College and Research Libraries


By F . B . M O E 

The Significance of the Junior 
College Library in the 
Educational Program 

Dean Moe of Virginia Junior College, 

Virginia, Minn., read this paper at the 

meeting of the Junior College Libraries 

Section of the A.C.R.L., June 25, 1942. 

TH E J U N I O R COLLEGE L I B R A R Y is j u s t beginning to get the recognition which 
it deserves. M o s t junior colleges are the 

o u t g r o w t h of secondary education, and it 

is only natural that they have inherited the 

weaknesses as w e l l as the virtues of second-

ary education. B y and large, I am sure 

that one of the outstanding failures of 

secondary education even today is the lack 

of provision for the encouragement of self-

directed habits of study through adequate 

library service. 

T h e junior college, like any other mem-

ber of the educational family, has par-

ticularized functions. Important as it is 

in high school, self-propelled intellectual 

activity becomes a compelling objective on 

the junior college level. T h i s fact makes 

the library a vital part of any junior col-

lege organization. 

I t has been stated that the library is the 

power plant of an educational institution. 

It is not merely a department, a single 

spoke in the educational w h e e l ; it is more 

than that. Its influence transcends all 

departments. I t is the hub of the instruc-

tional wheel. Because of the type of w o r k 

the junior college is designed to do, the 

library plays just as significant a role in 

the success of this institution as it does in 

a four-year college or university. T h e 

chief yardstick of appraisal of any junior 

college organization is the quality of its 

library service. In the language of invest-

ment circles, this is the acid test. 

D u r i n g the past several years, I have 

had the privilege of visiting many junior 

colleges in all sections of the country. In 

these visits, I have made a special point of 

spending considerable time in the various 

libraries. I have inquired about the num-

ber and training of librarians, about budg-

ets, general policies, faculty and 

administrative relationships, student use, 

and about the facilities for special reading. 

F u r t h e r , I have almost always asked to 

see the shelf of unaccessioned books in 

order to get some idea of the type of books 

added currently to the library. I have 

studied, too, certain departmental collec-

tions in fields w h i c h I have felt I should 

k n o w more about than others. 

M y general observation is that there is 

widespread recognition of need for im-

proved library service but also that junior 

college administrations as a rule have not 

met the library problem w i t h the same 

firmness and determination w i t h w h i c h 

other problems have been met. T h i s ob-

servation applies to some of the better-

k n o w n junior colleges, as w e l l as to those 

60 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



less w e l l k n o w n . In some cases the li-

braries are conspicuously weak, and in one 

instance eight or ten copies of H a z e n ' s 

Europe Since 1815 seemed to be almost 

the only source of reference reading in 

modern European history. Frequently 

w h a t are called libraries are not libraries 

at all. T h e y are unattractive rooms under 

the supervision of workers w i t h little un-

derstanding of the true function of a 

junior college organization. 

T h e function of the library in any in-

stitution must be interpreted in the termS 

of the aims and objectives of that institu-

tion. A m o n g s t others, one leading objec-

tive common to all junior colleges is the 

rounding out of the cultural implications 

of secondary education. T h i s is merely 

another w a y of saying that one of the chief 

purposes of the junior college is to provide 

the facilities for general education. 

General Education 

T h e r e is much confusion about the 

meaning and scope of general education. 

A t t e m p t i n g to define the term is much like 

t r y i n g to reduce the objectives of education 

into a pattern small enough to be usable 

and at the same time broad enough to in-

clude the divergent views of the many edu-

cators—something that is very difficult 

to do. Still, I think w e all have rather 

definite v i e w s regarding the nature of 

general education. In 1931 O w e n D . 

Y o u n g made a significant commencement 

address under the title " T h e F i v e F i n a l 

Questions at C o m m e n c e m e n t " in which is 

epitomized, w i t h o u t his meaning to do so, 

much that has been w r i t t e n since regard-

ing the meaning and scope of general edu-

cation. Some may wish to f o l l o w 

President Hutchins and Professor A d l e r ; 

others, W a l t e r Lippmann in his analysis 

of recent date. In any of these approaches, 

the final result is much the same. 

