Welcome to the third and final segment
of the History of LIS and LIS Professions
for SLIS 701: Introduction to Library
and Information Studies. In the previous
segment, I discussed how monastic scribes, after the fall of Rome, contributed to the preservation of
documents of late antiquity; conservation of libraries in Byzantium, and the re-introduction
of libraries to Western Europe.  I highlighted the significance of the printing press on book
publishing and methods for medieval collections
management.  I also reviewed milestones of the public
library movement in the United States,
and the introduction of tools for
bibliographic control.  Please review the
Readings and Websites section of the
module lesson plan on Blackboard for the
required materials.  By the end of this
discussion, you will be able to:
explain the processes that professionalized librarianship in the 20th century;
summarize the responsibilities and
activities undertaken by library departments;
identify scholars in the
field of library information science; and
discuss how business and social leaders
demonstrated their recognition of the
significance of libraries to society.
The professionalization of occupations began
in the 19th century CE and continued
throughout the 20th century CE.  A model
defining the process of professionalization served to measure the following indicators:
a representative association concerned
with general standards of professional activity;
establishment of formal educational programs affiliated with a university;
development of ethics codes regulating the conduct of professional workers;
cultivation of an orientation of service;
creation and maintenance of a body of
theoretical and practical knowledge;
and social recognition of professional
status from some significant segment of
the surrounding community.  Librarianship
in the United States during this time
began to match the indicators of this
model.  The American Library Association
was founded in 1876 CE.  Practices were
standardized and training shifted from a
system of apprenticing to offering
specialized courses in library schools;
the first in the country being Columbia
College's School of Library Economy
which opened in 1887 CE.  The ALA Code of
Ethics was adopted in 1939 and has been
subsequently revised in 1981, 1995, and
2008.
A service model developed that organized
library services into five functions.
Library research and scholarship developed into a body of knowledge.
Philanthropist recognizing the significance of libraries, provided funding for the construction of
libraries across the country; while segments of the
community advocated for the delivery and expansion of library services.
The  library service model represented the fourth indication of professionalization;
organizing the functions of libraries into five
categories.
Staff within these areas perform the following activities:
Circulation, or access services, handle all user accounts as well as  loaning,
returning, and shelving materials.
Acquisitions orders materials and maintains
acquisition budgets.
Reference answers user questions;
provides assistance and instruction on
accessing reference materials, and
develops library programming specific to
users or formats of materials.
Technical Services, catalogs materials;
develops and maintains collection databases;
processes new acquisitions and deaccessions  resources through the systematic removal of
materials based on selected criteria.
Stacks Maintenance, re-shelves materials return to the library; shelves materials processed by
Technical Services, and shelf reads material in the stacks to ensure that it is in the correct
library classification order.
The fifth indication of professionalization,
Library Scholarship, entails the creation and
maintenance of a body of theoretical and practical knowledge; the mastery of which
is a precondition of admission to professional status, along with the presence of a core of scholars who
regularly contribute to the body of knowledge.
Prominent leaders in library scholarship and research include but are not limited to:
Melvil Dewey,
Dewey devised the Dewey Decimal
Classification system for organizing
library content and cataloging.  He was
one of the founders of the American
Library Association and founded and
edited the Library Journal.  He also set up
the School of Library Economy at
Columbia College.
Paul Otlet, a Belgian lawyer, who many consider a visionary of his time, was a central figure in the
emergence of Information Science in the
late 1800's and early 1900's.
He collaborated with Henri La Fontaine 
on the Universal Bibliographic Repertory
and the Universal Decimal Classification
scheme.  In 1934, he laid out his vision of
the computer and internet and what he
called the "Radiated Library."
S.R.  Ranganathan  was an Indian mathematician and librarian .  He proposed the Five Laws of Library Science in 1931, which outlined principles for
operating library systems.  The five laws are:
books are for use; every reader their
book; every book the reader; save the time
of the reader; and the library is a
growing organism.  He also developed the
Colon Classification system in 1933.
Forrest Spaulding  was a public librarian
who wrote the Library Bill of Rights in 1938,
the American Library Association adopted
the Bill of Rights in 1939.  These are
just a few of the individuals who
contributed to the body of Library Information Science knowledge. I hope you
will google some of the names listed for
more information.
The sixth and final indication of
professionalization, Social Recognition,
was demonstrated through philanthropist
who recognized the significance of
libraries and commissioned, as well as
created endowments, for the construction
and maintenance of libraries.
There were also vocal segments in the
reform movements of the early 1900's
and the 1960's and 1970's.
