From Storehouse to Laboratory: Trends and Ideals in Academic Librarianship Reflected in C&RL, 1946–1968

Abstract

Garrison's classic history of American public libraries, Apostles of Culture, vividly describes the idealism that drove and shaped the work of American public libraries through the turn of the 20th century. 1 The book seems to lead naturally to questions of what ideals have shaped American libraries in more recent periods. Specifically, as an academic librarian, I have long wondered what happened to our profession's ideals in the midst of the social and political transformations that followed World War II. A careful survey of C&RL from 1946 to 1968 identified about 89 articles that reflect such ideals, either implicitly or explicitly. These articles also convey a vivid sense of the changing environment and rising trends that provided the context for those ideals. I chose 1968 as a stopping point because it marked a turning point in the nation's history, politically and culturally, and because Mary Lee Bundy and Paul Wasserman's article "Professionalism Reconsidered" (January 1968), with its sweeping critique of the current state of academic librarianship, seemed to mark the end of an era. Ideals-whether explicit or, especially, implicit-are elusive things, of course, and this study does not pretend to be scientific; nor does it range beyond C&RL. But I hope that will not prevent it from being useful as a glimpse of the engine that propelled our profession not too many years ago. The discussion raises some intriguing questions: How realistic were the library leaders of the time in their vision of what they were working for? Were their ideals based on a clear-eyed view of their situation, or were those ideals partly grounded in wishful thinking or a desire for greater importance? I hope that examining the assumptions and aspirations of the postwar period will shed some light on our own situation today.