Personally, I think that H e n r y M . 

W r i s t o n has done the best job of all in 

bringing order out of chaos in this field 

w h e n he defines the scope of general edu-

cation in terms of discipline. H i s state-

ment, it should be observed, antedates 

many of the current analyses. G e n e r a l 

education, according to him, combines four 

basic disciplines—the discipline of preci-

sion, the discipline of appreciation, the 

discipline of hypothesis, and the discipline 

of reflective synthesis. Indeed, it might 

w e l l be said that President W r i s t o n prac-

tices w h a t he preaches, for the statement 

of his four disciplines is an excellent syn-

thesis of practically all w r i t i n g that has 

been done in the field of general education. 

It is quite inconceivable that there could 

be any considerable attainment in the per-

fection of these disciplines on the part of 

freshmen and sophomores w i t h o u t an ade-

quate library program. Precise thinking 

in the natural sciences can be attained 

through the laboratory and the textbook, 

but precise thinking in the broader prob-

lems n o w confronting the w o r l d can be 

attained only by a ready grasp of the im-

plications of these problems to the w o r l d . 

A f u l l understanding of these implications 

can come only by w i d e reading and much 

reflection. 

Likewise, the remainder of President 

W r i s t o n ' s disciplines all presume wide un-

derstanding of the broader fields of k n o w l -

edge, an understanding w h i c h presupposes 

extensive reading and study. 

The Library in General Education 

A program of general e d u c a t i o n — t h e 

common denominator of all junior college 

f u n c t i o n s — i s not possible w i t h o u t a vigor-

ous library administration. Adequate and 

properly trained personnel and ample 

DECEMBER, 1942 61 



budgets are necessary. T h e s e are basic 

requirements, but they alone w i l l not in-

sure a satisfactory library program. T h e r e 

must be, in addition, an acceptance by 

junior college administrations of the fol-

l o w i n g principles: 

1. T h e librarian, like all members of 

the faculty, must have a good understand-

ing of the aims and purposes of junior 

college education and, more particularly, 

an appreciation of the particularized func-

tions of the institution in which he works. 

T h i s understanding can be achieved only 

by a close w o r k i n g relationship between 

the librarian and the person charged w i t h 

the over-all responsibility for the adminis-

tration of the junior college. It might 

w e l l be that this close association should 

even become a consolidation of the t w o 

separate offices of librarian and supervisor 

of instruction, as at Stephens C o l l e g e . 

W i t h o u t such complete consolidation, how-

ever, the t w o responsibilities should be as 

closely coordinated as possible. T h e li-

brary, as I have stated before, is not just 

another d e p a r t m e n t — i t yields a service 

which undergirds all departments. 

2. T h e librarian must have f u l l author-

ity to coordinate all technical features of 

the library service. M o r e o v e r , I don't 

believe that f u l l coordination can be 

achieved on the basis of statistical proced-

ures alone. B u d g e t a r y allotments by de-

partments, for example, may be used as a 

guide in purchasing, but the librarian's 

j u d g m e n t must be permitted to modify 

such allotments if occasion requires. P r o -

cedures must be kept flexible, and like all 

administration, business, government, or 

military, the quality of the library admin-

istration w i l l reflect the views, knowledge, 

and vision of the man in charge. 

T h e librarian to do his job properly 

must have responsible authority. B u t his 

62 COLL 

function is not that of a custodian. M r . 

M a c L e i s h draws the distinction between 

a keeper of physical books and a keeper of 

intellectual books. 

If it is the intellectual book rather than 
the physical book of which the librarian is 
keeper, then the profession of the librarian 
is not and cannot be the neutral, passive, 
negative profession of the guardian and 
fiduciary, but must become instead the af-
firmative and advocating profession of the 
attorney for a cause.1 

3. Students in the freshman and sopho-

more years in college w i l l read in propor-

tion to the extent that they are encouraged 

and inspired to read. It is the librarian's 

responsibility to have an intimate k n o w l -

edge of the reading habits of students in 

general and of the reading practices of 

students in various departments. 

