College and Research Libraries


586 I College & Research Libraries • November 1981 

cational approach. One gathers that prior to 
World War II, U.K. university libraries were 
well-selected, carefully targeted research col-
lections primarily for use by faculty scholars. 
Afterwards, with the expansion of enroll-
ments and the emergence of new universities, 
librarians had to pay more attention to un-
dergraduates. Thanks to the University 
Grants system, there was a brief period of 
expansion in the sixties. However, like U.S. 
librarians, the U.K. librarians had to con-
tend with declining financial resources in the 
seventies and the future seems unpromising. 
Nonetheless, as the editor notes, the best evi-
dence that university libraries will maintain 
the advances made in the last few decades 
may well be "the record of their achieve-
ments in the face of past adversity." 

Perhaps the reviewer should end on that 
optimistic note. In concluding, he does sug-
gest that this is a very good book for those 
pondering the future of university library de-
velopment in both the U.S. and the U.K. If 
read along with Arthur Hamlin's recent 
book, The University Library in the United 
States, this book might provide a better per-
spective not only on where we've been but on 
where we might be going.-Edward G. Hol-
ley, University of North Carolina at Chapel 
Hill. 

Coburn, Louis. Classroom and Field: The In-
ternship in American Library Education. 
Queens College Studies in Librarianship, 
no.3. Flushing, N.Y.: Queens College of 
the City University of N.Y., 1980. 77p. 
$7.50, paper. LC 80-25608. ISBN 0-
930146-14-X. ISSN 0146-8677. 
In his introduction to Classroom and 

Field: The Internship in American Library 
Education, Dr. Louis Coburn, a professor of 
library science at Queens College, states that 
his purpose in writing the volume was to pro-
vide impetus to a reappraisal of the intern-
ship process in library education. Since so 
many schools have introduced or reintro-
duced the internship into their programs and 
increasing numbers of educators and librar-
ians are involved, the material presented 
should be of interest to a larger audience than 
library school faculty. 

The first chapter of this slim volume gives 
an overview of internships and field experi-
ence from the time of Dewey (who, as is well 

known, advocated a system of apprentice-
ships) to survey studies of the mid-seventies. 
It is a succinct, well-documented account of 
the research, literature, and personal opin-
ions of librarians and educators on where 
field experience belongs in the curriculum, 
and would make a good starting point for 
learning or refreshing one's memory on the 
topic. 

The main part of the work is devoted to a 
study of the present status of the internship in 
the accredited library schools. The data are 
based primarily on the results of a question-
naire which Coburn sent to the schools in De-
cember 1977. Additional information was 
found in the official bulletins of the schools. 
Of the sixty-three schools queried, thirteen 
indicated that no formal internships were of-
fered. Five of the thirteen, however, were 

· Canadian schools with two-year programs 
which generally expect students to acquire 
experience on their own sometime before 
graduation. In addition to the text, tables 
and charts show details on various aspects of 
the internship programs such as amount of 
credit offered, hours of service required, 
whether remuneration is expected or al-
lowed, grading practices, and the evaluation 
process. Since Coburn's major interest was in 
t4e evaluation, all of chapter III is devoted to 
this topic. Rating scales and other types of 
evaluation forms both for supervisors and for 
students are discussed. Also considered is the 
thorny question of students' rights with re-
gard to the disposition of such records. 

In the fourth chapter the author presents a 
case study of the internship program at 
Queens Coflege from its inception in 1973 to 
the time of writing. Details are given on 
where the students interned, the types of 
evaluations used, how the students were 
rated, the term paper requirement, and the 
students' evaluation of their experience. The 
final chapter, followed by an extensive bibli-
ography, summarizes the findings and makes 
some specific recommendations based on 
them. 

The work is well written in a straightfor-
ward style and should be helpful. both to fac-
ulty and library supervisors. The many refer-
ences both in the notes and the bibliography 
will direct the reader to other studies for fur-
ther information. Its main drawback, how-
ever, is that it is based on data gathered in 



1977-78 and schools have undoubtedly made 
changes since then. Also, the study seems to 
be based on some assumptions that may not 
be valid: that all interns are working in li-
braries (many are in other types of informa-
tion agencies); that interns generally follow a 
pattern of varied experiences such as rotation 
among departments (a fair number now in-
tern only in government documents, special 
collections, or some other specialized area), 
and finally that information gleaned from 
questionnaires and bulletins reflects an accu-
rate picture (bulletins are often out-of-date as 
soon as they are published because of the va-
garies of the printing process in many institu-
tions, and questionnaires are sometimes an-
swered by harried library school admin-
istrators who answer the questions the way 
they believe things to be without checking 
with the people involved). For these reasons 
and because of the many variables inherent 
in any internship program, a series of case 
studies such as the one presented on the 
Queens College program might be more 
helpful than an overview of all the programs. 

Recent Publications I 581 

Nonetheless, the present study is worth read-
ing, especially for those newly involved in 
internship programs.-Lucille Whalen, 
State University of New York at Albany. 

Essays from the New England Academic Li-
brarians' Writing Seminar. Edited by Nor-
man D. Stevens. Metuchen, N.J.: Scare-
crow, 1980. 230p. $12.50. LC 80-21502. 
ISBN 0-8108-1365-3. 
Why don't librarians write well? How can 

they improve their writing skills? These ques-
tions intrigued University of Connecticut li-
brarian Norman D. Stevens. Stevens, himself 
a writer with numerous publications to his 
credit, reasoned that a setting promoting pro-
fessional growth and interchange would 
prove ideal for a writing seminar. He had 
known such an environment while serving on 
the executive committee of the New England 
library cooperative (NELINET), and he felt 
that in a similar setting a small group of li-
brarians could work together to improve 
their writing. 

A grant from the Council on Library Re-

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