College and Research Libraries LEO N. FLANAGAN Professionalisin Disinissed? Librarians hip is not a profession. Most librarians fail to meet, for want of substantive knowledge, the three measures of professional functions: significant service to clients, maintenance of independent judgment within institutional settings, and union with colleagues in a strong organization to ensure effective work. Paradoxically, the very failure in knowledge, and the consequent want of status, responsibil- ity, and income, produce insecurity and the emotional n·eed to com- pensate with the title "professional." Yet librarians' work manifests no profession of faith in bettering the human condition, no pursuit of excellence in knowledge and service. Most librarians are and w ill be advanced technicians until library education is considerably im- proved. SINCE MELVIL DEWEY CONFIDENTLY AF- FIRMED that librarians are "profession- als," a great cry of agreement has peri- odically flared in round after round of books and articles, all authored by li- brarians themselves. 1 These books and articles generally manifest enthusiastic, if not hysterical support for Dewey's as- sertion. Unfortunately such writings are too reminiscent of the many essays in ~which male librarians defend their mas- culinity; that is, writings on both sub- jects tend to present extravagant claims and little evidence. Large claims and small evidences be- tray librarians' uncertainty about their assumption of the professional title. The continued repetition of those large claims for several generations suggests that the uncertainty runs through the en- tire history of modern librarianship. Large claims offered again and again without proof imply that the librarians' claim to professionalism is a nonration- al, emotional need for status. Apparent- ly, like the medicine men of old and the politicians of the present, librarians Mr. Flanagan is a student at Simmons College, School of Librarianship, Boston, Massachusetts. assuage their doubts and confirm their beliefs in a proposition simply by re- peating it. By ceremonious repetition the proposition eventually assumes the qualities of a religious chant. But the librarians' belief in their pro- fessionalism, unlike a religious belief in grand universal directions; is a mean faith in their own self-importance, pro- ceeding from a realization (probably unconscious) of some personal insecur- ity, in power, reputation, income, knowledge, or human commitment; and from an acute need to compensate for the insecurity caused by the assumption of a status higher than one earned.2 As a librarian-to-be, I feel duty-bound to attack the myth that librarianship is a profession, be.cause it has no reason- able or scientific justification ·nor is one expected, and because it hurts librarians themselves. In short, the rriyth of pro- fessionalism allows them to live in a dream world, seeing thems~lves as re- deemers of men, noble · ·intellectual martyrs, the equals of :soc1ety's great men. In actuality they are low men in salary, prestige, training, · and genuine service to people. A hard and clear definition of the word "professional" would settle the /209 ' 210 I College & Research Libraries • May 1973 claim of librarians at once. Harold Lan- cour maintains that librarianship is a profession, just barely. 3 Bundy and Wasserman assert it is a profession, mar- ginally. 4 Both of these conclusions are curious in so far as they do not quite follow., especially in the Bundy and Wasserman case, from the evidence pre- sented. Bundy and Wasserman in partic- ular pose a clear and realistic definition of the word professional, a definition that would appear to exclude most li- brarians. They maintain that one's pro- fessionalism is determined by one's maintenance of three basic relation- ships. First, the professional must have the correct client relationship; i.e., he must undertake to serve other human beings. Second, he must have the correct institutional relationship; i.e., he must be able to exercise his individual judg- ment freely in his field with no danger of giving offense to his institution. Third, he must have the correct profes- sional group relationship; i.e., he must be a strong member of an effective pro- fessional association. The average li- brarian does not seem to satisfy all three relationships. THE CLIENT BELA TIONSHIP A characteristic deficiency of librar- ians is a lack of substantial specialized service. Librarians are compelled to keep their service simple because, ac- cording to Bundy and Wasserman, they simply lack "substantive knowledge" of their fields; therefore, they have little or nothing to serve to their clients, ex- cept tangible goods, books as objects. Librarians hide behind technique and clerical work to avoid exposure to cli- ents. The librarian exercises no real au- thority with his clients; his judgment could never command the respect of a client that a doctor's or lawyer's would. Paul Dunkin comments: Well, let's look at your doctor and your lawyer as a pair and your librari- an and my grocer as a pair. Each pair answers the needs of its users--or cli- ents if you prefer the word. The doc- tor and the lawyer decide what their clients need even though what they decide may not be what their clients want. The doctor may prescribe a diet and the lawyer may advise his client to confess. The librarian and the gro- cer give their clients what they want even though they may know that this is not what their clients need. If the fat man wants a pie, a pie he gets; if the boy flunking chemistry wants a sports story, a sports story is what he gets. 6 As Bundy and Wasserman observe, if the librarian bears a resemblance to any medical person it is to the druggist, who has little if any knowledge of his cus- tomers' ills and only the most superficial knowledge of his medicines. 