Special Library Education

Tw o IMPORTANT conferences on library education were held in 1948. The first was held at the Graduate Library School, University of Chicago, August 16-21. Justified through the value of its own content and the originality of its participants, it laid down no pro-gram for future action, and its influence was entrusted to the publiea-tion of its papers and the criticisms they inspired.l It should be added that this influence may be considerable if enough of the right kind of persons read the volume, but even under the best of conditions the results of the book will depend upon the imagination of its readers. The second conference took place December 11-12, at Princeton University under sponsorship of the Council of National Library Asso-ciations. This conference also led to a publication, this time a summary of the proceedings which included resolutions or recommendations bearing on future developments.2 The guiding forces of this conference endeavored to set in motion certain activities which would affect li-brary education for a long time to come. I t was more than mere coincidence, of course, that two meetings on the same broad topic should be held and successfully executed within less than half a year. The same fundainental reasons underlay both-changing patterns in educational practice and needs, and a feeling of uncertainty respecting directions and goals. The earlier conference in Chicago was by far the broader of the two. Its roster embraced notable individuals from outside the library field who were sometimes quite ready to criticize strongly the self-esteem of professional librarians. The Princeton conference, on the other hand, was attended exclusively by librarians (though they were not all educators), and whether they were sufficiently critical of their own work can only be determined by a subjective reading of the proceedings. Both of the conferences devoted attention to special librarianship, but even the most unobservant reader must be struck by a strange dif-ference in terminology. The editor of this issue of Library Trends wrot