In the 1900's, social reformers lobbied for
legislation of tax-supported libraries
and in the 1960's and 70's, activists advocated for the
delivery and expansion of library
services to communities marginalized by
mainstream society.  Enoch Pratt set up an
endowment and financed a gift of a
central library and six branch libraries
to the city of Baltimore in 1882 CE.  He
stipulated that the library be a public,
circulating library for all, without
distinction of race or color.   Andrew
Carnegie commissioned the building of
over 2800 public libraries around the
world between 1883 CE to 1929 CE.
He founded the construction of public
libraries and academic libraries in the
United States and established the
Carnegie-Whitney  endowment to prepare and publish
reading lists, indexes, and bibliographic aids.
The General Federation of Women's Clubs supported the establishment of 474 free public libraries
and traveling libraries in 1904 and lobbied for legislation to provide tax support to libraries.
Gratia Countrymen developed community outreach
strategies in the factories, fire houses,
and hospitals the Minneapolis in the
early 1900's. She oversaw the building of 12 branch libraries and a mobile library truck.
She also provided reading materials for
the blind, and foreign language materials
for immigrants.  She was later elected
president of the American Library Association
in 1934. Time doesn't allow for me to discuss all of the individuals, projects, or legislation listed
but feel free to google some of the names listed or
review some of the supplemental
materials in the module.
Contemporary libraries evolved into four general categories:  public, school,  academic and
special libraries.  Each type of library
is represented by a professional
association on the national and state
level.   I encourage you to visit the a website
of interest or get involved as a student with an association.  if you haven't already.
Founded during the Centennial
International Exhibition of 1876 in
Philadelphia, the American Library
Association was created to provide
leadership for the development, promotion,
and improvement of library and information
services; and the profession of librarianship, to enhance learning and ensure access
to information.
The Special Library Association was
founded in 1909 in the state of New York.
It is an international association,
representing the interests of
information professionals in over 80
countries.  Special Librarians are
information resource experts who collect,
analyze, evaluate, package, and disseminate
information to facilitate accurate
decision-making in corporate, academic,
and government settings.  Founded in 1937
is the American Documentation Institute,
the American Society for Information
Science and Technology is a service
organization representing affiliated
scientific and professional societies,
foundations, and government agencies.
Members share interest in improving the
way society stores, retrieves, analyzes,
manages, archives, and disseminates
information.
Four librarians and four physicians founded
the Medical Library Association in 1898.
Today it represents more than 4000
health sciences libraries and information
professionals, serving to enhance the
quality of health care, education, and
research.  MLA facilitates professional
development through career information
resources, meetings, publications, courses,
awards, scholarships, and support services.
The Association of Independent
Information Professionals was formed in
1987 by 27 information brokers who
provided information-related services
such as online and manual research,
document delivery, database design,
library support, consulting, writing, and
publishing.
The United States Committee of the Blue
Shield is one of 20 national committees
affiliated with the International
Committee of the Blue Shield. This
non-governmental organization was formed
in 2006 in response to occurrences of
global heritage catastrophes.  Serving as
the cultural equivalent of the Red Cross,
the Blue Shield coordinates responses to
emergency situations and provides
post-crisis support for world cultural
heritage threatened by natural and
human-made disasters.  The Blue Shield
covers libraries, archives, museums, audio
visual supports, monuments, and historical
sites.  At the beginning of this module I
referred to libraries as a hub or gateway,
interconnecting the matrix of society.
The text summarized libraries is being
shaped by the attitudes, social, economic,
and political forces that evolve
within a given society.  While exploring
the history of libraries you may have
noticed how the dynamism of social
reformers contributed to the development
of the institution throughout the ages.
Keeping this in mind, we can see how
present-day circumstances call upon 21st
century information professionals to
adapt as well as adopt efforts to
build and hold the trust of the communities
they serve;
which contributes to the legacy of
librarianship.  In closing, I'd like to
share the following for you to consider
as you progress through this course and
the SLIS program.  David Lankes, author of the Atlas of New Librarianship stated:
"Libraries are communities of
members.  Within this community, librarians
are needed not to structure and divide
but  to facilitate and mediate.
Communities of librarians must bring our values, our understandings of knowledge, our means of facilitation.
We must escape Daedalus' maze on wings of open learning organizations that value
intellectual freedom, and intellectual
honesty, and create a safe environment
for discussion.  Ultimately, these kinds of
organizations, also grounded in service,
will set us free."
Thank you for your attention, I look
forward to the next virtual meeting.  If
you have any questions, concerns, or
comments please contact me.  My contact
information is on the syllabus and in
the Instructional Team section of Blackboard.
