College and Research Libraries


, 

By HARRY]., CARMAN 

Education for Future Librarians 
1 

Dr. Carman is dean of Columbia Col-
lege, Columbia University. 

As CITIZENS and members of a profes-
~ sian, librarians are not different from 
other people in other walks of life. Their 
need for general education is as great as 
for journalists, physicians, engineers, or 
lawyers. All should have opportunity for 
a broad educational foundation upon which 
to build their specialty. 

Any vocation or profession pursued with-
out knowledge of its total social meaning 
is apt to be boring and stultifying. In the 
past too many of our professional and vo-
cational schools unfortunately have insisted 
that the student ignore so-called cultural 
subjects and concern · himself with courses 
narrowly professional or vocational. The 
results have been inevitable. Our colleges 
and universities have graduated men and 
women technically trained as librarians, 
physicians, lawyers or. social workers with 
little or no interest in the cultural impli-
cations of their professions, much less in 
those things which enable them to formu-
late for themselves a satisfying philosophy 
of life. Vocationally, professionally, and 
technologically we are the wonder of the 
world, but in the realm where circum-
stances demand virtue and political fitness 
-an acquaintance with the past, high 
character, broad sympathies, objectivity, a 
sense of responsibility, a disinterested under-
standing of the springs of human action-
we have been much less successful. The 

1 Abs tract of address present ed at the c;::onf~rence of 
Eastern College Librarians, Columbta Umverstty, Nov. 
2 7, 19 48. 

101 

social, political and esthetic incapacity of 
the person without general education and, 
therefore, without cultural background and 
trained only in the techniques of his work, 
is likely to be appalling. 

Ours is a democratic society, and from 
the days when the first white settler put 
foot on this continent to the present the 
concepts of human freedom and human 
betterment and happiness have been the · 
main roots of American democracy, though 
at times partially choked by the weeds of 
selfishness, corruption and crass material-
Ism. 

If freedom is the cornerstone of the 
American way of life, what does it imply? 
What are its implications for those who 
enjoy freedom and those who seek it at a 
time when freedom and free institutions 

• j) 
are challenged by regimented statism. 

Freedom in a democracy does not mean 
absolute freedom but freedom to think, be-
lieve, disbelieve, speak, and choose. People 
are free when they are masters of them-
selves. We become masters of ourselves, 
as Dr. Henderson of the New York State 
Department of Education has so ·well said, 
when we have learned to utilize fully and 
creatively our individual abilities-intellec-
tual, physical, emotional. People are not 
free who are handicapped with unnecessary 

psychological inhibitions, who are victims 
of preventable disease, who harbor irra-
tional prejudices against men of differing 
views, cultures or races, or who practice 
religious bigotry. 

The dangers to the American way of life 
are not all without; rather the most danger-



ous are within. They are suspicion, preju-
dice, intolerance, hate, bigotry, and the wor-
ship of mammon. No institution, whether 
it be a business, home, church, school, or 
even democracy itself, can long endure the 
weakening processes of these poisonous 
enemies. People are free in the degree to 
which they possess the tools of learning and 
techniques of action, the ability to verbal-
ize, analyze , synthesize, create, organize, 
and administer, and who, deep in their 
souls, have the spirit and the will to safe-
guard the ideals of freedom, justice, tol-
erance, and fair play. To be free, people 
must practice as well as give lip service to 
the Good Neighbor principle, which in 
essence means the recognition of the worth 
and dignity of each human being regardless 
of race, color, creed or social statu~ . 

Our librarians should be citizens who 
have broad perspective, a critical and con-
structive approach to life, standards of 
values by which men can live nobly, and a 
deep sense of responsibility for their fellows. 
They should be persons of integrity easily 
motivated to action in the cause of indi-
vidual freedom, social' justice, and inter-
national peace; who will use their leisure in 
ways creative and not corruptive; and who, 
as Barbara Jones puts it in her book on 
Bennington College, will go on learning 
throughout life, adapting themselves to 
change without losing conviction. We do 
not want citizens bounded on the north, 
south, east and west by themselves. We 
need more citizens who can make intelligent 
and wise judgments, and who will work 
effectively to good ends with others. 
Whether they be leaders or followers, we 
need citizens who are concerned about 
values in terms of integrity of character, 
motives, attitudes and behavior. The dem-
ocratic way of life not only cherishes free-
dom, but entails obligations and even sac-
rifice for its preservation. Lastly, we need 

more citizens who have devotion for the 
public good and who regard the task of 
social amelioration as the surest road to 
greatness of achievement and personal satis-
faction. 

