The Development Of Services To Youth In Libraries

By Author: Alex Lee
Total Articles: 366
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This article examines the development of a research model by women who used survey methods repeatedly and systematically to document the development of services to youth in libraries. The reports that resulted from this research were reprinted in ALA conference proceedings from 1882 to 1898. Library Journal was the only professional journal for librarians until Public Libraries began publication in 1896. It remains the only source that provides a comprehensive view of how librarians' professional discourse developed during this period. Library Journal reprinted not only ALA conference papers but also membership discussion following each presentation; in contrast, Public Libraries printed a brief overview of conference programs. Vibram FiveFingers

There were other topical reports during this time period that were repeated, but they were based on the evidence of individual expertise rather than on survey research. There was also statistical research on libraries most notably that of the U.S. Bureau of Education, but that research counted the numbers of libraries and ...
... sizes of their collections rather than investigating what types of service practices were developing in libraries. Sources of such contrasting forms of discourse include the 1876 report titled Public Libraries in the United States of America and the book of essays Libraries and Schools edited by Samuel Swett Green, and they are discussed in order to provide a sense of context and contrast between those forms of discourse and the research model developed by women in this period. Vibram 5 fingers

The series of Reading of the Young reports, published from 1882 to 1898, was the first systematic research that gathered empirical evidence about the state of developing library practices. In this series, women librarians inaugurated the detailed and systematic investigation of the development of librarians' practices. This article will argue that the influence of the Reading of the Young reports on other (male and female) librarians' writings was significant, introducing empirical evidence to debates over best practices and inaugurating a tradition of collaborative discourse in the profession that continues today. Finally, that this work was accomplished by women in the formative years of the profession suggests new prospects for the historical investigation of the feminization of librarianship.