Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: sources and methodologies for the history of libraries in the modern era
- 1 Libraries and the modern world
- Part One Enlightening the Masses: the Public Library as Concept and Reality
- Part Two The Voluntary Ethic: Libraries of our Own
- Part Three Libraries for National Needs: Library Provision in the Public Sphere in the Countries of the British Isles
- Part Four The Nation's Treasury: Britain's National Library as Concept and Reality
- Part Five The Spirit of Enquiry: Higher Education and Libraries
- Part Six The Rise of Professional Society: Libraries for Specialist Areas
- Part Seven The Trade and its Tools: Librarians and Libraries in Action
- 39 Introduction: librarians and libraries in action
- 40 The interpretation of professional development in librarianship since 1850
- 41 Education for librarianship
- 42 Women and Libraries
- 43 The feminisation of librarianship: the writings of Margaret Reed
- 44 Sharing the load: libraries in co-operation
- 45 Organising knowledge: cataloguing, classification and indexing in the modern library
- 46 Storehouses of knowledge: the free library movement and the birth of modern library architecture
- Part Eight Automation Pasts, Electronic Futures: the Digital Revolution
- Bibliography
- Index
39 - Introduction: librarians and libraries in action
from Part Seven - The Trade and its Tools: Librarians and Libraries in Action
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- Introduction: sources and methodologies for the history of libraries in the modern era
- 1 Libraries and the modern world
- Part One Enlightening the Masses: the Public Library as Concept and Reality
- Part Two The Voluntary Ethic: Libraries of our Own
- Part Three Libraries for National Needs: Library Provision in the Public Sphere in the Countries of the British Isles
- Part Four The Nation's Treasury: Britain's National Library as Concept and Reality
- Part Five The Spirit of Enquiry: Higher Education and Libraries
- Part Six The Rise of Professional Society: Libraries for Specialist Areas
- Part Seven The Trade and its Tools: Librarians and Libraries in Action
- 39 Introduction: librarians and libraries in action
- 40 The interpretation of professional development in librarianship since 1850
- 41 Education for librarianship
- 42 Women and Libraries
- 43 The feminisation of librarianship: the writings of Margaret Reed
- 44 Sharing the load: libraries in co-operation
- 45 Organising knowledge: cataloguing, classification and indexing in the modern library
- 46 Storehouses of knowledge: the free library movement and the birth of modern library architecture
- Part Eight Automation Pasts, Electronic Futures: the Digital Revolution
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
A history of libraries needs to look not only at the libraries themselves but at the way they work and at the structures and systems that make library operations possible. Libraries do not exist in isolation but work for the communities they serve, and their history relates to the varied contexts in which they have operated. To achieve their ends libraries have developed a range of characteristics and skills which are the subject of this section of the volume.
It is one of the features of the modern age that the library world has become more self-conscious – in the best and worst senses of that word – as the sense of a profession developed. Like many other specialities, librarianship had to prove its worth in a world where other professions were also seeking to establish their position. It has developed a varied yet broadly coherent philosophy and a range of skills applicable to librarians from many different backgrounds. In building up a professional practice base, librarians have drawn on other disciplines, from office and business methods to the techniques of logical analysis as applied to classification and the structures of electronic information. Social and educational philosophies have illuminated librarians' thinking and affected the way libraries have operated. Ideas have been shared with others both nationally and internationally, and professional bodies have proliferated; training and education have developed from craft-based skills acquisition into a formal academic discipline with links to many other subjects.
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- Information
- The Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland , pp. 521 - 524Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006