If these are the kinds of citizens we want 
our librarians to be, how do we get them? 
What should be their education? 

At the college level I think the best 
results cannot be achieved by following a 
program that is not concerned with indi-
vidual differences, intell~~tual and emo- · 
tional; that is overloaded vocationally; that ~ 
fosters narrow specialization; that is not 
rich in historic-cultural significance; that is 
not closely related to the contemporary 
scene; and, above all, that fails to utilize 
the concepts and findings of modern science. 

The liberal arts should be the unifying 
and central element in higher education for 
citizenship and a professional career. There 
can be no substitute for teaching people, 
especially young people, how to live. Dur-
ing the last hundred years liberal education 
in this country has suffered from the inroads 
of overspecialization, vocationalism and 
professionalism. Our liberal arts colleges 
have become a collection of departments 
with little organic connection between them. 
As a consequence we . have, as my colleague 
Dr. Ordway Tead puts it, intellectual 
fragmentation, befuddlement, philosophical 
anarchy, and spiritual blindness. Educa-
tion for citizenship should rest not upon a 
series of specialized departmental courses, 
but upon carefully integrated divisional 
courses in science, the social sciences and 
the humanities. 

In framing educational programs, those 
of us who believe that the primary concern 
of our institutions of higher learning should 
be the training for citizenship to the end 
that freedom may prevail, should give 
thought to one of the greatest problems 

(Continued on ·page II2) 

102 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



that revised programs announced by several 
library schools indicate a trend toward 
greater emphasis on the theoretical aspect of 
·librarianship and on books. Should this 

impression be correct, it may well be argued 
that there is no longer a valid reason for 
us to continue our experiment, even though 
it has been gratifying. 

Table 3 
Courses, Academic Year 1948- 49 

Course 

Printing (social eco-
nomic & related as-
pects) 

Documentation, Pt. 2. 
Cataloging, Pt. 2. 
Service, Pt. 2. 
Administration 
Reading 
Book Trade 

No. of Sessions 
(1j Hours Each) 

Originally 
Planned Actual 

13 
2.8 
31 
31 
2.0 
2.0 

13 

10 

12. 
2.6 
15 
2.0 
IO 
6 

Instructors' Position in Library 

Asst. Librarian, Prep. Div. 
Head, Circulation Dept. Asst. Libr., Prep. Div. 
Head, ~ataloging Dept. 
Asst. Libr., Service Div. Head, Circulation Dept. 
Director of Libraries, Asst. to the Director 
Asst. Libr:, Service Div. 
Asst. Libr., Prep. Div. 

Trainee Graduate School Instruction 

A 
B 
c 
D 

English Literature 
Romance Languages 
Oriental Studies 
Russian Language and Literature 

Education for Future Librarians 
(Continued from page 102) 

of our time-personal relationships m 
modern society. We no longer trust each 
other; honesty and frankness are at a 
premium; faith and confidence have tended 
to disappear. "] trust nobody" increasingly 
characterizes modern society; the sense of 
insecurity in human relationships is wide-
spread. Fear haunts us; fear of being 
double-crossed; fear of being "taken in" ; 
fear of "sticking our necks out"; fear of 
being victimized by a black marketeer. 
Fear and lack of faith are partially respon-
sible for the hysteria, prejudice, religious 
fanaticism and diplomatic chicanery which 
characterizes ·the international scene today. 
Many of us will undoubtedly agree with 
the contention of Professor Howard Mum-

ford Jones, of Harvard University, that 
perhaps the most tremendous task before 
higher education is to seek out means of 
restoring between human being and human 
being that calm and confident relationship 
which our western culture has lost, is losing 
and will continue to lose until psychologist 
and physician, sociologist and anthropolo-
gist, by combining their studies, can per-
haps restore this faith to western man . 

The person looking forward to a career 
as a librarian, .who has this basic foundation 
in general edu(ation and on top of it builds 
the techniques and skills which he must 
have, is admirably equipped not only for his 
duties as a librarian but for his role as 
citizen as well. 

112 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES