Page 28 - DLIS102_LIBRARY_AND_ITS_USERS

Unit 4: Evaluation of Library Sources and Services

Self Assessment Notes

Fill in the blanks:
1. The first school for library science was founded by Melvil Dewey at Columbia University in
the year ...... .
2. In the 7th century ...... is considered the first systematically collected library at Nineveh.
3. One of the curators of the imperial library in the ...... is believed to have been the first to
establish a library classification system and the first book notation system.

19th Century
Thomas Jefferson, whose library at Monticello consisted of thousands of books, devised a
classification system inspired by the Baconian method, which grouped books more or less by subject
rather than alphabetically, as it was previously done. Jefferson’s collection became the nucleus of
the first national collection of the United States when it was transferred to Congress after a fire
destroyed the Congressional Library during the War of 1812. The Jefferson collection was the start
of what we now know as the Library of Congress. The first textbook on library science was published
1808 by Martin Schrettinger, followed by books of Johann Georg Seizinger and others.

20th Century
In the English speaking world the term “library science” seems to have been used for the first time
in a book in 1916 in the “Punjab Library Primer” written by Asa Don Dickinson and published by
the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. This university was the first in Asia to begin teaching
‘library science’. The “Punjab Library Primer” was the first textbook on library science published in
English anywhere in the world. The first textbook in the United States was the “Manual of Library
Economy” which was published in 1929. Later, the term was used in the title of S. R. Ranganathan’s
The Five Laws of Library Science, published in 1931, and in the title of Lee Pierce Butler’s 1933
book, An introduction to library science (University of Chicago Press). Butler’s new approach
advocated research using quantitative methods and ideas in the social sciences with the aim of
using librarianship to address society’s information needs. This research agenda went against the
more procedure-based approach of “library economy,” which was mostly confined to practical
problems in the administration of libraries. While Ranganathan’s approach was philosophical it
was tied more to the day-to-day business of running a library. A reworking of Raganathan’s laws
was published in 1995 which removes the constant references to books. Michael Gorman’s Five
New Laws of Librarianship, incorporate knowledge and information in all their forms, allowing for
digital information to be considered.

In more recent years, with the growth of digital technology, the field has been
greatly influenced by information science concepts. Although a basic
understanding is critical to library research and practical work (for example in
the use of online social networks by libraries), the area of information science
has remained largely distinct both in training and in research interests.

Explain the evolution of library science and services in 20th century.

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