College and Research Libraries


KENNA FORSYTH and JOHN F. HARVEY 

Drexel Library School Students 

Where Do They Come from and Where Do They Go? 

Examination was made of recent graduates of Drexel's library science 
program to determine .their baccalaureate origins, their original resi-
dences, and the positions they held following graduation. Although 
these graduates came from homes in eighteen states, most originated 
in the Middle Atlantic area and the N ortheas.t-60 per cent from 
Pennsylvania. They had graduated from 161 colleges and universities, 
65 per cent of which were in the Middle Atlantic and Northeastern 
areas. Fifty-eight per cent accepted positions in the state of their 
original residence. Further statistics showing geographic distribution 
are given in five appended tables. 

THE PURPOSE of this study of Drexel 
Institute of Technology library science 
graduates is to note and draw conclu-
sions from ( 1 ) the original residence 
of each student before his Drexel enroll-
ment; ( 2) the areas in which these grad-
uates now hold jobs, especially as those 
areas coincide with the original "home" 
areas; and, ( 3) equally as interesting, 
the undergraduate colleges and universi-
ties which the students represent. 

The statistics used for this study were 
compiled from various student groups: 
( 1) for residence, the 1960-63 graduat-
ing classes, totaling 221 students; ( 2) for 
the undergraduate colleges and universi-
ties attended, from the graduates of 
1954-60, and the students enrolled in 
January 1964. Drexel's fifty information 
science majors were not included in this 
study. 

It must be understood that this study 

Miss Forsyth is Bibliographical Assistant 
and Dr. Hqrvey is Dean, Graduate School of 
Library Science, Drexel Institute of Tech-
nology, Philadelphia. 

138/ 

is limited by the span of years being con-
sidered in each set of statistics. Conclu-
sions are not necessarily applicable to all 
Drexel graduates or to all periods of 
time. They are also limited by the low 
level of statistical significance of most of 
the figures used. One of the values of this 
study may lie in its uniqueness, however, 
since it is one of the few descriptions of 
its kind in existence in library literature. 
It is essentially a study of primary and 
secondary student markets. 

ORIGINAL RESIDENCE 

The original residences of Drexel1960-
1963 graduates represented eighteen 
states plus the District of Columbia. Ta-
ble 1 summarizes original residences. 
The biggest concentration is in the Mid-
dle Atlantic and Northeast areas. Sixty 
per cent of the students came from 
Pennsylvania and, except for the 4 per 
cent coming from western Pennsylvania, 
all of theni were from Philadelphia and 
eastern Pennsylvania. The latter is being 
considered separate from Philadelphia in 
this study, mainly because of the signifi-



Drexel Library School Students I 139 

TABLE 1 

GRADUATES 1960-63 GEOGRAPIUC STUDY 

RESIDENCE WHEN LOCATION OF 
APPLYING FOR PRESENT POSITION 

ADMISSION PERCENT 

AREA Total 

Eastern Pennsylvania . 66 
Philadelphia 57 
Western Pennsylvania . 8 
New Jersey . . . . . . 
Maryland, District of Columbia, and 

22 

Virginia 16 
Foreign Countries . 15 
New York and New England 14 
Delaware . . 11 
Other States • 0 • 0 • 12 
Not working in the library field 0 

Total 221 

cance of the number of students which 
Drexel draws from the city itself. Eastern 
Pennsylvania, which includes suburban 
Philadelphia, comprises the rest of the 
eastern half of the state. 

Ten per cent of the students were 
from New Jersey; 7 per cent from Mary-
land, District of Columbia, and Virginia 
combined; 6 per cent from New York 
and New England combined; and 5 per 
cent from Delaware. Five and a half per 
cent of the students came from other 
states: the South being represented by 
six students from five states; the West by 
five students from three states; and West 
Virginia by one student. Seven per cent 
of the students came from foreign coun-
tries. The Far East was well represented 
by ten students. The Middle West, sur-
prisingly enough, provided no students 
in this four-year period. No students 
came from South America or Europe. 

