College and Research Libraries


By E A R L E R U G G 

A Library Centered Program 
of Teacher Education 
Earle Rugg is director of the Department 

of Curriculum and Libraries, Colorado 

State College of Education, Greeley. 

MY A C C E P T A N C E of the administration of our college library in 1933 came 
mainly from ten years of study of teacher 
education both as a professor of teacher 
education in Colorado State College of 
Education since 1923 and as a result of 
three years (1930-1933) of intensive study 
of teacher education as a specialist in cur-
riculum research for the National Survey 
of the Education of Teachers.1 M y studies 
and associations in the field of teacher edu-
cation have convinced me that the center 
of college curricula and teaching should be 
the library, but I have found this as a 
reality in few teacher-preparing institu-
tions. 

In far too many teacher-preparing in-
stitutions—which include not only teach-
ers' colleges and normal schools but even 
small arts colleges and junior colleges— 
the library facilities are decidedly inade-
quate. T h e library building, or in too 
many institutions the library room in an-
other building, is very inferior to equiva-
lent college facilities and equipment for 
other phases of college education. T h e 
library compared to instructional depart-

1 See R u g g , E a r l e , a n d others. Teacher Education 
Curricula, Vol. 3, N a t i o n a l S u r v e y of the E d u c a t i o n 
of T e a c h e r s , U n i t e d S t a t e s Office of E d u c a t i o n , Bulle-
tin 1933, No. 10, 1935. 

ments is undermanned; members of its 
staff do not compare in rank, salary, or 
prestige with members of teaching depart-
ments. Furthermore, with a few notable 
exceptions such as Stephens College at 
Columbia, Missouri, there is rarely any 
conscious attempt to correlate course and 
library activity, notwithstanding the fact 
that the great majority of courses designed 
to prepare teachers are largely based upon 
and assume various mature reading, study, 
and research abilities. T h i s lack of inte-
gration between curricula, instruction, and 
library activity is one of the "grand can-
yons" of teacher education. O n the other 
hand it is a great challenge. 

O u r objectives2 at Colorado State Col-
lege of Education since 1933 have been 
centered on this problem of articulating 
college study of students in courses and 
curricula with the library. W e shall here 
restrict this discussion to one of library 
policies and trends aimed to improve the 
teacher-education program at Colorado 
State College of Education.3 

Space does not permit me to describe 
our general teacher-education program in 
detail. A few broad statements will have 
to suffice. T h e institution is organized 

2 See R u g g , E a r l e , " C o o r d i n a t i o n a n d I n t e g r a t i o n 
of t h e L i b r a r y a n d I n s t r u c t i o n in College." A.L.A. 
Bulletin 29:687-93, Sept. 1935. 

3 F o r d e t a i l s of o u r p r o g r a m in r e l a t i o n to t h e 
Commission on T e a c h e r E d u c a t i o n , see R u g g , E a r l e . 
" T e a c h e r E d u c a t i o n T r e n d s a n d P r o b l e m s of T e a c h e r 
E d u c a t i o n at Colorado S t a t e College of E d u c a t i o n . " 
Yearbook, A m e r i c a n Association of T e a c h e r s Colleges 
19:104-10, 1940. 

42 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



into two colleges, a general college, com-
prising the freshman and sophomore years, 
and a professional college, comprising jun-
ior and senior years and the graduate 
school. T h e emphasis in the first is upon 
orientation survey courses in the various 
major fields of knowledge to promote the 
general culture of prospective teachers. 
T h e emphasis in the professional college is 
upon the technical knowledge and skills 
attendant to the specialized teaching fields. 
Selection for teaching takes place at the 
end of the sophomore year and a variety 
of criteria are used during the freshman 
and sophomore years in determining those 
who are admitted into the technical phases 
of the pre-service education. O n e should 
add that our summer program is distinctly 
different. Whereas our personnel during 
the regular school year is overwhelmingly 
a typical group of pre-service, undergradu-
ate, prospective teachers, our summer per-
sonnel consists preponderantly of mature, 
experienced teachers and administrators, 
most of whom are candidates for graduate 
degrees. 

W e at Greeley do not pretend that we 
have all of the answers. T h e tradition of 
fifty years ( f o r this is the golden anniver-
sary of the college) has been one of 
forward-looking, critical inquiry and 
experimentation. T h e main outcome that 
we hope for from this cooperative study 
of teacher education is aid in solving 
teacher-education problems still confront-
ing us. O n e group of these problems 
involves library experimentation. 