6 Given the crises of this age, librari- ians' concern with forms, methods, and technicalities must give way to a concern for people. Librarians must look to the reference function , to the "innards" of books, and to people-lest like Borges' librarian in The Library of Babel they have all the books imaginable at hand but can give to no man even one volume to help him understand his life and his universe. Librarians must realize that this is the time of Martin Buber's 1- Thou relationships, the time of an earnest striving after human contact, after contact with the souls of men in books and bodies. The essence of a profession is the act of professing, of believing, of ac- tively avowing, of growing in a faith, in basic principles about man and h is universe. A profession is a constant r e- ligious faith; a professional is a priest of that faith. For a millenium and a half all professionals were clerics. The dogrrlas of a librarian's faith, were he a professional, would be simple and few. Men exist; they are occasional- ly reasonable; they can communicate reasonably through various media from . l pictographs to computers; it is better that they communicate reasonably than that they do not; someone should study men and the media of reasonable com- munication to see how the two are re- lated and how the relation may be im- proved; and someone should and can undertake the function of doing the re- lating, so that men may grasp fact (in- formation) and truth (the meaning of fact) good and necessary for them, their brethren, their world. With these beliefs a professional librarian would actively seek personal growth through a lifetime of training in theoretical and practical knowledge. Initially such train- ing would be formal; later it would oc- cur through special agencies, confer- ences, and institutes, as well as through self-study, experience, observation, crit- icism, research, and creative construc- tive work. Rich in knowledge and wisdom, the librarian as professional, with deep f aith in the religious articles listed above, would want to serve his fellow men, and would actually have some- thing with which to serve him. The per- son with such beliefs, knowledge, and motivation to serve, would expedite communication among men rather than hinder it. We would have no more hor- ror tales like the recent Bucknell Uni- versity one, for librarians would have the self-respect to stand up vigorously against such nonsense from the govern- ment. 7 We would hear no more charges so shameful as those from Marjorie Fiske about the librarians' own crude censorship in California. 8 We would not have David Beminghausen telling us that there is no reason to suppose li- brary students have read Mill or Mil- ton.9 We would not hear from R. W. Conant that librarians are not trained to manage metropolitan library systems and that some mafor changes must be made in library education. 10 We would not hear from Elizabeth Stone that 25 percent of all librarians did not read a Professionalism Dismissed? I 211 library-science book in the past year, or about the 77 percent who have done no research project since graduate school.ll We would not hear from Robert Leigh that only 10 percent of the population finds the public libraries worthwhile enough to use regularly.12 We would not hear from Helen Brown that only 14 percent of librarians in American colleges and universities can get full faculty status. 13 And we would not hear W. Stanley Hoole quoting Dr. Thomas Bray's Bibliothecae Americanae to the effect that it is impossible to be- lieve that those in charge ccshould be able to communicate to others, what they are not themselves first become mas- ters of," and asserting that librarians are still the lackeys, not the masters, of books.l 4 When librarians acquire professional faith and professional competence, there will be a real service relationship with clients, and the regular indictments of their continuing ineptitudes would cease. So too, many of the critical ar- ticles, such as this, would cease to be written, and we would all have much less negative material to read-a dis- tinct, albeit a peripheral, advantage. THE INSTITUTIONAL RELATIONSIDP As Bundy and Wasserman note, the true professional exercises independent judgment in the areas of his special knowledge, though he may work within an institution and be paid by same.15 For while the professional serves the client, his institution serves the profes- sional to help him help the client. For example, no hospital administrator can challenge the youngest doctor's prescrip- tion for a patient. Medical doctors are independent in their institutional rela- tionships because of the excellence of their knowledge and service. They have risen to the highest levels of profession- alism from that time only a century ago when they were considered at best good ! 212 I College & Research Libraries • May 1973 barbers, at .worst, dangers to the com- monweal, fatally inept quacks, and char- latans in their communities. What self-determination, what inde- pendence of judgment does the librari- an exercise within his institution? Paul Dunkin again has an answer for us: The doctor · and the lawyer perform their services within the framework set by their training, their experience, their profession, and their judgment; the grocer and the librarian perform their services within the framework of their training, their experience, their profession, and their bosses' decisions. Unless, of course, the grocer and the librarian happen to be the bosses themselves. 16 Bundy and Wasserman declare that the librarian exercises plenty of indepen- dence, but unfortunately in regard to the patron rather than the institution.17 Library institutions emphasize little in- dependent judgment and much loyalty to the library administrator and to the institutional status quo. The Code of Ethics for Librarians, by its .very tone, suggests that librarians should not rock the boat-at l~ast, not without an order from the ca ptain.18 Article one of the Code stresses the librarian's obligation, not to know, criticize, or independently judge, but to submit to ''governing au- thority," to "the library constituency," and to "the library as an institution." Item two emphasizes that the librarian is employed by his institution as a hired worker. Item three takes away any right to benefits that might accrue to a librar- ian assuming the status of hired work- er. Articles . four to eight of the Code define a W::lY of life for the librarian in no way observedly different from that of a factory employee. In the last part of the Code there is some talk of "initiative," and "criticism" -.a librarian should be careful not to seize initiative, however, until it has been delegated to him. And criticism may be offered only to the "proper authority." The rules of a monastery would hardly be more re- strictive than those of the librarians' Code of Ethics. Even the · "point of view" of the Code is unprofessional, for the librarian is told twenty-eight things he "should" do. The American Library Association itself views librari- ans (with the exception of the few who are directors, of course) simply as em- ployees, with little right of autonomous judgment. The problem is analogous to a growing problem in college teaching, in which the administration denies in- dividual judgment and decision to the faculty on matters of any importance to their teaching. Professionalism implies effectiveness in reaching one's goal of serving others in some way, effectiveness acquired by training, independence of judgment, an ethical obligation, and a national or- ganization. Professionalism, in short, implies the power to do what one says one wants to do. Librarians should be professionally efficient in selecting the best means of communication, in choosing quality rna-. terials from a mass of growing publica- tions, in judging new media and tech- nologies, in deciding new systems, in es- timating new patron needs. They should be professionally effective in finding money and spending it. They should be professionally able to divert those forces which would hinder communica- tions in this time of most critical prob~ lems: the government spies, the self-ap- pointed censors, and shifty, election- minded politicians. And they should even be effective at acquiring the broad knowledge they require to. be effective in all these other areas. W. Stanley Hoole asserts that the fault for librarians' want of knowledge lies in the one year programs of the H.- brary schools. 19 Library courses occu- py only a year of study; . many courses offer a historical or descriptive ap- proach rather than a critical one, par- • \ J ticularly the '·'core" co1.Irses, referred to as the "rotten .core."20 David Berning- hausen wants more study of the classics on freedom · ·of thought and speech.21 Robert Hayes has asked for administra- tive courses · in market research, ·pro- gram plann.illg~ res~arch and design, per- sonnel management, and budgeting.22 He also wants more information scien- tists and information specialists. Other critics have asked for courses on human relations, general business management, systems analysis, history, economics, so~ cial psychology~ psychology, any study that might aid the librarians in getting to know their ·patrons better. To these I would add: ari ·internship in a library (if possible, one with a . critical prob- lem); a course 'in the philosophy of li- brarianship; a co~rse in important