College and Research Libraries


By WINtFRE_D VER NOOY 

UniverSity Reference Work 
After the W at 
The president of the Association of College 
and Reference Libraries elaborates an earlier 
message by calling attention to activities that 
may require new emphasis in the years ahead. 

U NDEk the general educational plan for ex-service . men recommended by the 
National Resources Planning Board1 · and 
the American Council on Education, 2 many 
more men and . women will be attending 
high school and college during the next few 
years than ever before. The program of 
the individual student may include courses 
leading to general, technical, or professional 
education, depending upon his qualifications 

' and his interests. The studei].t body of a 
university will be made up as before of 
young students who have come to . college 
just out ' of high school, the graduate stu-
dents who have continued straight through 
college into graduate work~ and the grad-
uate students who have returned after sev-
eral years of teaching or business experience. 
Added to this will be the service men and 
women who are returning to the classrooms 
after mustering out and those who have 
been employed in the many war industries. 
Faculty who have remained in the univer-
sity and taught regular students, the V-12's, 
the Army Specialized Training Program, 
and the Civil Air Training Service and the 

1 National Resourc es Planning Board. Repot:t of 
the Conference on Postwar Readjustment of Civilian 
and Military Personnel. D emobiliz ation an d Readjust-
m ent. June 1943. -

2 American Council on Education. A D esign for 
Gen eral Education . Washington, American Council 
on . Education, 1944. (Series I. Reports of Committees 
a nd Confe rences , no. 18.) 

faculty who have been in military service or 
advising in go~ernmental. cap~cities in 
Washington, will be returning to their 
positions in the universities. 

All of these people need the best library 
service-possible. Our library methods must 
keep pace ·with the educational program of 
the university. The -reference room is the 
pivotal point that should improve or main-
tain its reputation. In fact, it should do all 
possible to increase· its influence and im-
portance in the lives of the student body, 
the faculty, and the research · staff. Those 
who have been in military service will have 
been under · Army and Navy discipline. 
They will want to. get away from all un-
necessary red tape in the use of the library, 
the .need for which is hard for an outsider 
to- . understand. 

A little self~surveying might be good for 
all . of us. In training people ,to live and to 
study and to teach in the postwar world, 
the · university libraries have an important 
role. They should take stock of their own 
organization and see what is unimportant 
in the plans of the particular library. With 
the much larger student body in the next 
few years, there will be more and more 
demand upon the resources of the library, 
and every member of the staff should 
attempt to be a little more efficient in his 
work. This hardly seems possible in the 
case of many people. Perhaps, though, 
even the most efficient persons can thinlc of 
ways to s~ve a little time i~ one place in 

106 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



order to do something else that will help 
make the library more effective in the post-
war years. This is especi~lly important for 
the reference libr~rians, for they, with the 
circulation staff, are the ones who give the 
public the impression of the whole library. 
Readers judge a library by the staff they 
meet, not by the staff behind the scenes who 
do the important work of preparing books 
'for the shelves. 

We must have those books that are valu-
able in following up the interests of the 
men who have been in Europe, the Pacific, 
Africa, and out-of'-the-way foreign parts. 
We must have reference materials as well 
as books of description and history and 
probably translations of foreign literatures. 
We must have titles on the current topics 
being discussed in the daily ne~spapers, 
such as social and economic security, world 
peace, and the new discoveries in science. 
We must also have a good collection of 
material on ways to spend leisure time both 
profitably and interestingly. 

These books should be made available 
promptly, that is, the processing depart-
ments must work quickly so that items of 
current interest may not be held up for 
weeks waiting for Library of Congress 
cards. After the books are ready for circu-
lation, we should do everything we can to 
make it possible for the students to find 
them easily. Special shelves for new titles, 
short lists of interesting new books, book 
news in the college paper-are possible ways 
of advertising. We must remember that 
there are many of the faculty and students 
who do not like to ask questions if they can 
possibly find the material they want by 
themselves. 

In addition to books, we must plan for 
the use of instructional films and records in 
classrooms and in the library. The use of 
audio-visual methods of instruction is grow-
ing by leaps and bounds. It is an important 

MARCH~ 1945 

matter to be considered in planning a li-
brary for the future. The men coming 
back from service have been having a good 
deal of their instruction in this manner. 