Examination of these figures reveals 
that the geographic areas Drexel serves 
are logical ones. There seem to be two 
principal factors determining the states 
from which Drexel attracts students. The 
first is proximity to Philadelphia. The 
second is whether or not the student's 
home state .is served by a library school 
of its own, or at least one that is closer 
than Philadelphia. These two factors 
explain why certain states are better 

RETURNING TO 
Per Cent Total Per Cent ORIGINAL AREA 

30 55 24 56 
26 60 28 72 

4 6 2 25 
10 19 9 64 

7 19 9 81 
7 7 3 20 
6 21 10 50 
5 10 5 55 
5 13 5 33 
0 11 5 ... . 

100 221 100 Average: 58 

represented at Drexel than others. The 
two factors do not necessarily act with 
equal impact on the same area; for ex-
ample, the farther away a state is, the 
more important the factor of proximity 
becomes. 

Distance largely explains why other 
countries contributed only 7 per cent of 
Drexel's students and why the southern 
and western states were represented by 
only 5~ per cent of the students. The fact 
that the Midwest was not represented 
probably can be attributed equally to 
the distance and the presence in that 
area of several library schools. 

The closer the state was to Philadel-
phia, the more students it sent to Drexel. 
Thus, 85 per cent of the students came 
from the five-state Middle Atlantic area 
comprising Pennsylvania ( 60 per cent)~ 
New Jersey (10 per cent), Maryland (6 
per cent), Delaware ( 5 per cent), and 
New York ( 4 per cent). It is to be ex-
pected that Pennsylvania would have the 
highest percentage. 

New York and New Jersey no doubt 
would have had higher percentages if 
both had not had accredited library 
schools. A look at comparative 1960 state 
population figures will explain why 
Maryland and Delaware, neither of 
which had a library school, were repre-:-
sented by relatively few students; they 



140 I College & Research Libraries • March, 1965 

ranked fourth and fifth in total popula-
tion among the five states providing the 
most students at Drexel. The following 
table shows the ratio of students to the 
1960 population of the respective states: 

Delaware . 
Eastern Pa. 
Pa. . 
Maryland 
N.J. 
N.Y. 

1 student for every 40,572 
1 student for every 57,604 
1 student for every 86,407 
1 student for every 221,478 
1 student for every 275,763 
1 student for every 1,678,235 

Probably most library schools draw 
most heavily from their immediate areas 
amlleast well from distant areas. Danton 
and Merritt found 87 per cent of Cali-
fornia graduates, 1920-48, to have been 
California residents at the time of en-
trance.1 Howe found a heavy concentra-
tion of Denver students from the Rocky 

1 J. P. Danton and LeRoy Merr itt, Char a cte1·istics 
of th e Graduates of the Univer sity of Califor nia 
School of Librariansh ip (Occasional Pap ers No . 22 
[Urbana~ Univers ity of Illinois, 195 1] ) , p .2. 

Mountain area; 2 Wilson found that 72 
per cent of Illinois students came from 
the Middle West and nearly one-fourth 
from Illinois.3 Table XV of the Associa-
tion of American Library Schools 1959-
60 enrollment statistics shows that two 
schools, Catholic and Michigan, attract-
ed students from more than half of the 
states of the Union, and that Drexel 
ranked twelfth of thirty-one schools, 
with twelve states represented. 4 

UNDERGRADUATE COLLEGES 

The 161 undergraduate colleges and 
universities represented by the students 
enrolled in January 1964 were located in 
thirty-three states and the District of 

2 H . E . Howe, " A Study of the University of 
Denver School of Librarianship Graduates , 1932-38," 
Library Quarterly , X (October, 1940), 532-44. 

3 Eug ene Wilson, " Pre-Profes sional Backg round 
of Students in a Library School," L i brary Quarterly , 
VIII ( April 1938 ), 169. 

4 " Accredited Library School Enrollment Statistics: 
1959-60," Journ al o f Educati on for Libr arianship, 
IV ( Winter 1964), 169- 81. 

