being i n h e r e n t l y good, 
w e could c o n t i n u e to spell progress w i t h a 
capital letter, and w e could otherwise iden-
t i f y ourselves w i t h anyone's endeavor t o 
push back f u r t h e r the u n k n o w n . I n this 
c o m f o r t a b l e capacity as l i b r a r i a n s aiding 
progress at every t u r n , w e could c o n t i n u e 
to do o u r daily task w i t h o u t too m u c h ques-
t i o n i n g a n d could r e m a i n , as f a r as w e 
knew, men of goodwill. B u t it is d o u b t f u l 
if m e n of goodwill can continue m u c h 
longer to aid indiscriminate progress a l o n g 
certain lines, and w e are confused as to 

which lines are w h i c h . W e have prided o u r -
selves upon the f a c t t h a t w e w e r e ready to 
aid anyone in his p a r t i c u l a r endeavor. W e 
do n o t w a n t the responsibility f o r labeling a 
p r o j e c t good or bad before deciding w h e t h e r 
or not as l i b r a r i a n s w e are w i l l i n g to par-
ticipate in it. I t has taken a l o n g time f o r 
us to l e a r n t h a t w e m u s t not be censors, and 
n o w , j u s t as w e have learned t h a t lesson 
very w e l l indeed, it w o u l d seem t h a t w e will 
have to become censors all over again and in 
a yet stricter sense, or else be p a r t y to en-
deavors w h i c h h a v e as their aim solely 
the d e s t r u c t i o n of m a n k i n d . T h i s is a very 
distressing state of affairs. W e have learned 
to aid everyone at every t u r n and have 
prided ourselves upon o u r ability to do this 
dispassionately. N o w w e discover t h a t we 
have assisted m a t e r i a l l y in o u r o w n poten-
tial self-destruction. A s I have already 
said, if only w e could consider the atomic 
age a n d leave o u t the bomb, h o w very 
m u c h m o r e pleasant w e could be about it. 

T o say t h a t all this w i l l eventually w o r k 
itself out is t a n t a m o u n t to saying t h a t , if 
ignored, the bomb will finally go away. 
C o m f o r t i n g as this t h o u g h t may be, w e can 
h a r d l y p e r m i t ourselves to depend entirely 
upon it. H o w e v e r , it is equally absurd to 
say t h a t w e can do n o t h i n g a b o u t it. T h e 
a n s w e r r e g a r d i n g w h a t w e can do is not a 
very novel one, since it is the answer to 
most problems concerning p e o p l e — t h a t is, 
education. T h e d i s t u r b i n g element here is 
t h a t w e are told w e have so little time in 
w h i c h to e d u c a t e . A t this point I should 
like to go back in o u r t h i n k i n g to the de-
pression a n d recall t h a t m a n y university li-
brarians, a l o n g w i t h m a n y other kinds of 
people, t h o u g h t it w o u l d be too uneconomi-
cal to a t t e m p t to educate everybody and t h a t 
the only practical solution w a s t o edu-
cate t h r o u g h the schools, which, as day 
f o l l o w s night, w o u l d eventually m e a n t h a t 
everyone w a s educated. A t t h a t time the 

304 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



t e r m " a d u l t e d u c a t i o n " m e a n t to m a n y peo-
ple w h a t w e w o u l d n o w call continued 
education r a t h e r t h a n education of the non-
educated. F e w of us can escape the accusa-
tion t h a t as university l i b r a r i a n s w e pro-
ceeded plutocratically and had n o t too m u c h 
patience w i t h the problems of universal 
education, and even w e n t so f a r as to take 
pride in the f a c t t h a t w e w e r e not f a m i l i a r 
w i t h the problem. C o n c e r n i n g this I should 
like t o say t w o t h i n g s : first, t h a t universal 
education w o u l d obviously have been rela-
tively economical; and second, t h a t it is 
revealing to discover the n u m b e r of u n i v e r -
sity a n d research l i b r a r i a n s w h o have ar-
rived at a f u l l awareness of the damages 
a l r e a d y done and the f u t u r e damages in-
h e r e n t in an impatience w i t h the problem 
of e d u c a t i n g everyone. 

T h e correlation between universal or 
a d u l t education and the university s t u d e n t 
and his l i b r a r y may not be too readily ap-
p a r e n t . B u t some of us w h o have discussed 
this specific problem w i t h m o r e seriousness 
t h a n is our o r d i n a r y custom seem to have 
agreed t h a t the correlation does exist a n d 
t h a t it is c o n s t r u c t e d of t w o parts, 
in this system of universal education no 
o p p o r t u n i t y to educate may go unheeded. 
T o the university l i b r a r i a n this means t h a t 
even the poor s t u d e n t m u s t at least know, 
even if he c a n n o t understand. T h e univer-
sity l i b r a r i a n ' s problem is still a relatively 
simple one in t h a t those f o r whose educa-
tion he is p a r t l y responsible are segregated 
and reachable. B u t the university l i b r a r y 
o p e r a t i n g t o w a r d an ideal of universal edu-
cation c a n n o t in good conscience a f f o r d to 
be merely available to those w h o seek it out^. 
I t w i l l have to seek out all the students.^ 
Second, if the university l i b r a r y is to assist 
in m a i n t a i n i n g any semblance of an o r d e r l y 

w o r l d in which its university s t u d e n t is to 
live, i t — w h i c h means its l i b r a r i a n s — w i l l 
have to reach f a r beyond the immediate stu-
dent body and embrace a m u c h l a r g e r seg-
m e n t of h u m a n i t y t h a n has ever been its 
practice h e r e t o f o r e . 

W h e n and w h e r e and to w h a t extent this 
extra-obligation e m b r a c i n g should take place 
should be determined by each individual, 
w h e t h e r or n o t he is in a university l i b r a r y 
or, f o r t h a t m a t t e r , w h e t h e r or n o t he is a 
l i b r a r i a n at all. F o r the obligation of all 
of those concerned w i t h the university stu-
dent goes beyond merely e d u c a t i n g h i m ; 
the s t u d e n t m u s t also have an educated or at 
least an u n d e r s t a n d i n g total w o r l d society 
in which to operate. T h e time indeed is 
short unless all educational agencies are 
w i l l i n g to go beyond a rigid i n t e r p r e t a t i o n 
of their strictest and most limited obliga-
tions. 

T h e research w h i c h has gone into the 
p r e p a r a t i o n of this paper has been of only 
one t y p e — i n t e r v i e w s and discussions w i t h 
the university s t u d e n t w h o is in the atomic 
age. I t is n o t too s u r p r i s i n g to find t h a t , 
a p r e p o n d e r a n c e of evidence c o n t r a r i w i s e , 
he is determined t h a t this w o r l d be held to-
gether long enough to give him at least a 
chance to do s o m e t h i n g w i t h it. A n d it is 
my contention a n d conclusion t h a t at w o r s t 
it w i l l n o t even be here f o r him to live in 
or, at best, he w i l l be unable to live r a t i o n -
ally w i t h i n it unless w e blast entirely f r o m 
our t h i n k i n g the idea t h a t the people can 
get a l o n g w i t h o u t help u n t i l w e have edu-
cated a n e w crop of atomic age university 
students, w h o w i l l then s t r a i g h t e n every-
t h i n g o u t f o r us, a l l o w i n g us to die peace-
ably a m o n g our cabbages—or h o w e v e r it is 
philosophers are supposed to be allowed to 
d i e — w i t h dignity and at a very ripe old age. 

OCTOBER, 1946 305