A Functional Library Building 

Prerequisite to much of this experi-
mentation are certain assets in our college 
library. First, we now have what we 
regard as the most unique library structure 
in America. In itself the building is ex-

perimental. I quote from a forthcoming 
brochure advertising the dedication of the 
new library building to be held at Greeley, 
J u n e 28, in connection with a conference 
on school library problems: 

Building planned cooperatively by admin-
istration, college architect and the library 
staff 

Building organized in terms of accessibility 
of library materials to all students—the 
open stack principle 

Unique features of building: 
modern architecture 
glass brick in all reading rooms 
two outside walls of stacks all glass 
stack rooms and stacks light color of paint 
building air cooled 
stacks—steel floors, with stacks suspended 

from ceilings of decks 
mezzanine reading rooms 
reading room adjacent to stacks 
stacks easily convertible—reading rooms 

into stacks and vice versa 
classroom with tables for instruction with 

library materials 
modern furniture, silver gray, designed 

for the building by the college staff 

T h u s , we have the first essential of a 
library centered program—a functional 
building, designed to promote integration 
of college study in the classroom and in 
the library. W e do not reflect, we believe, 
the plight of the librarian described by 
Branscomb4 who said, " I have gotten a 
new building. . . . N o w what do I do 
n e x t ? " W e propose to experiment in 
various ways to avoid Branscomb's warn-
ing: "So far as a library itself is con-
cerned a program conceived in terms of 
facilities rather than more fundamental 
ends is all too likely to become enthralled 
to its own processes and resources." T h e 
building is a means, not an end. In our 
judgment the end is the better education 

4 B r a n s c o m b , H a r v i e . Teaching with Books: A 
Study of College Libraries. Association of A m e r i c a n 
Colleges and the A . L . A . , 1940, pp. 198-199. 

DECEMBER, 1940 43 



of the student—in our case a teacher in 
preparation for service. 

Conjunction of Library and Teaching 

Staff 

O u r second asset is staff. Gradually 
over a period of several years a small but 
broadly-trained library staff has been 
recruited. All of our staff members now 
have library certificates from approved 
library schools, and all have master's de-
grees with the exception of one who will 
receive it this year. I t has been our de-
liberate policy to use our own graduate 
school to develop our young staff mem-
bers. M o s t of them have taken their 
graduate training in education and psy-
chology because of the conviction that once 
located in a teachers' college a librarian 
must know the technical aspects of the 
teacher-education program and also be-
cause those courses in philosophy, psychol-
ogy, guidance, curriculum, reading, and 
research are given in our division of edu-
cation. Each library staff member has 
had opportunity to devote nearly half of 
the graduate work for his master's degree 
to individual educational research dealing 
with educational or psychological phases 
of library problems. 

I t is evident that our program for the 
guidance of students' reading cannot be 
undertaken alone by a staff with even this 
extended preparation. O u r present staff 
is small, and, in terms of the tremen-
dously increased load placed on the library 
since 1933, c a n or>ly meet the general 
technical and routine library activities and 
problems. T h u s , additions to the counsel-
ing and guidance staff, as far as library 
activity is concerned, should not be made 
by appointing technically trained librar-
ians. Rather we feel that we should 
capitalize upon the scholarship and tech-

nical background of subject matter of our 
teaching staff by bringing them into close 
relationship with the students and library 
staff in the library. By that approach we 
believe that we can bridge the gap between 
course work and library activity and cause 
all concerned to see the needed synthesis 
of instruction that depends upon better 
educational utilization of the library re-
sources of the college. 

Hence we are planning to experiment 
with a broadened counseling program in 
the field of reading, study, and research 
in the new library. W e now have one 
instructor prepared both in science and in 
education who is spending half of his 
time this spring in the library, working on 
curriculum and instructional problems. 
H e is constantly counseling with students 
in the library and will continue to do so. 

The Library in the Teaching Program 

Next year we plan f u r t h e r extensions 
of this type of activity. Most of the 
general survey courses in science, social 
science, and world literature are now be-
ing taught in classrooms in the library 
that are adjacent to the stacks. F u r t h e r -
more, the arrangement of the building 
with convertible bookstacks makes it pos-
sible to take a class into the stacks where 
the book resources for a given course are 
located. Next year, besides the reading 
counselor who gives about half-time to stu-
dents in education and science, two other 
instructors will perform a similar com-
bination of teaching and library-counseling 
activity in the survey courses in social 
science and world literature. T h u s a 
small core of instructors is being developed 
who are intimately associated with the 
instruction and curriculum program and 
w h o will gradually become liaison officers 
between teaching divisions and the library. 