TABLE 2 

LIBRARY SciENCE S T UDENTs ENROLLED, ]ANUARY 1964 
UNDERGRADU ATE CoLLEGES REPRESENTED 

~ ~ ~ till 
till till ~ .S! .S! 0 0 0 

Q ~ Q ~ 
Q 

~ .... Ql Ql 2l Ql 
0 Q .~ Q "' 

Q 

:0 ;> 0 ... ... "i:: ... 'II ::I 'II Ql z ll< Po. Po. Po. Po. 
------------

Pennsylvania 48 30 .7 13 41 38 
New York 17 11 5 9 12 10 
New J ersey 6 4 3 6 3 3 
New England 19 11 3 6 16 15 
Delaware, 

District of Colum-
bia, Maryland, 
Virginia, W est 
Virginia 14 9 9 16 5 5 

South 12 7 6 11 6 6 
Midwest and 

Far West 35 22 16 30 19 18 
Foreign 10 6 5 9 5 5 

------------
Total 161 100 54 100 107 100 
Per Cent of Total 33 67 

Number of States Represented: 33 plus District of Columbia 
Students from Ivy League colleges: 39 
Students from other prestige colleges: 32 

., 
tl :0 I: 
Ql 

::I 
~ Po. 
::s till U) ~ ~gj .... Ql 
0 Q ~:till 

Ql Ql 

0 ... ..,;::::: Ql +>o z Po. <o 
------

165 51 33 
27 8 11 
13 4 10 
34 10 3 

19 6 13 
12 4 6 

43 13 22 
12 4 7 

------
325 100 105 

32 

2l 
"' > 'i: 

Po. 
till 

~ ·= ~ i:: Ql Ql 
Q ]~ Q 
... ~= ... 
Ql +>o Ql 

Po. <o Po. 
------

31 132 60 
10 16 7 
10 3 1 

3 31 14 

12 6 3 
6 6 3 

21 21 10 
7 5 2 

------
100 220 100 

68 



Drexel Library School Students I 141 

Columbia. Table 2 summarizes this pic-
ture. Sixty-five per cent of the colleges 
were in the Middle Atlantic and North-
east areas. Pennsylvania led with 30 per 
cent of the total. Twenty per cent of the 
colleges were located in the Midwest, 7 
per cent in the South, and California-
the only state represented west of the 
Mississippi-had 2 per cent, or three col-
leges. Six per cent were foreign. In a 
previous study, Danton and Merritt 
found 81 per cent of California gradu-
ates to have bachelors degrees from Cali-
fornia colleges, a striking concentration. 5 

Sixty-seven per cent of the colleges 
were private, and 33 per cent were pub-
lic. The private colleges were most heav-
ily concentrated in the Middle Atlantic 
and Northeast areas; the public colleges 
were in the Midwest and South. The per-
centage of private colleges may seem 
high, but Drexel's primary service area is 
the East, which has a relatively high per-
centage of private colleges, and more 
private college graduates seem to be at-
tracted to a privately supported library 
school than would be attracted to a pub-
lic institution. Howe found much the 
same picture for D enver graduates (con-
centration in private institutions), 6 but 
Wilson found Illinois students divided 
evenly between public and private insti-
tutions.7 

By comparing the percentages of col-
leges attended in each state with the per-
centage of students attending them, as 
shown in Table 2, it can be seen that the 
closer the state is to Philadelphia, the 
more heavily concentrated were the stu-
dents from these colleges. For example, 
Pennsylvania had 30 per cent of the col-
leges and 51 per cent of the students, 
New England 11 and 10 per cent, New 
Jersey and New York 15 and 12 per cent. 
On the other hand, the Midwest and Far 
West had 22 per cent of the colleges but 
only 13 per cent of the students attended 

5 Danton and Merritt, op. cit., p.2. 
6 Howe, op. cit., p.533. 
~ Wilson, op. cit., pp .15 7-88 . 

them, and the South had 7 per cent and 
4 per cent. 

Twenty-two per cent of the students 
went to Ivy League or other high-pres-
tige colleges and universities. 8 

Tables 3 and 4 summarize individual 
colleges attended. The leading feeder 
colleges in 1954-60 were the University 
of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania State Uni-
versity (not shown), Temple (not 
shown), Ursinus, Delaware, and Millers-
ville. Combined, they provided 25 per 
cent of the 497 Drexel students. 

