Repository: UIHistories Project: Course Catalog - 1897-1898 [PAGE 134]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

I32

STATE LIBRARY SCHOOL

to work in large libraries where bibliographic exactness is required. The higher side of library work is emphasized throughout the course, and students are taught their responsibility to the schools, to the clubs, to the factories, to university extension, and to the people as organized bodies and as individuals. It is the purpose of the University to graduate librarians who are not only trained, but educated; librarians who are not only equipped in technical details, but filled with an appreciation of their high calling to furnish "the best reading to the greatest number at the least cost." The school offers a course of twelve lessons, open to all students of the University, on the use of the library and the ordinary reference books. METHODS OF INSTRUCTION There are so few text-books on library economy that instruction is given almost altogether by lecture and laboratory methods. References to books and periodicals are given for collateral reading, and individual research is encouraged from the start. Lectures are illustrated by the collections of forms and fittings and each student is expected to do a certain amount of practical work in the University library each day. Before completing the course, each student must have had actual experience in every department of the library. Class room work is tested by problems, and examinations take the form of problems wherever practicable. EQUIPMENT The most valuable equipment is the working library of the University. The Library School has the complete collection of manuscript notes and problems which have been prepared since the school opened in 1893. As text-books are so few, this collection is invaluable. A collection of library reports and catalogues and of mounted samples, showing methods of administration in all departments, is carefully