44 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



These instructors are all well prepared to 
guide the reading of students and to aid 
in adaptations of the reading program in 
these courses to the individual differences 
of students. Recall that the building pro-
vides offices and small seminar rooms 
where instructors may meet students in-
dividually and in small groups for this 
type of counseling. Of course much of 
this activity will take place in the stacks. 

Furthermore, other professors whose 
main teaching resource is library material 
are meeting their students several hours a 
week in the library. T h e main criterion 
for teaching and consultation assignments 
in the library building is that a given 
course is dependent upon daily contacts 
with library resources. 

Likewise we plan to provide selected 
library staff members with membership in 
the various teaching divisions. Since 1933 
each member of the library staff holds the 
rank of instructor in the faculty, and, as 
fast as advanced preparation of the library 
staff member warrants, he will be pro-
moted to a higher rank. T h e assistant to 
the librarian is well trained in the field 
of English—in fact is teaching the survey 
course in world literature in the summer. 
As this plan develops he will increasingly 
meet with members of the division of 
literature and language. O u r director of 
acquisitions has his master's degree in 
political science. W e plan that his in-
structorship will be in the division of 
social studies. T h u s there is a reciprocal 
set of influences being set up to promote 
coordinations between the teaching and 
library staffs. 

Yet the ultimate end of our program 
is self-education of each student. T h e 
building is now organized to aid him. 
T h e collection is easily accessible to him. 
T h e instructional and library staffs are 

being organized to guide and counsel him 
as to his reading study and research needs 
and aptitudes. 

Student Guidance in Library Usage 

For some years we have carried on a 
vigorous campaign to teach students who 
reveal deficiencies in accepted library 
usage. A library-usage test is given every 
freshman during freshman week. O u r 
main conclusion after seven years' experi-
mentation is that such activity is too 
general and can necessarily be but a be-
ginning. Only through continuous guid-
ance, along lines we have sketched above, 
will students develop the various library 
skills needed for their subsequent profes-
sional preparation. 

W e are also concerned with the volun-
tary reading of the students, both profes-
sional and cultural. Various methods of 
stimulation are being attempted such as 
less emphasis on textbooks and reserve 
reading and more on wide, extensive 
reading; an elective course in free reading; 
constant display of readable books, and 
the like. T h e next change still demanded, 
we feel, is a more flexible curriculum in 
which a greater adaptation can be pro-
vided for each student, in terms of data 
available as to his needs and abilities. 
T h a t is our main curriculum problem and 
I believe that it can be solved in the near 
f u t u r e . 

Moreover, a library in a teacher-pre-
paring institution has a unique function. 
M u c h of the activity of prospective teach-
ers is important not alone for the contri-
bution it must make to the. better personal 
education of the student but for con-
comitant professional values. F o r ex-
ample, each prospective teacher should 
participate in extra-curricular activities in 
college not alone for what participation 

DECEMBER, 1940 45 



will contribute to his own educational 
growth but also because he has to have 
this type of preparation as a part of his 
job in the field. T h i s generalization is 
also true of library activity. O u r begin-
ning teachers at Greeley are potential 
leaders in communities when they start 
teaching. In general, graduates of teacher-
preparing institutions start teaching in 
rural and small village schools where li-
brary resources are very limited. In my 
opinion possible improvments in library 
resources in such regions are largely 
dependent upon evangelical efforts of 
teachers who have experienced a vital 
library program in their pre-service period 
of preparation.5 M a n y teachers will per-
force have to do what will be done to 
promote library resources in a community 
and to utilize and integrate library activity 
and instruction in their schools. T h u s the 
ultimate criterion for evaluating our 
teacher-education program of library 
activity is the extent to which our gradu-
ates improve and use library resources in 
the communities where they teach. 