There is a considerable concentration 
of the colleges in Table 3 around Phila- · 
delphia, eleven of the twenty colleges 
being in the city ( 1) or its suburbs ( 10). 

8 The designation "high-prestige" is based on a 
rating of top colleges and universities compiled by 
Chesly Manly in N ewsweek, May 6, 1959, p.74. 

TABLE 3 

UNDERGRADUATE COLLEGES LEADING IN 

ENROLLMENT AT DREXEL 

1954-1960 

Approx i- Percentage 
mate of Total 

Under- Under-
graduate Graduates graduate 
Enroll- at Enroll-

Colleges ment* Drexel mentt 

Ursinus . 800 18 2.3 
Eastern Baptist 300 6 2.0 
Immaculata 600 7 1.2 
Wilson 500 5 1.0 
E arlham 800 6 0.8 
Chestnut Hill 600 5 0.8 
Maryville . 600 5 0.8 
Haverford . 400 3 0.8 
Bryn Mawr 900 6 0.7 
Beaver 600 4 0.7 
Juniata . 700 5 0.7 
Millersville State 1,500 10 0.7 
Univ. of 

D elaware . 2,000 14 ·o.7 
Swarthmore . 900 5 0.6 
Dickinson . •I 1,000 5 0.5 
Susquehanna . 600 3 0.5 
Univ. of 

Pennsylvania . 
W estern 

12,000 47 0.4 

Maryland . 700 3 0.4 
West Chester 

State 2,000 5 0.3 
Vassar 1,200 3 0.3 

* Figures from The W()rld Almanac, 1961. 
t Column 4 is obtained by dividing the numbers in 

column 3 by those in column 2. Of course, the statis-
tical level of significance of these figures is low. 



142 I College & Research Libraries • March, 1965 

TABLE 4 
UNDERGRADUATE COLLEGES LEADING IN 

ENROLLMENT AT DREXEL 
jANUARY 1964~ 

Approxi-
mate 

Under- Per Cent 
graduate Graduates of Total 
Enroll- at Enroll-

Colleges mentt Drexel ment:j: 

Ursin us 900 6 0.6 
Immaculata . 700 4 0.6 
West Chester 

State 2,400 12 0.5 
Rosemont . 600 3 0.5 
Univ. of 

Pennsylvania . 12,000 31 0.3 
Temple. 16,000 32 0.2 
Smith 2,300 5 0.2 
Buckneli 2,400 4 0.2 
Wellesley . 1,700 3 0.2 
Glassboro State 1,600 3 0.2 
Wilkes 1,500 3 0.2 
Radcliffe 1,500 3 0.2 
MiddleburY : 1,300 3 0.2 
Pennsylvania 

State Univ. 15,000 12 0.1 
Rutgers 5,800 6 0.1 
Hunter . 6,900 5 0.1 
Columbia . 4,000 3 0.1 

*Notice that this table differs somewhat from 
Table 4 in covering the enrollment for only one 
quarter. The tables use the same minimum number 
of Drexel students, three for each college, however, 
and also omit certain universities which provided 
more than three students but had a low score in 
column 4. ' 

t Based on figures from Lovejoa/s College Guide, 
1961-62. 

:j: Column 4 is obtained by dividing the numbers in 
column 3 by those in column 2. Of course, the sta-
tistical level of significance of these figures is low. 

Two of the colleges, Earlham and Mary-
ville, were more than five hundred miles 
away, however, and several others were 
more than one hundred miles away. 

It seems clear that the small liberal 
arts college scored best in Table 3, few 
state colleges ( 2) or large universities 
( 1 ) being represented. Colleges with 
strong religious emphasis (perhaps 6) 
and with primarily women students ( 7) 
seem to have been represented in better-
than-average numbers, and one men's 
college was included. In percentage of 
the student body represented at Drexel, 
Ursinus, Eastern Baptist, Immaculata, 
and Wilson obviously were prime feed-
ers. 

Sixty-three, or 19 per cent, of the total 

number for 1964 went to the University 
of Pennsylvania and Temple University 
combined, as shown in Table 4. West 
Chester State, Pennsylvania State Uni-
versity, and Ursinus College also were 
leaders. Certain out-of-state colleges 
were well represented: Rutgers Univer-
sity (even though it has a library school 
of its own), Hunter, and Smith. 

