The University of Chicago Graduate Library School (GLS) was established in 1928 to develop a program for the graduate education of

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time, ...

s with a focus on research. Housed for a time in the Joseph

Regenstein Library The Joseph Regenstein Library, commonly known as "The Reg" is the main library of the University of Chicago, named after industrialist and philanthropist Joseph Regenstein. It is one of the largest repositories of books in the world and is note ...

, the GLS closed in 1989. GLS faculty were among the most prominent researchers in librarianship in the twentieth century. Alumni of the school have made a great impact on the profession including Hugh Atkinson, Susan Grey Akers,

Bernard Berelson Bernard Reuben Berelson (1912–1979) was an American behavioral scientist, known for his work on communication and mass media. He was a leading proponent of the broad idea of the "behavioral sciences", a field he saw as including areas such as ...

, Michèle Cloonan, El Sayed Mahmoud El Sheniti, Eliza Atkins Gleason, Frances E. Henne,

Virginia Lacy Jones Virginia Lacy Jones (June 25, 1912 – December 3, 1984) was an American librarian who throughout her 50-year career in the field pushed for the integration of public and academic libraries. She was one of the first African Americans to earn a ...

, Judith Krug, Miriam Matthews, Kathleen de la Peña McCook, Elizabeth Homer Morton, Benjamin E. Powell,

W. Boyd Rayward W. Boyd Rayward is an Australian librarian and scholar, best known as the biographer of Paul Otlet. Life Warden Boyd Rayward was born in Inverell, New South Wales, Australia in 1939 and studied Library Science at the University of New South Wal ...

, Charlemae Hill Rollins, Katherine Schipper, Ralph R. Shaw, Spencer Shaw, Peggy Sullivan, Maurice Tauber and

Tsuen-hsuin Tsien Tsien Tsuen-hsuin (; 11 January 19109 April 2015), also known as T.H. Tsien, was a Chinese-American bibliographer, librarian, and sinologist who served as a professor of Chinese literature and library science at the University of Chicago, and wa ...

. In February 2016,

Carla Hayden Carla Diane Hayden (born August 10, 1952) is an American librarian and the 14th Librarian of Congress. Since the creation of the office of the Librarian of Congress in 1802, Hayden is both the first African American and the first woman to hold t ...

(PhD, 1987) was nominated by President

Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

to serve as

Librarian of Congress The Librarian of Congress is the head of the Library of Congress, appointed by the president of the United States with the advice and consent of the United States Senate, for a term of ten years. In addition to overseeing the library, the Libra ...

. She was confirmed in July 2016.

History

Early in the 20th century, the

Carnegie Corporation of New York The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Carnegie Corporation has endowed or otherwise helped to establis ...

began offering grants to change the direction of library education and scholarship. Of particular interest was the creation of an institution analogous to the

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class i ...

or the

Johns Hopkins School of Medicine The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHUSOM) is the medical school of Johns Hopkins University, a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1893, the School of Medicine shares a campus with the Johns Hopkins Ho ...

. The result was a sensation: the 1926 endowment of a research-oriented program offering only the Ph.D. degree, With an emphasis on investigation fostered among students, studies conducted and conferences held at GLS provided a center for intellectual inquiry in the development of 20th century

librarianship Library science (often termed library studies, bibliothecography, and library economy) is an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary field that applies the practices, perspectives, and tools of management, information technology, education, and ...

. '' The Library Quarterly'', a scholarly journal focused on research, was launched in 1931 to provide an outlet for the publication of rigorous research. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Graduate Library School in 1951

Louis Round Wilson Louis Round Wilson (December 27, 1876 – December 10, 1979) was an important figure to the field of library science, and is listed in “100 of the most important leaders we had in the 20th century,” an article in the December 1999 issue of ''Am ...

assessed its impact noting that it broadened the concept of librarianship, developed it as a field for scientific study, introduced critical objectivity, contributed to the philosophy of librarianship by scholarly publishing and furnished leaders to the field. Writing of the impact of the Graduate Library School in 2020, Nathan Johnson has observed that its faculty were more closely aligned with the social sciences and they "turned a research gaze on the spaces codified and distributed during the earlier eras of American librarianship."