Technical Training for Public School 

Librarians 

One final comment, Colorado State 
College of Education does not offer a 
curriculum for school librarians. O u r 
studies of teacher education proved that 
teachers' colleges have neither the staffs 
nor the resources to do specialized types of 
professional training. Rather, we have a 
cooperative curriculum with the School of 
Librarianship of the University of Denver. 
O u r undergraduates who wish to major in 
the field of school librarianship complete 

5 So i m p o r t a n t is this thesis t h a t I h a v e t r i e d to 
d o c u m e n t it in detail in two sources. See my a r t i c l e s : 
" J a n i t o r s of Books or R e a d i n g Specialists." The 
Clearing House, 2:164-69, Nov. 1930; a n d " L i b r a r i a n 
. . . Key T e a c h e r . " The Phi Delta Kappan, 22:311-20, 
Feb. 1940. 

their first three years of college study at 
Colorado State College of Education. 
T h e y follow a general secondary pattern 
of preparation including the basic courses 
in education, psychology, observation, and 
student teaching. (These are required 
by state law.) In our placement territory, 
school librarians are frequently called 
upon to teach. Hence each library m a j o r 
completes at least a minimum amount 
(twenty-four quarter hours) of subject 
matter in each of two teaching subjects. 
Qualified individuals who also meet con-
ditions of admission to library school then 
complete their major in library science 
during their senior year at the School of 
Librarianship at the University of Denver. 
T h e y thus may receive a library certi-
ficate from that library school and a bache-
lor's degree and teaching certificate from 
Colorado State College of Education. 
W e also take one or two graduates of 
approved library schools as graduate li-
brary interns, who thus get experience in 
our college library and complete work 
for the master's degree in education. W e 
believe that this is the best way to train 
teacher-librarians. W e also believe that 
our fundamental task is to make every 
prospective teacher library-minded.6 

T h i s paper in a summary, condensed 
fashion illustrates activities, policies, and 
trends in the library area at Colorado 
State College of Education. It is evident, 
we trust, that our primary concern is to 
make the library function as the center 
of a program of teacher education. T h e 
organization, staff, and facilities now per-
mit a much more vigorous promotion of 
properly teaching printed materials. I 
should add that our college conceives the 

6 1 h a v e described o u r cooperative c u r r i c u l u m in 
c o n s i d e r a b l e detail in " S h a l l t h e T e a c h e r s Colleges 
P r e p a r e L i b r a r i a n s f o r P u b l i c School L i b r a r i e s ? " 
( N e g a t i v e ) in Yearbook, A m e r i c a n Association of 
T e a c h e r s Colleges, 19:104-10, 1940. 

46 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



library as a center for many related edu-
cational activities. O u r new department 
of audio-visual service is housed in the 
library, and the building offers great op-
portunity for exhibitions of arts and 

museum materials. W e have the active 
support and cooperation of the admin-
istration, faculty, and students. T h e 
challenge of teacher education under such 
conditions can and will, I believe, be met. 

Commission on Teacher Education Extends Activities 

T h e Commission on Teacher Education 
of the American Council on Education is 
extending its activities to include the pre-
and in-service preparation of college teach-
ers. Director Karl W . Bigelow has 
selected D r . Ernest V. Hollis of the Col-
lege of the City of N e w York to direct the 
undertaking. 

Since 1939 the commission has been co-
operating with 34 colleges and school sys-
tems and with three state-wide programs 
in their efforts to improve the pre- and in-
service preparation of elementary and sec-
ondary school teachers. T h r o u g h a staff 
of ten persons it has sought to provide con-
sultant and other services to these indig-
enous efforts for improving the quality of 
teachers and teaching. I n addition to the 
Washington staff the commission main-
tains a collaboration center at the Univer-
sity of Chicago for the study of child 
development and teacher personnel. T h e 
demonstrations are scheduled for a five-
year period, about half of which has 
elapsed. Subject to review, the General 
Education Board has earmarked for the 
entire project a series of grants which ap-
proximate $900,000. 

D u r i n g the fall semester D r . Hollis ex-
pects to visit graduate schools whose 

Ph.D.'s predominately go into college 
teaching and undergraduate colleges that 
are actively promoting the in-service 
growth of teachers. H e invites interested 
college professors and administrative of-
ficers to write him (744 Jackson Place, 
Washington, D . C . ) of their programs and 
plans and to indicate how he may be of 
service. It is not the commission's plan 
to conduct intensive research but rather to 
act as a clearing house and stimulative 
agent for indigenous programs already un-
derway. It clearly recognizes that the 
preparation of college teachers is a uni-
versity-wide function. 

D r . Hollis has a rich background for 
leadership in the preparation of college 
teachers. His B.S. and M . S . degrees were 
in botany and plant pathology, followed 
by a year's graduate work in history and 
sociology. His P h . D . degree specializa-
tion was in the problems of higher edu-
cation. H e is a regular contributor to 
professional magazines and is author of 
the professionally important book, Phil-
anthropic Foundations and Higher Edu-

cation. His experience has ranged from 
country school teacher through the several 
professional ranks to a department head-
ship and a college presidency. 

DECEMBER, 1940 47