Although Temple University and the 
University of Pennsylvania led all col-
leges in providing students, their student 
bodies were also quite large. In terms of 
percentage of total enrollment, the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania sent 0.3 per cent 
of its students (or 1 for every 325 en-
rolled) to Drexel, and Temple sent 0.2 
per cent ( or 1 for every 500 students ) . 

Outstanding in the percentage of their 
students who enrolled at Drexel were 
U rsinus, with approximately 0.6 per cent 
(or 1 Drexel student for every 150 U r-
sinus students enrolled) ; Immaculata ( 1 
for every 175 students ) , West Chester ( 1 
for every 200 students ) , and Rosemont 
( 1 for every 200 students) . These were 
prime feeders for Drexel. All are located 
within twenty miles of Philadelphia. Sev-
eral other colleges located from one to 
ten miles away, however, sent fewer stu-
dents. 

Of the colleges listed in Tables 3 and 
4, only four are repeated: Ursinus, Im-
maculata, University of Pennsylvania, 
and West Chester State. In terms of per-
centages they were the most consistent 
prime feeders. To the list of institutions 
consistently sending comparatively large 
numbers of students, Temple, Delaware, 
and Pennsylvania State University should 
be added. Large universities ( 6) in-
creased considerably in the second list 
and colleges with religious emphasis de-
creased. Average college enrollment 
went up considerably. The number of 
Ivy League or other high-prestige col-
leges remained about the same, about 
half a dozen in each list. Institutions with 
city or state support increased in num-
ber. This level of concentration may be 



Drexel Library School Students I 143 

compared with that found by Danton 
and Merritt in which about 50 per cent 
of their students had bachelors degrees 
from one campus, that at Berkeley, 9 and 
with Richards who found 68 per cent 
to have done their undergraduate work 
at the University of Washington.10 

LocATION oF PosiTIONs 

Fifty-eight per cent of Drexel Library 
Science graduates accepted positions in 
the state of their original residence. But 
the longer the distance the student had 
to come to Drexel, the less likely he was 
to return to his home area to work, as is 
shown in Table 5. Thus, the five states in 
the Philadelphia area had the highest 
rate of return. Maryland was highest, 
with 85 per cent of its residents return-
ing. The rate of return to Philadelphia 
was 72 per cent. New Jersey was next, 
with 64 per cent, followed by Delaware 
and New York, with 55 and 33 per cent 
respectively, below the average. Howe, 
Richards, and Morton also found heavy 
concentrations of graduates returning to 
the region, or even the state, around the 
school which produced them. 11 

9 Danton and Merritt, op. cit., p.2. 
1 0 J. S. Richards, "Regional Service of a Library 

School," PNLA Quarterly, V (January 1941), 79-82. 
11 Howe, op. cit., p.540 ; Richards, op. cit., p.SO ; 

F. F. Morton, "First 504," Louisiana Library As-
sociation BuUetin, X (January 1947), 39-41. 

For the most part, the graduates from 
those states with lower rates of return 
accepted positions in the Pennsylvania 
area, probably most of them in Philadel-
phia. For example, 27 per cent from 
Belaware accepted positions in Pennsyl-. 
vania, as did 33 per cent from the west-
ern and southern states. Of those from 
foreign countries who did not return to 
their original residences, 33 per cent ac-
cepted positions in Pennsylvania, and 27 
per cent accepted positions in New York 
state. 

The fact that 42 per cent did not re-
turn to their home areas to work indi-
cates a fair amount of geographic mobil-
ity. Although no one state or city at-
tracted the graduates in excessively large 
numbers, 87 per cent did go to the Mid-
dle Atlantic and Northeast areas. 

Approximately the same percentage 
accepted positions in an area as came 
from that area, though the two groups 
were not necessarily made up of the 
same people. For example, about 60 per 
cent of the total number of students 
came from Pennsylvania and 55 per cent, 
upon graduation, accepted positions 
there. Likewise, 5 per cent came from 
Delaware, and 5 per cent went there for 
positions. 