The reference staff should watch more 
carefully than ever the bibliographical pub-
lications listing new material in all fields 
that might be ·useful. The book budget 
should always be stretched to include the 
purchase of timesaving bibliographical ma-
terial. They should watch to see if new 
indexes should be undertaken or if new 
publications should be indexed in those al-
ready being published. 

Reference librarians will be eternally 
grateful for such ven~ures as the Union 
List of ·Serials and the list of A merjcan 
Newspapers~ 1821-1936. They all mean 
the saving of hours and hours of cor-
respondence with other libraries all over 
the country to locate material. Such pub-
lished lists, as well as the great union cata-
log in the Library of Congress, make 
research possible with greater speed and 
ease than ever before. They are tangible 
evidence of the value of cooperation. 

What other cooperative undertakings are 
there that we should all support, either 
nationally or regionally? They seem like 
large pieces of work when first suggested 
and when carried· out, but their value should 
be considered over a period of years. 
Would union lists ·of university publica-
tions, of master's theses and doctoral dis-
sertations, or of foreign newspapers in · 
American libraries, be helpful? 

We can do still more in helping students 
to help themselves. Many colleges and 
universities do have courses on the use of 
the library and #s resources, but there are 
still institutions that lack such systematic 
instruction. Students like to do things for 
themselves and they will enjoy the informa-
tion they acquire that will enable them to 

{Continued on page 141) 

107 

-

' 



' . 
irhe instructor-librarian must learn to 

select "representative" materials. All iides 
of any question should be presented and, 
by counseling; the student can be trained to 
look for the signs which point to the atti-
tude most useful for his purpose. A Great 
Teacher once said that a tree is known by 
its fruits. In the examination of materials 
dealing with a political system, for instance, 
this rule can be applied. It seems obvious 
that any political organization which pro-
hibits sane vocal, physical, or mental ex-
pression is far from democratic. The 
student who is encouraged to be critical in 
his reading will not be too gullible. 

Finally, the librarian should stand ready 
to assist the teacher in providing the physical 
setting necessary. In addition to shelf space 
for books, the teacher must have a seminar 
room and an office for consultation. Both 
of these rooms should be in or adjacent 
to the library. The physical needs of rooms 
and equipment are an important considera-
tion, for we have found that enthusiasm in 
student and teacher varies according to the 

availability of the materials and the ease 
with which they are used. 

To some observers the plan outlined 
above may seem to be nothing more than the 
regular seminar method. It is an adapta-
tion, but its peculiar feature is the im-
mediate guidance by the teacher. Assuming 
that most undergraduates are not qualified 
to do completely independent research, this 
procedure nevertheless lifts teacher and 
student above the level of the "dishing-out, 
lapping-up" process so common today. 

• It is a happy medium designed so that 
the teacher may have time to encourage 
the more serious student while preparing 
him to do graduate research. On the other 
hand, the student who is taking the course 
for general culture may read as· much as 
he desires, while the "grade and . credits" 
student may pursue his inclinations without 
inconveniencing the others. 

In the last analysis, such a plan seems 
desirable because it brings together the 'two 
most important elements in the study of the 
social 'sciences-the libra.ry and the student. 

University Reference "Work After the "War 
(Continued from page 107) 

be their own detectives and to use the 
various reference books with freedom of 
action and with skill. Some departments 
work a little bibliographical instruction 
into their courses. Well an4 good, but 
wh.at about a general course that will teach 
the use of the card catalog and the periodi-
cal indexes, union catalogs, etc., graded 
according to the background and training 
of the student, perhaps covering simple tools 
the first year, the more advanced ones in 
the third year, and the specialized ones for 
the graduate student in a specia:l field in the 
fourth year? 

The already overbusy reference librarian 
is going to ask, "How can all this be done 
when we are already overcrowded with 

MARCH, 1945 

~ork ?" Perhaps we need a little examina-
tion of our own activities. Are we doing 
tasks that some other department should be 
doing? Are we doing bibliographical work 
already covered by some printed biblio-
graphical service for which we should be 
subscribing? What can we possibly leave 
out of our daily schedule that will enable 
us to have a few more minutes for reading 
book-reviewing periodicals and other bibli-
ographical publications? With all our 
desire to push a little harder to make our-
selves more efficient, however, we should 
never forget that our own friendly yet help-
ful manner is the important factor in work-
ing with faculty and students at this critical 
time in tl}.e readjustment of the lives of 
many young men and women. 

141