Library Education in the U.S.: An Historical Analysis
Michael Lorenzen (2001) asserted that from the very beginning of academic library instruction in the United States, it was noted that lecturing was not necessarily the most effective way of educating students about the library. Many key actors in developing library education argued in favor of active learning rather than lectures as the primary and best approach to providing future librarians with an in-depth understanding of the profession and its demands. Building upon concepts advanced by Jean Jacques Rousseau and John Dewey, academic librarians implemented a program of active learning that began to be implemented in the late nineteenth century with the goal of ensuring that librarians would become scholars. It is this fundamental orientation that has over time shaped library science education programs.
There have been generally five periods in the development of library education. Wilson and Hermanson (1998) identify these periods as before Melvil Dewey, from Melvil Dewey to Williamson, from approximately 1919 to 1939, from approximately 1940 to 1960, and from 1960 to the present. Prior to Melvil Dewey's efforts to develop the first formal library school at Columbia University in 1887, as early as 1829 the need for a library training school was recognized by Martin Schrettinger in Munich. However, it would be the work of Melvil Dewey in the United States that would establish formal training programs for librarians who were seen as fulfilling an important function in institutions of higher learning which, as the nineteenth century came to a close, were accumulating more formal collections as governments and private institutions also began to support other types of libraries (Wilson & Hermanson, 1998).
The period frol Dewey to Willi`mson saw the establishment of the Columbia University School of Library Science which became a model for other such schools (Loren...