con- temporary books ,from Malcolm X to Ivan Illich; a .coll;rse in literary or gen- eral scientifi"c. · critiCism. These might stimulate a lifelong interest in reading and research. Whatever curriculum reforms are emerging, all seem to urge a deeper and longer library-school education. The one year general graduate program now offered by library schools should not, and does not, confer professional knowledge. In the special case of the li- brarian, further education is necessary because of the critical need for human communication, because of the present problems that make such communica- tion diffic~ult, because those problems are likely to increase in the near future, and because problems of communica- tion are particularly appropriate to the librarian. THE PROFESSIONAL GROUP RELATIONSHIP The American Library Association is notoriously weak, so much so that one can have nightmares imagining what a medical doctor in a malpractice suit would do if he were backed only by ALA. To paraphrase Bundy and Was- Professionalism Dismissed? I 213 serman: theory, philosophy, and ethics have been evaded by ALA; · it has avoid- ed improving standards .for accredited li- brary schools; it does not press its aver- age member to keep up "in the field or maintain national relationships; it is held together by a few strong people who Work not as professionals for the profession but as politicians to preserve their own hierarchy. 23 Until librarians have more than a general level of train- ing, until they perform genuine public service on a wide scale, and until they develop independence in pursuit of their goals, they will ·not establish a strong national organization, nor will they see the necessity of doing so. To. make. themselves professionals, li~ brarians must demand library-school re- forms in admissions and curricula. My fear is not that reforms will not be made in the library schools, and then consequently in the field as a whole. My fear is that the reforms will not be made quickly enough, that librarians of today will jealously tum away brighter people who. might make them uncom- fortable tomorrow. My fear is that li- brarians will maintain their characteris- tic genteel poise between commitments while big unions and big business and big government and big electronic me- dia take over libraries and librarians' functions. Then librarians, if they re- main at all, will become civil slaves, and freedom of thought and speech and criticism will have been extinguished. The humane tradition will have been buried, and librarians will have lifted their spadeful of earth. REFERENCES 1. Melvil Dewey, "Librarianship as a Profes- fession," In: Of, By, and For Librarians, John David Marshall, ed. (Hamden, Conn.: Shoestring Press, 1960) p. 179- 81; reprinted from Library Journal 84:25-26 ( 1 Jan. 1959 ) . 2. Harold Lancour, "The Librarians' Search for Status," Library Quarterly 31:369-79 214 I College & Research Libraries • May 1973 (Oct. 1961). Reprinted in Seven Questions about the Profession of Librarianship. Phil- ip Ennis and Howard Winger, eds. (Chi- cago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1962). 3. Ibid. 4. Mary Lee Bundy and Paul Wasserman, "Professionalism Reconsidered," C RL 29: 5-26 (Jan. 1968). 5. Paul Dunkin, "Fresh Eggs Anyone?" In his Tales of Melvil's Mouser (New York: Bow- ker, 1970), p. 70. 6. Bundy and Wasserman, "Professionalism . . . ," p. 8. 7. Paul Cowan, "Bearing Witness," Library ]ournal97:2150--52 ( 15 June 1972). 8. Marjorie Fiske, Book Selection and Cen- sorship: A Study of School and Public Li- braries in California (Berkeley and Los Angeles: Univ. of California Press, 1968). 9. David Berninghausen, "Teaching a Com- mitment to Intellectual Freedom," Library Joumal92:3601-5 ( 15 Oct. 1967). 10. R. W. Conant, "Future of the Public Li- braries,'' Wilson Library Bulletin 44: 544- 9 (Jan. 1970). 11. Elizabeth Stone, Factors Related to the Professional Development of Librarians (Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1969). 12. Robert D. Leigh, The Public Library in the United States: The Report of the Public Library Inquiry (New York: Columbia University Press, 1950). 13. Helen Brown, "Personnel and Manpower Needs for the Future: Trends in College Librarianship," H. Vaile Deale, ed., Li- brary Trends 18:75-84 {July 1969). 14. W. Stanley Hoole, "Of the Librarian's Ed- ucation," In: Of, By and For Librarians John David Marshall, ed. (Hamden, Conn.: Shoestring Press, 1960), p. 240-50. 15. Bundy and Wasserman, "Professionalism . .. ," p. 15. 16. Dunkin, "Fresh Eggs ... ," p. 72 . 17. Bundy and Wasserman, "Professionalism ... ," p. 14. 18. "Code of Ethics for Librarians," ALA Bul- letin 33:128- 30 (Feb. 1939). 19. Hoole," ... Librarian's Education," p. 243- 50. 20. J. E. Daily, "Teaching the Rotten Core,'• Library Journal 97:1778-83 (15 May 1972). 21. Berninghausen, "Teaching a Commitment ... ," p. 1305. 22. Robert Hayes, "Commentary,'' Student Use of Libraries: An Inquiry into the Needs of Students, Libraries and Educational Process (Chicago: ALA, 1964). 23. Bundy and Wasserman, "Professiona1ism ... ," p. 25.