A s the Committee on C o l l e g e and U n i -

versity T e a c h i n g of the A m e r i c a n Associa-

tion of University Professors has stated: 

T h e purpose of college teaching is to 
induce self-propelled intellectual activity on 
the part of the student. Accordingly, a 
frank recognition of the principles of self-
education under guidance will suggest a suf-
ficient definition of good teaching. T o teach 
effectively is to lead, to inspire, and to guide 
the learner. 

A valuable insight into the w o r k of the 

classroom should be available to the super-

visor of instruction by w a y of the library. 

Students w i l l read more if they are in-

spired to read by instructors w h o are 

themselves well-read and w h o are con-

vinced of the value of extensive reading. 

Furthermore, the librarian can do much 

to stimulate reading by using the many 

techniques familiar to us all. 

4. T h e junior college library is not a 

research library. Its chief purpose is to 

1 M a c L e i s h , A r c h i b a l d . Time to Speak. H o u g h -
ton, 1941, p. 29. 

EGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



serve the needs of instruction on the fresh-

man and sophomore levels. T h i s does not 

mean, of course, that the purchase of 

special books, journals, and documents 

should not be made, for in serving the 

needs of instruction it is necessary to pro-

vide the faculty w i t h their particular and 

specialized requirements. A m p l e provi-

sion should be made, too, for the recrea-

tional and general reading. 

Research in problems related to the 

learning process and the improvement of 

the methods of teaching does fall within 

the competence of the junior college. It 

is desirable for all junior colleges to ex-

pand their library holdings in the field of 

professional education including educa-

tional psychology. s 

5. Since most students have a practical 

interest in the problems of the contem-

porary w o r l d and because w o r l d changes 

have occurred at such a rapid pace since 
I929> provision should be made in the 

junior college library budget for the regu-

lar purchase of all significant publications 

of a nontechnical nature as they are 

published. Extensive exploration in the 

field of contemporary problems: scientific, 

social, economic, and international yields a 

great fascination for most students. 

T h e one compelling problem of the day 

is the survival of democracy. A n d junior 

college students have a greater interest in 

it, as they should, than in any other prob-

lem. If the librarian is to be the advocate 

of a cause, as M r . M a c L e i s h affirms he 

ought to be, he can do much to guide stu-

dents in their study of this overwhelming 

subject. 

O n e might say that in the development 

of a junior college library primary empha-

sis in the early stages should be upon the 

rounding out of the recommended collec-

tions and that secondary emphasis should 

be upon books of current information. A s 

the library progresses in size and impor-

tance, this emphasis should be reversed, 

w i t h the understanding, of course, that 

careful balance should be maintained. 

T h e point of perfect balance is a theoreti-

cal one and one that is subjectively de-

r i v e d ; as such, it must be determined by 

the judgment of the librarian. 

6. F i n a l l y , it should be remembered 

that there is a human side to library ad-

ministration. R e v i e w i n g , purchasing, ac-

cessioning, and circulation statistics are all 

a necessary part of library administration, 

but they are not all. T h e library must be 

a place of charm, of cheer, and w a r m t h . 

I think that I am correct in saying that 

many of us, as w e reflect upon our student 

days, are most critical of the cold, imper-

sonal w a y in which the library adminis-

tered its service. T h e mass production 

methods of a large university library tend 

to dispel rather than enliven intellectual 

interest in the undergraduates. 

Recent trends in education reveal the 

need for the "personal point of v i e w " in 

the classroom and o u t — a n d certainly it 

applies to library relationships. A n ade-

quate library service is an individualized 

service. T h e more complete it is, the 

greater aid it w i l l be to the m a j o r purpose 

of the junior c o l l e g e — g o o d instruction. 

DECEMBER, 1942 63