Librarianship and Legitimacy: The Ideology of the Public Library Inquiry

by Douglas Raber

Overview

The decade prior to World War II was a time of intense introspection on the part of librarians. There was considerable controversy over whether librarianship constituted a science in any proper sense of the term. Education for librarianship was undergoing close scrutiny and reform. Issues related to federal aid, adult education, and rural library development were unresolved and subject to heated discussion. In the late 1940s the Public Library Inquiry was conceived to study and document the conditions, achievements, and weaknesses of public libraries and librarianship. For the next 40 years, the Inquiry set the tone and agenda for professional discourse about the purpose of the public library.

This book examines the professional and political ideology that informed and sustained the Public LIbrary Inquiry. The volumes of the Inquiry, while representing the results of research on the status of the public library and librarianship, also reveal a remarkably consistent ideological position that united them in a way perhaps unintended by their creators. Inherent in the Inquiry's discourse are particular notions and assumptions about the nature of American democracy, the public library, and relations between them. The Inquiry also reflects, in its recommendations, particular professional values that define what the public library's purpose ought to be if the library is to contribute meaningfully to a democratic culture, and gain social recognition of that contribution.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313302343
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	10/28/1997
Series:	Contributions in Librarianship and Information Science , #90
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

DOUGLAS RABER is Assistant Professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Tennessee. His professional experience includes reference and administrative positions in university and public libraries. His areas of research and publication are public libraries, national information policy and the nature of information culture.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Interpretive Context: Librarianship and Professional Ideology
The Public Library and the Postwar World
The Beginnings of the Public Library Inquiry
Leigh's Proposal
The Critique of the Public Library
The Critique of American Culture
Democracy and the Civic Library
The Political Strategy
Conclusion
Selected Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

The Public Library Inquiry of the 1940s was the most comprehensive research study of the US public library system conducted in this century. Its results contributed significantly to the development of modern public library practice. Raber (information sciences, U. of Tennessee) examines the political and professional ideology that informed the findings. He maintains that the inquiry provides a historical context for current ideological discourse among those interested in public librarianship. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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