Structure and focus

The Graduate Library School (GLS) at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the ...

changed the structure and focus of education for librarianship in the twentieth century. Funded by the Carnegie Corporation the GLS set forth policies to establish an institution to educate students imbued with the spirit of investigation. Prior to establishment of the GLS education for librarians had been an apprenticeship model. Douglas Waples wrote of the policies that would differentiate “The Graduate Library School at Chicago” from schools in the apprenticeship mode. Graduate Library School Record

John V. Richardson Jr. has written of the establishment and the first 30 years of the GLS in ''The Spirit of Inquiry: The Graduate Library School at Chicago, 1921–51.'' Louis Round Wilson

Joyce M. Latham has written of the role of GLS faculty in the development of the

Chicago Public Library The Chicago Public Library (CPL) is the public library system that serves the City of Chicago in the U.S. state of Illinois. It consists of 81 locations, including a central library, two regional libraries, and branches distributed throughout the ...

(CPL) noting "In their final report on the status of CPL, ''A Metropolitan Library in Action'', Carleton B. Joeckel and

Leon Carnovsky Leon Carnovsky (November 28, 1903 – December 6, 1975) was a librarian and educator who focused much of his time to the survey of libraries in the United States and around the globe. Carnovsky was recognized by American Libraries as being one of t ...

devoted significant attention to the role of the public library in adult education." A list of the Dissertations, Theses, and Papers demonstrates the range of early inquiry. The faculty of the GLS had a profound effect on the development of public library structure and governance following World War II. Joeckel developed the ''National Plan for Public Library Service'' in 1948. GLS faculty were also innovators in the use of computers for library functions. In 1982 Don Swanson described the Microsystem for Interactive Bibliographic Searching (MIRABILIS) for the general library community in ''Library Journal''

Faculty

Faculty who taught at the GLS included many scholars who conducted foundational research in librarianship including

Lester Asheim Lester Eugene Asheim (January 22, 1914 – July 1, 1997) was an American librarian and scholar of library science. He was on the faculty of the University of Chicago and the University of North Carolina and held positions in the American Li ...

, Abraham Bookstein,

Lee Pierce Butler Lee Pierce Butler (December 19, 1884 – March 28, 1953) was a professor at the University of Chicago Graduate Library School. He was one of the first to use the term "library science" (along with S. R. Ranganathan), by which he meant the scient ...

, Margaret Egan, Sara I. Fenwick, Herman H. Fussler,

J. C. M. Hanson James Christian Meinich Hanson (March 13, 1864 – November 8, 1943) was a Norwegian born, American librarian. Background Jens Christian Meinich Hanson, now known as J. C. M. Hanson, was born on March 13, 1864, in Oppland, Norway, in the Nordr ...

, Frances E. Henne, Carleton B. Joeckel,

Jesse Shera Jesse Hauk Shera (December 8, 1903 – March 8, 1982) was an American librarian and information scientist who pioneered the use of information technology in libraries and played a role in the expansion of its use in other areas throughout the ...

, Don R. Swanson, Peggy Sullivan, Zena Sutherland,

, Robert W. Wadsworth, Douglas Waples,

, Howard W. Winger, and Victor Yngve. Louis Round Wilson's tenure as professor and dean from 1932-1942 has been viewed as the golden age of education for librarianship

''The Library Quarterly''

The faculty of the Graduate Library School established the journal, '' The Library Quarterly'' in 1931. The work of the GLS faculty to establish a scholarly journal focused on research has been carefully detailed by Steve Norman.

''The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books''

The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books ''The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books'' is an academic journal established in 1945 by Frances E. Henne (Graduate Library School, University of Chicago).Wedgeworth, Robert. ''World Encyclopedia of Library and Information Services''. Ch ...

was established in 1945 at the Graduate Library School by Frances E. HenneWedgeworth, Robert. ''World Encyclopedia of Library and Information Services''. Chicago: American Library Association, 1993, p.346.

References

External links

Guide to the University of Chicago Graduate Library School Records 1928-1979
at th
University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
{{Coord, 41.7922, -87.5998, type:landmark_region:US-IL, format=dms, display=title Library science education Schools of informatics

Library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vi ...

Defunct private universities and colleges in Illinois