A New Approach to Educational Preparation for Public Library Service: An Experimental Program in Library Education for Work with a Specialized Clientele. Interim Report

This project is being conducted as an effort to vary traditional patterns of library education and thus to influence and help reshape professional public library practice which must be broadened to reach the disadvantaged non-user public with a meaningful, viable library and information program. The first phase of the program consisted of the following elements: (1) a library laboratory, named High John, placed in the field in a low-income residential area; (2) formal course work in library service to the disadvantaged at the University of Maryland School of Library and Information Services; (3) a course in research which would among other things enable students to assess the approaches used in the field; and (4) a positive, aggressive effort to stimulate a dialogue within the library profession around the needs of disadvantaged persons and the adaptations which libraries must make in order to be effective. In this report the first phase is reviewed, the problems encountered are discussed, and plans for the second phase are outlined. Appendixes include course outlines and reading lists, High John monthly reports, reprints of journal articles and news releases on the project, and the report of "A Study to Determine the Attitudes of Clients Toward the High John Library," a student project for the research methods course in the School of Library and Information Sciences. (Author/JB)