There were, however, some differences 

TABLE 5 

ORIGINAL RESIDENCE TOTAL 

Eastern Pennsylvania . 66 
Philadelphia . . . 57 
Western Pennsylvania 8 
New Jersey . . . 
Maryland, District of 

22 

Columbia, and 
Virginia 16 

Foreign . .. . . 15 
New York and New 

England 14 
Delaware 11 
Other states 12 

Total 221 

NuMBERs OF GRADUATES 1960-63 
GEOGRAPHIC STUDY 

PRESENT POSITION 

Md., 
D.C. For-

E. Pa. Phila. W. Pa. N.J. & Va. eign 
------------

37 7 3 1 2 4 
6 41 0 2 2 0 
3 2 2 0 0 0 
4 0 0 14 0 0 

1 2 0 0 13 0 
1 4 0 0 0 3 

0 1 0 2 1 0 
1 1 1 0 0 0 
2 2 0 0 1 0 

--------
55 60 6 19 19 7 

Not 
N.Y.& Other Work-
N.Eng. Del. States ing 
--------

3 3 1 5 
1 0 3 2 
1 0 0 0 
1 1 2 0 

0 0 0 0 
5 0 1 1 

7 0 1 2 
1 6 1 0 
2 0 4 1 

--------
21 10 13 11 



144 I College & Research Libraries • March, 1965 

in the percentage of students originating 
from and the percentage accepting posi-
tions in certain areas. Most ofthese dif-
ferences were slight, except-perhaps-
for that of the foreign countries. For ex-
ample, more graduates accepted posi-
tions in New York and New England ( 10 
per cent) than came from that area ( 6 
per cent), probably because of the at-
traction of New York City. On the other 
hand, fewer accepted positions in eastern 
Pennsylvania ( 24 per cent) than came 
from there ( 30 per cent). This is also 
true of foreign countries, with 3 per 
cent accepting positions abroad, al-
though 7 per cent came from there orig-
inally. 

Eleven of the graduates are ·not work-
ing as librarians at the present time. 
Though this may seem to be a low rate, 
it is still a disappointment if only be-
cause of the shortage of librarians. Five 
are women-all of whom are housewives 
and are not gainfully employed. The 
·other four are men-one is a parish 
priest, one an assistant professor of his-
tory, another is continuing his studies, 
the occupation of one is unknown; two 
are deceased. 

For purposes of clarification and correc-
tion, the author of the paper "Statistical 
Method for Circulation Analysis ," CRL 
XXV, 488-90, retraces as follows the per-
tinent mathematical formulae: 

Let T = number of days of observation 
N = total number of loans 
A1 = length of time copy was kept out 
A = average length of time all copies 

were kept out 
then 

A1 = (sum of A1)/N 
= 102/ 15 
= 6.8 

CONCLUSIONS 

Several additional conclusions can be 
drawn from this study. Drexel had a 
fairly broad geographic base in terms of 
the residences and undergraduate col-
leges represented by its students; for 
example, 35 per cent of the colleges at-
tended were not in the East. It attracted 
students more by virtue of their home 
residences than their colleges, as can be 
seen by comparing the difference be-
tween eighteen states representing orig-
inal residences and thirty-three repre-
senting the colleges attended. 

To some extent Drexel served as a 
Philadelphia or Delaware Valley library 
school; 50 per cent of its students listed 
Philadelphia as their residence, and 26 
per cent went to colleges in that area. To 
an even greater extent, however, Drexel 
tended to serve the five-state region 
around it; 85 per cent of the students 
resided in that area prior to admission, 
and 67 per cent went to colleges in these 
states. It is obvious that Drexel served 
to a much lesser extent as a national or 
international library school. 

•• 

Corrigenda 
Nav . = average number of books on loan 

= (N/ T) X (A) 
= 2.55 

S = standard deviation 
= v(sum of (Ai- A))/ N 
= v102.4/ 15 
= 2.61 

N99% = Nav + 3S 
= 2.55 + 3 X 2.61 
= 10.38 
= maximum number of books on 

loan 99 per cent of the time. 

•• 
I